WWE have just released the third of their "Rise and Fall" DVDs – documentaries which chart the success and ultimate failure of some of the great promotions in wrestling history. First was their tribute to ECW, then came a look back at the AWA and now they turn their attention to Texas and the remarkable story of Fritz Von Erich’s WCCW. These DVDs are always good – long gone are the days when WWE wouldn’t even acknowledge the existence of other companies. They’ve been buying up tape libraries left, right and centre and most of what still exists is now in their vaults. The last big library they acquired was the WCCW collection owned by Kevin Von Erich. Prior to the sale he took part in an independent documentary called "Heroes of World Class" and supplied footage for that from his archive. It gives us two angles on WCCW’s meteoric rise to fame, the mistakes that were made, the tragedies which occurred and the ultimate death of the territory.

There had been wrestling in Dallas for decades but it wasn’t until Fritz Von Erich decided to wind his career down in favour of his three sons – Kevin, David and Kerry – that the Dallas office became a world wide hit. The WWE DVD skirts round the innovations World Class’s TV producers came up with (using many more cameras than ever before, shooting the matches in a much more in-your-face style, introducing ring entrance music and making much better use of on screen graphics). If WWE documentaries have a weakness it is that Vince can never go quite far enough in giving other people credit for things. He can hint at World Class being technically superior to his own shows but will never say how much his own production was influenced by them. It is like WCW’s lengthy victory streak in the Monday Night ratings – he can admit they won but then has to qualify it by saying they stole his talent and his ideas and that they were just biding their time and so on. World Class was a revolution in televised wrestling and a comparison between 1982 WCCW and 1982 WWF (or even 1982 NWA to be fair) would’ve looked like night and day.

World Class was set on fire right at the end of 1982 when the Freebirds vs the Von Erichs feud began. Much has been written about the night Terry Gordy smashed the cage door into Kerry Von Erich’s head, costing him the NWA world title. It was one of those angles which drew money for years and is talked about a quarter of a century later. Seen for the first time today it doesn’t look like much – we see far more in just about ever cage match tossed out on TV at a moment’s notice – but it could’ve changed the business forever. World Class was red hot in 1983 – America couldn’t get enugh of the Von Erich brothers. Their TV was seen all over the country and Fritz had the chance to expand. Vince McMahon changed wrestling when he went national in 1984 on the back of Hulk Hogan. Jim Crockett tried to go national in 1987 but he was up against the proven juganaut and ended up bankrupt. It was Fritz Von Erich’s respect for the tradition of territorial wrestling which stopped him taking the show to the masses. If he’d done so, Vince would have to counter with Bob Backlund, Andre the Giant and Jimmy Snuka – none of whom had Hulk Hogan’s presence, staying power or charisma. It was always in Vince’s mind to go national but if he’d been panicked into doing so before he was ready, he could’ve blown his only chance.

I do believe that if Fritz had tried to go national in 1983 it would’ve been a failure. He simply didn’t have the vision that McMahon had. It might’ve removed Vince McMahon from the landscape but it wouldn’t have created an thousand year Von Erich dynasty. Fritz simply wasn’t interested in creating new stars. Once the Von Erich boys were established as the babyfaces and the Freebirds were over as the heels, World Class created exactly two new main event level stars during the rest of their boom period. Chris Adams – brought in as a friend of the Von Erichs who would ultimately betray them and Gino Hernandez – the cocky super-heel who everyone loved to hate and who could’ve been a Roddy Piper level heel up North had he not died in suspicious circumstances during his big run in World Class.

Death plays a huge role in this documentary as it has to. The World Class boom was never the same after David Von Erich died in Japan. Neither this nor the "Heroes" documentary really covers the conflicting theories as to why David died. They’re both a little too defensive for my liking – they are trying to win arguments without acknowledging there are arguments. On the one side you have the claim that Bruiser Brody was the first man on the scene and he flushed away significant quantities of drugs before calling the hotel doctor. Brody died in 1988 so he’s not around to tell his version of events but the story is widely known. Both documentaries stress that David was ill before going to Japan and that he died from ruptured intestines. The truth will never be known as the Japanese authorities didn’t do a proper autopsy and David was alone when he died.

David life was celebrated at the "David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions" at which Kerry Von Erich – stepping in for David who was originally scheduled for the match – wrestled NWA world champion, Ric Flair. The event drew the biggest crowd in wrestling history at that time and everyone there was genuinely upset by David’s death. Stories have emerged that the family were selling autographed photographs of David to the grieving masses which they knew were signed a few days earlier by people in the office. The show was undoubtedly a money maker first and a tribute second. Fritz was never slow to make money off of his sons, even after death. The stadium erupted when Kerry pinned Flair to win the world title. Some of the interviewees in the WWE documentary cast doubt on the reaction but that sounds more like hindsight than anything else. The forty thousand people in that building were overjoyed that Kerry was world champion. Their reaction wasn’t muted because they could see it for the token gesture that it actually was. Kerry lost the belt a few days later in Japan and no Von Erich would ever wear the NWA title again.

