Taped from Dallas, TX
Airdate: April 25, 1987 (taped 04/17)
Attendance: unknown
Hosted by Bill Mercer
How will Jack fare against the Warlock? Will there be any sorcery involved? What happens when the Fantastics and RPMs collide? Who’s the newcomer? In separate matches, Nord the Barbarian faces Lance and Kevin. Will he conquer them both? However, first, we must pay tribute to a fallen soldier:
Opening montage.
During his introduction, Mercer offers his condolences to the Von Erich family as Mike has died recently and unexpectedly.
In the ring, Kevin, dressed in a suit, grabs the microphone and apologizes for not being able to wrestle as he must help with his family’s healing from their loss. He dedicates the World title match at Texas Stadium to not only David but also Mike. Finally, he appreciates all the prayers as his mother Doris is struggling with her grief. Video of Mike follows.
Please allow me a few moments to collect myself.
.
..
…
….
Thank you.
Match 1: Spike Huber versus Black Bart (w/ Percy Pringle)
Highlights:
- Huber ducked a clothesline and fed Bart a cross body block for 1.
- When Huber reversed a cross corner whip, he hip-tossed Bart.
- Huber reversed an Irish whip and backdropped him.
- As Huber dealt him a standing dropkick, Bart’s momentum took him over the top rope to the blue floor.
- Bart positioned himself between Huber and referee Ralph Pulley allowing Pringle to hammer Huber with the branding iron. SNEAKY!
- After he clotheslined Huber, Bart got 2.
- Huber leapfrogged Bart and delivered a knee to the midsection.
- While he dropkicked Bart, Huber only got 2 thanks to Pringle’s placement of his protégé’s leg on the bottom rope. Crafty!
- Pringle distracted Huber so that Bart could nail him with a double axe handle.
- With Bart restraining Huber, Pringle mounted the top turnbuckle but inadvertently blasted his protégé.
- Huber sent Pringle packing abruptly and hit a German suplex with a bridge to Bart.
- 1-2-3.
- Huber won at 7:38.
Rating: **
Summary: Huber carried the match well and handled the combined nefariousness of Bart and Pringle like a pro. Meanwhile, thanks to Pringle, the Dallas faithful was active and firmly in Huber’s corner.
After the match, Pringle tries to scurry across the ring, but Huber conducts a meeting of the minds between him and Bart.
We head to Fort Worth (taped 4/6) where Nord the Barbarian battles Lance who backdrops him. As Lance tries to mount the top turnbuckle, he thwarts Gary Hart’s attempt to stop him. He connects with a missile dropkick followed by a splash. Before referee Ralph Pulley can count to three, Hart interjects himself only to succumb to an Iron claw. Hart tosses Lance over the top rope to escape.
With a chair, Lance re-enters the ring and smashes Nord in the back; however, Nord recovers before Lance can waffle Hart with it. Hart retrieves the chair, brings it into the ring, and Pillmanizes it across Lance’s right arm. Diabolically, Nord leg-drops the chair effectively breaking Lance’s arm. Methinks that could put Lance out of commission.
In the studio, Marc Lowrance interviews Hart who revels in the destruction of Lance. He vows that Kevin will lose the title at Texas Stadium.
We return to Fort Worth (taped 4/13) where Kevin leapfrogs and hip-tosses Nord. Giving Kevin an Irish whip, Nord misses a dropkick. Kevin mule-kicks him, but Nord hammers on him while Hart holds the foot. How dastardly!
Nord flattens Kevin with a belly-to-back suplex for 2. As Nord powerslams him, he mounts the second turnbuckle, leaps, but there’s no water in the pool. Kevin mounts the top turnbuckle and scores with a flying elbow smash. Applying a body scissors, Kevin also applies an Iron claw.
Before Kevin can defeat Nord, Eli the Eliminator clobbers him from behind. He wraps a chain around Kevin’s neck until Huber saves Kevin’s bacon.
Nonetheless, chaos ensues while Red River Jack joins the melee after making Hart HIT THE POLE. Also joining the madness is Jeep Swenson who sends Jack reeling to the concrete floor. Kevin and Huber eject Eli from the ring, and Jack CREAMS Swenson with a chair to shoo him away.
Match 2: Cousin Junior versus the Grappler
Highlights:
- For those unaware, Junior wrestled in the WWF in ’84 and ’85 before heading to Central States. This match marked his WCWA debut.
