David's death was initially speculated to have resulted from either food poisoning, an injury sustained during a match in Japan (which was untrue as David had yet to wrestle a match on this tour), or -- as reported in Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer newsletter -- a drug overdose (although this remains unproven), as the Adkisson family initially had difficulty getting information on the death from Japan officials. The cause of David's death, however, was officially ruled as acute enteritis, an inflammation of the intestines which is believed to be stress related. If left untreated, this condition can become fatal and apparently did for David; brother Kevin stated David had complained of feeling ill for several weeks prior to his tour of Japan.

On a personal level, the Adkisson family lost a beloved husband, son and brother; wrestling fans lost their "Yellow Rose of Texas" and the apparent heir to the NWA World championship; and the World Class organization lost its most popular wrestler at a vital time when the industry would see its largest surge in popularity. Many speculated that the very successful World Class Championship Wrestling organization would eventually fall into the capable hands of David Adkisson, who would thus join the new breed of multi-generational promoters which included Mid-Atlantic's Jim Crockett, Jr. and the WWF's Vince McMahon, Jr., as pioneers who would lead the industry into the next century.

Inside and out of the ring, David had inherited his father's acumen for the industry. He was negotiating deals for products that were new to the business at the time, such as wrestling action figures, t-shirts, videos, etc. Those close to the World Class scene have stated that Fritz Von Erich relied on two vital people when tough decisions had to be made: wrestling veteran Gary Hart, and David.

David possessed an eye for wrestling talent, bringing in such World Class superstars as the Fabulous Freebirds, "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin, the Irwin Brothers, Gino Hernandez and others at different times.

David was also gaining influence within the National Wrestling Alliance. He was highly respected amongst the Alliance's board of directors, chiefly with vital members such as Florida's Eddie Graham (for whom David worked as a heel during 1981-82), St. Louis' Sam Muchnick and Japan's Giant Baba, as well as current/former NWA World champions Harley Race and Ric Flair (with the latter two stating that David surely would have become the NWA World champion had he lived).

After David's death, World Class held its biggest card on May 6, 1984, entitled the Parade of Champions, which was dedicated to the memory of the fallen warrior. Over 32,000 fans packed Texas Stadium to witness David's younger brother Kerry capture the NWA World title from Ric Flair, and his father Fritz coming out of retirement to team with sons Kevin and Mike to capture the World Six-Man Tag Team titles from old rivals the Fabulous Freebirds. Sung before the memorial card was a touching tribute song, "Heaven Needed a Champion", which singer/songwriter Glen Goza wrote about David's passing.

While World Class would still have another two years of substantial success, neither the promotion nor the Adkisson family ever quite recovered from the death of David Von Erich. In an industry where fans like to debate the "what ifs", one can only speculate how different professional wrestling would be today had David lived. Would Crockett hold the reins on the NWA World title for his Mid-Atlantic promotion? Would World Class eventually join both the WWF and NWA as professional wrestling's elite promotions? Could several more Adkisson family tragedies have been averted? David's death continues to be felt today, even in an industry that has experienced mind-boggling numbers of deaths since that cold February morning.

Television viewers were asked to choose amongst several wrestlers to serve as a special referee for the bout, with World Class newcomer (and then babyface) Michael Hayes edging out the others to become the title bout's "special enforcer referee", and it was a duty Hayes was determined to take seriously.

On the Christmas night bout between Flair and Kerry, referee Hayes had several near-confrontations with the world champion before finally losing his cool and slugging Flair. Hayes then wanted Kerry to quickly cover the unconscious Flair to become the new world's champion.

But Von Erich, trying to win the title in an honorable fashion, refused to make the easy cover on Flair, which incensed Hayes. Hayes and Kerry began to argue, and Hayes left the ring with Kerry following him still pleading his case to Hayes. As Kerry leaned out of the cage to make a last effort to gain Michael's attention, Hayes' fellow Freebird Terry Gordy, who was stationed outside of the cage, slammed the door on Kerry's head, allowing Flair the victory. Fans today still refer to the incident as "the slam heard around the world".

Now the war "between decency and filth", as Kevin Von Erich called it, was on! Older brothers Kevin and David Von Erich joined in Kerry's crusade, as did the entire Freebird unit of Gordy and Buddy Roberts joining Michael Hayes.

The two trios set attendance and television viewership records in nearly every World Class market they fought in during the early to mid-1980's. The feud was not only about their mutual hatred towards each other, but also the coveted World Six-Man Tag Team trophy (later replaced by belts), and this particular title changed between the two factions numerous times.

When World Class went into massive syndication in late 1983 across the United States, the Von Erich-Freebird feud was at its peak and instantly became one of the sport's most talked about feuds, remaining so for many years to come. Whether it was a six-man tag match, a cage match, a country whipping match, fans in attendance or watching television knew they were guaranteed excitement when there was a Von Erich-Freebird match on the card they were watching.

