Kevin von Erich

At 67 years old, Kevin von Erich has this physical status:

Football career

Adkisson played football for North Texas State University as a fullback, second string to Garry Smith until he missed his football career and aspire to play in the National Football League due to a injury.

Professional wrestling career

In 1976, Adkisson first began wrestling as Kevin Von Erich. He spent the bulk of his career wrestling for his father's promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling. Kevin's natural athletic ability as well as his good looks made him one of the promotion's most popular celebrities. He was a natural performer in the company as both a singles and tag team wrestler, often active in several of the company's high-profile feuds. Kevin was also known for wrestling barefoot, which was extremely unusual in a sport in which virtually all wrestlers wear high-topped boots. On WCCW broadcasts, world class announcers often referred to their Barefoot Boy" as "The Barefoot Boy." Kevin later admitted in a chat that he never set out to wrestle barefoot, but that before one of his matches someone hid his boots as a joke, and he wasn't able to find them before his match, so he went out barefoot to wrestle, which later became his trademark. He wore boots in matches early on his career, including his debut match against Paul Perschmann aka Playboy Buddy Rose and a match against Superfly Jimmy Snuka, contrary to popular belief. Kevin, a big fan of Snuka's wrestling, was also barefoot, and Kevin performed a move similar to Snuka's flying body splash from the top rope, which Snuka described as The Superfly.

Kevin established himself in the Dallas area in the late 1970s. He made his first major appearance in 1978 while wrestling as a tag team with his younger brother David. They captured the NWA Texas Tag Team Championship twice in addition to the NWA American Tag Team Championships throughout the year. By defeating Bruiser Brody in the NWA American Heavyweight Championship on Christmas Day 1978, he firmly established himself in the singles of the promotion. Kevin Von Erich won his first wrestling appearance in the WWF on January 21 against Johnny Rodz, who defeated him in a match he won. Kevin became one of the promotion's most consistent contestants in singles and tag team competitions with a variety of different sponsors as the 1980s began. However, his most prominent coworkers would always be his brothers Kerry and David. Kevin would appear on occasion in other NWA-promoted territories, including St. Louis, Georgia Championship Wrestling, and briefly Florida Championship Wrestling, as the early 1980s progressed. Kevin has also participated in a few matches for the World Wide Wrestling Federation.

After seeing WCCW booker Gary Hart at a show in early 1982, the Fabulous Freebirds, consisting of Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts, left Georgia Championship Wrestling. The three students' debut in World Class quickly became fan favorites due to a blend of their unique skills and chemistry, as well as their close friendship with the Von Erichs. Hayes and Gordy then climbed quickly through the ranks, defeating King Kong Bundy and Wild Bill Irwin in the NWA American Tag Team Championship in late November 1982.

About a month ago, a feud between the Von Erichs and Freebirds began. Kerry Von Erich competed for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship inside a steel cage during WCCW's annual Christmas display in 1982, with Michael Hayes as a special referee. The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling DVD, by Gary Hart, was described as Hayes being picked by fans to be a special enforcer type of referee in the match. Flair shoved Hayes, resulting in Hayes punching him near the end of the match. To make the three count, Hayes attempted to place Kerry on the top of Flair. Von Erich refused to do so because it wasn't the "Texas thing to do," resulting in a brief shooting match and discussion between the two teams. Hayes, who had been labelled as the gatekeeper, told Terry Gordy, who had been assigned as the gatekeeper, to open the cage door. Hayes is about to leave Von Erich after Ric Flair was struck from behind, with Ric Flair mistakenly hitting Hayes and knocking him out of the cage. The argument was portrayed as having neither Hayes nor Gordy aware that Kerry was forced into Hayes. As Kerry was getting to his feet inside the rings, he was told by Gordy to slam the cage door shut, damaging Kerry on the head and costing him the championship.

The Freebirds landed at the top of the company's charts right away, due to the conviction of many followers that their behavior cost one of their local heroes the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The WCCW television networks were syndicated to television stations around the country every week, bringing millions of viewers each week in the United States alone. This changed the face of wrestling, as well as how it was promoted and presented to audiences. Fans were captivated by the match's physical appearance, casting doubt on what professional wrestling was and could be. The Freebirds and Von Erichs were active in numerous high-profile matches that were very physical in nature, with various players of each team competing over various championships within the division. Many followers and wrestling industry insiders regard the feud as one of the best-fought and most memorable feuds in professional wrestling history today. When Kevin's brother David von Erich died in Japan from acute enteritis of the upper intestine, a dramatic story came to an end. This ended the symmetry of the wrestling feud, but the remaining brothers went on to wrestle individually, with differing degrees of success.

