The Iron Claw Review Part II
Sean Durkin's 2023 biopic chronicling the tragic story of the Von Erich wrestling family makes a glaring omission which prevents the film from being a true classic
Please click here if you haven’t read Part 1
The Iron Claw (2023) really starts changing its portrayal of history to suit the film’s running time and to enhance the drama after David Von Erich’s death and Kerry Von Erich’s world title victory. Kerry Von Erich did not get into the motorcycle accident costing him his foot the night he won the world championship as dramatized in the film. That accident happened two years later. In reality, Kerry lost the N.W.A. World Heavyweight Championship to Ric Flair on May 24, 1984, in Japan. He had only been the champion for 18 days. The N.W.A. had no intentions of giving Kerry a long reign. He was simply too unreliable because of his drug and alcohol abuse. They gave him the title because after David’s death, a Von Erich had to win the title, even if for a short time, or it would alienate the Dallas wrestling fans. The N.W.A. also gave Kerry the belt out of respect for Fritz Von Erich, who had been a loyal member for years.
On June 4, 1986, Kerry crashed his motorcycle into the back of a police car while trying to pass a truck on a two-lane road. Kerry’s right foot was crushed, and his hip was dislocated in the crash. According to Kevin Von Erich, Kerry wasn’t wearing shoes, a helmet or a shirt, and only had on a pair of gym shorts. On television, it was claimed he only had a broken ankle, but in reality, Kerry’s foot was in far worse shape, and it took 13 hours of surgery to save it.
Kerry came back from his injury too early, according to his friend Brian Adias whom Kerry wrestled in his first match upon his return. Adias recalled hearing something in Kerry’s foot pop during their short bout. Once the painkiller Kerry was injected with wore off, it was discovered he had reinjured his foot and doctors were forced to amputate it.
Kerry was fitted with a prosthetic after his foot was amputated. Amazingly, he was able to continue his wrestling career, but he was never the same performer. Fritz and Kerry insisted the amputation be kept a secret and Kerry went to extreme lengths to keep it hidden. He would already have his boots on when he entered the locker room and even showered while wearing his boots after his match.
Jeremy Allen White does a wonderful job of showing how Kerry’s self-image was devastated after his motorcycle accident. In an interview years later, Kevin Von Erich would say Kerry felt like half a man after his injury. Kerry Von Erich was everything the ideal man was supposed to be. He was The Modern Day Warrior. He was strong, athletic, good looking, wealthy, and famous. Legend has it Arnold Schwarzenegger refused to be photographed shirtless next to Kerry as he didn’t want to be in a picture with someone almost as big and muscular as him. To become an amputee was something Kerry couldn’t reconcile with the invincible image he had built for himself in the ring. His drug and alcohol addictions continued to grow worse as it was the only way he knew how to cope with his depression.
The Iron Claw portrays MikeVon Erich as making his wrestling debut shortly after David’s death. In reality, his first match happened a few months before David died. What is painfully accurate is Mike found David’s shoes too big to fill. Mike took steroids to try and become as big as his brothers, but he never weighed more than 200 pounds during his career. The constant comparisons to David only made his anxiety worse. Mike was uncoordinated in the ring and was an even worse interview than Kevin and Kerry were. Stanley Simons does a great job of showing through Mike’s petrified body language, that he doesn’t want to be a wrestler despite never verbalizing it. According to many of his friends and Kevin himself, Mike never wanted to be a wrestler. Kevin went as far as to say Mike never should have been in the ring to begin with and was better off playing his guitar.
On August 22, 1985, Mike had surgery to repair his shoulder which he dislocated during a match in Israel, where World Class’s television show was popular. In The Iron Claw, this event happened in Dallas, which I’m guessing was to preserve the film’s budget. After Mike’s surgery, he contracted Toxic Shock Syndrome, an incredibly rare condition in men. Mike fell into a coma and his fever rose to 107 degrees. He was put on dialysis when his kidneys shut down and his other organs were damaged as well. Mike was put on a respirator and his weight dropped to a mere 140 pounds. Doctors told the Von Erichs to say their goodbyes. Somehow, Mike Von Erich cheated death and began to recover over the course of the next few days, which the Von Erichs called a miracle. However, when Mike came out of his coma and was removed from the respirator it quickly became clear just how badly his illness ravaged him.