As years went by, Mike Von Erich filled the spot on the Von Erich squad for his late brother David, and faux cousin Lance would also join in to battle the 'Birds.

Amazingly, in 1988, Freebird Michael Hayes would actually capture the World Six-Man titles with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich when they defeated the new Freebird faction of Gordy, Roberts and Iceman King Parsons.

The final Von Erich-Freebird battle in Texas took place in 1993 at the Kerry Von Erich Memorial Card sponsored by the Global Wrestling Federation at the Sportatorium. The main event of the card featured Kevin Von Erich and longtime ally "Gentleman" Chris Adams taking on, and defeating, Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts. "For a moment, it seemed like someone turned back the hands of time", Kevin remarked after the match.

In April 1982, at the urging of newly-hired television producer Mickey Grant and veteran television announcer Bill Mercer, longtime Dallas/Fort Worth wrestling promoter Jack Adkisson took his Big Time Wrestling promotion and rechristened it World Class Championship Wrestling.

"I wanted the word 'Class' in the name of the promotion", said Grant, who came up with the name.

Seen in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on the Christian Broadcasting Network, World Class Championship Wrestling television seemingly had no other delusions of grandeur other than to increase their television ratings in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and quite possibly go deeper into the Texas region. However, Adkisson was also able to regionally expand his viewership across Texas with a deal with KTVT, which would later become an affiliate for CBS.

The deal with KTVT ultimately opened doors for World Class to gain syndication in 66 U.S. markets as well as overseas in Israel, Japan and throughout South America. This was before Vince McMahon, Jr. took his World Wrestling Federation product and expanded it nationally, remarkably enough accomplishing this during the early days of cable television.

The weekly television shows, under producer Mickey Grant, would undergo many production overhauls such as the use of instant replays, state-of-the-art graphics, intimate interviews from outside the squared circle, the use of music videos, three cameras in constant use throughout the matches and microphones that allowed fans to hear the action from inside the ring.

The television shows essentially catered to all kinds of wrestling fans. For the females there were the "matinee idol" types such as Jack Adkisson's young and athletic sons Kevin, David and Kerry Von Erich (later Mike and then Chris), the charismatic Michael Hayes, the handsome Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez and "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin.

There were still the stereotypical, unusual characters such as Bugsy McGraw, the Missing Link and Kamala, as well as wild brawlers such as Bruiser Brody, Terry Gordy and Killer Khan.

"The show essentially syndicated itself", explains Grant. "Everyone saw the kind of ratings World Class was getting, and wanted to add it to their programming."

Filmed weekly from the Dallas Sportatorium, and hosted by former Dallas reporter and Texas Rangers' announcer Bill Mercer (and occasionally by ring announcer Marc Lowrance), the syndicated show quickly made World Class one of the hottest promotions within the industry on a national, then international level, without compromising the gentlemen's agreement amongst the National Wrestling Alliance pertaining to promotions staying within the boundaries of their designated regions (yet Jack Adkisson would still take some flack for bringing his product to both a national and international audience from the National Wrestling Alliance).

The main event of the card was National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Champion Ric Flair taking on David’s younger brother, “Modern Day Warrior” Kerry Von Erich, for the world title that David seemed destined to win before his untimely passing.

After the opening notes of his own theme song, Rush's “Tom Sawyer”, Kerry entered Texas Stadium to what had been David's entrance song, Tanya Tucker’s “Texas (When I Die)”, in a royal blue velvet robe made by his mother Doris, reading In Memory of David on the back. In what was David’s trademark, Kerry brought with him to the ring a single yellow rose, which he kissed and threw to the adoring crowd.

Due to the excessive heat (the temperature on the field peaking at 100-plus degrees), the actual bout -- clocking in at just under thirteen minutes -- was considerably shorter than previous Flair-Kerry classic confrontations, and did not begin to measure up to their classic best-of-three-falls bout on August 15, 1982, nor the Christmas night cage match from the same year. However, in terms of the pure, raw affection and emotion displayed by the over 32,000 fans at Texas Stadium on this day, this particular bout became an instant classic.

Although Kerry’s title reign was seen as a gift to the Adkisson family and was never intended to be a lengthy run, it was a belt that was highly coveted by Von Erich wrestling patriarch Fritz Von Erich (himself a former American Wrestling Association world champion), and by Kerry’s late brother David.

