Dark Side of the Ring (2019) s01e04 Episode Script

When we talk about wrestling
in the '80s,
it's hard to imagine how popular
the Von Erich brothers were.
Those guys were ready-made.
Von Erich family could've been
equivalent of the Kennedy's.
It was a dynasty.
It was a family dynasty.
They were
all-American boys from Texas.
They are real-life Texas heroes,
in the flesh.
They didn't have to put them
in a funny outfit, a different name.
They had the look, the physiques,
had the athletic ability,
superheroes in the ring.
But then there was
constant bad news.
The Von Erichs
could have two legacies.
They could have the legacy of being
one of the biggest attractions,
wrestling families in history.
Or they could have the legacy
as a cautionary tale.
-Von Erich is dead.
-Von Erich was found dead.
-Seriously injured
-He couldn't take it anymore.
I loved the wrestling business,
but it's not that important.
Some people say,
the pressure of the spotlight.
Other celebrities
have been unable to cope.
Who knew we were gonna have
four major deaths over three years.
During their brief reign,
the Von Erich family ascended
to wrestling superstardom,
but just as quickly suffered
relentless personal tragedy.
In this episode,
the last surviving brother
reflects
on his unimaginable journey.
I wanted to get away from wrestling.
I wanted to get out, to be anonymous.
And they say the Pacific Ocean
has no memory.
Well, here I am in the smack dab,
in the middle of it.
Is there any place in the world
you'd rather be?
No, this is it.
It's the-- The love and the peace
and the harmony.
That's You can't put a price
on that, you know?
I think I'm the richest man
in the world.
My childhood?
Well, I was an older brother,
and so it was a lot of fighting.
I could overdo power
of being a big brother.
So I learned not to.
But, man, they adored me,
and I adored them.
There was this
us-against-the-world thing.
Please, don't think I'm in a bad way,
that I've suffered and all.
I consider myself
the luckiest man in the world.
These are some hunting pictures.
We hunted with our dad.
These are when we're young.
We lived in a little 16 acres,
and this little shack,
out in the country,
when dad was wrestling.
And then, here's a shot.
Just about two miles
from this spot is this farm,
and this is where I raised my boys.
My dad said, "Whatever you put
into something is what you get out."
He was a really good wrestler.
There's no way I can be objective.
I think he was the best of all time.
But he was a vicious wrestler.
Ah, my father, you know,
wanted something different.
If you want to be a bad guy,
be the best.
And so as far
as my dad was concerned,
a Nazi was about the most
despised creature you could be,
and he was a Nazi.
Fritz Von Erich from Berlin,
Germany. Here we go.
He could create a lot of heat
coming across as the German
hitting the ring
that was gonna beat up
the Americans.
My connection
with the Von Erich family is
I was Fritz's right-hand man.
Fritz was the main event.
He was a huge star in the '50s
and '60s, all over the country.
What qualifies me
to be a pro wrestling expert,
it's almost 50 years
of obsessive collecting,
hoarding, and research.
So Fritz had gotten the reputation
as the toughest guy in Texas.
As little kids,
our dad being the bad guy,
we didn't see it that way.
So watching wrestling was torment.
When the crowd was cheering,
we knew that was bad
because without a doubt,
he was the most hated villain
of all wrestling, and so one brother
would have to watch
while other brothers
would cover ears and eyes,
and wouldn't look.
The other would say, "Dad's winning!"
So we'd start watching again,
you know.
We were so into it.
Fritz also developed the Iron Claw.
A blast through the Iron Claw!
Applies it as only he can.
The Claw's a hold
that my dad invented.
The crazy thing about it is that,
after years and years
of doing the Claw,
you get scary, crazy good at it.
You just grab and you do this,
squeeze the guy in the temples
with your hands.
You just-- That's it.
My name is Dave Meltzer,
writing Wrestling Observer
Newsletter since 1982,
so pretty much my entire life.
Fritz Von Erich was wanting to get
out of wrestling, raise his family,
and do a lot less traveling.
It was always the goal of wrestlers
in those days
to buy a territory, become
a promoter, where real money was.
Fritz had a big office,
the boss and promoter,
World Class Championship Wrestling,
also a strong businessperson.