Any other father would have been happy his son was alive, but Fritz Von Erich wanted Mike back in the ring. A press conference, which is recreated in The Iron Claw, was called where Mike, looking like he was lost, vowed to return to wrestling while slurring his words and stuttering. Upon his return, it was clear something was still very wrong with Mike. He was always an awful interviewer, but now Mike was slurring and stuttering so much his speech was borderline incomprehensible. When he began wrestling again in July 1986, Mike was an even worse wrestler than he was before his illness. What little coordination he had was completely gone. The Iron Claw shows Mike’s depression, but what it doesn’t show is the mental breakdown he went through in the two years after his illness. Public meltdowns became common for Mike during this period. He was arrested for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct numerous times. During an interview for a TV special about the Von Erichs, Mike was interviewed at a gym where he was working out to get back into shape following his illness, but he was incoherent, and the footage wasn’t used. After filming was finished, Mike joined his brother, Chris, who was also participating in the special and they boasted about engaging in a threesome with a young groupie, much to the disgust of everyone in the gym. Kevin came to believe Mike’s illness damaged his brain after witnessing Mike attack a traffic light and a parked car in a fit of anger. These were cries for help that went unheeded. The Von Erichs always had a happy ending in their wrestling world because they manipulated it. They were finding out real life was much harder to control.
What made Mike Von Erich’s condition so cruel is that he was cognizant of his physical and mental disabilities. His outbursts of rage were manifestations of this helplessness. On Saturday, April 11, 1987, he was arrested for drunk driving and possessing a controlled substance. Mike was bailed out by the Von Erich Family lawyer later that night and disappeared. On April 12, Mike Von Erich wrote a suicide note which read "PLEASE UNDERSTAND I'M A FUCK-UP! I'M SORRY." On the other side of the page Mike wrote "I love U Kerry, Kevin & your families." The note wasn’t discovered until early the next week. On Wednesday, Mike’s car was found at the entrance of a park at Lewisville Lake. Inside of the car there was another suicide note which read "Mom and Dad, I'm in a better place. I'll be watching." The Von Erich family and their friends gathered at Lewisville Lake to hold a vigil while the police searched the area for Mike. A few hours later they found his body wrapped in a sleeping bag under some brush as if he didn’t want to be found. Mike Von Erich’s death was ruled a suicide. He was 23 years old. Mike’s autopsy revealed he overdosed on Placidyl, the same drug which was alleged to have played a role in David’s death three years earlier. In an interview shortly after Mike’s death, Kevin revealed a friend of the family, who was a doctor, prescribed Mike Placidyl right before he went missing. Placidyl was found with Mike’s first suicide note with instructions for Chris to take them when he was ready to join him and David.
The Iron Claw portrays what motivated Mike to take his own life better than any article or documentary about the Von Erichs ever has or will. The brain damage he sustained robbed him of the motor skills necessary to play his guitar, the only thing that gave him joy. Was Mike Von Erich going to be the next Eddie Van Halen? No, but playing guitar gave him solace. Solace from his father. What The Iron Claw doesn’t show was that Fritz didn’t join the vigil or any of the search parties looking for his son. Instead, Fritz attended a Christian revival in Denton, Texas.
Dallas wrestling fans had a reputation for being the most slavishly loyal fans in all of pro wrestling, but Mike Von Erich’s suicide opened their eyes and they were mortified by what they were witnessing. The fans might not have believed all of wrestling was real, but they believed the Von Erichs were good upstanding Christians. Once that fantasy was ruined, they would never come back. The media also began questioning Fritz’s parenting after Mike’s death. When asked in an interview if he was too harsh with his sons, Fritz answered, “Absolutely hell no. One time Kerry yelled at me that he shouldn’t get a beating, so I tore his butt off even harder.”
Fritz insisted that the show go on despite the rapidly dwindling crowds. The David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions went ahead as scheduled on May 3, 1987, and was renamed the David and Mike Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions. Only 5,900 people showed up. As a poem was read in Mike’s memory, workers in the background set up a mud pit for the scheduled women’s mud wrestling match. World Class was over, but nobody working for the promotion was willing to acknowledge it.
In a last-ditch effort to save the promotion, World Class matchmaker Gary Hart pleaded with Fritz to be honest with the fans for once and stop hiding Kerry’s amputation. Hart believed if Kerry turned his life around after coming forward with his condition, he would become a role model for people with disabilities and their families and the fans would return to rally around Kerry and World Class. Fritz refused to consider this and said the fans would think Kerry was weak if he revealed his disability.