Kerry only had the belt for 18 days before losing the title back to Flair in Japan. But in those 18 days, Kerry had an exhausting schedule:

May 7 - Terry Gordy - Fort Worth, Texas
May 8 - Ric Flair - Muskogee, Oklahoma (non-title)
May 9 - Ric Flair - Corpus Christi, Texas
May 10 - Missing Link - Allen, Texas (non-title)
May 11 - Ric Flair - Dallas, Texas (non-title)
May 12 - Ric Flair - San Antonio, Texas
May 13 - Mike Rotundo - Ocala, Florida (daytime card)
May 13 - Superstar Billy Graham - Orlando, Florida (nighttime card)
May 14 - Ron Bass - West Palm Beach, Florida
May 15 - Superstar Billy Graham - Miami Beach, Florida
May 16 - Mike Rotundo (?) - Fort Myers, Florida (?)
May 17 - Black Bart - Melbourne, Florida
May 18 - Superstar Billy Graham - Lake City, Florida
May 19 - Ron Bass - Tampa, Florida
May 22 - Jumbo Tsuruta - Tokyo, Japan
May 24 - Ric Flair - Yokosuka City, Japan (loses title)

Kerry's title loss took place in Japan (it should be noted that the NWA board did not seem to care as long as Kerry lost the title back to Flair before Ric’s May 24th encounter with Ricky Steamboat at the Meadowlands Arena in New Jersey) at the insistence of Jack Adkisson, in order for World Class to limit the amount of times the loss would be shown on its programming, and allow them to even put their own spin on things, such as Flair allegedly winning back the title due to an incompetent Sumo referee (which was obviously false, as the highly respected Japanese referee Joe Higuchi had done the officiating and the win was perfectly clean).

Unfortunately, this would be the first and only NWA World title win for Kerry and the rest of the Von Erich family. Shortly after Kerry’s loss of the belt back to Flair, Jim Crockett Promotions took control of the title and its champions, which would cut off Kerry and his brother Kevin from any further title reigns and made getting title shots a tougher task than before, which would ultimately lead World Class to withdraw its membership from the NWA and declare its own world title.
 

Sunshine's "aunt" Stella Mae French, who had been feuding with Gino Hernandez, attempted to assist the Adams/Von Erich team, but her interference backfired, costing the popular duo the match. Manager Gary Hart, who had recently begun managing Adams, became very upset with Stella Mae and a physical confrontation with her started.

Kevin attempted to calm Hart down, but Hart grabbed Stella and was about to strike her. Ever the popular hero, Von Erich punched Hart for his abuse of Stella Mae, and when Kevin turned to face Adams, he was met with a superkick to the chin. Adams walked out of the ring with Hart, despite the pleas of both Stella Mae and the fans. Hernandez and Roberts used this opportunity to destroy the fallen Von Erich after dumping Stella Mae over the top rope and out of the ring.

When Adams joined up with Hernandez to form the Dynamic Duo shortly after this incident, their ensuing war with the Von Erichs (specifically Kevin) proved to be nearly as intense as the Von Erich-Freebird rivalry.

Due to the fact that the WCCW territory, at the time, ran shows only in Dallas/Fort Worth and the surrounding area, it was necessary for the promotion to give its viewers nationwide a superior wrestling card on a weekly basis. Regardless of the fact that the matches were available for free on TV, the Sportatorium would be packed every week from late 1982 until things started to fall apart after Kerry Von Erich’s motorcycle accident in the summer of 1986.

World Class’s weekly television programs were unique at the time, featuring main event caliber matches in an age where “squash” matches (an established superstar destroying enhancement talent in shorter matches suited for a television program) were the norm.

Many memorable angles were shown on TV to viewers around the country. In the days of cable’s infancy, years before pay-per-view events became a promotion’s “bread and butter”, the big payoffs to feuds and angles usually came at their big house shows. From 1984 to 1988, WCCW ran a big card at Texas Stadium on the first Sunday of May (the Parade of Champions); and also a show in the fall at the Cotton Bowl. They also held seasonal Wrestling Star Wars events at Reunion Arena, usually on Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The matches from these events were usually shown in their entirety on free television shortly after the event.

Aside from showing main events on free TV, WCCW television production was way ahead of its time, thanks to its syndicated program's original producer Mickey Grant. Under Grant, World Class was the first wrestling promotion to use multiple hand-held cameras, to give the matches an up-close, more "urgent" feel. The show was also among the first to air pre-taped vignettes of the wrestlers outside the squared circle.
 

At the time of the accident, Kerry was World Class’ most popular superstar, and his lengthy absence due to the injury was a factor in attendance dropping throughout the area. Although fans were told Kerry would not be out of action for long, fans started to think differently after seeing Kerry struggling on crutches for nearly eighteen months.

Trying to rush back to the squared circle was the greatest mistake of the young warrior’s life, as he attempted his initial comeback against Brian Adias in February 1987. Although Kerry and Adias wrestled a very cautious match, Kerry re-injured the foot to the extent where doctors had to amputate it.

