Name: When Kerry Von Erich Won the NWA Championship
Uploaded: 2023-10-08T05:25:32.000Z
Duration: 19 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

On May 6th, 1984, in Irving, Texas, World  Class Championship Wrestling held the 1st  

Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions event that  attracted over 32,000 wrestling fans to the old  

Texas Stadium, a seriously impressive number long  before the days of WrestleMania. The fans in Texas  

came to pay tribute to David Von Erich, a man who  had passed away mere months before the show. They  

came to see the in-ring return of David’s father  Fritz Von Erich, and they came to see an NWA  

world heavyweight title match pitting challenger  Kerry Von Erich against Nature Boy Ric Flair. This  

main event match provided fans with a feel-good  moment that isn't talked about all that often,  

and today I want to take a look at the match along  with everything that led up to the famous bout in  

Texas Stadium along with the disappointing fallout  of the match. So let's get stuck in, this is the  

modern-day warrior Kerry Von Erich vs. Nature  Boy Ric Flair at the 1984 Parade of Champions.  

I've mentioned this before, but out of all the  territories that existed before the WWF machine  

came along, World Class Championship Wrestling is  probably my favorite. Owned by Fritz Von Erich,  

World Class had an excellent balance of  in-ring action, storylines, good promos,  

and good wrestlers. I sometimes find that some old  territories could excel in one trait but seriously  

struggle in another, and some territories can  contain nothing but match after match, which,  

in turn, doesn’t make for a great viewing  experience, especially today when fans are  

conditioned to expect more interaction through  interviews, promos, and storylines. Fans who  

filled the Dallas Sportatorium were loyal  and very lively. Male, female, the young,  

and old; you'd see all sorts of fans in that old  historic building having the time of their lives  

watching their favorite superstars, and  it makes for a much more pleasant viewing  

experience - the crowd reactions are infectious. The company also benefited from a more modern and  

up-to-date take on the presentation of wrestling  shows - long before Vince McMahon became the  

leader in show production, World Class invested  in modern TV production with music videos being  

displayed during shows, cleaner on-screen graphics  in comparison to other shows on TV and the time,  

and well-produced vignettes to further storylines  and introduce new characters. In a way,  

World Class provided a blueprint that  other companies would greatly expand upon,  

but a fan of today’s wrestling can go back  and watch World Class shows quite comfortably  

because they've got a good pace and enough content  away from the ring to keep things interesting.  

You can't mention World Class and Texas wrestling  during this era without mentioning the Von Erich  

boys, the sons of Fritz Von Erich, who were  easily the most popular attractions of the  

whole territory. Again, the age of the fans in the  Sportatorium didn't matter, male or female - it  

didn’t matter, EVERYONE loved the Von Erichs,  and I promise you, you will too if you go back  

and watch some World Class shows. The brothers  were featured in some of the biggest storylines  

the company ever produced, their battles with  the fabulous freebirds being the most well-known  

and critically acclaimed rivalry in the whole  promotion. The Freebirds had that thing going  

on too where even though they were heels, they  were still pretty damn entertaining to watch,  

and sometimes you might find yourself rooting for  Michael Hayes and his band of merry men even when  

they went up against the Von Erichs, but it all  makes for a brilliant and highly entertaining feud  

that also gained World Class a lot of traction.  WCCW was one of the most successful territories in  

the whole United States for a few years, but real  repetitive tragedies along with, let's be honest,  

awful booking decisions would eventually  put a halt to the groundbreaking company.  

David Von Erich was seen as the big breakout  star out of the whole Von Erich family. Not  

only was he good in the ring and an excellent  promo, but it's been said that he had a deep  

understanding of pro wrestling along  with a lot of respect for the National  

Wrestling Alliance and the world title. In  the WWE-produced World Class documentary,  

a few guys interviewed said that David could  have run the territory himself if anything were  

to ever happen to Fritz. It has also been widely  reported and more or less confirmed that David  

was going to win the NWA World Heavyweight  Championship from Ric Flair in early 1984.  