- Junior evaded a dropkick, performed a cartwheel, and fed Grappler a thrust kick.
- As Grappler leapfrogged Junior, he ate another thrust kick.
- Junior hip-tossed Grappler while Mercer plugged the SCAFFOLD match at Texas Stadium.
- When Grappler clotheslined him, he got 2.
- He dealt Junior a knee lift for another 2.
- After he landed a knee drop, Grappler couldn’t get 3.
- Junior rebounded with a pair of kicks and slammed Grappler.
- While he mounted the top turnbuckle, Junior launched a flying splash.
- 1-2-3.
- Junior won at 4:22.
Rating: *
Summary: Showcase match for the newcomer.
Match 3 for the WCWA World tag team titles: The Fantastics (champions) versus the Rock’n’Roll RPMs
Highlights:
- This match occurred in Fort Worth on 4/6 and was joined in progress.
- When Davis fed Rogers a knee lift, Lane tagged in but couldn’t earn a 1-count due to Fulton.
- Speaking of Fulton, he tagged in and cleaned house.
- Lane reversed an Irish whip, but Fulton scored with a cross body block for 2.
- As Fulton suplexed Lane, Lane’s legs knocked referee Rick Hazzard OUT COLD.
- Fulton could only earn a false pin until an RPM lookalike stormed the ring and piledrove him.
- After Hazzard’s cobwebs cleared, “Lane” pinned Fulton at 1:56 shown.
- WE HAVE NEW CHAMPIONS!
Rating: NONE
Summary: Too short to rate, but who is this mysterious lookalike?
In the studio, Lowrance interviews the RPMs and Eric Embry. Davis cuts a promo on the Fantastics and Steve Simpson about the SCAFFOLD match. Afterward, Embry tries to scare the BEJEEZUS out of them.
Match 4: Red River Jack versus the Warlock
Highlights:
- Warlock was also known as “Hacksaw” Higgins and had previously wrestled in Japan and Florida.
- Yes, folks, this was a match between two masked men, and we’re not in Mexico. I don’t foresee any lucha libre in this one.
- As Jack employed some elbow smashes and kicks to Warlock’s ample midsection, he got 2.
- Warlock gave Jack a cross corner whip but ate boot on his follow-through.
- When Jack missed a leg drop, the Dallas faithful chanted “go, Jack, go,” and Warlock tried to unmask their hero.
- Abruptly, Swenson stormed the ring and attacked Jack.
- Referee Ralph Pulley called for the bell, and Jack won by DQ at 4:11.
Rating: DUD
Summary: Since they advertised Warlock for next week, this acted as merely an appetizer for both next week and the upcoming spectacular.
Following the match, Swenson and Warlock double-team Jack until Huber rescues him. Jack snatches his whip from Lowrance’s table, and the heels scatter faster than hash browns at Waffle House.
Conclusion: More on Mike Von Erich in a minute.
Since the Texas Stadium show is simply 8 days away, the ten-match card had to be plugged with some gusto. While Lance gets put on the shelf, Kevin takes up for the Von Erichs against Nord and Hart. Jack and Swenson was heavily promoted, and the RPMs apparently stole the tag titles.
Next week, Jack and Huber square off against Swenson and Warlock.
TV Rating: NONE
POINT OF ORDER: Sorry, folks, but this won’t be short.
I’ll take this in chronological order and break it down.
On November 24, 1983, Mike Von Erich makes his first public appearance in WCCW. Mind you, he’s eighteen years old and dwarfed in size by his brothers David, Kerry, and Kevin. He succeeds in his wrestling debut defeating the likes of General Skandor Akbar.
Although Mike was 6’2” tall, if he ever weighed 200 pounds, he must have eaten a lot of brisket that day. Whereas David was tall and strong, Kerry well-built, and Kevin athletically talented, Mike, even at 23, neither had an inkling of the physical composition his brothers had nor was he supposed to be a professional athlete.
Despite that, on August 4, 1984 and televised on the eleventh, Mike captured his only singles championship defeating the “Handsome Half-Breed” Gino Hernandez for the NWA American title.
Thanks to a shot from Nickla Roberts, otherwise known as Baby Doll, Mike would lose the American title back to Hernandez on September 3.
He earned another crack at Hernandez at the Cotton Bowl the following month, and he and Stella Mae French, with the help of a returning Sunshine via helicopter, defeated Hernandez and Roberts.