Almost every wrestler
that became a promoter,
you wanted your sons
to be great wrestlers
so they can be stars
of the next generation.
I don't know if he realized
how big of stars they were gonna be.
We got into wrestling because
we wanted to be like our dad.
I was born into wrestling.
One good thing about being brothers,
we knew exactly what was going on.
It was beautiful,
almost should be illegal
what an upper hand we had
on other teams.
You know what they're thinking.
It was a perfect storm.
The Von Erich boys had debuted,
a couple years' experience.
Looked great, people knew them,
now on this new-looking program.
Everybody knew who they were.
We're the number one show
at 9:00 on Sunday mornings.
Said, cover this
like a sporting event.
They'd have the cameraman
and sound guy,
like, actually in the ring,
you know, during the tapings,
and you'd go,
what's he doing in the ring?
No company would do that.
We literally set the stage
of where wrestling would go.
They came up with a comic book
where there's some bad guys
trying to take over the universe
and need the Von Erichs.
So we just cleaned up space
a little bit, just the riff raff.
The girls just went nuts.
No telling what magazine,
they were heartthrobs.
They were teen idols,
Kevin, Kerry, Dave.
The ring would be like a madhouse.
The girls would grab at us,
and you got to keep going.
And so pretty soon your shoulders
are just scratched all up
and bleeding.
The place would just go electric.
Your ears ring when you go home,
from that shrill scream.
We wanted that feeling, intensity
to stay that way until it was over.
Kerry was the star,
had movie star looks, the physique.
He had great personality,
just charisma.
I've never seen anybody
that had his strength.
David was the best performer,
all around, psychology,
movement, athletically.
David used to go with a yellow rose,
the yellow rose of Texas.
Dave was a technician.
There was not a hold
you could surprise him with.
Kevin, I think, was the athlete.
He was just insane,
the things he could do.
He was probably by far
the best raw athlete of the bunch.
Then Mike didn't have
the size as the other brothers.
He was real close
with his little brother, Chris.
Chris, funny, funny guy.
Just loved life.
The Von Erichs epitomized God,
family, and country. They're heroes.
Completely more popular than
movie stars and more accessible.
From the time the kids were young,
if they won an award
in school, athletic award,
it was talked about on television.
They were in wrestling magazines,
with pictures out hunting or fishing
out in Lake Dallas
with their famous father.
They grew up in the public eye,
grew up on television.
That's a lot of pressure.
I'd like to say that it was,
you know, clean cut guys,
but people realized we were human.
But you could guarantee we had
pure hearts and good motives,
and maybe that was
something real about us,
that we were family
and did love each other and care
and regard our fans
as people and not tickets.
And so to their fans,
they were members
of the family in some cases.
Something about those boys,
every one of them,
everyone loves 'em--I love 'em.
Everyone felt they were the parents
and had watched these kids grow up.
They were busy on the road
because it's a 365-day job.
These guys
were wrestling everywhere,
sometimes two times a day.
The talks were out there that David
could be one of the top prospects
to be next
World Heavyweight Champion.
David was the worker.
Everybody universally said that.
He would've been the guy
the NWA picked.
Even before Dave went to Japan,
he was sitting with my mother.
I said, "Dave,"
I just had that really bad feeling.
I was looking at him, and was looking
more and more pale to me.
I got a phone call and was asleep.
To this day, I can't stand
a phone call before daylight.
It just tears me up.
This voice says, "David Manning?
Joe Higuchi, All Japan Pro Wrestling.
David Von Erich dead."
And here is
after my first knee surgery.
After my third knee surgery,
my knees were shot,
and I had to give up football.
I guess Dave was comic relief.
My parents knew how much
I loved football, said,
"Careful what you say.
He can't play football."
And Dave said,
"So I heard you're a quitter."
When Dave died,
I never got up from that all the way.
It hit me like no other one did.
I say I was the oldest brother,
but I was the second son.
Our oldest brother was Jackie.
They lived in a trailer park,
always on the road,
had a house trailer that
they could move from place to place.
Jack was actually coming home
from school and it had snowed.
I think he was six years old.
As he was trying
to step over or go around
the tongue of a trailer,
he touched it.
Somehow it electrocuted him,
and he fell in the snow face-first
and drowned.
