Brian Damage
One of the most famous families in the history of wrestling is the Von Erichs. It’s a story filled with tragedy, however, with all but one of the sons taken too early. Today we look at another Von Erich tale, specifically one involving Kerry and his foot.
After World Class star David Von Erich’s sudden death in 1984, his younger brother ‘The Modern Day Warrior’ Kerry Von Erich became the heir apparent to the Von Erich Dynasty. Kerry would go on to win the NWA world title from Ric Flair later that year. At 24 years old, he would become just the second youngest NWA world champion of all time. Everything appeared to be headed upward for Kerry’s career. That is until a motorcycle crash nearly ended his life…
The date was June 4th, 1986, Kerry Von Erich was riding his motorcycle around his home in Texas. Kerry was not wearing a helmet or any protective gear. He was going at a high rate of speed weaving in and out of traffic. That is when he hit the back of a police car sending Kerry crashing to the pavement. Kerry suffered multiple injuries including a dislocated hip, a badly ravage right leg and internal injuries. Kerry was lucky to have survived such a horrific crash.
Doctors in Dallas had to remove muscle from other body parts to help save his leg which was virtually crushed. His accident, business wise, couldn’t have happened at a worse time because both the WWF and Jim Crockett Jr. were making big plays to take their promotions national. Business began to dwindle for the once red hot World Class Championship Wrestling. The father Fritz Von Erich felt that he needed his biggest star Kerry to help save WCCW.
Six months after his devastating near fatal accident, Kerry Von Erich returned to the ring. It took a large quantity of drugs to get him to wrestle but that’s exactly what Kerry did. While his return match against Brian Adias didn’t last that long, it proved to be extremely costly. His right foot which was not nearly ready for such extraneous work was re-broken. This time sadly for Kerry, his foot had to be partially amputated.
The partial amputation of his right foot still didn’t slow down Kerry as he was still ready and willing to climb in the ring with a prosthetic foot. Fritz Von Erich made the doctors and staff that worked on Kerry take an oath not to reveal his son’s foot was cut off. Kerry also made his surviving family swear to him that his secret would never be revealed to anyone. His foot would remain a secret until November 12th, 1988.
It was at the Showboat Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada during a TV taping for Verne Gagne’s AWA promotion. Kerry was wrestling Colonel Debeers in a one on one match. During the course of the contest, Debeers was on the outside of the ring, he unknowingly grabbed Kerry’s right foot and tried to pull him into the ring post when Kerry’s boot accidentally came off. His amputated foot was revealed to Debeers and several fans at ringside. Von Erich quickly grabbed his boot, jumped out of the ring and stuck his leg under the ring apron where he quickly put his boot back on.
Word of this incident started making the rounds with Kerry and the AWA denying that such a thing happened. It all started to make sense for the boys who wrestled because Kerry allegedly always came to the arenas already dressed to wrestle or he actually showered with his boots on. Legendary magazine editor Bill Apter tried to find out the truth about Kerry’s foot to which Kerry promised to show him his foot with his boot off at Superclash III in Chicago. That moment between Apter and Von Erich never took place.
The initial motorcycle accident and rushed recovery led Kerry to an addiction to several drugs. An addiction that found Kerry on the wrong side of the law several times. It also led to his divorce and eventual suicide. After Kerry’s death, Fritz Von Erich finally admitted what everyone pretty much knew: that his son’s foot was amputated.
For those wondering if a tape exists of his infamous match against Col. Debeers, nobody knows for sure. If it does exist then it hasn’t been released to the public. Some have said that the cameras weren’t rolling for that match as it was a’dark match’ before the actual tapings. Either way, a truly sad ending to a once-promising career.
Ring the Damn Bell 
The accidents involving Kerry and Magnum TA were tremendous blows to wrestling.