Fritz retired from promoting and World Class eventually merged with the Championship Wrestling Association based out of Memphis, Tennessee which was owned by Jerry Jarrett to become the United States Wrestling Association (USWA) in 1988. However, The Iron Claw didn’t portray how disastrous this merger was. Kevin and Kerry couldn’t coexist with Jarrett and later sued him for failing to pay them. Jarrett countered, alleging that he did not pay the brothers because they frequently missed shows and when they did show up, they were often in no condition to perform. The lawsuit was dropped, and Kevin and Kerry divested themselves from the USWA. Jarrett stopped holding shows in Dallas and chose to focus the USWA’s efforts on shows solely in the Memphis area. Just like that, pro wrestling in Dallas, home to the hottest promotion in all of wrestling just seven years before, was dead.
In desperate need of money, Kerry Von Erich signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation, in 1990. Had Kerry joined the WWF at the beginning of their national expansion in 1984, he would have rivaled and maybe exceeded Hulk Hogan as the promotion’s top star. By the time Kerry made his WWF debut, the tragedies in his life and his drug abuse eroded his aura to the point where he was just another wrestler on the card. Kerry won the Intercontinental Championship, the WWF’s secondary title, but drugs were still a problem for him. After losing the title, Kerry was quickly phased out of the company, and he left in 1992.
In a cruel twist of irony, the Von Erich brother who wanted to wrestle the most was the one who was least physically suited for it. Chris Von Erich grew up always wanting to be like his brothers who he watched on TV. However, Chris’ asthma medication stunted his growth. He was only 5’5 when he reached adulthood, and the medication also left him with brittle bones. No one in the family had the heart to tell Chris his aspirations for a wrestling career were unrealistic. Chris began lifting weights and using steroids to improve his physique, but while steroids can make one’s muscles bigger, they can’t make one grow taller. Chris also grew his hair out and styled it to look just like Kerry’s. Outside of the ring, Chris was battling depression, which began after Mike’s suicide, and a worsening drug addiction. When he broke his arm during a tag team match with Kevin, Chris’ depression grew worse as he realized he wasn’t going to make it as a wrestler.
Just before his 22nd birthday on September 12, 1991, Chris Von Erich called Kevin’s house, which was near where he lived on Fritz and Doris’ ranch and asked Kevin if he could return the VCR, he had loaned him. It was late at night and Kevin told Chris he would give him the VCR in the morning. Shortly afterwards, Kevin heard Chris drive his four-wheeler around his house briefly before departing, which made Kevin feel uneasy. He knew Chris liked to go to a spot on top of a hill on Fritz’s property, so Kevin later got into his car and traveled to the spot where he found Chris sitting down and looking despondent. Kevin asked him what he was doing up there and Chris asked if Kevin had read his note. Kevin pleaded with Chris not to do anything crazy and tried to offer him some reassurance. Chris promised him he wouldn’t do anything rash, and Kevin left to go to his parents’ house where he asked them if Chris had written a suicide note. Fritz and Doris told him they had just found one. The note read "It's nobody's fault. I'll be with my brothers." Kevin and Doris went to the spot on the hill where they found Chris lying on the ground where he looked to be choking. Kevin believed Chris had taken pills and when he went to pick him up, that’s when he discovered the gunshot wound in Chris’ head. Chris was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival. Toxicology reports found cocaine and valium in his system.
Chris’ suicide was the final straw for Doris Adkisson. She and Fritz divorced in July of 1992.
Chris Von Erich is not featured in The Iron Claw. Director and writer Sean Durkin said Chris was in the initial versions of the script, but he cut him from later drafts. Durkin’s reasoning for Chris’ omission was that he believed audiences would find the inclusion of another suicide too depressing and he also needed to be cut to conserve the film’s runtime. I disagree with this. I believe if you’re going to make a film about a real-life family, every member of that family needs to be included, even if their tragic story offends the audience’s sensibilities and the movie is a little longer.
Kerry Von Erich continued to spiral after his departure from the WWF and Chris’ death only fueled his self-destructive tendencies. Wrestling was the only thing Kerry knew how to do to earn money, so he wrestled on small independent shows in front of miniscule audiences. The I.R.S. was also auditing him, so he began selling memorabilia from his career at wrestling conventions. Kerry’s wife left him during this period. According to Kevin, Kerry would become despondent when he visited Kevin’s family and saw how happy they were together. One thing I wish The Iron Claw would have shown was that David, Mike, and Kerry were all married at one point. In the film, Kevin is depicted as the only brother with a personal life.
