Elvis himself didn’t pop the crowd at the Sportatorium in Dallas like the Von Erichs. Kevin, David, Kerry, Mike, and Chris Von Erich had that something special that all wrestlers have searched for, the crowd right in the palms of their hands.

In Texas it was almost against the law to not cheer for the Von Erichs, the home town boys from Lake Dallas who made the women swoon and the men stand up and cheer. 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to last.

David was the one who was supposed to take the family to the top. The Yellow Rose of Texas, David wrestled extensively in Florida, Georgia, and the Far East, he was being groomed for stardom well beyond the Lone Star State. The long tall Texan had the total package, the boyish good looks, the hint of mischief in his eyes, he was the torch holder for the whole family. His feuds in Texas were legendary, Kamala the Ugandan Giant, Handsome Jimmy Garvin and his valet Sunshine, Gary Hart and his band of heels, some how the long tall Texan always came out on top. What Texas wrestling fan will ever forget the time that David took Sunshine over his knee in the middle of the ring at the Sportatorium. He was being fast tracked to superstardom with talk of a World title reign in the future, except one night in Japan he went to bed and didn’t wake up. Though the medical report stated the cause of death as a ruptured small intestine, rumors over the years have pointed otherwise, what can’t be denied though was that wrestling lost a superstar in the making.  

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the end of the tragedy.

Mike was the next of the boys to be thrust into the spotlight. Coming on the heels of the death of David, Mike was ill prepared for the pressure that that would entail. In still the first year of his career Mike was struck with an illness that he never really recovered from. While in the fans eyes he was the replacement David, he didn’t have the chance, and he died of his own hand never to know the height of his career.