Pro wrestling legend Kevin Von Erich recently appeared on an episode of the A2theK Wrestling Show to talk about a number of topics including why he never went to the WWE.
Von Erich said, “Actually, I can go ahead and tell the truth about this now. I kind of have different values. Kerry and I were different in that way. He would work out in the gym for four hours a day, every day. I would work out an hour and a half tops. Then I did a lot of track work and swimming stuff. I just never understood…for me, I lifted weights, but it was because I wanted to be a better wrestler so I could do what I wanted to do. That’s why I lifted weights. Kerry wanted the bodybuilding thing. He wanted to look great. It’s the kind of mindset that I don’t have.” “Take that, and think, when he had that wreck and cut his foot off, he still had his heel, but not the end of his foot. To Kerry, he was a cripple and a freak. He was completely crushed inside about what he had done. The drugs that he had done. Kerry was like a wide-open Harley Davidson flying down the highway. He loved to have fun. He didn’t hurt anybody else, but he did hurt himself. He felt so bad and so down, the reason Kerry killed himself is because of that. He felt hopeless and he felt like he let us all down, all of his brothers.”
“We decided to come up with a wrestling show that was like pro football. Slow motion, collisions, and rock concerts with lasers and sound effects. We wanted to make a beautiful wrestling show like that, that had all of our stuff. We were boys when our dad did it and it’s all we know. We wanted to improve it.” “We thought we won’t have 30-minute to one-hour matches, we would have 15 to 20-minute matches filled with action. Kerry was thinking he would take that formula, go to New York, and take New York over, and ‘I’ll call you.’ ‘Kerry, I don’t want to go to New York. I’m a father and I have children and I want to be home as much as I can. If I can make the same money as New York in Texas, where I can do my real estate too, then I’m a happy man.’ I really never wanted to go to New York. It wasn’t Vince’s fault, it wasn’t anyone’s fault. They did ask me, I just didn’t want to. I wrestled all those guys anyway and by that time, I was at the end of my career. I didn’t plan on getting old in the ring. When men get old in the ring, it’s a sad thing, I didn’t want to be like that.”
You can check out the complete podcast in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
