The Iron Claw faces the same issues as any adaption, except its real life.

The story of the Von Erichs is one that has obsessed not just wrestling fans but people throughout Texas, a state they owned for a large part of the 80s. 

Fritz Von Erich (played by Holt McCallany) started his life as a discuss thrower and football player by the name of Jack Adkisson at Southern Methodist University. He married Doris Smith (Maura Tierney)– they had been teenage sweethearts at Crozier Technical High School – and their marriage cost Jack his scholarship. He transferred to Corpus Christi University before trying to play for the NFL and then heading to Canada to keep his dream of a football career alive. 

There, he met Stu Hart, who trained him and paired him with Waldo Von Erich. The film glosses over the fact that the brother tag team did a Nazi gimmick, goosestepping in the ring in a time not much more than a decade after the end of the war. 

The family’s first brush with tragedy was the death of Jack Jr. after he was electrocuted by touching a part of their trailer, slipped and drowned in a puddle of snow in Niagara Falls, New York.

Jack, Doris and their sons Kevin and David continued on, as Fritz travelled more in the Midwest and won the AWA title – both versions, Minnesota and Omaha – three times and the NWA U.S. title twenty times. He was also a huge star in Japan, where his “Tetsu no Tsume” bloodied Giant Baba. After a loss in NWA hotbed St. Louis against champion Gene Kiniski, he headed to Texas where he began his own territory.

He also had three more sons, Kerry, Mike and Chris. 

The film is based around Kevin (Zac Efron), the brother who gets the first start in the world of wrestling in his father’s promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling. Taking a page out of the book of Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, he wrestled barefoot, yet the legend is that someone hid his boots before a match and he just got used to not wearing them.

Soon, Kevin would team with his brother David (Harris Dickinson), named for Doris’ brother David, who died months before he was born. In case the tragedy of this movie is too much, real life is worse, as Doris’ younger sibling was just 14. The film takes the time to show a match between Kevin and Harley Race (Kevin Anton), the NWA World Champion, a belt that Fritz was obsessed with winner and now wants one of his sons to win. Upset with Kevin’s performance, he decides that David will get the next title shot.

What the movie doesn’t show was that at this time, David was the true breakout star of the family. He had already started working outside WCCW in Missouri, being groomed for a major babyface (good guy) role. On May 27, 1979, David wrestled Race in a non-title match and defeated him with the Iron Claw. Back then, these things didn’t just happen.

Another fact in real life that points to David being the real star of the family instead of Kevin was that he went off to Florida and teamed with Kendo Nagasaki, Jimmy Garvin and the Funks, managed by J.J. Dillon. By learning how to be a heel (bad guy), he would gain the skills that the NWA World Champion needed. The champ was used as a barnstorming draw, going from NWA promotion to promotion, working their local star and making them look good. That meant that champs – like Dory Funk Jr., Ric Flair and Race – had to be able to work face or heel. 

The film also doesn’t show that WCCW’s TV really was ahead of its time. David brough Garvin back to Texas with him and had a memorable feud where he won Garvin and his valet Precious’ services for a month working on his ranch. He was also instrumental in bringing in the Freebirds, even teaming with them at the “Wrestling Star Wars” card at Reunion Arena on December 25, 1982. As Buddy Roberts didn’t make it, David, Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin won the WCCW Six Man Titles from Tom Sharpe, Mike Sharpe and Ben Steel. David gave his belt to Buddy, which he would regret when later that night, Kerry (Kerry battled NWA World Champion Ric Flair in a Steel Cage with Michael Hayes and David Manning as the referees ) fought NWA World Champion Ric Flair in a steel cage with Hayes and David Manning as the referees. At one point, Hayes knocked out Flair and tried to give the win to Kerry. Kerry refused the pin and instead, the Freebirds slammed a cage door on his head. The feud between the brothers and the Southern rockers — “This rivalry isn’t between Texas and Georgia, it’s between decency and filth!” – began. Most of this is shown quickly in the film and never touched on.

