thee Reverend Axl Future 1,899 Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 The Frankenstein's Monster-inspired mocking of The Giant always made me laugh, and was the last thing Scott Hall did that I enjoyed. It was enough. Kerry Von Erich not debilitated by his vices is a great big "what if", but if you can imagine that, and that he could have a love for the biz and an elation to be out from his pappy's control, I think I could see him becoming even better (when he in reality he cruised on Fritz's booking mandates and was a natural but coasted) and was charismatic and handsome enough to get a WWF push to the top. I only saw bits and pieces of DavidVE's work at the time, but I can agree with the consensus (Meltzer, fellow workers) that he was the pick of the litter. He was over in Japan and the lockerroom, and pushed wherever he worked (TX (duh), Central States, Florida, St. Louis). His big advantage was that he could work heel and babyface equally well, and he was a large man with endurance. His career was only 7-8 years! - just say "No, thanks, maybe later", RAF 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Infinit 3,166 Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 RE: Lance Von Erich Wasn't he actually a pretty big high school football player from the Dallas area, which would've made making his a Von Erich an even worse idea? Link to post Share on other sites
zendragon 392 Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 Did George South ever get a sustained push or a big run somewhere? If not why it seems like everyone talks great about him Link to post Share on other sites
Hustler of Culture 70 Posted November 27, 2020 Share Posted November 27, 2020 9 hours ago, Infinit said: RE: Lance Von Erich Wasn't he actually a pretty big high school football player from the Dallas area, which would've made making his a Von Erich an even worse idea? Yes he was. That's why the word was well out by then and Fritz couldn't hide it any longer. HoC Link to post Share on other sites
Happ Hazzard 515 Posted December 2, 2020 Share Posted December 2, 2020 Were Fritz's real kids "Von Erichs" in high school? Link to post Share on other sites
Hustler of Culture 70 Posted December 2, 2020 Share Posted December 2, 2020 1 hour ago, Happ Hazzard said: Were Fritz's real kids "Von Erichs" in high school? No, they went by their actual surname Adkisson. I remember seeing newspaper clippings of Kerry using his real last name in discus competitions when he was in high school. HoC Link to post Share on other sites
clintthecrippler 1,901 Posted December 2, 2020 Share Posted December 2, 2020 Now that I think of it, I dont think I have ever been clear on how exactly Fritz Von Erich transitioned from "evil German Nazi heel" to "beloved son of Texas that loves Jesus Christ, Texas, and his kids." Does anyone know the Cliff's Notes on that? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Happ Hazzard 515 Posted December 2, 2020 Share Posted December 2, 2020 48 minutes ago, clintthecrippler said: Now that I think of it, I dont think I have ever been clear on how exactly Fritz Von Erich transitioned from "evil German Nazi heel" to "beloved son of Texas that loves Jesus Christ, Texas, and his kids." Does anyone know the Cliff's Notes on that? It's one of those weird semi-kayfabed things where people accepted that Fritz being German was just a gimmick and that he had really grown up in Texas and was called Jack Adkisson. But wrestling was still real and his kids were still Von Erichs. They could have easily justify Lance being called Ricky Vaughan in high school if they could justify Fritz being a former Nazi and his kids being Adkissons in high school. I know some wrestlers kids went by their father worked surname in school. I've seen some kind of picture of Mike Graham, maybe in his HS football team, with him being captioned as Mike Graham rather than Mike Gossett. IIRC Jamie Dundee has mentioned that he went to school under that name instead of Jamie Cruikshanks. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Hustler of Culture 70 Posted December 2, 2020 Share Posted December 2, 2020 9 hours ago, clintthecrippler said: Now that I think of it, I dont think I have ever been clear on how exactly Fritz Von Erich transitioned from "evil German Nazi heel" to "beloved son of Texas that loves Jesus Christ, Texas, and his kids." Does anyone know the Cliff's Notes on that? Fritz was known to a degree because he was a great discus thrower and football player at TCU (IIRC). I wondered about this as well for a long time and I was finally told that the family would just say that Von Erich was their 'stage name.' As far as transitioning from Fritz being the Nazi to Fritz being the ultimate Texas dad babyface, it was not uncommon for stuff like that to happen. Baron Von Raschke got over as a babyface after a while. But in the end I think it was people knew that Fritz was born and raised in Texas and some knew his real name and others did not and it never became a big deal. The thing about Texas wrestling fans back then is that a higher % of them believed pro wrestling was real and would take great offense to anybody saying otherwise. They believed in the Von Erichs as being what this upstanding model Texas family and when Fritz worked them with Lance Von Erich that was such a slap in the face it ruined Fritz's credibility. I'm guessing Fritz couldn't quite understand that and thought it's pro wrestling and you work the fans in pro wrestling. And I would bet he couldn't imagine the uproar and disgust that came from it. HoC 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
BloodyChamp 180 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Another thing that sounds dumb but is totally legit - it took 1 perfectly timed move to go from most hated to most loved dude in wrestling lol! Same for the other way around. And as for anybody who came along after the fact, like me during Ric Flair’s face run in 1989, well the bad stuff you heard about him just flat out never happened. Dammat. Lol! Link to post Share on other sites
Shane 328 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Anyone know offhand how long the black and white nWo Saturday Night segments ran? I assume they were done by the end of '96? Watched a random WCWSN from October '96 and had mostly forgotten that they even did these segments. This era of Saturday Night was really fun in general. Dusty and Schiavone on commentary and some weird matches that are sorta "dream matches" if you love the B and C-level shows (the show I watched had the Faces of Fear vs. Bunkhouse Buck and Mike Enos, for instance). 1 Link to post Share on other sites
