Why did WCCW withdraw from the National Wrestling Alliance?  I've always thought that was the worst possible move they could have made.

In his 2009 autobiography, My Life in Wrestling...with a Little Help from My Friends, Gary Hart revealed that this was a move made in anger by Fritz Von Erich.  Frustrated by the refusal of NWA president Jim Crockett Jr. to give Kerry Von Erich any further runs as World champion after his one brief reign in May 1984, Fritz, intent on proving that his promotion could survive without the NWA, elected to terminate WCCW's affiliation with the Alliance and go independent.

However, if you take into account the changes that were taking place in the pro wrestling industry in the mid-'80s, it becomes clear that WCCW, for all practical purposes, was already doomed even before this decision was made.  The problem was that the destruction of the old territorial system was well underway as Vince McMahon's WWF, in its push to go national beginning in mid-1983, had already been weakening many of the NWA-affiliated promotions by luring away a number of their biggest stars.  In an attempt to compete on a national level with McMahon, NWA president Jim Crockett Jr. (who had previously been running regional shows under the Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling banner) bought out several of those groups, including the Georgia, Florida and Central States territories as well as Bill Watts' Universal Wrestling Federation, and unified them, using "The NWA" as a brand name.  At the same time, Crockett was allowing fewer and fewer title defenses in the handful of remaining NWA territories not under his direct control, including World Class.

In any event, it's not clear how much longer WCCW's relationship with the NWA could have continued; Crockett's group was so spectacularly mismanaged during its attempt to go national (Ric Flair's autobiography To Be the Man, and The Death of WCW by R.D. Reynolds and Bryan Alvarez, both go into this in considerable detail) that the company ran itself out of money less than three years after World Class broke away from the NWA.  Jim Crockett Promotions was sold in late 1988 to Turner Broadcasting, where it morphed into the even more spectacularly mismanaged WCW.  (Crockett, after a final ill-fated attempt to promote as an NWA affiliate at the Sportatorium in 1994-95, left the wrestling business altogether and, at last report, was selling real estate in Dallas.)

Kevin Von Erich, Bill Mercer and others have commented on their unsuccessful attempts to persuade Fritz to go national himself  in the mid-'80s; apparently believing that his sons' popularity would be enough to carry WCCW and counter any threat from the WWF juggernaut, Fritz reportedly stated that Dallas was "all my boys will ever need."  Other World Class alumni, however (including, most notably, Missy Hyatt), have expressed the opinion that limited finances and a lack of roster depth would have made such an expansion impractical.

(A fascinating historical footnote comes from Steve Harms, Big Time Wrestling referee/commentator in the late '70s and early '80s, in a post at the Kayfabe Memories forum.  Steve reveals that withdrawal from the NWA may have been part of the plan even before the syndicated WCCW series was launched:  "I left the Dallas office in 1982....prior to that Kathy White, Fritz's secretary, asked me to bring my referee shirt with me to a booking meeting.  Her purpose was to remove the old NWA patch.  She didn't give me much explanation other than things were going to change a bit.  This was quite a bit of time before the official split.  I was aware of what was going to happen and was asked to be part of it.  At the same time I had a great TV job offer in Detroit.....and that's the direction I went.  The WCCW became quite the promotion after I left.")



Who did the booking for WCCW?

Previously in this space, there was major confusion with regard to this question.  Fortunately, a fairly clear picture has now begun to emerge, thanks largely to the late Gary Hart and his comments on a couple of shoot interview DVDs.

Gary had the book when Big Time Wrestling became World Class in spring 1982.  As is revealed in The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling (and confirmed by Michael Hayes), Hart resigned in anger shortly after the legendary 1982 Christmas Star Wars show, which drew $250,000, after discovering that his share of the gate was a mere $3,500 -- far lower than the guaranteed percentage he had been receiving for years:

I'm sitting in my office, I'm looking at the check...I'm saying, "This cannot be right. This CANNOT be right. We're in big buildings -- who helped get you there? Who built your talent? Who ran your business?"  And he [Fritz Von Erich] says to me, "I think you're too big for your britches."

So I said, "You can take this job and stick it up your ass."

Hayes states in the documentary that the Freebirds were ready to quit in solidarity with Hart upon hearing of his resignation, but that Gary convinced them to stick around.  Talk about altering the course of wrestling history in unimaginable ways!

Hart's replacement as booker was Ken Mantell, who has been credited with much of the success WCCW enjoyed during its peak period of 1983-85.  Mantell was reportedly assisted by Hayes during much of the original Von Erichs-Freebirds storyline, then by Hart, who returned after the 'Birds departed in late summer of '84.  Ken left World Class in late May of '86.

In Heroes of World Class, David Manning states that he took over from Mantell just before Kerry Von Erich's tragic motorcycle accident in June, and that he was assisted by Bruiser Brody.  (No other account we've seen has Brody in that position in mid-'86, but Gary Hart, in RF Video's World Class Reunion DVD release, does confirm Manning's very brief stint as booker.) 

