"I'm pretty sure one of the brothers dies" Oh my...

Facts: While this movie is based on a true story, there are some things left out. There was actually a 6th Von Erich brother named Chris Von Erich. Sadly Chris like Mike before him and Kerry after him committed suicide in 1991 at the age of 21. Chris was left out of the movie because the director felt the film would be more depressing and tragic than it already was. At the time of Kerry's suicide, he was going through a bad divorce and was about to be arrested for violating a probation for forging prescriptions for painkillers. Kerry left behind 2 daughters Holly and Lacey. Lacey would actually enter the Wrestling business competing in TNA from 2009 to 2011. Kevin Von Erich has 2 sons who have also entered the Wrestling business as a Tag Team named Ross and Marshall. they have competed in AEW, TNA and other Independent companies.

For clarification the Olympics weren’t cancelled. The United States simply sat out the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow over Soviet human rights abuses, and over Afghanistan. In addition, several other nations joined in the boycott, and a number of others didn’t show up for other reasons.

That ending is the most beautiful, heart-wrenching hug to the soul and so desperately needed after so many punches to the gut!

15:44 There are several factors to a wrestler's success. There's this industry term known as 'Heat" which is when a wrestler is either really popular with the crowd, or really hated. Also wrestlers who are less prone to injuries get more of the championship opportunities. Then there are those virtues that apply for any profession; hard work, good attitude, easy to work with, most of all reliability. Wrestlers like Sting and The Undertaker are the two best examples of all those traits.

I think what hits me the hardest about this movie is, as a brother, we go through the best times and the worst times together. And at the end of each day it’s all love. As men, we are taught that emotion is weakness, and that we have to be strong 27/7/365. To be a rock for everyone and never rely on someone to unload your feelings bc feelings make weak men. And that’s not right at all. Granted it’s the old fashioned way of thinking and what we as a society practiced manhood for the longest time but as this movie has shown, it can be blown to major proportions where one man’s ambition and lack of understanding of his children can can effect the emotional, mental, and even physical state of his kids.

Most wrestlers don't actually rehearse the matches, they call it in the ring, but the "finish" as in who wins and how is decided before the match. The hits do hurt, especially falling. However, some older wrestlers would hit just a little harder to test the younger talent coming up. Also, yes, Kerry wrestled with a prosthetic.

The two wrestlers depicted that Kerry and David faced in their tag match were Bruiser Brody and Gino Hernandez. Both of them would die tragically at early ages. Gino would die to a cocaine overdose at the age of 28. Bruiser Brody was stabbed to death by a fellow wrestler/booker (the match maker) over a business dispute. He was 42.

RIP Jack, Dave, Kerry, Mike and Chris. I watched Kerry in WWF when I was a kid, he was one of my favorites.

Bad parenting was the curse of the Von Erichs.

Now, for anyone unaware of wrestling history, Kerry’s old tag-team partner Hellwig is of course James Hellwig better known to fans of the WWF/WWE as The Ultimate Warrior, a Hall of Fame member with a complicated legacy.

Not so fun fact, there was another brother who was completely written out of the script, but he also shot himself in the head at the age of 21 and died by suicide, literally the only reason he wasn’t included was because the director thought the audience couldn’t take any more sadness

As with most movies based on actual events, there are a lot of things that they omitted, timelines that got condensed and some things that were just wrong. These are the ones that I know about. 1) David was married to his second wife at the time of his death. His first marriage came to an end after their 13-week-old daughter passed away from SIDS. 2) Kerry had two daughters at the time of his death. He and the children's mother had attempted a reconciliation, but due to his continuing legal troubles it did not work. 3) Fritz actually spent the morning with Kerry on the day that Kerry passed away. Before Kerry left the house, he hugged his father and told him that he loved him. Fritz found Kerry's body several hours later sitting in a tree that the boys would climb as kids. 4) Fritz had missed out on the Olympics as a discus thrower when he was younger as well. He could not afford to pay for his travel and the AAU wouldn't pay for the trip as Fritz had gotten married. When he was in high school Fritz set the high school state record for the discus throw. That record stood until Kerry broke it. According to Kevin had Fritz been able to go to the Olympics he matched his best throw Fritz would have won gold. 5) Kerry didn't lose his foot the night he won the title. He lost his foot two years after he won the title. He only held the title for 18 days before losing it back to Flair. Kerry winning the title was really just a favor to the family as the NWA did not trust Kerry who had missed shows he was booked on earlier in his career due to his substance abuse issues it was believed. 6) It was Fritz, and a business partner sold their majority ownership of the WCCW to Jerry Jarrett, not Kevin. In fact, it was Kevin who was against the sale. 7) The match where Kevin "flipped out" on Ric Flair did happen, but it took place a little over a year after David's death. It was also the predetermined finish to the match. 8) Kevin and Pam, I believe had two daughters before they had their two sons.

