10 Dumbest Decisions In Wrestling History
7. Lance Von Erich
The Dallas, Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling best distilled the essence of a regional territory in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Texans are inherently proud, and the home state heroes, the Von Erichs, fulfilled that pride. Athletic and tough enough for the guys, and handsome enough for the girls - Kerry would often get off women when making his ring entrance - their collective star power and babyface values elevated them as mega-draws. They were, simply, heroes to these people: genuinely charismatic and very talented performers with an authenticity that forged the bond forever.
Until the strange and awful family curse - or the grim inevitability of lives lived at midnight - struck.
David had died in 1984, at the height of the seminal Von Erichs vs. Fabulous Freebirds rivalry. His replacement in those wars, Mike, suffered toxic shock syndrome following shoulder surgery. Since Chris was woefully, tragically unsuited to the business - it got to him too, in the end - a new Von Erich brother, Lance, was manufactured in wildly unpopular defiance of what made what was barely an act work.
Fans smelled the bullsh*t immediately, and hated the stench. This accelerated a perhaps inevitable demise, as did Fritz Von Erich's faked heart attack, a disgusting act of plausible manipulation.
The gritty, localised promotion - a close and hugely popular approximation of sport boasting a lineage traced from high school football but yes, also Kamala - devolved into fake, carny bullsh*t.