Fritz Von Erich’s Wrestling Career & Life Before The Iron Claw Explained

Because of the film’s timeline of events, The Iron Claw excludes much of Fritz Von Erich’s life before and during his 30-year pro wrestling career. The Iron Claw tells the true story of the Von Erich family, a band of brothers from Texas who followed in the footsteps of their father, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), and dominated the pro wrestling scene in the ’80s. However, the “cursed” Von Erich family also experienced immense tragedy and loss. Every death in The Iron Claw is filtered through the lens of the only surviving Von Erich brother, Kevin (Zac Efron).

While the timeline of the film doesn’t perfectly line up with the specific dates and times of real-life events, The Iron Claw chronicles the Von Erich brothers’ wrestling journeys. The Iron Claw begins sometime in the 1950s while Fritz was still wrestling, showing Doris (Maura Tierney) pregnant with Kerry and Kevin and David as children. After the opening scene, though, The Iron Claw skips forward to 1979 after Kevin already started wrestling. As a result, the majority of Fritz Von Erich’s life and pro wrestling career before his sons entered the ring are not depicted in The Iron Claw.

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Fritz Von Erich Attempted To Be A Professional Football Player Before Wrestling

He was also skilled at clarinet and track and field

Fritz Von Erich was born Jack Barton Adkisson on August 16, 1929, in Jewett, Texas. Fritz, who still went by Jack, graduated from Crozier Tech High School in Dallas, Texas, where he excelled in track and field (via Slam Wrestling). As Doris reveals in The Iron Claw, Fritz was also “classically trained on the clarinet” and gave up a music scholarship to the University of Texas to play football at Southern Methodist University.

After attending SMU from 1948 to 1949, Fritz transferred to Corpus Christi University and continued to play football before dropping out. In June 1952, after working as a firefighter, Fritz was signed to the NFL as a guard for the now-defunct Dallas Texans. However, as noted by Tim Hornbaker in his book, National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling, he ended up getting cut from the team and gave up his pro football dreams for good.

Fritz Von Erich & Doris Got Married In 1950 & Started A Family

The couple was married for 42 years and had six sons together

After leaving SMU, 20-year-old Fritz married 17-year-old Doris on June 23, 1950. They welcomed their first child on September 21, 1952, and named him Jack Adkisson Jr. after his father. Next came Kevin, born on May 15, 1957, followed by David on July 22, 1958. As told by Kevin in The Iron Claw, Jack Jr. tragically died at only six years old on March 7, 1959, as a result of an accidental electrocution and subsequent drowning. Though he passed long before the events of the film, Jack Jr is seen in The Iron Claw‘s ending during the afterlife scene.

Less than a year later, Kerry arrived on February 3, 1960. After Mike was born on March 2, 1964, Fritz and Doris welcomed their sixth and final son, Chris, on September 30, 1969. However, The Iron Claw leaves the youngest Von Erich brother out entirely, as though Chris never existed. In real life, after Chris’ death in 1991 marked the fourth child they’d lost, Fritz and Doris got divorced in 1992. Though they split before Kerry’s death in 1993 (which is depicted onscreen), in the film’s timeline, Fritz and Doris’ divorce happens after The Iron Claw.

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Fritz Von Erich Began Wrestling In 1953 & Changed His Name

Jack Adkisson became Fritz Von Erich

Back in the ’50s, after Jack Jr. was born and his attempts at a professional football career failed, Fritz switched career paths. Standing at 6 foot 4 and weighing upwards of 230 pounds, he was convinced to give wrestling a shot by promoter Ed McLemore, who owned the Dallas Sportatorium seen in The Iron Claw. After training with famed Canadian wrestler Stu Hart, Fritz made his official debut as a professional wrestler under his given name in January 1953, competing in preliminary matches for McLemore and fellow promoter Maurice Beck at the Sportatorium.

Sometime over the next year or so, he adopted the ring name Fritz Von Erich, “the German Giant from Munich,” and formed a tag team with his kayfabe “brother,” Waldo Von Erich. The Von Erichs’ controversial Nazi personas drew ire from live crowds and TV viewers alike and made them villains in the ring that spectators loved to hate. After Jack Jr.’s death in 1959, Fritz put a pause on his wrestling career before returning to the ring in the ’60s.

In 1966, Fritz partnered with McLemore, who had shown him the ropes of wrestling promotion and booking and become somewhat of a mentor. Together, they bought out the Dallas/Fort Worth Wrestling Office, opened Southwest Sports, and launched the Big Time Wrestling promotion, a territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In 1969, McLemore died of a heart attack and left the company and the Sportatorium to Fritz.

Fritz continued wrestling on the regional and national circuits and won numerous U.S. and World Championships in both Heavyweight and Tag Team divisions. His decades-spanning career also took him to Japan, where Fritz famously developed and popularized his signature finishing move, The Iron Claw, which inspired the name of the film. This clawhold also gave him his Japanese nickname, Tetsu no Tsume, which roughly translates to “The Iron Claw.”

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Fritz Von Erich Retired From Wrestling In 1982 To Promote WCCW

Fritz’s pro wrestling career spanned 30 years

Toward the end of the ’70s, Fritz’s three eldest sons, Kevin, David, and Kerry, made their back-to-back wrestling debuts as teenagers and adopted the Von Erich moniker. In 1982, after 30 years of competing, Fritz decided to retire and focus on promoting his sons through Big Time Wrestling, which he renamed World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW). By the end of his pro wrestling career, Fritz was a three-time World Champion and a 20-time NWA United States Champion. After the events of The Iron Claw, Fritz died of brain and lung cancer on September 10, 1997, at 68 years old.

Sources: Slam Wrestling, Tim Hornbaker: National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling, The Smackdown Hotel