Fritz Von Erich, the family patriarch, looked at  the championship as a holy grail despite never  

winning the championship himself. In Fritz's  eyes, the title proves that you're the absolute  

best in the world, and Fritz wanted not only  one of his sons to win the championship, but  

he also wanted a champion that hailed from World  Class. Reportedly, having the NWA championship in  

the Dallas territory meant a lot to Fritz, so  you can imagine how big of a deal it was when  

the championship committee reportedly voted  for David Von Erich to win the belt in 1984.  

To build up for the match, Ric Flair made  disparaging comments about Mike Von Erich,  

saying that Mike wasn't good in the ring and not  worthy of stepping up to the Nature Boy. So David  

made a challenge to Ric, a 10-minute challenge  match. If Flair could beat Mike within 10 minutes,  

then David would back off and never ask for  another shot at the NWA championship. But if  

Flair was unable to beat Mike in those 10 minutes,  then David would be able to name the time, place,  

and stipulations for a Ric Flair vs  David Von Erich NWA title match.  

On January 30th, 1984, at WCCW Wrestling Star  Wars, Flair had the match with Mike, and the  

Nature Boy couldn't get the job done, so David was  in line for a title shot. Before the match could  

take place though, David took himself off to Japan  for a tour with All Japan Pro Wrestling where he  

tragically passed away. The Von Erichs claimed  it was caused by ruptured intestines or a stomach  

rupture that made him regurgitate and choke. The  cause of death was officially recorded as ruptured  

intestines. Ric Flair and others alluded to a  painkiller overdose, with the Von Erichs possibly  

covering up the real cause due to Fritz wanting  to maintain a squeaky clean image for his boys.  

But whatever the case, the Yellow Rose of Texas  had passed away, leaving fans of World Class in a  

state of disbelief and creating one of the  biggest "what-ifs?" in pro wrestling history.  

To celebrate the life of David Von  Erich and pay tribute to his memory,  

Fritz booked Texas Stadium for a special memorial  show. The name "Parade of Champions" wasn't new;  

events with that name had been held as far back as  the early 1960s, with Southwest Sports promoting  

such events. Even in 1972, Fritz challenged  Dory Funk Jr. for the NWA title in what turned  

out to be a 60-minute Broadway. However, in  1984, the Parade of Champions came back as  

the 1st Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions. It was a bold move to book Texas Stadium, the home  

of the Dallas Cowboys at the time. World Class  was white-hot, but a stadium show at this size  

raised a lot of eyebrows. Fritz was banking on  fans filling up the arena due to their desire to  

mourn and celebrate David. Michael Hayes even  said that a lot of the boys didn't care about  

the success of this show or what happened in  the main event; they just missed David and were  

still trying to come to terms with his passing. Fritz went ahead and booked the venue while also  

having a discussion with the NWA Championship  Committee because he felt that a surviving  

brother should still win the NWA championship  from Ric Flair. Details are sketchy here,  

but some reports state that Fritz didn't ask the  committee; he pleaded with them to allow another  

Von Erich to win the championship. Seeing as the  NWA had a good relationship with World Class,  

they decided to give it the green light,  and Flair would indeed drop the belt to a  

Von Erich at David's memorial show. Kerry Von Erich was selected as the  

new champion. Many would say that Kevin was  the better, more polished in-ring wrestler,  

but Kerry had a better look, a better body, was  very popular with female fans of World Class,  

and would look more challenging to beat when he  traveled around the other territories to defend  

the belt. Ticket sales went up when the main event  was announced. Again, according to Michael Hayes,  

when Fritz announced he was coming out of  retirement for the event, ticket sales had  

another significant boost. Fritz was going to team  up with Mike and Kevin to take on the Freebirds,  

while the Modern Day Warrior was booked to defeat  Ric Flair in a monumental match-up and probably  

the most important in World Class history. 32,000 fans bought tickets for the  

show, making it an incredible success  before the first matches even took place.  

The matches from the David Von Erich memorial  show were shown on ESPN and replayed again during  

weekly World Class shows on the same channel.  While the full event is not available on the WWE  

Network, the broken-up shows from World Class  weekly are available. So these are matches you  

can check out for yourself. As of the time of  making this video, the event is also on YouTube.  

The Von Erichs defeated the Fabulous Freebirds  before the NWA title match took place. Flair comes  

Subtitles ListPlay Video

When Kerry Von Erich Won the NWA Championship

territory

state

crowd

parade