I was looking for him, you know,
a little three-year-old kid,
and looking for him,
and I knew something was bad.
And I was, like, watching my parents.
They were all crying.
And Jackie had been electrocuted.
Came in and saw my dad punch
a car window, just shattered it.
He came out of that different.
He was still an honorable man
on the outside,
but I think inside he wanted to die.
He was suffering.
He'd think, "What have I done
to deserve this?"
He was at war with the world.
He wanted to make
everyone suffer like him.
It was the first
of unimaginable tragedy
that that one family
had to go through.
When it came to David Von Erich,
getting the news he passed away,
it was about 2 in the morning.
And the phone rang,
and I picked up the phone.
And this voice says,
"David Von Erich dead."
And I said, "So what happened?"
"We find in room dead."
I'm trying to decide
how do I get this news.
Back then, no cellphones.
I got in my car--I'll never forget--
it was just daylight.
And as I pulled in, I could see Fritz
in front of the motor coach.
And I got out of the car,
and I walked to the door.
And he opened the door and looked
at me and he said, "Which one?"
So I think he knew, for me
to go all the way down there,
it's something very, very serious.
I said, "Fritz, they just called me
from Japan. David's dead."
My mother, she'd been told
and went running off into the woods.
It was barely daybreak.
My dad just walked outside
and stared in the sky.
I went a little crazy.
I didn't want to see anybody.
I had to be in the woods,
and I stayed in the woods too.
Fritz said, "Go to town,
make the phone calls.
Find out what happened."
I managed to get a hold of Brody,
who was also a legendary wrestler,
popular in Japan.
Brody said,
when they opened the door,
it looked like
he was trying to get to the phone.
I knew Brody always to be so tough
and such a strong good man,
but when he was telling me,
he was like
he couldn't talk, you know.
He's crying inside.
I never saw Brody cry.
He goes, "Frank!
Don't think about it, Frank!"
And he goes, "He's dead, Kev."
"Frank!" God, it was terrible.
The next day, after Dave had died,
going to the mall in Wichita Falls,
and you see these teenage girls.
They're crying,
the guys consoling them.
It was a big freaking deal.
It was almost like
the fans had lost a son.
I mean it was emotional
on two continents
because Japanese fans
were hung up in wrestling
that when a big name
foreign wrestler dies on their soil,
I mean, there was memorials
and the guys were broken up.
I remember that airplane coming in
with Dave's coffin on it.
No one would look us in the eye
because they knew we all hurt.
We hurt so bad.
And people hurt for us too.
The funeral was just insane,
like one of those old funerals
of silent movie stars.
There was a lot of wrestlers.
When they went to the funeral,
the tears flowed. Hard to take.
We estimated probably 4,000 to 5,000
people showed up for this service.
It was just beautiful,
expression of love.
The schools let out.
The Texas legislature convened.
It was like Texas got hurt that day.
You couldn't get anybody else in.
They had to put
a screen outside
and speakers outside
for the thousands of people
that were there.
I didn't know
that we were that big, I guess.
Inside the business,
we heard that he'd passed away
at his hotel room in Japan.
That generally only means one thing.
There's all this word out
that he overdosed,
but there's no doubt that he didn't.
One of the biggest rumors was,
when Brody found him,
Brody threw away all the pills.
And we waited
to hear that autopsy report.
Fritz was adamant, "I wanna know
what the autopsy says.
That's what
we're gonna have to put out."
And it came back acute enteritis.
His intestines, from an infection,
had swole to the point they ruptured.
His body filled with blood.
Heart failure.
About two days or a day
before he was gonna leave
to go to Japan,
he was throwing up.
Fritz was very stern about
make the shows you booked.
So he went over there.
I'm telling you what happened.
We're not big shots
that told the country of Japan
to falsify those documents, you know.
I'm a wrestler. You're not gonna
listen to me for that.
It was gastroenteritis,
a terrible way to die.
And we lost him.
Every man's gonna die.
But we do our best.
We do our best until that day comes.
We had a guy named Glen Goza.
He wrote,
"Heaven Needs a Champion,"
and put a song of, "There's
a main event taking place in heaven
and God brought David Von Erich
there to be the star."
You wore the family name with pride
David Von Erich, as a person
and wrestler, was a true champion.
