World Class Championship Wrestling

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World Class Championship Wrestling
Details
Acronym WCCW
Established 1966
Style American Wrestling
Location Dallas, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Founder(s) Ed McLemore
Owner(s) Fritz Von Erich
Parent Southwest Sports, Inc.
Formerly NWA Big Time Wrestling
World Class Wrestling Association
Merged with American Wrestling Association
Continental Wrestling Association

World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), also called the World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA), was a popular regional professional wrestling promotion run out of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. Originally owned by promoter Ed McLemore, by 1966 it was run by Southwest Sports, Inc., whose president was Jack Adkisson, better known as wrestler Fritz Von Erich . Beginning as a territory of the National Wrestling Alliance, it went independent in 1986 in a bid to become a major national promotion, but was unsuccessful in its attempts and eventually went out of business in 1990. Rights to the WCCW tape library currently belong to World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

Contents

[edit] Overview

World Class Championship Wrestling was a member of the National Wrestling Alliance and was originally known as Big Time Wrestling until 1982, when Adkisson requested the name of his federation to be changed. Mickey Grant, who headed the production of its telecasts, suggested the name World Class, and from there, the rest was history. WCCW was headquartered in Dallas, Texas and held wrestling events at the famed Sportatorium, located just south of Downtown Dallas, which was also a well-known boxing and wrestling arena as well as the one-time home to the famous Big D Jamboree.

During WCCW's golden years (1981-1985), the company was booked for the most part by Ken Mantell, with David Von Erich, Gary Hart, Bruiser Brody and after David's death Kevin Von Erich being the go-to people to keep the success of World Class going. Weekly wrestling shows were staged there on Tuesday nights until August 1978, then were moved to Sunday nights until the early '80s, and finally were held on Friday nights until the promotion's demise.

WCCW's syndicated show was usually taped at the Sportatorium beginning in the early '80s, with two hour-long shows being recorded every other Friday. These telecasts were, in the beginning, seen in only a few markets and were hosted at various times by Gene Goodson, Steve Harms, and Marc Lowrance; when the show was taken over in 1982 by Continental Productions (a subsidiary of local station KXTX) and went to international syndication, well-known north Texas journalist/sportscaster Bill Mercer (a former play-by-play announcer for the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and Chicago White Sox along with other Texas-based teams) became the ringside announcer at the Sportatorium. After Mercer left in 1987 to join Ken Mantell's Wild West Wrestling promotion, Lowrance returned to the broadcast position where he would remain until resigning to become a minister in July 1990. Lowrance would later be paired by former wrestler-turned-matchmaker Frank Dusek for one year, then later by "The Beauty" Terrance Garvin, a pro wrestler whom resembles Jimmy Garvin.

Craig Johnson (real name: Jon Horton) then replaced Lowrance for the final two months of telecasts. Percy Pringle III would replace Garvin, who returned to the wrestling ring. Horton eventually went on to host the USWA and GWF telecasts in later years, and Pringle went on to greater fame in the WWF/WWE as Paul Bearer, the manager of The Undertaker. Lowrance did return to the Sportatorium as ring announcer in September 1990 when World Class seceded from the USWA, and appeared occasionally during the 1990s in other Dallas-based promotions such as the Global Wrestling Federation. Lowrance is no longer in the business, but does appear at vintage pro wrestling conventions on occasion.

The promotion also held matches on Monday nights in Fort Worth at the North Side Coliseum (an indoor rodeo arena, known today as the Cowtown Coliseum), until the mid-1970's, then relocated to the Will Rogers Memorial Center where it remained until WCCW discontinued its Fort Worth shows in 1988. These matches aired Saturday nights on local station KTVT as a 90-minute broadcast entitled Saturday Night Wrestling, which was expanded to two hours in November 1983 and retitled Championship Sports. From late 1988 until the station canceled wrestling in 1990, KTVT's tapings were held at the Sportatorium on Saturday mornings. Dan Coates, who had served as ring announcer in Fort Worth for many years prior to the Von Erich era, called the action on KTVT from 1966 until 1976, when Bill Mercer was brought in to replace him. When Mercer moved to the syndicated telecasts, Marc Lowrance took over the KTVT show. As he would with the syndicated series, Jon Horton became host of Championship Sports for its last few episodes.