In what was at that time one of the sport’s greatest secrets, Kerry returned to professional wrestling full time with the help of a prosthetic foot, which Kerry was able to conceal with a larger wrestling boot. It wasn’t until 1988 during a match against Col. DeBeers in Las Vegas, in which DeBeers accidentally pulled Kerry’s right boot off along with the prosthesis, that the “dirt sheet” writers caught onto the fact that Kerry had lost his right foot (although it never got mainstream attention until after he had passed away).

Remarkably, Kerry Von Erich was seemingly better than ever in the eyes of wrestling fans. He was still able to throw an effective dropkick, run around the ring and perform seemingly death-defying moves. However, this facade came with a big price, another secret Kerry had to keep from the fans: due to the constant pain he was in, Kerry became addicted to painkillers, and later harder drugs.

This addiction would cause Kerry’s life to spiral out of control. Though he did hold the Intercontinental title during his only venture into the WWF, Kerry fell deeper into depression and addiction which would ultimately cause grave consequences.
 

On Friday, August 4, 1989, newfound WCCW hero “Flamboyant” Eric Embry, seconded by his manager Percy Pringle III, defeated Devastation Inc. member P.Y. Chu-Hi (Phil Hickerson, seconded by Tojo Yamamoto) at the Dallas Sportatorium to gain controllership of the promotion in which the majority was “owned” by General Skandor Akbar and his associates.

With this victory, the promotion known internationally as World Class Championship Wrestling became the Dallas branch of the United States Wrestling Association (USWA). This fact was accentuated when Embry and his manager Percy Pringle III tore down the WCCW banner hanging from the Sportatorium’s ceiling, declaring the promotion’s independence from the evil grasp of Devastation, Inc.

In actuality, new promotion owner Jerry Jarrett was forced to rename the organization after a dispute with the Adkisson family regarding the sale of the rights to the World Class Championship Wrestling name.

Most who followed both WCCW and the USWA agree that when Jarrett took over the Dallas/ Fort Worth area promotion, it bore little resemblance to the WCCW of yesteryear. It was not for a lack of success, as venue gates were at the highest they had been in nearly three years, but Texas fans saw an influx of traditionally Tennessee area wrestlers such as Jerry Lawler, Jeff Jarrett, Robert Fuller, Bill Dundee and others gaining a prominent role within the promotion. The Texas element of the television programming was reduced and ultimately de-emphasized, with veteran Texas superstars like Kevin and Kerry Von Erich, Chris Adams, and Iceman King Parsons being relegated to the middle portion of the wrestling card.

In addition, the booking style was dramatically changed, with matches normally associated with Jerry Jarrett’s style of booking such as coal miner’s glove matches, ladder matches, and “come as you are” matches being prominently showcased.

Whether you were a fan of Fritz Von Erich’s WCCW, or of Jerry Jarrett’s USWA, one cannot ignore the fact that on August 4, 1989, professional wrestling in the state of Texas would be changed forever, and wrestling’s version of Camelot would never be the same.
 

Unlike in the past, when Jack Adkisson (Fritz Von Erich) was in former St. Louis promoter and NWA President Sam Muchnick’s inner circle, Adkisson now saw a shift in the balance of power go solely towards Crockett, and having his World Class promotion in the National Wrestling Alliance was no longer to his advantage.

On February 20, 1986, Adkisson made the difficult decision of withdrawing World Class’ membership from the NWA, and operating his promotion -- now called the “World Class Wrestling Association” -- independently. “Ravishing” Rick Rude, who held the NWA American Heavyweight title at the time, officially became WCCW's first recognized world champion.
 

Mantell, who was highly respected by both Jack Adkisson and the talent in the World Class locker room, was a valuable braintrust behind the scenes at World Class, and after David Von Erich's tragic passing in February 1984, Mantell was often thought of as Fritz’s "go-to guy”.

He was able to lure many of his old associates (including the Fabulous Freebirds, Iceman King Parsons, Chris Adams, Skandor Akbar, Missy Hyatt, John Tatum, Sunshine, the Missing Link, the One Man Gang and Kamala) over to the revamped Mid-South area, where they would be featured prominently on Watts’ weekly television show.

World Class began to decline sharply in the latter half of 1986 as the Texas oil recession, which accounted for many job losses throughout the state of Texas, resulted in declining attendance at WCCW house shows. The near fatal motorcycle accident of the promotion's most popular wrestler Kerry Von Erich, which would keep him out of full-time action for nearly 18 months, would be the final nail in the coffin for an organization that had been vastly successful just a few short months earlier.

After Watts sold the UWF to Jim Crockett, Jr., Mantell went on to start his own professional wrestling promotion based out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, known as Wild West Wrestling.  He would merge the company with World Class upon becoming a part owner of WCCW along with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich in early 1988, after Jack Adkisson (Fritz Von Erich) sold his once highly successful promotion.