On February 17, 1993, Kerry was indicted for possession of cocaine. If Kerry were to be convicted, it would have been a violation of his 10-year parole sentence stemming from a conviction for forging a prescription for pills. Kerry was almost certainly going to be convicted and sent to prison. The next day, Kerry went out to the family ranch where Fritz was outside pouring concrete in the driveway. Kerry hugged his father, told him that he loved him, and asked to borrow the family jeep because he wanted to do some thinking on the property. Before he drove away in the jeep, Kerry went into the house and took the .44 Magnum gun he had given Fritz for Father’s Day. About an hour later, Fritz became concerned after not hearing from Kerry and went searching for him when he found the jeep. A few moments later, Fritz found his favorite son’s body. Kerry had shot himself in the heart and died instantly. Kerry Von Erich was 33. Cocaine and alcohol were later found in his system. Kevin recalled his father telling him that he had never seen Kerry so peaceful.
On the surface, it appeared Kerry’s decision to end his life was due to his impending prison sentence. The Iron Claw makes it seem like he was just depressed. However, family and friends tell a different story. Kerry talked about Chris’ suicide with admiration and praised him for having the courage to go through with it. He discussed suicide with his parole officer who told him to seek help. Fritz said his son talked of suicide frequently and Kerry’s wife Cathy hid all the guns in their house while they were still together. Kevin attempted to talk his only living brother out of committing suicide telling him that he needed him and to think of his daughters.
In The Iron Claw it is shown that Kevin discovered Kerry’s body, not Fritz. The moment in the film when Kevin tackles Fritz and yells at him for not looking after him or his brothers never happened either. What happened was Kevin and Fritz did eventually have a confrontation after he was diagnosed with lung cancer and brain cancer following a stroke. The confrontation happened while Kevin was visiting his dying father. Fritz pointed the same .44 Magnum Kerry used to commit suicide at Kevin and said that he didn’t have the courage to kill himself like his brothers did. Kevin told Fritz that it took courage to stay alive and fight on. When Fritz refused to put the gun down, Kevin bolted out of the house. A few weeks later, Fritz Von Erich died on September 10, 1997, from cancer at his home in Denton, Texas at the age of 68. He outlived five of his six sons. He was buried in the same plot as Kerry, his favorite son.
Kevin Von Erich, the only Von Erich brother to live beyond his 34th birthday, is defensive of his father and his legacy. When speaking about the harsh punishments their father would deal out, Kevin says he and his brothers had it coming. Kevin always says in interviews his father was a good and honorable man who did the best he could to raise his sons.
In an interview after Kerry’s death, Kevin Von Erich said “I had five brothers, and now I’m not even a brother.” You can hear the pain in his voice in interviews when he speaks directly to the viewer, telling them if they’re thinking about committing suicide, not to do it because they don’t realize how much they’ll hurt the ones they love. Kevin has handled the unfathomable tragedies in his family about as well as one could hope. He’s had several surgeries on his knees and the numerous concussions he suffered during his wrestling career left him with a never-ending ringing in his head. Kevin moved to Kauai, Hawaii with his wife, Pam and their four children along with his mother, Doris. Doris died on October 23, 2015 from emphysema with Kevin and his family by her bedside. She was buried next to her five sons and her ex-husband in Dallas. In 2023, Kevin and his family moved back to Texas.
Kevin has worked hard to preserve his brothers’ legacy, first by selling tapes from World Class’s heyday through mail order and then by selling the World Class video library to the WWE who have featured the promotion's greatest moments on their DVDs and their streaming service. While other wrestlers from their era are being forgotten, The Von Erichs have found a new audience of younger fans who have been drawn in by their larger-than-life battles in the squared circle. This continuing popularity only adds to the heartbreaking contradiction of their lives. The Von Erichs were valiant heroes in the ring, but outside of it they were broken and scared young men who were victims of their environment who could only find one way to escape from the man who held them in a grip far scarier than any hold in a wrestling ring.
Part of me wishes The Iron Claw would have been willing to dig deeper into the darker side of the Von Erichs, but I suppose that’s what documentaries and articles like this are for. I think I speak for the majority of wrestling fans for believing this film should have been much harder on Fritz. When making a movie based on real people who endured harrowing tragedies, filmmakers must make difficult decisions on what to include and exclude. Much of this has to do with getting a film funded by production companies and distributors. It also has a lot to do with pleasing the film-going public. The public may say they want the truth, but if Sean Durkin were to include the sordid details from this essay and other articles about the Von Erichs, would The Iron Claw have ever been made? Would a mass audience want to see these sordid details in a film? My guess is no. I just hope this film makes us realize the Von Erich brothers are not to blame for what happened to them. Their father had expectations for them they could never hope to fulfill, and their isolated upbringing left them incapable of handling the real world.