Lowrance was also the ring announcer at the Sportatorium for several years before moving to TV full-time; he was originally hired in 1980 to replace Boyd Pierce, who had been with the group since the 1960's and left to join Bill Watts' Mid-South Wrestling promotion. Other ring announcers in WCCW included Joe Rinelli (from the 1960's until 1988) and Ralph Pulley (mid-1980's), who also served as a referee for a time.

[edit] NWA Era

[edit] Big Time Wrestling: 1966-81

WCCW was originally known as Big Time Wrestling and, until the late 1970s, was dominated by its owner, Fritz Von Erich. Initially playing his longtime role of a snarling, goose-stepping Nazi monster heel and sometimes teaming with "brother" Waldo, Fritz turned babyface in the fall of 1967 and began feuding with Gary Hart and his stable of wrestlers (which at this time included Karl Von Brauner, Al Costello and the masked Spoilers); the feud between Hart and Fritz (and his sons) would continue off and on for more than two decades. Fritz's other classic rivalries during this early period were with such stars as Johnny Valentine, Stan Stasiak, Professor Toru Tanaka, Lord Alfred Hayes, The Sheik, Bruiser Brody and The Great Kabuki. Babyface wrestlers playing secondary roles in the promotion at various times included Wahoo McDaniel, Pepper Gomez, Red Bastien, Jose Lothario and Lonnie "Moondog" Mayne. Many of these wrestlers were regular mainstays of the Grand Olympic Auditorium wrestling promotion in Los Angeles, who would compete in Dallas regularly, as did Fritz and several Texas-based wrestlers doing the same to Gene and Mike LeBell's promotion in L.A.

As his sons began to launch wrestling careers of their own in the mid-to-late 1970s, Fritz gradually cut back on his in-ring appearances and concentrated on promoting, finally retiring from the ring altogether after a 1982 NWA American Title win over King Kong Bundy at Texas Stadium in Irving. By then, the promotion had switched to the World Class name and was centered around Fritz's sons, Kevin, David and Kerry (and, later, Mike) Von Erich.

[edit] Peak Years: 1982-85

Around this same time, WCCW began its hour-long weekly syndicated television show which introduced numerous innovative production techniques, many of which are still commonly used today. The promotion was also the first to use familiar rock songs as entrance music for its wrestlers. Talent deals and exchanges helped WCCW bring in future stars such as Chris Adams, The Fabulous Freebirds, Jake Roberts, a young Shawn Michaels, Gino Hernandez and Iceman King Parsons.

The opening sequence of World Class' syndicated broadcasts began with a NASA photo of Earth, taken during the Apollo 16 mission back in 1972. An animated satellite would beam down over Dallas, and as it moves east, the World Class logo would appear and move across to the upper left hand corner of the picture. Two more satellite beams aired two highlights from World Class: one involving Skandor Akbar urging The Missing Link to head-butt Kerry Von Erich; while the other scene was with Kamala executing a suplex on another wrestler, with his handler Friday outside the ring moving his fist down as Kamala finished his suplex. This opening sequence would be used again in 1991 with Boston-based International World Class Championship Wrestling.

By 1987, the opening sequence changed; beginning with a dusk photo of Dallas, and other shots of the city, including the Dallas North Tollway, before the World Class logo would appear; then scenes of past wrestling events (mostly from the 1987 Texas Stadium event) would follow before the logo reappeared again.

[edit] Freebirds-Von Erichs feud

World Class' most storied feud was the legendary and long-running battle between the Von Erichs and the Freebirds, which began on December 25, 1982 during an NWA World Title match between Kerry Von Erich and champion Ric Flair at Reunion Arena in Dallas. After several of Flair's title defenses against Kerry ended in controversy with the champion retaining the belt by various illegal means (including an earlier match which involved a corrupt referee, Alfred Neely), the promotion had finally booked a rematch between the two in a steel cage to prevent any interference, and announced a write-in poll in which fans could vote for the wrestler they wanted to serve as special referee for the match. Freebird Michael Hayes, whose popularity in WCCW at that point was second only to the Von Erichs themselves, was selected to officiate, and his tag team partner Terry Gordy was at ringside to guard the cage door. However, when Kerry refused to pin Flair following unwanted interference on his behalf by Hayes, the Freebirds turned on Von Erich, with Gordy slamming the door on Kerry's head. Backup referee David Manning banished Hayes and Gordy to the dressing room, and the match ended shortly thereafter, with Flair retaining the title yet again as Manning declared Kerry unable to continue.