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From Boozing and Driving …..Magnum in his Porsche and Kerry on his Motorcycle
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You shouldnt have been one of the four horsewoman.. It should have been tessa blanchard
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My father was one of the plastic surgeons who worked on Kerry’s foot, said there was barely anything there to rebuild upon. I actually have the first prosthetic they used in the ring but the boot wouldn’t fit right.
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WOW!
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Pics or it didn’t happemln
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I call bullshido.
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I don’t know which story is true about how Kerry lost his foot but what I heard from Kevin was that after the first surgery, Kerry was still in the hospital and tried to walk on it too early instead of just staying off it that he did so much damage that they had to amputate it then. Fritz seemed like a real piece of shi*t for all the stuff he put those kids through. He cared more about making money and his wrestling business then his own kids. Of course the kids did alot of the stuff to themselves too-but it sure doesn’t make it easy when it seems your dad didn’t even care to try to help/protect his own flesh and blood!!!!
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The warm up match with Brian Adias is the true story. Records of World Class shows prove it took place. Kevin’s story was one of many he told that were attempts to try and portray his father in a better light and basically “work and angle” so to speak. Seems like it took forever for Kevin to admit to his Dad’s failings.
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The accident didn’t lead him to do drugs. Drugs were likely the cause of his wrechkess driving. He walked on his foot too early. This is coming from a friend.
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You are correct. Kerry was arrested at the Dallas-Ft Worth International Airport in 1983, after returning from Mexico with his wife, and he was found with an assortment of various illegal drugs. Rumor has it that Fritz paid off the DA, and the case was dropped (Fritz had considerable pull back then). The Von Erich’s struggles with drugs have been well documented. A full year before his accident, Ric Flair wrestled Kerry to a 60 minute time limit draw, in which Kerry was so out of it, that he could barely walk. Flair threw his belt against the wall, and threatened to never come to the territory again, back in the dressing room.
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So Kerry had always been involved in drugs? Since a very young age? I heard his wife was part of that
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I’m six years younger than Kerry Von Erich was so, I was just watching him on t.v.during the 80’s when my home town then in New York, Long Island. I know that I’m going to be a great fan of amputation first I lost my right great toe ( big toe) due my early start at drinking in mid 20’s due that and sleeping in a parked car for about a month. So I know what it’s like to addicted alcohol and think nobody’s going to gonna know. I was like from age 25 until 35, I’m 51 years old now and let me tell you something I wanted kill myself a lot of times, I wanted to be a pro wrestler so bad during the 80’s mid 90’s,but I never had the chance. Kerry was my biggest heros back the 80’s -90’s,and 90’s.You are so right wrestlers didn’t air their dirty secrets back then they Herod to a lot of kids back then. I believe if Kerry had the support of family and friends back then, I believe that he would be enjoying his retirement and his grandchildren, and his fame of yesterday. But by hiding his injuries from his fans wasn’t a wise thing to do. I never knew he had on a prosthetic foot until 2012.Instead of taking all those drugs he could’ve been mentor to other young wrestler of that time, but having instead going through a downward spiral of despair and drugs and seeing the family business going the way of the dinosaurs,thanks to the McMahon taking control of the wrestling territories and those days he would not taken his life at such a young age as did most of his brothers did.
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I’ve heard dozens of stories about Kerry’s drug use dating back to his HIgh School days. Kerry’s addiction had absolutely nothing to do with his motorcycle accident.
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Kerry was fine wrestler, one the finest human beings in the world. Unfortunately his father pushed those boys on path destruction early on. I believe that Kerry would still be with us reliving his past glory days in some wrestling news or maybe one those b-rated ready to home DVD, blue-ray home box deals. Clarence Ezra Cheatom
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Kerry Vonerrick was the best one of my favorite I Loved all of them
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apparently this was taped for AWA TV but no one knows wwhat happened to the footage. The Lost Media Wiki says they are unsure if it was ever taped, but I have been told personally in the past by Ed Wiskowski aka Debeers that it was a legit incident and it was taped but the taped footage was wiped.He felt awful about it and had no clue Kerry had no foot.
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