GIMMICKS, ANGLES AND STORYLINES
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I started watching WCCW too late to see the buildup to the Freebirds'
heel turn. Can you recap it for me?
Although they probably weren't planning to go in that direction at the
time (as Michael Hayes would not debut in World Class for another two
months), the buildup really began with the Kerry Von Erich-Ric Flair
match on 8/15/82 at Reunion Arena, in which Kerry apparently won in two
straight falls but was denied the belt due to a reversed decision by
"special NWA referee" Alfred Neely, and the final fall ended in a double
DQ. Because Kerry would require legit knee surgery a few weeks
later, an angle was booked in which his knee was injured in an attack by
the Great Kabuki.
With Kerry sidelined, the next shots at
Flair's belt would go to David (10/11/82, with David flying into a rage
and getting himself disqualified after Flair attacked and put the figure
four leglock on Kerry, who had come to ringside on crutches to cheer
David on) and Kevin (in November, ending in another double DQ).
Flair then made it known that since all three Von Erich brothers had
been given title shots and had come up short, he would be giving none of
them any further chances at the belt. But shortly after this
pronouncement, Fritz Von Erich confronted Gary Hart on TV with a copy of
a cashier's check from Flair for $12,500, made out to Hart for "services
rendered" -- payment for the attack on Kerry by Hart's man Kabuki.
When Hart denied the charge, Fritz revealed that the evidence had been
presented to him by King Kong Bundy, who had recently split with Hart
(and would soon join the stable of the incoming General Skandor Akbar).
Fritz stated that the NWA, upon reviewing this evidence, decreed that
Flair would be forced to defend the belt against Kerry in a
rematch...and that this time the Von Erichs could name their own
stipulations. The no DQ, no time limit rematch would be held in a
steel cage at the Christmas Star Wars card at Reunion Arena, with a
special referee to be selected by the fans in a mail-in poll.
Meanwhile, Freebird Michael Hayes -- who was pushed strongly as a close
friend of David Von Erich -- had entered WCCW in October as a
wildly-cheered babyface. Hayes brought in "brother" Terry
Gordy shortly afterward, and the 'Birds began feuding with Bundy and
Wild Bill Irwin. It was announced on TV a few weeks before the big
holiday card that Hayes would be one of the candidates for referee in
the upcoming Kerry-Flair World title clash, with the claim that he had
done an exemplary job as a special ref in several championship bouts
before coming to Texas. Naturally, he went on to "win" the fan
poll and was appointed to officiate the highly anticipated Christmas
night main event.
Scheduled just prior to that match was the
Freebirds' shot at the newly-created World Six-Man title, against
opponents Mike Sharpe, Ben Sharpe (Kelly Kiniski) and Tom Steele (Gene
Lewis, aka The Mongol), who were supposedly the other finalists in a
nationwide tournament. The crowd heard the announcement that Buddy
Roberts, who was scheduled to join his fellow Freebirds for this bout,
had found himself stranded in Chicago due to an ice storm; David Von
Erich volunteered to take Buddy's place, wound up scoring the winning pinfall, and surrendered his share of the titles to Roberts.
(This may have been a last-minute stroke of booking genius on the part
of Gary Hart, as there really was a legitimate, severe winter
storm in Chicago that evening, with hundreds of flights out of O'Hare
Airport being canceled.)
As
David celebrated alongside Hayes and Gordy in the ring with the fans
cheering madly, the bond between the Von Erichs and Freebirds appeared
unbreakable, and all in attendance that night were nearly breathless
with the anticipation that in just a few short minutes, with Hayes
enforcing the rules and keeping the always crafty Nature Boy in line,
they were guaranteed to see the beloved Modern Day Warrior walk out of
the cage with the coveted NWA belt that had long eluded him.
And
the rest -- sayeth the old cliche -- is history. :)
Prior to the pole battle royal at Christmas Star Wars '82, David Von
Erich came to the ring and addressed the crowd, but his words were
inaudible when the match was televised. What did he say and why
was it cut?
The live crowd at Reunion Arena
that night saw the Kerry Von Erich-Ric Flair cage match, with the
legendary Freebirds heel turn, followed by the pole battle royal (which
closed the show). Before the latter event began, however, a
furious David Von Erich hit the ring and grabbed the house mic from Marc
Lowrance, who had just informed the fans that Hayes and Gordy, who were
both scheduled to participate, had left the building.
Since
David's rant was only heard by those in attendance, his exact words have
been lost in the mists of time, but the gist of it was that he was
swearing revenge against the 'Birds, saying he wasn't surprised that
they had fled "after what they just did to my family for Christmas!"
His speech (which included no objectionable language) was covered up
with canned crowd noise on the syndicated TV episode and, on Legends
of WCCW a few years later, by that show's theme music.