Kevin also feuded with Chris Adams that lasted for months and featured many violent matches, including two well-known chair shots on each other that necessitated hospitalization for both men. Kevin has worked with Adams before and after their feud, and he has often tag-teamed them. Kevin and Chris were close friends when they died at Adams' funeral in 2001 and then travelled to England to visit Adams' family afterward; away from the ring. Kevin said in recent interviews that Adams was the hardest wrestler he's ever wrestled in his career, and he had a lot of respect for the British-born wrestler. Kevin was in close matches with NWA World Champ Ric Flair, including the main event of the 2nd David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions at Texas Stadium, but he never won the competition.

Kevin became deeply distraught after SuperClash III's demise in 1989, although his brother Kerry welcomed Jarrett into the fold; the USWA became the USWA. However, he pulled WCCW out of the USWA in 1990, owing to several factors, including lawsuits, but he didn't have a choice but to call off World Class in October. In the early going, Kevin did manage to attract audiences to the Sportatorium, but World Class's longevity was very poor, owing to the absence of his brother, booker Gary Hart, and a lack of televised matches. Kevin played little during that period, other than wrestling in other independent cards promoted by either him, Chris Adams, or Gary Hart. Kevin did not participate at all in the August 4, 1989 card in which World Class officially became USWA Texas, although brother Kerry, who competed on the card earlier, left the Sportatorium shortly after his match. Kevin did help out a young Steve Austin improve his wrestling skills at this point, and Austin is one of his closest friends to this day.

Kevin defeated Brian Lee in a tough match on December 2, 1991 in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he faced and defeated him sixteen months after his brother joined the World Wrestling Federation.

In 1991, Von Erich competed in Mexico's Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. He teamed up with Chris Adams on April 2, 1993 to defeat Fabulous Freebirds' Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts at the Sportatorium's Adkisson Benefit Show. Kevin's last round of glory came on January 7, 1995, when he was competing for Jim Crockett, Jr.'s NWA charity based at the Sportatorium, where he defeated Greg Valentine in the North American heavyweight championship. He gave the title to John Hawk a week later. He then formed a very brief relationship with manager Skandor Akbar. Kevin's ring appearances ended and he officially resigned at the end of 1995.

Kevin appeared on the WWE Raw Homecoming show on October 3, 2005, alongside other WWE Hall of Famers. Rob Conway came out and interrupted Rhodes later that night as Dusty Rhodes and the WWE Hall of Famers were gathered in the ring. This culminated in Conway's defeat by several Halls of Famers, in which Kevin used the legendary Iron Claw on Conway, to the delights of the partisan Dallas, Texas crowd. Jim Ross said afterwards that he never thought he'd live to see the Iron Claw again. Kevin and his son Ross Adkisson (billed as Ross Von Erich) appeared on a local wrestling card in Longview, Texas, as guests of Roddy Piper's Pit on January 20, 2006. Skandor Akbar interrupted Kevin and Ross during a segment in which Kevin and Piper discussed going to the Sportatorium as teenagers. At one point, Akbar pushed Ross, which caused Kevin to use the iron claw on Akbar. With Kevin, Ross, Piper, and The Grappler leading in the crowd's applause, Greg Valentine had spirited Akbar away. Kevin and a few others from World Class Wrestling's heyday appeared in Heroes of World Class Wrestling, an independently produced retrospective documentary about the company and the Von Erich family. Adkisson, Gary Hart, Skandor Akbar, Bill Mercer, Mickey Grant, David Manning, Marc Lowrance, and Chris Adams of earlier interviews appeared in the program.

World Wrestling Entertainment sold the rights to the (pre-1988) WCCW name and tape archives to World Wrestling Entertainment later in October. WWE later began syndicated programming on their subscription video on demand service WWE Classics On Demand with Kevin and Michael "P.S." Hayes was first seen hosting and later on the WWE Network, where they later included a WCCW video. In 2007, WWE produced The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class, their own documentary on the territory. Kevin was also included in The Most Distinguished Families in Wrestling, a segment devoted to the Von Erich family. Kevin was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Michael Hayes on April 4, 2009. Kevin accompanied his sons Ross and Marshall to the ring for a tag-team match on June 15, 2014. Kevin was on stage at the WWE Hall of Fame on April 2, 2016 to address his friendship with the Fabulous Freebirds.

Von Erich, a senior citizen of the United States, returned to wrestling for the first time in 22 years on July 9, 2017. At the Rage Wrestling Mega Show in Tel Aviv, Israel, he teamed with his sons Ross and Marshall to defeat Marty Jannetty, Jumping Lee, and Gery Roif.

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