The Freebird-Von Erich rivalry was one of the most violent feuds in modern-day wrestling history, and continued off-and-on for much of the decade; Parsons, Adams, "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and members of Skandor Akbar's Devastation Inc. stable were also involved in the Freebird-Von Erich feud directly or indirectly during the course of the angle. The official last match between the Freebirds and the Von Erichs took place in April 1993 in Dallas.

Other major feuds in World Class during this period included Chris Adams & Sunshine vs. Garvin & Precious, Adams and Gino Hernandez vs. The Von Erichs, Missy Hyatt vs. Sunshine, and The Fantastics vs. The Midnight Express.

On February 10, 1984, at the height of the Von Erich-Freebird wars, David Von Erich suddenly died just after arriving in Japan for a series of appearances. His death was front page news in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, triggering an area-wide outpouring of shock and grief among fans, and was the beginning of the Von Erichs' decline and fall (and WCCW's as well, although attendance levels would remain high for a time). David had been seen by many in the NWA as potential World Championship material; and so, on May 6, 1984, as a tribute to his late brother, Kerry Von Erich finally defeated Ric Flair after a hard-fought 14-minute battle to win the title at the first annual David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions supercard held at Texas Stadium in Irving. However, because Kerry already had a reputation within the industry for being unreliable due to substance abuse, the NWA only allowed him a brief title reign; he lost the belt back to Flair in Yokosuka, Japan on May 24 in another hard-fought match.

[edit] Chris Adams vs The Von Erichs

Another major feud in World Class began on September 28, 1984 between Chris Adams and the Von Erichs. Originally a tag team match between Chris and Kevin against Gino Hernandez and Jake Roberts, interference by manager Stella Mae French cost Adams and Von Erich the match when Gino pinned Chris. Kevin attacked Hart, whom was abusing Stella Mae, but was met by a Chris Adams superkick, which started a long and legendary feud. Oddly, two days after that incident, Chris teamed with brother Kerry and defeated Killer Khan and the Missing Link in San Antonio.

On October 27, Adams and Von Erich squared off at the Cotton Bowl, with Kevin winning the match, amid controversy when Adams lifted his shoulder at the count of one, but referee David Manning counted to three anyway. Afterwards, Kevin made a deal with Chris: leave Gary Hart and go on his own and all would be forgiven. Adams responded by attacking Kevin with a chair. Unintentionally, Adams hit Kevin in the head hard enough for the chair to break in half, causing Kevin some bleeding from the head and resulting in his hospitalization for a few days. The Adams-Von Erich feud had been set up in this way because Fritz Von Erich felt that too many fans were siding with Adams, and after the Cotton Bowl incident, Adams still heard cheers from some of the fans. Nonetheless, Adams eventually became World Class' biggest heel; yet at the same time, as the feud with the Von Erichs progressed, he began facing other heels, such as Ric Flair and members of Skandor Akbar's army.

By 1985, Adams began tagging with Hernandez, forming the second and most successful version of The Dynamic Duo (Tully Blanchard and Hernandez formed the original version). Towards the end of the year, Adams and Hernandez used scissors (a gimmick that Brutus Beefcake would use later on in the WWF) to cut hair off opponents after each of their matches, and this resulted in a Cotton Bowl showdown in October 1985, in which Kevin and Kerry Von Erich defeated Adams and Hernandez in a losers-lose-hair match. Adams and Hernandez eventually broke up and began feuding, and faced each other in a January 1986 match where the loser would have his hair removed with Freebird Hair Cream (a gimmick previously used in a June 1983 match between Iceman Parsons and Freebird Buddy Roberts). Adams had the match won, but picked Hernandez up twice to dish out more punishment, and while he was arguing with referee Rick Hazzard, Hernandez grabbed the hair cream and threw the contents in Adams' face, thus "blinding" him. Adams won the match by DQ as a result. However, by the time this angle aired on television a few days later, Hernandez was dead; his passing, which was revealed by an autopsy to be the result of a cocaine overdose, ended any prospects of a hot feud between the former partners. The Scotland Yard questioned Adams regarding Hernandez's death, but no charges were ever filed against him.