He had a great gift, and he knew
how to take it to its fullest.
After David's funeral, Fritz held
the Parade of Champions event
in his son's honor,
which at the time,
attracted the largest crowd ever
to watch a wrestling event
in the United States.
There will be a new
World's Heavyweight Champion
crowned on that afternoon.
The brother
of David Von Erich, Kerry,
was going to challenge Ric Flair
for the NWA Championship that had
always eluded the Von Erich family.
This time, he said,
"I'm gonna win it for David."
We were adamant. With the NWA,
National Wrestling Alliance,
we had to switch that title.
I think that's where
we saw Fritz had some clout.
The dream of my brother
is now my reality.
Leading up to that match, we knew
it was big, didn't know how big.
But all of a sudden,
you got 42-plus-thousand people
at Texas Stadium, and they're there
to see one thing, that title change.
Your referee is David Manning.
Knew I was gonna go
in the record books
The title was changing.
I was super happy for Kerry,
thought he'd make a great champion.
Here we go!
It was incredible.
It's the iron claw!
You can feel the tension.
And when whenever that 1, 2 3
The whole place just went nuts.
Then you got Kevin hitting the ring,
Fritz hitting the ring.
Doris in the background.
Presenting the belt, media's crazy.
We had all the radio stations there.
The yellow rose
in honor of brother David.
It was a great night,
not bittersweet at all. Sweet-sweet.
That was probably a bigger deal
to the Von Erich boys
than it was to Fritz himself
and to the fans.
With Kerry's championship win
and a strong emotional bond
with fans,
World Class Championship
Wrestling was now on fire.
But with David gone,
there was a void to fill.
Fritz wanted to replace David
because we were missing a piece,
and we decided to look
for another Von Erich.
Whenever I saw Lance,
he was the perfect guy.
He was chiseled,
could be a Von Erich.
It was a terrible idea.
We had never lied to our people.
It really hurt their image,
and it started
the downward spiral
going a little bit quicker.
They knew
he wasn't a real Von Erich.
They're lying to us.
Lance.
We wanted to be just like him.
He's like real-life Tarzan,
climbing trees.
Any river, he gets out of the car.
He'll dive, didn't care what's in it.
We saw that fearlessness
in every situation,
not only in the ring, but in life.
That's what we wanted to be like.
We're just grateful to God
that we can follow in the footsteps
and doors are opening.
And we get to pick up
where the Von Erichs left off.
Kevin and I talk.
I go to Hawaii and see him.
He's got two great boys now,
Marshall and Ross.
Gosh, they're so talented.
And when I look at them,
I see the brothers.
-Your hair's kinda crazy.
-Thanks, son.
Can you tell us
about Lance Von Erich?
Yeah.
Kerry and I were dead set
against that.
Of all of the angles that happened
in the final years
of World Class Wrestling,
Lance Von Erich was the worst.
They needed another Von Erich.
Overall, it did a lot more damage
than it did good.
When they got on the outs with Lance
and tried to disown him,
the fans said, "You're the ones
that sold him to us!"
That's where, I think,
people lost faith.
Kevin was dead set against it.
He felt it could get exposed
and that Mike would be able
to step up and take the role.
People shouldn't say that Mike wasn't
an athlete because he sure was.
Mike was an incredible athlete.
The fourth Von Erich
is ready to start wrestling.
Mike got involved in wrestling
and he wanted to have the size
as the other brothers
and worked hard.
You know, he had the drive.
He had the stamina.
So it was hard for Mike.
Mike was a great guy,
but wasn't cut out to be a wrestler.
Mike had to walk in
and be David Von Erich,
a main event wrestler
at 19, 20 years old.
He wasn't a great athlete.
The only thing he had going for him
is he was called Mike Von Erich.
He just didn't look
like a wrestler at all,
in there with Ric Flair
and big great wrestlers
who are just carrying him in matches
that are just painful to watch.
The injuries did bother him,
you know.
He was wrestling in Tel Aviv
and against Gino Hernandez.
Gino pulled just when
he wasn't ready, and out it came.
And this time
it tore a lot of ligaments.
Only a year after David's death,
Mike dislocates his shoulder
in the ring
and is rushed
to an Israeli hospital.
