Where Are The Iron Claw Wrestlers Now?

Lionsgate, WWE, NWA, Vice, The Von Erich Family

Remember when the movies treated wrestling like it was a joke?

Like No Holds Barred, Nacho Libre or my personal favourite Ready to Rumble!

Hollywood has always looked down on wrestling. They call it fake. Unlike all the documentary footage Hollywood makes – like this real footage of humanoid cats that did so well for them. 

Even when one of cinema’s most celebrated auteurs Darren Aronofsky released The Wrestler in 2008, some believe its lead Mickey Rourke lost out on the Best Actor Oscar because he appeared on a segment with Chris Jericho on Raw.

But as great work from Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring, and the wrestling films and TV shows from Rock ‘The Dwayne’ Johnson has shown, professional wrestling is as real as it gets.

And there are few more tragically true stories in its history than the Von Erichs.

A24’s Iron Claw movie tells the tale of the Von Erich family, who for a brief period in the early 80s were wrestling megastars in their home state of Texas – but whose dynasty ended in an almost unbelievable series of tragedies.

The film also centres on World Class Championship Wrestling, the Dallas-based promotion where they made their name – which was also home to some of the craziest characters in 80s wrestling, many of whom show up in the film

Some had their lives cut short, like most of the Von Erichs; others are still with us; and a few are amongst the biggest and most impactful names in wrestling history.

Here is what happened to all the Iron Claw wrestlers in real life…

11. Jack Jr. Von Erich

Let’s start with the main characters in the film – the Von Erichs themselves. Or are they?! Because the Von Erichs aren’t actually the Von Erichs.

Their real last name is Adkisson, but the family father in the movie Jack changed his name to Fritz Von Erich when he was an active wrestler in the 1950s – which was designed as a post-World War 2 “evil foreigner” gimmick. 

Which means a group that would go onto be the ultimate All-American family, the kayfabe roots of their public name was originally a bit, well, Nazi. 

Anyway, Fritz was a big time heel in 50s North America, which was when the first family tragedy struck.

While staying at a trailer park in Niagara Falls in 1959, Fritz and his wife Doris’s oldest son Jack Jr died after touching the metal part of a caravan that had somehow been electrified, and then falling face down in a puddle where he drowned.

He was only 6 years old, and some say Fritz never truly got over the loss.

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