WCCW 1985: Every Rose has its Thorn

“You got yourself a deal, kid.”

Fritz Von Erich looked me square in the eye. His handshake was firm, old timey. Like a man who just made a deal for his life. I knew he felt his options were limited, and I was hopefully a part of the answer. Since his oldest son, David, hadn’t talked to him in six months, I was not only important for business, but also for mending his relationship. For me, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. New booker of World Class Championship Wrestling…Ken Mantell was out, and I was in. Me, a small time wrestler with little experience and just a stroke of luck given my relationship with David.

I’ve known Big Dave since high school, when he was at Lake Dallas I was playing across town, but our relationship goes all the way back to middle school. As David began wrestling and the industry really told a hold of him, we stayed in contact, worked out together once in a while, and eventually he broke me into the business. I graduated from training with Dory Funk Jr. after he closed the old Amarillo-office in 1981. Same year I started taking bookings, go figure… I secured a couple dark matches with World Class in 1982, but nothing came of it despite my relationship with David. After Amarillo shut down, I had a hard time getting bookings, and had to continue to fall back on my day job. Finances held me back from pursuing more, unlike David, who had the industry in the palm of his hands, right up until last year…

“The Yellow Rose of Texas” was on a collision course with NWA World Heavyweight champion, Ric Flair, in the winter of 1984. By the time the legendary feud with the Von Erichs against the Freebirds came to an end, David was on cruising on his way to a showdown with the world champ. He was also cruising to his first ever NWA world title victory, which certainly would have changed his career, but destiny just didn’t have things planned that way… After David returned home from a tour in Japan in February 1984, World Class was booking the great world title match… The Yellow Rose of Texas, the homegrown hero and eldest son of the Von Erich dynasty, hitting it off with Ric Flair, the epitome of everything David and his lifestyle were against. David wasn’t about flashy cars, big watches, or making sure three women were around his arms at one time. David was about real toughness, real grit, and real emotion. David represented everything Ric Flair hated, and boy did the people hate Ric Flair.

Flair’s animosity shared throughout Texas blew through the roof in April of 1984, when he pinned David in a thirty-minute classic to retain the world’s title. For those in the business, a complete shocker. Everybody and their mother would have told you David was the next world champ, but behind the scenes, the world champ and Jim Crockett Jr. pulled the plug on that idea in the final hour and screwed Fritz out of his big pay day. I only talked to David weeks after it happened, but from what I heard he was completely gutted when he went backstage. He almost got into with Flair, who apparently ran his mouth back, and Fritz tried to calm him down, but nothing was doing.

48 hours later, David was back on to Japan and left Texas for the rest of the year. Dirt sheets ran rumors Fritz was reportedly beside himself about this, perhaps reminiscent of losing his first son Jack so tragically early on. Now, the apple of his eye, David, was out of the picture too, and refused to speak with his father. World Class continued on, writing off David just as any weasley promoter will, hardly mentioning him in fact, unless it was a brief reminder of David’s extended tour in Japan and around the wrestling world. The truth? David went on a two month bender, nearly died twice, and only got a grip back on reality after New Japan’s Tiger Hittori found David passed out in his hotel room and begged him to get himself together. By the end of the summer, it was reported David was working dates again for New Japan, and somehow found himself back into a rhythm in his wrestling career.

“Listen, you’re the only hope I might have to get him back.”

Fritz told me earlier, speaking of David. He was really showing me all his cards, not that I was really in a position of leverage in negotiations, but I knew Fritz wanted me, bad. Not sure how he was going to explain it to the rest of his company, but putting me in charge meant David was coming back. And perhaps more importantly than helping repair his broken relationship with his son, but it meant bringing back serious heat the company found itself slowly losing since David’s departure. His younger brothers, Kerry and Kevin, did what they could to keep the momentum going, including Kerry losing his title match against Flair for the gold, but none of them were quite like David.

“I give you the book, and you run everything by me, you hear?”

Of course I would “clue the boss in” on what I was planning, but this was my one shot. Unlike David, not all of us get a second (or third) chance at life. Some of us only get one opportunity to break through our glass ceiling and become something greater. For me, I knew this would be it, or I would be back in trade school and settling down with a fine gal to start a home. And I was okay with that, as long as I knew my failure was met with the hardest I had ever worked in my life, even if every bridge I had ever built was burned in the end…