[edit] Israel tour

In 1985, World Class went on a major tour to the Middle East (including Israel). The tour, which ran from August 3 through August 7, was held mostly in Tel Aviv, and proved to be extremely successful, but was also the start of another episode for the Adkisson family, as it was during this tour that Mike Von Erich suffered a shoulder injury (in a match against Gino Hernandez) that led to his near-fatal bout with toxic shock syndrome following surgery. In an ill-advised desperation move that would later infamously backfire, Fritz brought in Kevin Vaughn as "cousin" Lance Von Erich to fill the gap while Mike was recovering. Fritz billed Lance as the "son" of Waldo Von Erich, with whom Fritz tagged years earlier, but was not related to Fritz in any way. Vaughn made his WCCW debut at the 1985 Cotton Bowl event.

Among the main participants on the Israel tour included Kevin and Mike Von Erich, Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez, Iceman King Parsons, Freebird Buddy Roberts, Scott Casey, Brian Adias, Rip Oliver, Kelly Kiniski and Johnny Mantell.

[edit] Independence

[edit] WCWA: 1986-88

World Class withdrew its membership from the NWA in 1986, shortly after the death of Gino Hernandez, and became known as the World Class Wrestling Association. As a result of the NWA withdrawal, the WCWA introduced a title-change rule in which a champion could lose the belt on a disqualification or a countout, much to the dismay of heel wrestlers who opt to DQ themselves to keep the championship (most notably Ric Flair). That rule had previously been in place during the 1984 NWA World Heavyweight Championship match between Flair and Kerry Von Erich, and had been used sporadically before World Class seceded from the NWA.

The Freebirds-Von Erich war reignited during 1986, with Hayes, Gordy and Roberts against Kevin, Kerry and Lance Von Erich. John Tatum and Missy Hyatt entered the promotion, and started a feud with The Fantastics and Sunshine. Chris Adams returned in May, and received a huge ovation from the crowd at Texas Stadium in his first match. Chris did begin an angle with Rick Rude; but not before becoming a full-fledged face.

During a May 26, 1986 six-man tag match in Fort Worth, Texas, Adams was paired with Lance and Kevin Von Erich against Rick Rude, Kabuki and the One Man Gang. It was the first time since September 30, 1984 that Adams was partnered with a Von Erich in any tag team match, and there was still some tension between Kevin and Chris in the early-going, but that eventually changed as the match progressed. As the match winded down, the One Man Gang was about to launch a major assault on Kevin with a chain. As Kabuki and Rude was distracting referee Bronco Lubich, Adams entered the ring and superkicked OMG, then rolled Kevin on top of him and alerted Lubich that a pin was occurring in the ring. Lubich made the three-count and Chris, Kevin and Lance won the match. After several minutes with Chris and Kevin standing in the center of the ring, Kevin extended his hand, and Chris shook it and the two embraced in the center of the ring, signaling the end of World Class Championship Wrestling's most storied feud.

Chris evidently continued wrestling against Rude on several occasions, and in one match after a Rude Awakening neckbreaker, Chris "regained his eyesight". With the patch gone, Chris became the number one contender to Rude's World Class heavyweight title, and on July 4, 1986, he won it after a hard-fought and bloody battle at Reunion Arena in Dallas. Adams won with a small package when interference from Rude's manager Percy Pringle backfired.

Over the course of the next three months, Chris defended the title almost every week, against challengers like Rude, Kabuki, One Man Gang, Blackjack Mulligan and others. In a non-title match at the Dallas Sportatorium, he lost to the Ultimate Warrior, who was then known as the Dingo Warrior. In that match, Adams used a piledriver on the Warrior, and somehow the force of the piledriver hit Adams' throat. Unable to continue, Adams allowed the Warrior to pin him following a flying elbow. Chris gave the Warrior a title shot, and narrowly defeated him.

Between July and September 1986, many of the top stars of World Class, including Adams, Parsons, Hyatt, John Tatum, and the Freebirds, defected to the Universal Wrestling Federation, following longtime WCCW booker Ken Mantell who had resigned and joined the UWF after a falling-out with Fritz. Soon after, Adams was forced to relinquish his WCCW belt due to an incident on an airplane--according to testimony, a drunken Adams head-butted an American Airlines co-pilot-- which resulted in a jail sentence. It was explained that Adams lost the championship to Black Bart in Los Angeles, but according to Adams and several other wrestlers, that match never took place; in fact, Adams refused to lose the belt to Black Bart and simply walked away from WCCW to join the UWF for a short time before starting his 90-day jail sentence in November. Kevin Von Erich would eventually win the WCCW title a month later at the Cotton Bowl, and hold that championship for nearly a year.

