The belt was contested by megastars like Rick Rude and Jerry Lawler during the sport’s cultural heyday and its lineage maps the tragic history of its founding family
February 20, 2025 15:23
To professional wrestling fans of a certain age, there are names which carry the weight of royalty – Flair, Rhodes, Hart and Steamboat.
But perhaps the name that provokes the most reverance, and stirs the most grief, among the ‘wrasslin’ community is Von Erich, and name with an unlikely link to Tel Aviv’s Dizengoff shopping centre.
One of the greatest dynasties in the sport, the Von Erich clan dominated National Wrestling Alliance’s (NWA) Texas territory across three decades and two generations. The family was featured in a 2023 movie The Iron Claw.
Helmed by its imposing patriarch Fritz Von Erich (real name Jack Adkisson), five of the six Von Erich boys – Kevin, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris – all grew up to be professional wrestlers for Dallas’ World Class Championship Wrestling, known as WCCW.
This was the era when American wrestling was governed similarly to the nation itself, as a collection of regional territories united under the NWA’s federalising influence before the expansion of the now dominant WWE (originally the New York territory).
In Texas, wrestling was synonymous with WCCW for much of the 1970s and ‘80s and its top prize was the WCCW Heavyweight Championship.
The Von Erich family is one of pro wrestling's most celebrated dynasties. (L-R) Mike, Kevin, David and Kerry Von Erich (Image: Reddit)[Missing Credit]
The title was originally created by NWA Big Time Wrestling in 1968, the promotion taken over by Fritz the following year before it was renamed under the WCCW banner in 1982. When WCCW withdrew from the NWA four years later, it was cemented as the territory’s main belt.
Having been held a record 20 times by Fritz, the championship was hotly contested between his sons and a procession of wrestling legends like ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler and New Japan Pro Wrestling icon Tatsumi Fujinami.
The Von Erichs also had a unique, and somewhat bizarre, connection to Israel, becoming cult heroes in both the Lone Star and Jewish states, despite the fact that their name came from Fritz’s Nazi-inspired ring persona of a German villain (or “heel” in wrestling terminology).
WCCW was broadcast on Middle East Television throught the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and was a staple of Saturday night viewing for Israeli families, rising to become the most popular English-language programme in the country.
Indeed, Mike and Kevin wrestled in Israel as part of a major regional tour, which saw the creation of the short-lived WCCW Middle Eastern Championship, with Mike as the inaugural and only champion.
Above: Kevin Von Erich (in blue) in action for WCCW
The Von Erichs were so enamored with Israel that the original version of the heavyweight title was donated to the Dizengoff Center, a popular shopping mall in Tel Aviv.
Displayed in a glass case and meticulously maintained, it is accompanied by a caption reading: “The original WCCW wrestling championship belt, held by legendary wrestlers Kerry and Kevin Von Erich, was given to the Dizengoff Center for safekeeping with love from the family.”
Yet the heavyweight belt also served as a recurring milestone in the tragic story of its founding family, which formed the basis of the recent biopic The Iron Claw.
The original WCCW title is now on display in the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv (Image: Reddit)[Missing Credit]
The couple’s firstborn, Jack Jr, died in a freak accident during a family holiday in 1959. Aged just six, he stepped on a trailer coupling and the resulting electric shock caused him to pass out in a puddle of melting snow, in which he drowned.
Golden child David, who Fritz moulded as WCCW’s top star, passed away from an undiagnosed rupture of his intenstine while on a tour of Japan in 1984 , a month after the NWA Committee reportedly voted to crown him as its world champion later that year.
He was followed by Mike, who took a deliberate overdose of painkillers a year after suffering brain damage as a result of a severe infection contracted in the wake of a shoulder injury suffered during the tour of Israel. Chris then also took his own life at the family’s farm after a long struggle with drug addiction in 1991.
The Von Erich's tragic story formed the basis of the recent biopic, titled The Iron Claw (Image: Getty)Getty Images
Two years later, Kerry, the only Von Erich ever to hold the NWA World Championship and a former WWE Intercontinetal Champion, hugged his father, walked into the woods outside the Von Erich ranch and shot himself in the heart.
Kerry had been involved in a motorcycle accident in 1986 that saw his foot amputated and left him addicted to painkillers. He was facing a potential custodial sentence on drugs charges at the time of his death.
Only Kevin, the second of the Von Erich sons, outlived his father and survived past the age of 35, retiring from wrestling in 1995 and now operating a family investment business with his wife, as well as owning the rights to the WCCW name and archive.
Both his sons, Marshall and Ross, are professional wrestlers.