The
reason for the edit was that the battle royal was shown in syndication
the week before the Kerry-Flair encounter -- which meant that
David's promo, had it been allowed to air, would have become a spoiler
for the following week's show. David (like all the wrestlers that
night) made his way to the ring via the entrance directly opposite from
the "hard" camera, and had interrupted Lowrance in mid-announcement, so
a complete removal of his sudden appearance would have been exceedingly
difficult if not totally impossible. Hence, a segment that came
off as somewhat awkward, yet was probably handled about as well as it
could have been under the circumstances.
Was Fritz Von Erich really faking a heart attack when he collapsed at
Christmas Star Wars '87?
Although many current wrestling fans never actually saw it at the time,
the story told on numerous occasions in insider newsletters and on
websites, and accepted by "smart" fans, is that this infamous angle --
the aftermath of an in-ring beatdown by Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts,
Iceman Parsons and the Angel of Death -- was a tasteless exploitation of
the Adkisson family tragedies to boost ticket sales.
In May 2007, however, video of the incident appeared briefly on YouTube,
and something interesting happened: some wrestling message board posters
came out in favor of the angle, saying they had liked it all along,
while others seeing it for the very first time reacted almost
unanimously: was THIS what those sheetwriters had been on their high
horse about for all these years? For this reason, perhaps the time
is right to revisit what was allegedly one of WCCW's low points, and
bust a few myths.
We are aware, of course, that in WWE's documentary The Triumph and
Tragedy of WCCW, Michael Hayes and Gary Hart, in separate
interviews, refer to the premise of this angle as a heart attack.
While we at WCM obviously have the utmost respect for both gentlemen,
we must nonetheless disagree with them when it comes to this incident.
Having carefully weighed all the available information and empirical
evidence, we are confident that there is no reasonable possibility of
the angle having been intentionally booked to look like anything other
than an injury (as opposed to heart failure).
We'll agree,
however, that the lines of taste were
crossed at least once in relation to Fritz's "collapse": the night after
it happened, announcer Marc Lowrance was seen in what appeared to be a
live and somewhat emotional insert on Championship Sports
(a procedure that, up to that point, had been reserved mostly for
genuine, non-scripted tragedies, i.e. the deaths of David Von Erich and
Gino Hernandez), saying that he had "canceled a scheduled appearance in
San Antonio" to inform viewers of the "tragic" incident that had taken
place at Reunion Arena. After footage of the angle was run,
Lowrance, seemingly at a loss for words, stated that not much more was
known about Fritz's condition at that moment. (Both of Lowrance's
Championship Sports inserts from that evening can now be viewed
on
YouTube.) The promotion went
so far as to claim that Fritz had been transported to an actual hospital
in Dallas (Baylor University Medical Center -- the same complex where Mike
Von Erich had nearly died from toxic shock syndrome two years earlier), and even used an exterior shot of
that facility during a brief interview segment with the apparently
grief-stricken Kevin and Kerry Von Erich. So although no
details were given as to what Fritz was "suffering" from, the suggestion
that fans at Reunion had witnessed something that went
beyond a mere
wrestling angle was unmistakable.
That said, most of the other claims that have been made about this angle
over the years simply don't hold up under scrutiny. Let's take a
look at them:
●
"Fritz faked a heart attack."
-- Again, the
exact nature of Fritz's "condition" was never actually revealed.
The only time
the term "heart attack" was used was when Kevin Von Erich and Marc Lowrance,
responding to rumors that were spreading like wildfire among the
fanbase, assured TV viewers that Fritz HAD NOT suffered one. (It
is, however, entirely possible that the way the angle was initially
presented on TV inadvertently led those watching at home to
assume the worst; see below.)
●
"Fritz tried to capitalize on his family's tragedies to boost
attendance."
-- To begin with, by December of 1987, Fritz
had no decision-making power within WCCW. The angle was booked by
Ken Mantell, who, along with Kevin and Kerry Adkisson, had just bought
out the promotion; Fritz was appearing solely as talent. Secondly, a
look at the tapes of the angle itself, and of subsequent World Class
telecasts, proves that while the angle was certainly intended to give
WCCW attendance a jumpstart, no mention of any real-life Adkisson family
tragedy was made. Using sympathy angles to build heat and fan
interest in a feud is Pro Wrestling Booking 101 -- how is a promotion
supposed to stay in business if the tried-and-true formulas of the
sport can't be followed for fear of scaring the fans?
●
"Fritz's condition was said to be improving or worsening depending on
attendance levels."