They perform emergency surgery,
and soon after,
Mike is flown back to Texas.
They took him home. All of a sudden,
his temperature is sky high.
The fever hitting over 105
is what did the damage, I think.
I put him over my shoulder
and walked down the steps with him,
in the car and took off.
Mike Von Erich, hospitalized
for routine shoulder surgery,
sustained a staph infection
that escalated
into Toxic Shock Syndrome.
It was Toxic Shock Syndrome.
The doctor comes out and said,
"Blood pressure has plummeted,
organs starting to shut down."
He said, "We've done
everything we can do.
I don't think Mike's gonna make it
through the night."
And they told us,
"Say goodbye to him."
The hospital was getting
like 250 calls an hour,
where they had to hire extra staff.
People were offering
to donate their liver, kidneys.
Gary Holder, who was considered
the chaplain of World Class,
was there in the room.
Gary Holder said,
"God, you stand on your word.
You said anything we ask
in Jesus' name, "I will do it'."
That's when I didn't even look up.
Disrespectful. You went too far.
He took the Bible,
and he slammed it down on the table.
And he said,
"God, there is your word."
"So keep your word, God."
And it was less than 30 seconds
after Gary finished praying.
The doors opened.
Bill Sutger came in the room
with this other doctor,
and his exact words were,
"I'm not sure what happened,
but everything's functioning.
His temperature has dropped.
Let's see where we're at."
They couldn't believe it,
but he-- he's a fighter.
I want to thank everyone out there,
my good neighbors, for your prayers.
One week later, we rolled Mike out.
He might have rushed it.
He was so anxious to get back.
So we did a big press conference.
I know I'll be back.
Can't wait 'til the Cotton Bowl show.
I'm gonna be there.
Do you have a message
for your fans?
Yeah, be at the Cotton Bowl show
if they want to see me back,
my very first time.
I saw on TV, well,
"Mike's gonna come back!"
They were milking it
to get people interested in it.
I just didn't see
how it was gonna work.
When he came back,
"I don't know if he should wrestle."
Shouldn't have to begin with.
He looked really gaunt and hollow.
I wonder if there was brain damage.
And that's when
he attacked a stop light.
Attacked a parked car one time.
Just rages, you know?
Nobody in the parked car.
But they always wanted
a feel-good story at the end,
and it worked when it was stuff
they could write.
But when it was real life,
couldn't control it, it didn't work.
When Mike came on the scene,
the brothers were superstars.
So you had big shoes to fill.
That was a lot of pressure
that went on Mike.
Early Saturday,
Von Erich was arrested
on suspicion of drunken driving
and possession of marijuana.
The Von Erich family attorney
assisted Mike
during his release from jail.
He would be the last person
to see him alive.
Mike missed an event.
Von Erich, you didn't miss an event.
I remember that night,
wondering where Mike was,
what he was thinking.
They had a bulletin out everywhere,
all the police looking.
And it was two days, maybe three,
before they found Mike.
The news of another death
in the Von Erich family hit hard.
Mike, not seen since Saturday,
reportedly was depressed
about being arrested.
As his mother and brother looked,
the worst fears were confirmed.
Wrestler Mike Von Erich is dead,
the apparent victim of suicide.
He overdosed. It's so sad.
Everybody was just so sad.
I mean, Dave and now Mike.
Didn't know this was gonna get
so emotional.
Maybe I got-- I'm tired.
These are three big things, I guess.
You guys, could I take another break
for just about 10 minutes?
Oh, yeah, of course.
That was taxing.
Again, another
Von Erich brother is called upon
to step into the ring.
Chris Von Erich was
the worst part of the whole thing
because he'd had health problems.
I'm sure he wanted to be
like his brothers, his heroes.
Kevin was actually
helping Chris work out.
He had to work 10 times harder.
His body wasn't like his brothers.
He wanted to be a wrestler so bad.
He just-- It's not gonna happen.
The Von Erichs were believable
heroes to thousands of fans.
But continual misfortune
chipped away at their image,
and they would have one last
desperate attempt to revive it.
My brothers taught me wrestling.
I taught them eating.
Mike was something special.
-I thought you were full?
-These are for dad!
We did a few commercials,
shot all night.
For a joke, Kerry puts
all these foot products in my thing.