It was also at this point that Kerry Von Erich was involved in a motorcycle accident (June 1986) and suffered injuries that later worsened when he attempted to return to the ring too soon (an attempt said by some observers to have taken place under heavy pressure from Fritz), and would finally necessitate the amputation of his right foot. WCCW's fortunes declined further in 1986-87 with Mike Von Erich's health and substance abuse problems and eventual suicide. As a result of these multiple catastrophes, attendance in both Dallas and Fort Worth plummeted; according to some former WCCW wrestlers, many fans became disillusioned with the Von Erichs as the supposedly "clean-living" brothers' drug use became harder to cover up, and they frequently no-showed cards the promotion booked in smaller towns.

In an attempt to keep World Class hot, by means of running long-term angles, Brian Adias, who was billed as the childhood friend of the Von Erichs (which is legitimate, since Brian grew up with the Adkissons in Denton), began a storyline with them by turning heel against Mike Von Erich during a match, then eventually began feuding with Kevin Von Erich later on. This angle, similar to the one used with Chris Adams in 1984, proved to be unsuccessful, and pairing Adias with Al Madril to form a newer version of The Dynamic Duo (and even going so far as using Adams and Hernandez's Bad to the Bone as their ring entrance music) made matters worse. Adias lacked the charisma and talent that Adams had during his feud with the Von Erichs, and Kevin and Mike dominated this feud from start to finish. There was one high mark in that feud, when Kevin passed out from concussion complications during an eight-man tag team match. That incident was worked into an angle in which Adias tried to end Von Erich's career by applying the Oriental Spike, a finisher made famous by Terry Gordy.

Between late-1986 and the latter part of 1987, World Class was behind the UWF as the top promotion in Texas, but things were about to change soon, which would include the return of many major World Class stars by year's end.

In mid-1987, after the buyout of the UWF by the NWA, Ken Mantell launched his own Wild West Wrestling promotion with the popular Fort Worth nightspot Billy Bob's Texas as its homebase. Headlining for Mantell's group were such former World Class stars as Fabulous Lance (formerly Lance Von Erich, who by then had walked out on Fritz in a dispute over money), Wild Bill Irwin, The Missing Link, Buddy Roberts, Brian Adias, Jack Victory, Tatum and Parsons. Bill Mercer left World Class to become the ring announcer for Wild West Wrestling. After only a few months, Mantell agreed to return to WCCW as co-promoter with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich, following Fritz's decision to sell out his interest in the promotion; Wild West was absorbed into WCCW, and most of its talent — with the notable exception of Fabulous Lance, who was now considered persona non grata by the Adkissons after his abrupt departure earlier in the year — returned along with Mantell.

Chris Adams, who stayed with the NWA following their buyout with the UWF, abruptly left the NWA over a money dispute, and returned to World Class soon thereafter. Upon returning, Adams worked an angle with Al Perez and manager Gary Hart, engaging in several matches — including one in which he supposedly won the World Class title following a victory over Perez. The decision was reversed by referee John Keaton who was pushed into Adams' superkick by Perez (backup ref Bronco Lubich made the three-count when Adams surprised Perez with a sunset flip), thus Keaton DQed Adams and Perez retained the championship, a match which fans felt was a screwjob finish. Adams also engaged in a brief feud with Brian Adias.

Upon Mantell's return, WCCW held its final Christmas Day Star Wars show, during which one of the most infamous incidents in Texas wrestling history — known to wrestling purists as the "Christmas Day Massacre" — occurred. WCWA champion Al Perez and Kerry Von Erich (who had recently returned to the ring, now wrestling with a prosthetic foot) were scheduled to face each other in a steel cage main event for the title, with Gary Hart handcuffed to Fritz to prevent interference. However, before the match began, Terry Gordy ran in and made disparaging remarks about Kerry and his motorcycle accident, which started a fight. Buddy Roberts, Iceman King Parsons and the Angel of Death stormed the ring and handcuffed Fritz to the cage, delivering a furious beating while Kerry was cold-cocked by Perez. Eventually Kevin stormed the ring to save both Kerry and Fritz. After the attack, Fritz — who was normally seen walking away from vicious attacks under his own power — was assisted out of the ring by Kerry and Kevin. Upon leaving the ring, Fritz staged a heart attack by collapsing onto the floor of Reunion Arena, and was supposedly rushed to a hospital; local news media reported this as a top story, not realizing until later that the entire incident had been a work. Kerry, after an hour or so, returned to the ring to face Perez but lost the match due to outside interference from Hart.