Mike got a shot at Hernandez’s NWA Texas title on Thanksgiving night. Due to chicanery on the part of Roberts, Hernandez defeated Mike and retained the title.
In early 1985, Mike found himself battling Rip Oliver throughout the territory and defeated him at the second annual David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions.
Later that month, Mike was charged with misdemeanor assault against emergency room physician Timothy Shepherd. Later, he would be acquitted by a judge.
In August, during a tour of Israel, Mike took a bad bump and severely injured his ailing shoulder. Since he required surgery, he returned to Dallas for the operation. Although the operation was successful, Mike suffered a major complication from it—toxic shock syndrome.
If you were to research TSS, the causes normally stem from external devices used by women—tampons, menstrual cups, sponges, and diaphragms. While it’s pure speculation on my part, I believe the “miracle” that the Von Erichs believe happened is merely a cover-up for a surgical error that was corrected by removing a foreign body from Mike’s prior shoulder surgery.
Due to the complication, Mike’s body temperature reached 107° which led to brain damage consistent with cognitive and motor skill decline. In a sense, this impacted his life significantly thereafter.
On a side note, I recall when watching CWF’s Battle of the Belts from Labor Day weekend in 1985, announcer Gordon Solie offered well-wishes to the Von Erichs for Mike’s swift recovery.
Nevertheless, Mike recovered thanks to both medicine and the power of prayer from the Von Erich family and its fans. He left the hospital having lost significant weight, but during a press conference Fritz vowed that Mike would return to the ring. Said conference was meant to garner publicity and hope, but seeing and hearing Mike in his early recovery was difficult to swallow.
Mike’s next public appearance happened at the Cotton Bowl shortly following his release from the hospital. Though it was considered a poor publicity stunt, Mike’s brief appearance prompted hope from the Von Erich fans.
Prior to his in-ring return, Mike totaled his Lincoln Continental after running off an embankment on Route 121 in Lewisville. In May 1986, he was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct. Signs of Mike’s recovery were becoming less positive.
He made his in-ring return at the July 4 show joining his brother Kevin and “cousin” Lance in a victory during a six-man tag match against “Hacksaw” Butch Reed, “Mad Dog” Buzz Sawyer, and “Maniac” Matt Borne.
Briefly, his brother Kerry accompanied Mike to the ring before a premature return to the ring by Kerry sidelined him again. Though he had plenty of support from his family, Mike took the pressure of performing quite personally which affected his mental and emotional health.
In February 1987, he paid a $900 fine to a man in Fort Worth for kicking in his car door.
On April 11, 1987, Mike was pulled over on US 377. Although he failed to successfully bribe the officer, Mike’s blood test results revealed that his BAC was .05 and under the legal limit. On the other hand, Mike had 30mg/L of Placidyl, 1.1 mg/L of Butalbital, and 0.26 mg/L of diazepam in his system which would also impair his ability to drive. Mike was subsequently arrested.
Upon posting a $3,500 bond for drunk driving and controlled substances, Mike left a note in his apartment that read: “PLEASE UNDERSTAND. I’M A FUCK-UP. I’M SORRY. I love U Kerry, Kevin, & your families.”
Another note was found in Mike’s car at a park near Lewisville Lake that read: “Mom and Dad, I’m in a better place. I’ll be watching.” Although Fritz claimed “foul play” to disguise the situation, Mike’s body was found tucked in some underbrush within a sleeping bag by an officer with a K-9 dog,
The official autopsy revealed the cause of death to be acute toxicity of Placidyl. Mike Von Erich was dead at the young age of 23.
As you may recall from previous reflections, Mike was slated to battle Brian Adias in a lumberjack country whipping match at Texas Stadium. I firmly believe that Adias would have made Mike a bona fide star that day.
In a family of overachievers, Mike felt that he was an underachiever and didn’t belong. It’s my belief that after the near-death experience, he should have trained to become a wrestling TV producer like Keith Mitchell instead of climbing back into the ring.
Rest In Peace Michael Brett Adkisson (March 2, 1964 – April 12, 1987)
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: If you or someone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide, reach out! Having the knowledge and resources to help can save a life. Remember, everyone can play a role in suicide prevention. Visit suicideispreventable.org to learn about a variety of resources for your loved ones, or yourself. Again that’s suicideispreventable.org.
Stay tuned for WCCW 05-02-87!
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