This is a gift from a fan, out here.
Really old picture.
We loved our fans, and to this day,
the most loyal people in the world.
We wanted to be like good
and be good examples to kids.
And, you know,
after Dave's death and Mike's death,
you feel like you're letting
everybody down. It's really hard.
With the third death in the family,
such a strong Christian family,
first, everybody wants to question,
"Well, why is all this
happening to them?"
I'm not saying
the boys weren't religious.
They just didn't do things
outside the ring that way.
I don't mean they were terrorizing.
They were damaging themselves.
Because they were closely identified
as being Texas all-Americans,
God-fearing Texas all-Americans,
when things came out
about car wrecks or suicides
or is there drugs involved
in these things, or whatever,
every move covered by newspapers,
The Dallas Times Herald,
local television stations.
When you watched the show,
you're seeing more empty seats.
They were huge in '86,
and by '88, '89 they were--
They were pretty bad off.
After so much tragedy
and with the family legacy
in jeopardy,
Fritz's youngest son, Chris,
steps into the ring,
attempting to pick up
where his brothers left off.
I think Chris felt bad.
He wanted to try to fill the shoes,
almost impossible to fill
based on his size.
The first I remember of Chris was
him being like a little celebrity.
Goal was to find a way to get Chris
involved into the matches.
I wanted him to have
a really good ground game,
know all the escapes and counters,
and to be a technician.
Physically, in no way
should he have been in wrestling.
His size, I think he had asthma.
He had brittle bones
because of medication.
It was really hard for him.
Might have the big muscles,
but the muscles are just looks.
You've got to have agility,
explosive, balance, snap,
all these things
that just didn't happen for him.
And then, all of a sudden,
Chris broke his arm.
He couldn't work out.
It was a big, big setback.
Kevin was down there,
down at the house in Edam,
and Chris was just all upset
and depressed, and this and that.
He'd loaned me his VCR,
and so he called me
at like 12:30 that night,
"I want my VCR back right now."
I said, "Chris, wait for morning.
I'll give it to you in the morning."
And I hear his 4-wheeler drive
around my house a couple times
and took off.
I knew he had a spot up on the hill
he used to go to,
so I drove up there.
He was sitting by himself.
I said, "What are you doing
up here by yourself?"
He said, "Did you read my note?"
I said, "What are you gonna do,
kill yourself or something?"
I said, "Don't do anything crazy."
He said, "I won't, Kev. I promise."
I believed it, you know.
Went back to my parent's house
to check his bedroom.
I said, "Does Chris
ever write suicide notes?"
Dad said, "I think
you better get up there."
So I did get back up there.
Wish I'd never left.
Because I got there
right after it must've happened.
I saw him laying there
on the ground choking.
I said, "Chris, what did--
What did you do?"
I thought he took pills.
Hooked his arm, put my hand
under his head to lift him up,
and my thumb, you know,
found the hole.
So I realized that he'd shot himself
in the head.
Yeah. It was tough.
With the last vestiges
of the Von Erich family torn apart,
Kerry accepts an offer
to go mainstream with the WWF.
It's another chance
in the spotlight.
When the crowd started dropping,
Kerry was getting offers,
work for Vince?
Would he make
some appearances up there?
Kerry, he took a good offer
from Vince and he went up there.
After enduring several tragedies
and the decline
of his family's wrestling promotion,
Kerry takes the Von Erich legacy
to wrestling's biggest stage.
However, no one knew
he was wrestling
with an unthinkable secret.
There's a school picture.
What a cute little kid.
Were you really curious kids?
Were you really active and?
Kerry and I just showed off
for each other, all day long.
We just like, we took a chance a day.
It was like, yeah.
A lucrative offer
made to Kerry by the WWF
was an opportunity
to revive the Von Erich name.
However, a secret from his past
was slowly catching up with him.
Kerry was supposed
to be wrestling that night, Austin.
I get the call.
Kerry's been in an accident.
It's not life-threatening,
but he really busted up his leg.
Kerry was riding his motorcycle
and ran into a parked police car.
Ric Hazzard, I saw him, and he said,
"Holy cow, his ankle looks like
an alligator chewed on it."
When they made the decision
to amputate,
I would've never, ever thought
it could be kept secret.