Afterwards, World Class promoted the renewed Freebird-Von Erich rivalry, but without Michael Hayes, who would eventually return to World Class... as a face, wrestling alongside the Von Erichs, starting a civil war between Hayes, Roberts and Gordy. Gordy would eventually join Hayes and the Von Erichs later on, but this occurred only weeks before the angle ran its course.

Another hot feud taking place during this period was Chris Adams against both Terry Taylor and Iceman King Parsons, both of whom were brought into WCCW by Mantell. Parsons and Adams resumed their feud that began in the UWF, while Taylor came in during late-January 1988, duping everyone into believing that he was a changed wrestler and wanted to tag-team with Adams again, after a violent feud of their own.

This led to a February 1988 angle at the Sportatorium in which Taylor was to have faced Al Perez for the WCWA World title. Adams came in wondering what Taylor was doing in World Class, and then later went on a tirade against Perez, demanding a title shot. Terry Gordy later came in and began fighting with Adams, with Kerry Von Erich running in to help Adams. With Gordy and Von Erich outside the ring, Taylor sucker-punched Adams, then piledrived Adams twice in the ring with the second one supposedly breaking Adams left hand. Chris was attempting to block the second piledriver, and injured his hand in the process.

The Taylor-Perez match never took place, and was ruled a no-contest.

In another strange angle, Adams wrestled Taylor while wearing a catcher's mask, in order to protect Chris from legit injuries he sustained during an earlier match in Missouri. Adams lost that match by DQ when he hit Taylor with the mask.

Meanwhile, Kerry Von Erich won the World Class title from Perez; and lost it to Iceman Parsons following an infamous incident in which the lights at the Sportatorium went out during the match, and when the lights returned, Kerry was down on the mat, with Parsons pinning him. Michael Hayes, who was fighting outside the ring with Buddy Roberts, was also down outside the ring. Many wrestlers believed at one time that Kevin Vaughn, formerly Lance Von Erich, was responsible for the lights being turned off which resulted in the unknown attack on both Hayes and Kerry. Kerry regained the championship the following May at the final Texas Stadium Parade of Champions card.

In the summer of 1988, the major storyline pitted Michael Hayes and Steve Cox against the Samoan Swat Team, managed by Buddy Roberts. Chris Adams, Terry Gordy and Terry Taylor all left World Class at that time (Adams would eventually return towards the end of the year, as a wrestler, promoter and trainer).

[edit] The Jarrett Era: 1988-90

Several unsuccessful attempts had been made in 1987-88 to take World Class national; among them was a sparsely-attended Von Erichs over America tour, and a merger between World Class, the AWA and CWA the following year. A major pay-per-view card, AWA SuperClash III, was held in Chicago in late 1988, featuring a world title unification match in which Jerry Lawler defeated Kerry Von Erich. However, Superclash III was not a hit, and Mantell and the Adkissons were forced to sell World Class to CWA owner Jerry Jarrett toward the end of 1988. The combined federation became known as the USWA. Jarrett would run the new USWA out of two headquarters: one in Dallas (the weekly shows in Fort Worth being discontinued at this point due to poor attendance), the other in Memphis.

For a time, the USWA Dallas promotion continued under the World Class banner to build up a storyline in which Eric Embry, who was now the group's booker and lead babyface, was feuding with Skandor Akbar and his Devastation Inc. stable (which at this time included a young Mick Foley, billed as Cactus Jack Manson) for control of the organization.

Among the famous incidents that occurred include Embry being hit with a baseball bat by Akbar, Cactus Jack and Gary Young (in a mask as The Zodiac) during an April 1989 battle against Akbar; both of whom were hiding under the Sportatorium ring for some three hours. Frank Dusek, who served as the special referee, was also lit up with the baseball bat and piledriven by Young during the melee. Afterwards, Embry induced vomiting in the ring (which was censored on television).