Wrestling territories during this time had what are called "bookers", their responsibility is to set up the matches, coordinate them with the wrestlers, come up with a "finish" or how it ends, and who goes "over" or wins the match. They also come up with "angles" or storylines for the wrestlers as well. This management job is normally filled by a former wrestler whose very knowledgeable and trustworthy.

The Von Erichs were a devout Christian family. Fritz was a born again Christian and he built the image of his sons as good honest boys with good morals and Christian values.

Denton, Texas here! There was actually another brother the film did not depict, Chris Von Erich was I believe the youngest and also ended up taking his own life. The director left him out because he thought it would be too much or just too heavy for the film.

Watching The Iron Claw in the cinema was an amazing experience.

This so true,in the early 90s Kerry von erich wrestle with one foot as Texas Tornado

It should be noted there are some changes to the truth the movie made for dramatization. There was another younger brother, Chris, that also took his life. Probably got left out because of time and because YET ANOTHER brother dying would have seen as exaggered and unrealistic, strangely enough. There are also some other details that got left over, like Kerry having a family on his own and going through a divorce. Kevin watched the movie and said that it's good, but the depiction of his father was very exaggerated, he wasn't so mean IRL. He said he was a very honorable man in reality. I've read that it wasn't him that didn't want to sell their promotion despite the desire of Kevin to do so, but the other way around. His father wanted to sell and Kevin didn't. Also, his father literally said about David that he felt guilty for not checking on him more closely to be sure he was okay, no "god chose to take it", etc. That said, there are confirmed sources that say he was indeed fairly rough in his attitude. Probably not as mean as portrayed in the movie, but very old fashioned and stubborn. Kevin, tho, stated that IRL what killed his brothers was mostly drugs and painkillers addiction, that messed up with their heads. By the way, Kevin also said that there is one scene that got him and made him teary eyed and that is precisely the same scene that made you emotional, the afterlife reunion between Kerry and his brothers.

Fun Fact: Kevin Von Erich's son's are actually WRESTLERS and have been on AEW! They are NATURALS!!!

I think I understand why they didn't have Chris, I don't think the Audience could have survived to the end of the film if Chris' story had been included, he was very physically frail compared to all his big brothers, but he tried desperately hard to keep up, breaking his own bones even, all in the face of extreme bullying from the fans, for being shorter, and weaker, they would often mock him by asking, "Are you going to be a Wrestler like your brothers when you grow up?" and in the end he couldn't withstand it anymore and decided to take his own life.

Kevin would sell the WCCW video library to the WWE around the time that the family was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Much of the video library is on the WWE section of the streaming service Peacock, so if you wanted to watch some of the older videos of the brothers wrestling you could stream them on there.

Everytime she says "I think one of the brother dies" I'm just thinking "well,not ONE of the brother dies " Sorry for the dark humor. I had to. Sorry Kevin

Technically, there were 6 brothers. Jack Jr. (The oldest) was electrocuted and drowned. David died in Japan of a ruptured intestine. Michael, Chris (who wasn't mentioned and bits of his personality was used for Mike.) And Kerry all died by suicide by gunshot. Kevin's the only living Von Erich of his generation.

After seeing the movie for the first time Kevin said that they only thing he didn't like about the movie was the depiction of his father Fritz. He calls Fritz a "decent and honorable man." Kevin blames accidents, illness and substance abuse for the deaths of his brothers more than anything else. But he also understands that the film needed an antagonist of some sort in order for the story to work. I'm not saying that Fritz was a saint by any means, but if Kevin of all people does not hold a grudge towards his father it must say something about either Kevin's forgiving nature or that from the outside looking in it might've looked to others that Fritz was hard on the boys, but there must've been sometimes where he showed that he did really care for each of his sons.

