The first feature-length documentary on the rise and fall of World Class and the Von Erichs. A must for all WCCW fans!

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Product Description

In 1983 World Class Championship Wrestling and its franchise stars, the Von Erich brothers, were known around the world. A small Dallas based promotion running out of a shack of a venue, the Sportatorium, World Class was one of the most syndicated television programs in America, making the Von Erichs household names. Run by legendary wrestler Fritz Von Erich, a.k.a. Jack Adkinsson, World Class made his oldest sons, Kevin, David and Kerry, three of hte biggest stars in the world of wrestling. Little did anyone know that just as the Von Erichs and World Class were reaching worldwide stardom they would begin a downfall that would cast a full eclipse on their meteoric rise to fame. Directed by Brian Harrison who, as a ten year old in 1983, watched on television as wrestling's world of staged combat between good and evil took a sharp turn into a surreal and tragic reality. Harrison heads to Texas to find his childhood hero, Kevin Adkisson, a.k.a. Kevin Von Erich, the oldest and sole surviving Von Erich brother. Harrison pays tribute to the prime years of this legendary era and its fallen stars.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69400 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2006-12-26
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Director's Cut, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 180 minutes

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Customer Reviews

A great movie about one of the most pioneering promotions in professional wrestling.
I had only previously heard about World Class Championship Wrestling through reading about it on internet websites. One of the things that always struck me what what happened to the Von Erich (a.k.a. Adkisson) family and the tragedy that befell them during the years when WCCW was going through its downward spiral. What director Brian Harrison has done is nothing less than a triumph.

The movie takes a look at World Class' humble beginnings as a territory for the National Wrestling Alliance called Southwest Sports. It then advances to its heyday in the early 80s, when it got so enormously popular that it even started to outdraw Saturday Night Live in Dallas. It also became very popular in Israel, where the Von Erichs and announcer Bill Mercer were the four most popular entertainment personalities in the country (although in the movie, Mercer admits sarcastically that he didn't like being number four). According to the Wrestling Observer newsletter, their ratings were so good, they even outdrew the WWF (now WWE) in Boston (which is traditionally a WWF stronghold).

Many personalities were interviewed in the movie. From manager/booker "Playboy" Gary Hart, to the wrestlers who were a part of the promotion, like Chris Adams and Skandor Akbar. Highlights including the famous Von Erichs - Freebirds feud that lit the Dallas territory on fire during 1982 to 1984. Included in the footage of the famous moment where Terry Gordy slammed the cage door in the face of Kerry Von Erich on Christmas day 1982, which practically started the feud. Also interesting is ther perspective of Mickey Grant, the producer of the WCCW TV show, in that he came up with many revolutionary ways (at the time) to film the action for television.

Of course, this story takes the sad turn. Many of the deaths from World Class, including those of the Von Erichs are highlighted. This leads to the belief that there might be a "curse" over the workers of the promotion.

What really makes this DVD great is Kevin Adkisson (Kevin Von Erich). The movie really is worth buying to see what Kevin's persepctive was when he was seeing his brothers and his father die. Kevin doesn't pull any punches and it is worth the price to see the footage where he goes back to the Dallas Sportatorium before it was torn down.

Now the WWE is going to have their own documentary on the promotion now that the tape library of WCCW has been sold to them. So their documentary will have the political spin. Apparently, the documentary that the WWE will produce will make the Freebirds responsible for the great run in the early 80s when it was more than that. So the reason that people should get this video is that they should a more balanced view of what made this promotion so great, only to have it go down in a blaze of glory.

The only gripe I have about the set is that it doesn't have any matches. It shouldn't deter anyone from buying a great movie about a great wrestling promotion.

Heroes Delivers in spades!
I just watched this last night. The main documentary is about 2 1/2 hours long but worth every minute to watch! It really explores the glory and downfall of WCCW without all the political influence of the WWE release (which was good despite that). While the production values are low budget and the tone of the video is darker than the WWE version, it still comes off quite well in telling the story of WCCW.

Who I was most impressed with was Kevin Von Erich himself. This man has had the proverbial "scars of time" roasted onto him yet he manages to see the positive in nearly everything. Through all that tragedy and the loss of his brothers and father, he manages to stay sane! I found him to be a very inspirational man. Definitely pay close attention to how he deals with all of what he's been through because if he can go through that and still stay strong, none of us have any excuse since most of us have never had to deal with that kind of tragedy.

I also liked the interviews with former ring announcer Mark Lawrence, III (who is now a minister), Gary Hart, ring commentator Bill Mercer and others that I remember from that era but can't think of their names at the moment. They provided great insight into the rise and fall of World Class as well as their views on the Von Erich family.

My disc came with two DVD's. On Disc 1, it has the main documentary plus nearly 30 minutes of deleted scenes from the film. One of the "deleted scenes" was a match between the late David Von Erich and the late "Freebird" Terry Gordy! The match was only about 2 minutes but it was wild and it does give you a glimpse into the talent of David and why he was being touted as the next NWA World Champion before his untimely death in 1984. Counting this added footage, there is really about 3 hours of footage on Disc 1 alone!

Disc 2 is interviews with various people about World Class Championship Wrestling. The main ones of interest are Jim Cornette and Bill Mercer but all the interviews total up 4 hours so you are really getting about 7 hours of footage with this set!

There are some things that are done better on this one than on WWE's "Triumph And Tragedy Of World Class Championship Wrestling." The deaths of Bruiser Brody, Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams are covered better here than they were on the WWE release (in fact, neither Brody's nor Adams' deaths are even brought up on their documentary). The Fabulous Freebirds, while given due credit for their part in WCCW's success, aren't as praised on here as in the WWE release (though they certainly weren't slammed in any case). Plus, the death of Fritz Von Erich is discussed in detail here too.

To give credit where its due, the WWE's version discusses the end of World Class in more detail than this release does (though "Heroes" does mention it as well as their union with the AWA).

Overall, I can't say enough good things about this documentary. My personal recommendation is to get both "Heroes Of World Class" & WWE's "The Triumph And Tragedy Of World Class Championship Wrestling" because what one of them lacks, the other fills the gaps. My fancy way of saying that between the two videos, you will have a near complete look at one of the best NWA territories and organizations ever in the 1980's! See it!

Great DVD
As a fan of 1980's wrestling this DVD provides an entertaining and remarkable look at World Class Championship Wrestling. I remember WCCW only from watching it on ESPN and reading about it Pro Wrestling Illustrated, but to see the innovations that this territory brought to the wrestling landscape are incredible to say the least. Like most wrestling documentaries tragedy seems to overshadow the good feelings you get from the dvd. The whole Von Erich story is incredible to see an entire family to end in tragedy except for one surving member. The second dvd in the set is great for the audio from wrestling experts and hearing stars such as Jim Cornette describe their time in World Class Championship Wrestling.