Another angle involved a corrupt referee (Harold Harris) who, like the NWA's Teddy Long and the WWF's Danny Davis, made fast three-counts in favor of the heels and slow three-counts against the babyfaces. He was fired by Frank Dusek follwing a controversial title change; which promoted Harris to later attack Dusek with a chair following a gang-up during an interview segment.

Even announcer Marc Lowrance was physically restrained by P.Y. Chu-Hi (Phil Hickerson) as manager Tojo Yamamoto berated Lowrance. Embry came out to save Lowrance from any further harm. Prior to that, Lowrance was involved in heated confrontations against Yamamoto, including one instance in which he called Yamamoto "a disgrace to wrestling and to himself". At the end of that interview, an unusually angry Lowrance said "go to black", signaling for a commercial message.

With all of these aforementioned occurrences, everything came down to a battle for control of World Class on August 4, 1989 at the Dallas Sportatorium. Embry wrestled Hickerson in a steel cage match, with the winner gaining control of World Class (Embry representing the USWA, and Hickerson representing WCCW). During the match, Yamamoto shouted instructions at Hickerson, with Lowrance grabbing the mike out of his hands on several occasions. Finally, after a 16-minute battle, Embry managed to small-package Hickerson and pin him to win, thus officially changing World Class into the USWA.

After the match, Embry and manager Percy Pringle walked to the D section of the Sportatorium and tore the World Class Championship Wrestling banner off of the wall (in the same spot where the American flag once was displayed). The banner today is now owned by Kevin Von Erich.

[edit] USWA Dallas

Among the hot feuds that was promoted included Chris Adams & Toni Adams vs. Phil Hickerson & Tojo Yamamoto; Kerry Von Erich vs. Tarras Bulba (with Kerry doing a stretcher job against Bulba, pinned by Bulba's iron claw); and Eric Embry vs. Billy Travis. Travis later feuded with Chris Adams, Jeff Jarrett and Kevin Von Erich. During one incident, Travis spanked Toni Adams in the center of the ring at the Sportatorium (a la Sunshine six years before), with Chris handcuffed on the ring rope; and in another infamous incident, Travis cold-cocked Adams with a coke bottle over his head, prompting announcer Marc Lowrance to announce that Adams may be dead. In December 1989, Adams and Embry began feuding, with the Dallas fans solidly behind Adams. This infuriated Embry, who was not popular with longtime World Class fans even during his babyface run, and he walked away from the organization soon thereafter.

In fact, Embry booked himself to become the top babyface in the Dallas promotion within a time span of one year, and this did not sit well with many fans and/or fellow wrestlers, after many years of babyface dominance by the Von Erichs and Adams. When Embry returned in 1991, he eventually turned heel.

Two major feuds erupted in 1990: one between Chris Adams and "Stunning" Steve Austin (later "Stone Cold" Steve Austin), and the other between Kerry Von Erich and Matt Borne (later the first Doink the Clown). The Adams-Austin feud started slow, but eventually picked up huge heat thanks in part to good promoting by Adams, whom decided to bring in former wife Jeanne Clarke and then-current wife Toni Adams into the feud; resulting in a mixed tag-team war very similar to the Adams-Sunshine vs. Garvin-Precious battles of the early 1980s.

The Kerry Von Erich-Matt Borne feud began in May 1990 when Borne turned heel by attacking Chris Von Erich during an interview segment at the Sportatorium. A week or so later, Borne and Von Erich battled in a pinfall counts anywhere in the building match, which eventually continued outside the Sportatorium. During the outside confrontation (in a thunderstorm, among other things), Von Erich slammed Borne onto the hood of a parked vehicle and also attemped to attack him with a piece of two-by-four. Minor damage occurred with the vehicles, and the ensuing fight continued until Chris Adams, Jeff Jarrett, and others broke up the brawl. Percy Pringle joined Borne in his feud with Kerry, until June 1990, when Von Erich left for the WWF. Percy later joined Austin and Clarke in their feud with Chris and Toni Adams, with Chris Von Erich and at times Kevin Von Erich getting involved.

Another feud that drew headlines was between "Hollywood" John Tatum and Bill Dundee, with valet Tessa in the middle of the feud. Originally brought in by Tatum, Tessa, like Sunshine years before, turned face and joined Dundee's side. Interestingly, during a match against Tatum, Kevin Von Erich, who beat Tatum, swept Tessa off her feet and carried her into the dressing room much to the dismay of Tatum.