The real life story is even more depressing. They left out another brother because it would be too sad. So they made their brother who hurt his shoulder a combination of two of the brothers. But in real life they had a whole nother brother who died so there were six boys five of them died

If I was to EVER have sons (naturally OR Adopted) I would want them to have the Von Erich Brother Dynamics and Love. Those boys had a love for one another that is VERY RARE to find amongst brothers. No one is jealous of anyone...they all want each other to succeed. That was the ONE THING Kevin Von Erich said NEEEEEDED to be in the film....showing how much he and his brothers meant to one another.

Afortunatly the wrestling scene is pretty different these days, for example, in the Wrestlemania of this year (Night 2) the women champion, Rhea Ripley, suffered a panick attack before her match. In the 80s-90s she would be bullied af for the promotor or even fired in that exact same moment, but what happened was pretty different: Triple H (actual COO of WWE or WWF and also ex wrestler) give his support to Rhea until she was able to compite Now the wrestler are just chilling out in the backstage, playing videogames until their match, suporting each others and having a good time And yes, there are still idiots who believe that wrestling have to be like in the old days, one of them is Vince Russo who just a few weeks ago declared that crying is wrestling shouldnt be allowed the day after Cody Rhodes (actual WWE Champion) did an emotional promo remembering his father Dusty Rhodes

I hate when people say wrestling is fake. I am not a fan of it not since i was a kid but ask Eddie Guerrero, owen hart or mankind (he didn't die but was thrown off the cage dur a match with the undertaker) if wrestling is fake. It predetermined but the injuries are real

There is 1 brother they left out of the movie and he also died

There were 6 brothers in reality.

Kevin just sold the ranch for 17 million.

Planned not fake. They actually get hurt

It should be noted that the movie under plays how much of a shitty of a father Fritz is in real life. He was much worse. Much much worse.

Kerry Von Erich went to the WWF in 1991-1992, he was wrestling with a prostic foot. He was actually amazing in the ring, people didn't even know he had a fake foot until decades later in documentaries about the family...he wanted kept from the public. The wrestlers knew about his foot because he would change in the looker rooms and play pranks on them using his foot...but the Public had no idea because he was still wrestling really good. He was known as the Texas Tornado in the WWE.

Oh, gosh - I would love to enjoy this reaction, but it's a fairly recent vod release and I haven't had the chance to see it. Here's the most sacred of my "ShamblePants Rulez to Commenting on the KZfaqz"; 1) Do not be a putz by posting negative or "You should never do..." type messages. It's not really helpful, and it takes away from all the phenomenal things the video creator does. AND it's unbelievably mean! Although I've never done a reaction video, it looks like a lot of hard work. Respect is essential. Today I break (slightly) from my most important rule. Maybe...maybe, react to stuff that's been out for at least four or five months on vod, with the exception of a "so hot it's gonna be seen immediately by everyone once it drops on vod" horror/thriller/scifi release. Like 'Barbarian', 'Saltburn', 'Prey', or 'Talk to Me' (which I think you absolutely aced those reactions at the perfect time). 'Late Night With the Devil' (vod release date is April 19) looks like one of those super hot releases that people are chomping at the bit to see asap. I'm certainly jumping on this movie the second it's available. I will now hush up, but say - Thank You for being so awesome! I always have such a great time watching your videos.

This was pretty accurate. There are at least 2 fantastic documentaries on the family and company.

Wrestling is not fake, people are. Too bad most of this isn't even true. Where is the other brother?? Where is David Manning, Fritz's right hand man and the one that told Fritz that David had died? They DID NOT EVEN consult with Manning or the only brother loft, Kevin, THEY NEVER TALKED TO HIM!! WTF??? For those of us who know the real story, this is just not good. The portrayal of Ric Flair is downright embarrassing. Harley Race and the Freebirds were actually good. Also, Kerry was bigger than Kevin but in this he is quite a bit smaller.

+LauraShawnLee There was a 6th brother named Chris who also got into wrestling and also killed himself.. He however was left out or well combined with Mike's character. Kevin's two sons grew up to be wrestlers using the Von Erich name. Kerry has a daughter who is also a wrestler who also uses the Von Erich name. Fritz (father) died 3yrs after Kerry.