They didn't want
to make Kerry look weak,
especially after other tragedies.
So they tried to hide the fact
of his foot situation.
He wanted me to promise to hide that,
and we all promised.
If we gave our word, that's an oath.
We weren't gonna let Kerry down
because he was ashamed of it.
In Kerry's mind, "I'm a fake."
-The injury done on this leg.
-What about it
Before, it was--
It was almost to the point
where I almost had to have
my leg amputated.
Now my leg is back.
It's coming on strong.
Everyone was sworn to secrecy
over about a five-year period there.
He would do everything that a person
with both limbs would do.
That would've just been
such a testimonial.
And I was proud of Kerry.
To come back like that and not only
just compete, but to impress people.
They could've presented it.
Maybe he would've been inspirational.
Maybe made him feel better.
Instead, another thing to hide.
It was another thing
weighing on him mentally.
"Now I'll never be
as good as I could be.
I'll never make my dad proud,"
whatever the case.
With his transition
to wrestling's grandest stage,
Kerry found himself a small fish
in a big pond.
But with a new identity, it was
a chance to reboot his career.
Vince brings in Kerry Von Erich,
the modern-day warrior.
He's one of the biggest superstars.
He still had the physique,
but introducing him at that stage
to a national audience,
when he was physically limited,
it just wasn't the same.
He drops the Von Erich name,
tells him you can't do the claw.
His name's the Texas Tornado,
just the Texas Tornado,
not Kerry Von Erich.
All he had was that
he was Kerry Von Erich.
The Texas Tornado!
When he was there,
things were going down,
and it was not a secret.
He had, you know, a series
of drug-related issues.
He was not happy at all.
Kerry didn't handle the fame well,
the scene well.
He was always out
with rock 'n' roll people.
And I was more of a family man.
It's what saved me. I know it.
Kerry was was doing drugs.
You just knew it.
Once through the accident,
they fill him up with drugs.
They got the pain killers in you,
the pills they're giving him.
That was not a good path for him.
Because of drugs,
he was on probation at the time.
Then he got arrested again,
was afraid of the probation violation
that he was gonna go to jail.
I remember
he went to his wife and said,
"I'll go to jail if you promise that
you'll take me back."
She wouldn't promise him that.
Talked about what Chris did
in glowing terms.
It's like, "Imagine the guts
to do what Chris did?"
That's pretty scary
when you hear people saying that.
He told me he was gonna kill himself.
I said, "You couldn't do that to me."
He said, "What are we gonna do?"
I said, "Something,
but we sure ain't gonna die."
I said, "I'll tell you what, Kerry,
you and me, let's go to Alaska.
Let's take our .44s
and let's just charge a polar bear.
We got six tries.
I thought it'll be good for me to get
alone with Kerry, no drug dealers.
It'll be great. I wish we'd have gone
up there with our .44s.
On the morning
of February the 17th, 1993,
the same day Kerry was scheduled
to be indicted on drug charges,
he took a drive
out to his father's ranch.
Called dad and he said,
"Can't talk. Busy."
He was pouring a driveway.
I was gonna tell him Kerry's
in a bad way, headed to your place,
hold him for me 'til I get there.
I tried to call Dad a couple times
and could not get through.
Fritz was pouring concrete.
Kerry came, walked up, gave him
a big hug and said, "Dad, I love you.
I really, really love you."
Kerry got in the jeep
and took off in the jeep.
And so Dad's sitting in the house
wondering why
Kerry's been out so long.
He said he looked,
and his pistol was gone.
The .44 he'd given Dad
for Father's Day.
When he went, there was
a clear out area. He saw the jeep.
-With one glove laying on the seat.
-So he knew what was happening.
He had taken the glove.
The shooting hand.
Fritz walked back,
a little row of trees.
And there Kerry was.
He had He was dead.
Shot his self in the heart.
Brothers begin to pile up,
and he just couldn't take it anymore.
Dad found him, said he'd never seen
such a peaceful look on Kerry's face.
Must've hit him just right.
Kevin said one thing
that almost made me cry,
said, "I used to have five brothers,
and now, I'm not even a brother."
Over all of that,
Fritz and Doris had split up.
I thought my dad
was taking it like a soldier.
