More Von Erichs

Hi Scott,


Meltzer’s obituary for Kerry Von Erich sure touched off a firestorm on the blog right in the middle of Mania season. The Von Erich saga has the making of a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy that’s all the more compelling because it took place in the backdrop of the cartoon world of wrestling (tm, Bret Hart).

Speaking of high tragedy, it always struck me how eerily similar the Von Erich family’s fate was to that of the Kennedys’ in American politics (bear with me here). Three idealistic brothers set the political world on fire in the 1960’s; twenty years later, three clean cut, Beatles-esque superstars in the Von Erich brothers were anointed as the future of wrestling. Behind the scenes, neither were what they seemed–the Kennedys’ vice was women and the Von Erich’s drugs.

Joe Kennedy was the slimy, hard-charging patriarch who made his money bootlegging, wanted to appease Hitler, and lobotomized his disabled daughter. Fritz was Fritz, need I. The oldest son of both families (both with the father’s name) died before they could enter the family business. But in both cases, another son stepped up to carry things on–JFK won the Presidency only to be assassinated and David Von Erich was allegedly set to win the NWA title before dying in Japan. And after those brothers died, RFK and Kerry, respectively, carried on the family name for a few more years until tragedy struck again. After awhile, the only brothers left standing as elder statesmen were Ted Kennedy and Kevin Von Erich, both of whom somehow survived the insanity of their families’ lives.

Really amazing when you think about it. As many posters have said the last few days, the Von Erichs’ story is really waiting for a Netflix or similiar-type documentary to spread their tale beyond us wrestling geeks and into the culture at large.

​So what you’re saying is that we need a mini-series where James Franco time travels back to 1983 to stop the filthy bastard who planted all those drugs on David Von Erich in Japan after he accidentally died of sushi poisoning. Gotcha.​