The Last of the Von Erichs

I only knew of Kerry Von Erich, the Texas Tornado when he fought in the then WWF and became the Intercontinental Champion. At that time he was talked about a potential challenger to The Ultimate Warrior.

Although the public did not know at the time that Kerry had a prosthetic foot after a motorcycle accident. His fame was short lived in the WWF and by 1993 he had committed suicide.

Kerry was one of six sons of famous Texan wrestler Fritz Von Erich who had his own successful wrestling franchise in Texas. Five of his children predeceased him and three died by suicide.

This documentary features Kevin Von Erich is the last surviving son. He too was a wrestler although at 62 years of age he looks fragile. In his own words he tells how he had five brothers and now he is not even a brother.

The Von Erich's were a famous wrestling family and famous in Texas. They had pioneered a lot of glamour and pzazz with their wrestling promotions. However their tragedy if often presented a cautionary tale on the dark side of wrestling.

I have no doubt that steroid use did not help as well as Fritz pusing some of his sons into wrestling when they were not suited to it. It was all to protect the franchise and keep it as a family business.

David Von Erich died in a Tokyo hotel from enteritis in 1984 where he went to wrestle. This meant there was pressure on the other sons to step into his shoes. Mike Von Erich suffered a shoulder injury while wrestling in Israel. After the surgery on the shoulder he suffered from Toxic shock syndrome and his organs began to fail. He made a miraculous recovery but his wrestling days were over. He committed suicide in 1987. Chris Von Erich did not even have the build of a wrestler being only 5 ft 4 inches. He committed suicide in 1991 after failing in the wrestling business.

Fritz Von Erich died of cancer in 1997, by which time his wife had divorced him, blaming him for the tragedy that befell their children.

The documentary was breezy and slight. I expected more depth and analysis although Jim Cornette was a good spiky contributor. As for Kevin, he now lives in Hawaii where he has found some peace. It was sad at times to see him struggling to speak about his family.

This episode of "Dark Side of the Ring" called "The Last of the Von Erichs" is one emotional and touching one really sad as it tells the tragic family story of one wrestling family dynasty. Told by the surviving brother Kevin he tells of his memories early of his brother who all past from David, Chris, and yes sadly even the most popular Kerry highlighted is the early start thru the classic Texas "World Class" years. And wrestling historians and ex managers like Jim Cornette give their takes as he compared the family to the Kennedy's yet believed a curse rained across all involved. Overall good in depth episode that looks at the legendary family who had tragedy after tragedy.

This story goes from Kerry winning the NWA belt to Lance(a 3 year gap) and then they never talk about Lance. More Vice garbage.

By far the most touching, gut wrenching episode of them all. Seeing Kevin, the last of the Von Erich brothers, talking about his family's tragedy, getting emotional about it once again, was so very moving.

This episode would have definitely benefited from being spread over 4 if not 5 episodes. Now it feels very rushed. They barely touched on the family's first tragedy, the death of the oldest brother Jack in 1959.

Much respect to Kevin Adkisson. After all the tragedies he's gone through, he's still standing and found happiness...