During a July 1990 match, Tatum knocked Tessa unconscious following a superkick to the head, resulting in Tessa being carried out on a stretcher. In that same event, Toni Adams was carried out on a stretcher following a flying splash from the top rope onto Toni on the concrete floor by Steve Austin.

Under Jarrett, World Class/USWA Dallas was finally able to turn itself around financially, and became modestly profitable during the 1989-1990 period. However, because of a revenue dispute with the Adkissons (who still owned 40 percent of the Dallas promotion), Jarrett ultimately pulled the promotion out of Dallas in September 1990. Shortly before Jarrett's departure, KTVT dropped its long-running Saturday night wrestling telecasts; according to some reports, the cancellation was the result of frequent on-air profanity (used primarily by Eric Embry), despite multiple warnings from station management.

Kevin Von Erich, without the benefit of television (as the result of KTVT's cancellation of Saturday Night's Championship Sports) and the absence of brother Kerry (who was in the WWF as The Texas Tornado), began promoting Sportatorium wrestling himself, bringing back the World Class Championship Wrestling name. Initially, the return of World Class proved to be a modest success (which included the return of ring announcer Marc Lowrance), but financial sources ran out quickly and attendance at the Sportatorium dropped considerably to as many as less than 500. As a result, on November 23, 1990, Von Erich held its last World Class Championship Wrestling card at the Sportatorium, which featured Kevin winning the Texas heavyweight championship from The Angel of Death in the card's final match. After that match, referee Bronco Lubich announced his retirement from the sport.

A month later, the USWA returned to the Sportatorium, but only for a limited basis, as promoters Max Andrews, Joe Pedicino, Grey Pierson and Boni Blackstone were getting their Global Wrestling Federation promotion ready to go for the summer of 1991.

[edit] World Class Curse

See: World Class curse

[edit] After the Fall

Several attempts to revive WCCW since then have been modest at best: in 1991, Kevin Von Erich began a working agreement with Boston-based International Championship Wrestling, which renamed itself International World Class Championship Wrestling. During that brief time in IWCCW, Kevin had a legendary interview in which Tony Rumble, aka The Boston Bad Boy, made derogatory remarks about Kevin and his brothers, after which Kevin ran Rumble out of the interview studio. The following year, Kevin began promoting a few scattered cards under the WCCW banner (featuring Kerry, who had been released from the WWF, and Chris Adams). Finally, in 1997, Gary Hart -- with no participation by either Kevin or Fritz -- launched a World Class-in-name-only independent promotion at the Sportatorium. This organization, known as World Class II: The Next Generation, featured only a few of the surviving wrestlers from the original WCCW group (most notably Chris Adams, Iceman Parsons and Maniac Mike Davis), as well as Gary's son, Chad Hart; it folded in less than a year. That promotion was also co-owned by Bill Mercer and Mickey Grant, and some believe that Adams was also a silent partner in in World Class II.

Kevin Von Erich released a compilation DVD of classic Von Erichs matches in 2004. Rumors of an impending WWE buyout of the WCCW video library began to spread on internet message boards the following year, and on June 5, 2006, the company issued a press release announcing that the purchase had been finalized. WWE has announced that they will release a World Class history DVD in the fall of 2007. A documentary by Chicago filmmaker Brian Harrison on WCCW and the Von Erichs, Heroes of World Class [1], was released on DVD on June 15, 2006, to rave reviews from fans and critics alike. An updated "Director's Cut" DVD of Heroes of World Class, 30 minutes longer than the original, is slated to be released in December 2006.

[edit] Performers

[edit] Alumni

See: World Class Championship Wrestling alumni

[edit] Announcers

[edit] Referees

  • Danny "Bulldog" Plechas
  • Dick Raines
  • Tully Blanchard (mid-1970's)
  • David Manning
  • Bronco Lubich
  • Rick Hazzard
  • John Keaton
  • Harold Harris
  • James Beard
  • Nick Roberts

[edit] WCCW Events

  • WCCW Parade of Champions
  • WCCW Cotton Bowl Extravaganza
  • WCCW Wrestling Star Wars
  • WCCW Fritz Von Erich Retirement Show
  • WCCW Cotton Bowl Firecracker Special
  • WCCW Super Summer Bash

[edit] WCCW Titles

[edit] External links

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