J.H. 1,832 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Fritz also dropped the Nazi gimmick so he could ne considered as an NWA World title holder but Thesz didn't really like Fritz that much and ixnayed any attempt to get the belt on Fritz. James 1 Link to post Share on other sites
The Great ML 1,491 Posted December 3, 2020 Share Posted December 3, 2020 Spot on, but it was SMU he attended. Link to post Share on other sites
BobbyWhioux 3,594 Posted December 4, 2020 Share Posted December 4, 2020 On 11/25/2020 at 9:11 PM, thee Reverend Axl Future said: The Frankenstein's Monster-inspired mocking of The Giant always made me laugh, and was the last thing Scott Hall did that I enjoyed. It was enough. (for something that he did so frequently for so long, it's surprisingly difficult to find a good gif of it) 3 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Brian Fowler 15,428 Posted December 4, 2020 Share Posted December 4, 2020 I feel like they could've hand waved the whole Lance thing so easily. Just say something about him being really close friends with whichever brother he was closest to age with, and he's "been like family to us" so you let him use the name. Something like that. I mean, pretty much everyone I know has someone they aren't at all related to that is "family" 2 Link to post Share on other sites
BloodyChamp 180 Posted December 5, 2020 Share Posted December 5, 2020 On 12/3/2020 at 1:01 PM, Shane said: Anyone know offhand how long the black and white nWo Saturday Night segments ran? I assume they were done by the end of '96? Watched a random WCWSN from October '96 and had mostly forgotten that they even did these segments. This era of Saturday Night was really fun in general. Dusty and Schiavone on commentary and some weird matches that are sorta "dream matches" if you love the B and C-level shows (the show I watched had the Faces of Fear vs. Bunkhouse Buck and Mike Enos, for instance). The end of 1996 sounds right. WCWSN the B Show in 1996 doesn’t. Maybe you caught one that wasn’t stellar which happened a time or 2 but WCWSN was important until late 1997 I think. Link to post Share on other sites
BobbyWhioux 3,594 Posted December 6, 2020 Share Posted December 6, 2020 On 12/4/2020 at 2:03 AM, Brian Fowler said: I feel like they could've hand waved the whole Lance thing so easily. Just say something about him being really close friends with whichever brother he was closest to age with, and he's "been like family to us" so you let him use the name. Something like that. I mean, pretty much everyone I know has someone they aren't at all related to that is "family" wouldn't people love to believe their hero Fritz is the kind of stand up would do a heroic thing like adopt a dead friend's orphaned kid, or just took in a hardworking kid from a broken home who wanted to turn his life around. Like you said, there's dozens of ways to say "okay well technically he's not a blood relative but he's like family to us." Or, hey, just invoke the Samoan rule. "Our cousins are whoever the fuck we say are our cousins, wanna make something of it? Didn't think so." 4 Link to post Share on other sites
BloodyChamp 180 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 What were the promos that mentioned steroids? I know of Michael PS Hayes calling Kerry Von Erich a steroid freak in WCCW and I read somewhere else that Dusty told the Road Warriors there were no steroids in his body, in response to them calling him fat lol! I ask this having just seen Terry Bradshaw say steroids on the NFL pregame 12-3-21, and it wasn’t a report on the substance abuse policy lol! Did anybody else see that??? Link to post Share on other sites
odessasteps 14,159 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Phil Hickerson and the Freedom Fighters (blade runners) Link to post Share on other sites
Log 1,587 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 2 hours ago, BloodyChamp said: What were the promos that mentioned steroids? I know of Michael PS Hayes calling Kerry Von Erich a steroid freak in WCCW and I read somewhere else that Dusty told the Road Warriors there were no steroids in his body, in response to them calling him fat lol! I ask this having just seen Terry Bradshaw say steroids on the NFL pregame 12-3-21, and it wasn’t a report on the substance abuse policy lol! Did anybody else see that??? I did see that! Hell, he even said Howie Long and Strahan used them. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
odessasteps 14,159 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 There's also a Watts one I believe. Not sure its on youtube or not. Link to post Share on other sites
Shane 328 Posted January 3 Share Posted January 3 Larry Nelson trying to do journalism here is funny. Col. DeBeers certainly doesn't mince words on his feelings about Scott Hall and the juice... Link to post Share on other sites
BloodyChamp 180 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 7 hours ago, Log said: I did see that! Hell, he even said Howie Long and Strahan used them. ROFL was that funny or what? And Curt Menefee was like wtf??? Link to post Share on other sites
Log 1,587 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 1 minute ago, BloodyChamp said: ROFL was that funny or what? And Curt Menefee was like wtf??? And I forgot that Howie said something back basically accusing the Steelers that Bradshaw played with of being on the juice. I mean, I think it was pretty common back then, but damn. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
BloodyChamp 180 Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 3 hours ago, Shane said: Larry Nelson trying to do journalism here is funny. Col. DeBeers certainly doesn't mince words on his feelings about Scott Hall and the juice... Holy Lord ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Larry Nelson said in depth like in depth so we would know it was going to be in depth. Then Colonel didn’t just refer to steroids, or make a joke about steroids, but he...in depth...discussed steroids. Anabolic STEROIDS! ROFL! Then Nelson did, then Scott Hall did, and by the time Colonel said “steroids can increase the size of your biceps but not your...”, I thought he was going to say the 1 thing they hadn’t said yet lol! They put in in the cattle feed! I can’t believe I’ve never seen this. This makes 2 very infamous promos Scott Hall was involved in in the AWA? Didn’t he said “you G&$ D%#* son of a b•¥*^%” another time? Link to post Share on other sites
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