When it comes to serious movies about wrestling,The Iron Clawis a bit unorthodox.
The resulting collision feels like aBehind the Musicepisode mixed with a horror movie.
So is writer-director Sean Durkins new film accurate to the reality behind the fictional sport?
Oh, it does a great job, but thats not to sayThe Iron Clawdoesnt take certain creative liberties.
So, what changed from real life to the silver screen?
Well, lets start with the biggest change.
Occasionally, as a teenager, he would get involved in certain on-camera Von Erich storylines.
While Chris was interested in becoming a wrestler like his brothers, he was physically not made for it.
The belief was that adding Chris to the movie would add to what was already a lengthy runtime.
Its a very simplistic reduction of what really was a career that lasted nearly 200 matches.
Yes, Mike was not a muscular god like his brothers before him.
He still got by well enough, but his shoulder was a regular problem for him.
He really shouldnt have, but he did.
Then World Championship Wrestling started cooking the number of wins to make it seem bigger than it already was.
Around the same time, they would pipe in GOLLLLLDBERRRRRG!
chants to make him seem even more popular.
And that brings us to a wrestler who went by the name of Lance Von Erich.
If there were none available, he would simply create another relative.
Hence, Ricky Vaughan was introduced as Lance Von Erich, their totally jacked cousin.
Lance lasted a year and a half before having a pay dispute and leaving.
Lance still appears very briefly inThe Iron Claw, portrayed by current AEW top guy Maxwell Jacob Friedman.
Hes the guy shown winning a tag match as Efrons annoyed Kevin stands on the ring apron.
Hes in there just long enough to have you wondering, Hey, is that MJF in a wig?
The closest thing we see to this is how many people showed up to mourn David.
Otherwise, all we saw were fans cheering and getting the occasional autograph.
There was most definitely a relationship between the Von Erich familys downfall and WCCWs drop in popularity.
Part of it was because of Fritzs attempts to control the narrative.
The memorial show for David Von Erich in 1984 had an attendance of over 32,000 people.
Three years later, the memorial show for Mike had an attendance of under 6,000.
Those two incidents were very much unrelated.
Yes, Kerry did defeat Flair atThe Von Erich Memorial Parade of Championsand became NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
The motorcycle accident took place two years later.
Kerry returned to wrestling only eight months after his accident.
They had a good while before things started to go south.
Usually, his inability to seal the deal was protected via disqualifications and double count-out endings.
Yeah, having a mental breakdown to the point of freaking out the referee is way more entertaining.
Funny enough, you know who Flairs final WCCW challenge was before they severed ties?
Freaking Lance Von Erich of all people.
Outside of his self-destructive behavior, he exists mostly as a foil for Kevin.
Is his implosion at the end accurate?
In actuality, the two were married for nine years.
There is probably truth to the pain part, at least.
Bret Hart wrote in his autobiography that Kerry had been openly considering suicide a few times years earlier.
He and Catherine had already divorced, which surely didnt help his mental state.
Otherwise, he did have a desperate conversation with Kevin the morning of his final day.
The big difference is that Fritz was the one who discovered the body.
This is supposed to mean Jim Hellwig, known better as the Ultimate Warrior.
Kevin was very much against this and apparently took legal action because of it.
In his twisted logic, he felt that he couldnt kill himself if he was thrown in prison.
Therefore, he tried to steal a gun to get arrested.
After that, there was his chilling final encounter with Fritz.
Kevin insisted that living took strength and was able to get out of there before it was too late.
Kevin blamed the cancer for his fathers twisted actions, believing that Fritz truly loved him.