-- After taking the above info into
consideration, this claim becomes completely irrelevant -- or would, if
there had been any significant fluctuation in attendance in the first
place. It's true that Fritz was said to have "taken a turn for the
worse" on one show but, as is revealed in the videotapes from
that period, attendance at the Sportatorium remained strong throughout
the first quarter of 1988 (thanks in part to a drastic lowering of
prices for several shows, with all seats going for five dollars and all
food and drinks reduced to fifty cents), after which Fritz's "condition"
was no longer being talked about. Ticket sales in Dallas did begin
to decline a bit in the spring, by which time the latest resurrection of
the Von Erichs-Freebirds feud (which, admittedly, had been done to death
by then) was pretty much fizzling out.
Attendance in Fort Worth
also was not fluctuating to any meaningful degree; it was, in fact,
dead as the proverbial doorknob, as it had been since mid-1986.
A few weeks after the angle took place, WCCW finally began to slowly phase out its presence
there; for the first time in literally decades, there were some Monday
nights on which no wrestling card was held in the city. By mid-1988, KTVT
was taping most of its Championship Sports telecasts at the
Sportatorium.
If you have read this far and still doubt what we're saying, and if
you have the angle on video, we suggest that you go back and watch
it...and pay particular attention to what the Dallas paramedics are
doing. Their actions are perhaps the most solid evidence of all
that there was no intent on anyone's part to fake a heart attack --
because they are doing none of the things paramedics would do in
a real-life situation of that nature. If Fritz was supposed
to have collapsed due to a heart attack, why aren't they performing CPR or
using a portable defibrillator? Why do they calmly load him onto the
gurney and roll him toward the ambulance at a normal rate of speed?
In a real heart attack situation, emergency medical technicians are acutely aware that they have only a
very brief window of time to save the victim's life;
there was clearly no sense of urgency on their part at Reunion Arena
that night. (However...it must be noted that the
footage of the EMTs removing Fritz from the building did NOT
air on Championship Sports the night of December 26, 1987; in
its initial presentation on TV, the tape cuts off just a few seconds
after he slumps to the floor. Thus, although fans at Reunion
could clearly see that Fritz's life was not in danger, those who saw
the angle for the first time via KTVT could well have jumped to a far
more grave conclusion. Again, though, we stress that there is
nothing to indicate that the angle was intended to look like a
heart attack.)
We respect the writers of insider newsletters and websites and what
they have accomplished, and they are of course entitled to their
opinions regarding WCCW. However, fabricating "facts" to support
those opinions does nothing for their credibility.
World Class and Jim Crockett Promotions both booked matches that took
place in a three-tiered cage. Which promotion used the gimmick first?
While the gimmick was first conceived at JCP,
World Class was the first to actually use it. As Percy
Pringle and others have stated, it was Michael Hayes who informed Ken
Mantell of the NWA's plans for a match in a triple-stacked cage upon
leaving the NWA to return to Texas in February 1988.
The "Triple Dome of Terror", as it was called in WCCW, was first used
for two matches (one pitting Hayes against Terry Gordy, the other being a "Triple Dome Texas Roundup"
battle royal) at the May 8, 1988 Texas Stadium Parade of Champions
card. JCP, on the other hand, is known to have used it only
once, at the Great American Bash held on July 10 of that same year. In
their "Tower of Doom" bout, the Road Warriors, Jimmy and Ronnie Garvin
and Steve "Dr. Death" Williams defeated Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda,
Ivan Koloff, Al Perez and the Russian Assassin (Dave "Angel of Death"
Sheldon under a mask).
The gimmick was revived eight years
later by WCW for one of the most ludicrous matches ever, in a company
well known for its ludicrous booking. At the 3/24/96 WCW
Uncensored PPV, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage "overcame tremendous odds"
to emerge victorious from the Tower of Doom over Ric Flair, Arn
Anderson, Kevin Sullivan, Lex Luger, Meng, the Barbarian, Z-Gangsta
(Tom "Tiny" Lister, aka Zeus in WWF) and the Ultimate Solution (WCCW
alumnus Jeep Swenson, who sadly would pass away the following year).
How does Skandor Akbar throw fireballs?
The General, according to former referee James Beard, does this with
some sort of chemical mixture. However, most wrestlers who have
used the fireball gimmick have done it by igniting flash paper (sheets
of nitrocellulose which burn brightly within a fraction of a
second, commonly used by magicians) with a cigarette lighter.
The late Ed Farhat, who wrestled as The Sheik, was probably the most
famous practitioner of this trick other than Akbar.
Flash
paper is sold damp with distilled water in a resealable bag and, for
obvious reasons, must be stored that way until 24 hours before you're
ready to use it, whereupon it must be air-dried, one sheet at a time.
As with any pyrotechnic material, trying it at home is not
recommended; although it burns quickly, it's still quite hazardous
unless you know exactly what you're doing.
For much, much more
than most people would ever want to know about nitrocellulose, click
here.
All original content © John Dananay and I.S.E. Web Productions.
Not affiliated with Adkisson Enterprises or World Wrestling
Entertainment, Inc.
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