In August, Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer reported that George Scott had been hired to take over the position...but he, too, was soon out of the picture.  According to Hart, as told in the biography Brody: The Triumph and Tragedy of Wrestling's Rebel by Larry Matysik and Bruiser's widow Barbara Goodish, Scott apparently saw Gary as a threat and attempted to force him out of the promotion by booking Abdullah the Butcher to lose to Brody in a cage at the 1986 Christmas Star Wars show at Reunion Arena -- but without telling anyone involved that it would be a loser-leaves-Texas bout.  The maneuver backfired when Brody, a longtime close friend of Hart's, caught on to it and doublecrossed Scott by secretly agreeing to do a rare clean job to Abby; Scott was gone shortly thereafter and was replaced by Brody, who resolved the obvious problem by bringing himself back under a mask as Red River Jack.

(By the way, it's interesting to note that in Emerson Murray's biography of Brody, Gary's recollection of the Christmas night cage match is entirely different.  In this version of the story, the bout takes place at Will Rogers Coliseum -- although no Christmas Star Wars card was ever held there -- after Hart had taken over the book from Brody and Scott was already long gone.  Hart is quoted as saying that Brody and Abdullah, who of course were both notorious for refusing to lose, came to him with the idea for the bout and were still unable to decide on a finish at match time.  Gary says he threatened never to use either man in Texas again if one of them didn't do the job, after which Brody apparently decided while the match was in progress to put Abby over.)

Depending on the source, Brody either resigned as booker (supposedly in protest over the poor handling of the announcement of Mike Von Erich's death, according to Dave Meltzer, although Bruiser did continue to wrestle for WCCW), or was relieved of the position; in any case, Gary Hart once again took over at some point (again, the exact time is uncertain) during that period.  When Ken Mantell became co-owner of WCCW in November 1987, Gary continued to book until he left the promotion for good in March '88; Mantell and Michael Hayes then took over the position once again.  Finally, Eric Embry was given the job after the 1988 buyout by Jerry Jarrett, and was still in charge at the time of the formal name change to USWA in August '89.


Is there really a "World Class curse"?

Yes, we know the question was raised in Heroes of World Class. And, as everyone knows, many of WCCW's performers, including a number of its biggest stars, are no longer with us. All of that being said, the answer is a firm NO -- there is no such thing as a "World Class curse".  It is, in fact, very easy to prove:

(1) Although there are now well over 50 deceased World Class alumni, note that only three of the workers on the list were actually working for WCCW at the time they passed away:  David and Mike Von Erich, and Gino Hernandez.  (Incidentally, it's worth noting that WWE surpassed that number long ago, with -- as of August 2007 -- the deaths of "Quick Draw" Rick McGraw, referee Joey Marella, Brian Pillman, Owen Hart, Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit.)  All the rest had either moved on to other promotions or died after WCCW folded. Which brings us to point number two:

(2) If one is going to count deceased former members of a promotion's roster as victims of a curse, then one might as well argue that there's also a curse associated with WWE, ECW, WCW, or any of the old territorial promotions.  (Many of the same names would also appear on lists of the dead for those groups, of course.)

We trust that you can see not only how silly the whole idea of a "curse" is, but also how such talk trivializes a very real, very troubling and, now, all too common problem in the pro wrestling industry.


In 1989-90, the Sportatorium ring had a "Renegades Rampage" logo affixed to the mat.  What was that all about?

The Renegades Rampage (sponsored by Renegades -- a brand of chewing tobacco, for the uninitiated) was a points-based TV singles tournament that took place over several months.  What made this a bit bizarre, at least as far as USWA Dallas was concerned, was the fact that the tournament had taken place in 1988, and was held in Memphis, not Dallas (it was won by a young Scott Steiner).  Apparently, the contract for this multi-year sponsorship deal called for the logo to be displayed on all of Jerry Jarrett's wrestling telecasts, which would have included those in Dallas after the late-1988 takeover. 

For the wrestlers, however, the in-ring advertisement added a needless element of danger.  In the words of former referee James Beard, posting on the Kayfabe Memories board:  "One thing I hated about that logo was it was slicker'n owl poop, especially after a few guys had sweated all over it.  It's a wonder more guys didn't bust their ass because of that thing."


Is it true that...(insert shocking story told in shoot interview by one former WCCW wrestler about another former WCCW wrestler here)?

Sorry, but we ain't going there, at least as far as any specific story is concerned.  However, we generally process that kind of information in pretty much the same way a good, responsible journalist would:  if we hear a juicy bit of backstage gossip from only one party and no one else -- or from multiple parties with substantial differences in the details -- that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't true, but we're inclined to treat it as suspect.  If two different people tell the tale with the same details independently of one another, though, we tend to raise an eyebrow and go, "Hmmmmmm..."  And if we hear it told the same way by more than two people...well, where there's that much smoke, there's probably fire.  In short, our advice is to exercise common sense and remember that the person relating the story is as human as anyone else.