Post by Deleted on Nov 3, 2007 21:50:53 GMT -5
Kevin Von Erich
Kevin, like his brothers, excelled in many sports in college and high school. He received a football scholarship to North Texas State University(now University of North Texas)and played fullback until his junior season when he had to quit due to a knee injury. He soon realized that his plan of playing in the NFL would never be realized and he decided to join his father in the ring.
Kevin started wrestling as Kevin Von Erich in 1976. He spent most of his career wrestling for his father's promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling. He teamed with his brothers and had a huge feud against the Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts), where they had many six-man tag matches.
Kevin also had a long feud with Chris Adams that lasted for months and had many violent matches. Kevin would also tag-team with Adams on numerous occasions before and after their feud. Away from the ring, Kevin and Chris were close friends.
Kevin was also known for wrestling barefoot, highly unusual in a sport where almost all wrestlers wear high-topped boots. Kevin later admitted in an interview that he never set out to wrestle barefoot, but that before his debut match, someone hid his boots as a rib, and he wasn't able to find them before his match, so just went out barefoot to wrestle, and it later became his trademark.
Kevin had several close matches with NWA World Champ Ric Flair, but never won the title.
Kevin was very close to his brothers David and Kerry and was deeply affected when each of them died. He became semi-retired after Kerry committed suicide in 1993 and permanently retired in 1995.
Kevin now dabbles in real estate and spends time with his family, although he does appear at several wrestling conventions. Until recently, he owned the rights to the World Class Championship Wrestling name and the WCCW library which he has sold to WWE for an unknown amount. The footage will be shown on their WWE 24/7 Pay-Per-View service. A DVD entitled The Triumphs and Tragedies of World Class Championship Wrestling is expected to be released by WWE sometime in the fall of 2007.[1]
He and his wife of over 25 years have two daughters, Kristen and Jill, and two younger sons, Ross and Marshall (Ross is a high school football player). Kevin strictly discourages his children from becoming pro wrestlers due to the tragic loss of his brothers. The oldest daughter, Kristen who is now married, gave birth to Kevin's first grandchild Adeline Claire on September 22, 2004. [2]
In the 2007 WWE DVD The Most Powerful Families in Wrestling, Kevin was featured in a segment about the Von Erich's in which he said he was thankful for the years that he had with his brothers prior to their passing.
Kevin was my favorate Von Erich.. I also have mad respect for the guy..