My mom was really getting hit,
though, and she blamed him.
It was bad.
The last 10 years of his life
was not a picture of health.
He would've never thought
he would've outlived
five of his six sons.
Dad, can you tell the story
of that day when Granddad
pointed that gun at you?
When older, he had brain cancer.
You know, he was not making sense.
He was questioning God.
Well, he pointed the gun at me
and said, "You'd kill yourself
if you had the guts."
I said, "Dad, it takes guts to live,
not guts to die."
And he said,
"You're afraid, aren't you?"
And I said, "No, sir."
Remember, brain cancer involved.
I didn't know
if he was gonna shoot me.
I said, "Dad,
quit pointing the gun at me."
I said, "Quit pointing
the gun at me!"
And then I jumped out the door
because I can see he's thinking.
I'm not gonna let cancer
decide if I live or die.
You know what? I was glad he died.
I wanted him to quit suffering.
Yeah, I'd seen him suffer too much
for what a good man he was.
Way deserved better than that.
What a good man.
The immortal Fritz von Erich!
Not only have I lost a brother.
I lost all of them.
And there is talk about there being
a curse on the family, you know.
It's so ridiculous, a curse.
What happened is just terrible,
just a terrible thing, but no curse.
What happened with you after this?
You went through
a really difficult period.
I thought I was doing my best,
and I was, but I was mad and--
And there was a time I thought
that that I wanted to die.
I wanted to be dead.
I knew I wasn't gonna kill myself,
but I just wanted to fight anyway.
Prison felt like
the perfect thing for me.
I was gonna steal a gun because
I knew how much people hate guns.
If I stole one, that's prison.
Lo and behold, I tried it
in a Lubbock gun store
with a bunch
of good old Texas men in there.
I'm gonna steal that gun,
and man that owned the store
was looking at me.
I put it down my pants
and stiff-legged walked out of there.
I looked at him like,
"Got something to say?"
That's when he just looked at me
like an old man,
didn't say anything for a long time,
just looked at me.
And I looked right into his eyes,
and he said, "Love you, Kev."
Oh, man. I said, "Thank you, Sir."
And I went out to my car,
and I just thought about
the magnitude of what just happened.
I came back in that store,
gave him his rifle and hugged him.
I said, "I love you too, sir."
All those other men were in there.
Man, it was a great day for Texas.
Great day for Von Erich.
I needed that so bad.
I wanted life to get
as bad as it could be.
Anyway, I'm so glad it's over.
Saved me.
-Y'all want to see this tree?
-Yeah.
This is my desk, my office.
-That's your office?
-Yeah.
My La-Z-Boy lounger here.
How often are you here? Every day?
I try to. Not as--
If I can, I get here every day.
Oh, I do try to do that.
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
A peace I've never had before.
The more alone you get,
the more close you feel to God,
it seems like to me.
If I'm scuba diving at night
on the bottom of the ocean,
I love to turn my light off
and just lay on the bottom.
I feel like you think you're
far away, no, you're never far.
God is right with you, and I feel it.
And I just I do love it.
Hey, baby! Hey, you.
Kevin's kids, I've met them all.
And they have beautiful kids now.
What I sought all my life was
to be peaceful, and here I am.
And I thank you, Lord.
I've never been so happy
and peaceful.
There's always kids playing here.
It's highest and best use
for the land, for sure.
He's been through so much chaos,
and so for him to end up
in this just peaceful environment,
with the animals and everything,
he's just like so at home
and just so, you know, he loves it.
I'm lucky the way that I found
that the only thing that lasts
is family.
You see Ross,
and you see a little bit of Kerry.
And you see Marshall,
and you see the athleticism of Kevin.
and you see that big body of Dave.
And then in both of them,
you see the Von Erich.
And so, hey, who knows.
Maybe the story will continue.
Kevin officially retired
on July the 17th, 2017.
Wrestling his last match
alongside his two sons in Israel,
where the Von Erich family name
is celebrated to this day.
You know, I've seen huge crowds.
I've been the guest of honor.
I've been, you know, a celebrity.
I've been what everybody thinks
they want. I've had all that.
And it's not satisfying
because that's all there is.
What is satisfying is dinner
with the family, children laughing.
Real joy, that's the truth.