Wrestling Memories: Texas Tornado In A Spin

Wrestling Memories: Texas Tornado In A Spin

You are probably sick of hearing about how I got into wrestling in 1989. Throughout 1989, Ultimate Warrior was my favorite along with The Rockers and Randy Savage. These were the main guys that I loved to watch, but then in 1990 another wrestler would join the WWF and I was very excited. His name was The Texas Tornado, Kerry Von Erich and I thought he was cool right from the start. Looking back, I think that part of this may have been because he was really the first big new star after I started watching.


For a wrestler who had such a short run in the WWF, he certainly left an impression on me. SummerSlam 1990 was a huge event for me as a child. I was legit scared that Rick Rude would take the title from The Ultimate Warrior. On the flip side of this though I was very excited that Texas Tornado was getting a chance to wrestle for the intercontinental championship. I hated Mr. Perfect, but that is meant in a complimentary way. I was mad as hell he won the title instead of Tito and he was the kind of heel that really got under your skin, but he always backed it up in the ring so he always felt like a threat when he went against one of your favorite wrestlers.


Seeing Texas Tornado kick his butt in such a quick fashion was awesome to me and I remember jumping out of my seat when he won the intercontinental championship. I thought he would be champion forever! Of course, this was not actually the case and he would drop the title shortly after. However, he was a guy that felt like he was always on TV. No matter if it was Superstars, Challenge, or Prime Time Wrestling, I always felt like there was a strong chance he would be on at least once a week.


As the Intercontinental champion, the coolest thing he was apart of for me was the 1990 Survivor Series. He would team up with The Ultimate Warrior and the Legion of Doom. Warrior was my hero and I loved the LOD to so this was the ultimate super team! Sure he got eliminated by Mr. Perfect, but it was cool to see him in there with the Warrior.


I spoke about this during my post about the 1991 Royal Rumble, but I legit thought that he was going to win the Rumble. Back then I truly believed that anyone could win the Royal Rumble back then. Of course, this was not the case, but it was still cool seeing him in there. To tell you the truth, I was really down after the Warrior lost the title so him getting dumped out did not have as much of an effect on me as you would think.


In 1991, he was kind of just there. You still saw him on TV somewhat regularly which was cool, but he only had a brief match with Dino Bravo at WrestleMania and was part of a six-man tag match at SummerSlam 1991 which was a lot of fun. In between these two events I actually saw him live at the UK Rampage in Glasgow. He wrestled The Warlord and it was so cool that I got to see him live. I have said this before, but during this match, Warlord slammed him into the steps on the outside and I can still hear that sound in my mind to this day.


During this time the WWF was white-hot in the UK and everyone wanted a piece of it. One way this happened was with the release of all kinds of non-WWF wrestling tapes. I lived in Scotland and there was this place called Kinross which had a Sunday market each week. One week I was there and they had a bunch of wrestling tapes and one was called, The Best Of Kerry Von Erich – USWA. I begged my folks to buy it for me and they did. This tape (which I still have) is dated 1991, but it has many old WCCW matches on it. It was the coolest thing ever and I watched the tape a ton of times.


Another fond memory I have of Texas Tornado was getting his Hasbro figure. I needed braces and where the dentist was there was a Toy Master store just a couple of doors down. I was absolutely dreading the thought of getting braces. I would cry, I would complain I was worried I was going to be made fun of at school and I felt like I was being treated so unfairly…. Which is kind of funny to look back on now. To try and make me feel better or more likely to try and make it so I was not a jerk at the dentist. My parents agreed I could get a couple of wrestling figures from Toy Master. Well, they had Texas Tornado and Mr. Perfect! I was as good as gold at the dentist and my parents got me those figures and how I would make them fight over and over again when I got home for the WWF title is one of my favorite figure memories.


The way his career panned out was really sad. Even sadder is the way his life ended at such a young age. Such a shame that he felt so lost that he saw that as the only way out of things. Even though his run in the WWF was short, it meant a great deal to me as a child. What are your thoughts on his run in the WWF