The problem with the surviving Von Erich boys is that they were drugged up superstars whose rock and roll lifestyle made them unsuited to life as a touring world champion. David had been chosen by the NWA board because he – unlike his brothers – was considered a safe pair of hands. And yet, despite this reputation (which was undoubtedly fair), none of what happened to World Class could be said to be caused by the Von Erich boys being unreliable. People didn’t stop buying tickets because the boys no-showed events. It is one of those curious twists of the story that the one thing everyone else was wary of was the one thing which didn’t actually happen. There are stories of Kerry literally falling asleep during a match with Ric Flair but at least he was there in body.

Rather than fill the void left by David by creating or importing a new star, Fritz rushed his son Mike into the ring. Mike wasn’t ready and didn’t seem to have the passion for the business that his older brothers had (and can you blame him when he could see up close what the business had done to them?) Mike was put over strong and many of the experienced heels in the territory resented being asked to bump all over the place for this kid who had never done anything in the business and genuinely was there purely because he was Fritz’s son. Kerry, Kevin and David could at least point to years of drawing in different parts of the country. Mike was just this kid shoved down everyone’s throats. The fans just about accepted it because they loved the Von Erichs but it was a wasted chance to elevate someone new and stop being quite so reliant on the family.

If choosing Mike to be the new headliner was bad judgement, what happened to Mike was devastatingly bad luck. He suffered a shoulder injury during a match and while in surgery contracted toxic shock syndrome. At the time they thought it was a miracle he survived but the fever damaged his brain and the footage of him after his "recovery" show a young man who doesn’t really know where he is or what he’s doing. Putting him back in the ring was a heinous action by Fritz and the fans were genuinely appalled. Mike Von Erich was ill and should’ve been looked after. Instead he was put back in front of the cameras to smile and mumble because it would make Fritz a few dollars more having another Von Erich on the show.

Mike cracked a few months later and took his own life.

World Class was falling apart in 1987 with top talent leaving for Bill Watts’ Mid South Wrestling (another company with designs on going national after Vince and which folded shortly after). The argument is that Fritz chose to only push his sons because they would never leave him but talent coming and going was part of the business. Whether talent would come (and how long they’d stay) was determined by the territory’s reputation and World Class had a bad reputation. Things got worse when Kerry had a motorbike crash and shattered his ankle. He was out of the ring for 18 months and that left only two Von Erichs.

Two? Well, there was Kevin and Lance. In one of the most staggeringly foolish pieces of work in the business’s long and foolish history, Fritz chose to create a new Von Erich rather than simply bring in another babyface and have him team with Kevin. Kevin Vaughn was a local jock who was trying to break into wrestling. Repackaged as Lance Von Erich – son of Waldo Von Erich, Fritz’s tag partner in the 1960s – he was pushed down everyone’s throats as another member of the family. No one bought it, the fans were appalled that Fritz would see his real sons so easily replaced by plastic ones and Vaughn quickly jumped ship for a rival group. Fritz went on TV and denounced Vaughn as a fake Von Erich in an attempt to ruin the guy’s marketability. Instead, he just made himself look like a liar and a conman. Which, being a wrestling promoter, he was. But most don’t admit it so vehemently.

Worse was to follow – Kerry came back from his injury too soon, re-broke his ankle and had his foot amputated. He wrestled for the rest of his life with an artificial foot. When he came back it was to a company with no fire, no life, no crowds. They were scraping by but for those who remembered the glory days it was sad to see. World Class entered a partnership with Jerry Jarrett’s Memphis promotion and Verne Gagne’s AWA and promoted a pay-per-view which featured Kerry as WCCW champion (they left the NWA in 1986 and created their own world title so the Von Erich boys could be champions – the fans didn’t buy it for a second) against Jerry Lawler as AWA champion. Lawler won a controversial victory and the stage was set for a series of rematches but the partnership fell apart when the event bombed and everyone got stiffed on their money. Von Erich would eventually leave what was left of World Class and have a reasonably successful – if brief – run in the WWF. He died of a self inflicted gun shot wound in 1993.

Kevin Von Erich’s oft-quoted remark is that he started out as one of six brothers. Now he isn’t even a brother. It is impossible to tell either the story of the Von Erichs without World Class or the story of World Class without the Von Erichs. The two are tied together in this life and death story. It is a tale of young men who got too much too soon and paid the price. It is a tale of a promoter who appeared to care more for money than family. It is a tale of an audience whose love and devotion was worn away by their heroes dying and those who remained being so cold about it. Death was something which could be marketed and those who died could be replaced by something almost as good.

As DVDs go it is pretty good. It helps to see both films to get a more rounded perspective (even though there are a lot of people who appear in both) but ultimately WWE and the makers of "Heroes" are happy to conclude with Kevin Von Erich’s version of history – Fritz was a good man who didn’t make his sons do anything they didn’t want to do. World Class died because of bad luck and nothing more. Fortunately, watching the documentaries shows you that it was terribly bad luck and terribly bad judgement which killed World Class. Fritz may well have been a good man but he did some bad things and "The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class" doesn’t shy away from showing them. It just ultimately gives Kevin the last world and the chance to spin his father out of trouble.

This DVD is highly recommended – along with the ECW and AWA documentaries – and hopefully there will be more of these retrospectives. Memphis is an obvious candidate (if they can get the footage), Jim Crocket Promotions would be fascinating and, if WWE could be trusted, the rise and fall of WCW has to be worth three discs of anyone’s time.