As for Kerry, the movie claims that he was training for the Olympics. The truth is he was a great high school athlete, but the story would always be that people took things from the Von Erichs. A bad tackle took away Kevin’s NFL career. The Russians took the Olympics from Kerry.

At this point, the film shows that Kevin was married to Pam (Lily James) and his brothers remained single. In truth, David married Candy L. McLeod and had a child, Natosha Zoeanna Adkisson, who died at 13 weeks of age due to SIDS. He married a second time to Patricia A. Matter. Kerry married  Catherine M. Murray in 1983 and had two daughters, Hollie and Lacey, who wrestled for TNA. Mike married Shani Garz in 1985. None of these events are shown in the movie. 

What is shown is that David was showing signs of being sick. Officially, his death was listed as ruptured intestines resulting from acute enteritis. Kevin and Manning claimed it was a heart attack while Ric Flair claimed in his book that it was a painkiller overdose and Bruiser Brody and referee Joe Higuchi flushed all of the evidence.

Regardless, David was due to face Flair before he died. The angle began when he defeated Flair for the NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship. The theory is that the NWA Championship Committee voted in January 1984 for David to win the World Title from Ric Flair in March or April of that year. David battled Flair at Reunion Arena on December 25, 1983, and Flair retained the NWA World Championship. Flair then did an interview where he commented on how Mike Von Erich was not a good wrestler and how he could beat him in 60 seconds with one hand tied behind his back. On January 30, 1984, Mike and Flair would battle at that year’s Wrestling Star Wars in a 10 Minute Challenge Match. If Flair beat Mike in that time, David would never again ask for another shot at the NWA World title, but if Flair did not beat Mike in ten minutes, David would get to name the place, the time and every stipulation for his match against Ric Flair. Mike won, but then David died on tour for All Japan – defending the United National title that is now part of the Triple Crown – on February 10, 1984.

The movie then sets up that there was a coin toss between Kevin and Kerry. By skipping the Freebirds angle in the Kerry vs. Flair cage match, the movie makes it seem as if Kerry didn’t deserve the title match. In truth, Kerry was on magazine covers at this point – and even had shirts sold in the Northeast at Sears – as a major star. He’d already been close to beating Flair, so when they had their match in front of over 45,000 fans at Texas Stadium at the David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions – there was even a song made for the event, “Heaven Needed a Champion” – he had to win.

In real life, Kerry lost the belt 18 days later in Yokosuka, Japan to Flair, even though his feet were on the ropes.

In the movie, Kerry is in a motorcycle accident that night. This is false, as that accident happened two years after when it does in the movie, on June 4, 1986. According to Kevin, Kerry injured the foot following surgery by attempting to walk on it prematurely and ruined the foot, which caused the amputation. This was a huge secret even within wrestling, as he often showered with his boots on. 

The movie also shows that this is when Mike started training. In truth, Mike debuted on November 24, 1983 against Skandar Akbar. While not the level of a star as his brothers, he did work a New Japan Pro Wrestling tour and was given a title match with IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Shiro Koshinaka. He also wasn’t injured in one of his first matches, but instead during a tour of Israel – the movie doesn’t get into what big stars the brothers were in that country – and had surgery on August 22, 1985. He was released from the hospital but later he developed a fever of 107 °F and was diagnosed with toxic shock syndrome. That’s how he got brain damage and lost so much weight. He did kill himself but not until two years later, four days after he was arrested for a DUI. 

As for Kerry, at this point, he was involved in an interpromotional feud with Jerry Lawler that had its blowoff at SuperClash III in 1988, as well as working for Jerry Jarrett’s USWA, which bought World Class in 1989 (and not after Kerry died, as shown in the movie). His WWF run kicked off with him defeating Buddy Rose – his first ever opponent, a coincidence – on the July 16, 1990 Saturday Night’s Main Event. He was renamed the Texas Tornado and announcers gradually stopped calling him by his family name. He feuded with fellow second generation star “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig and defeated him for the Intercontinental Title at SummerSlam 1990 before another son of a wrestler, “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase cost him the title and started another feud.

The movie makes it seem like a surprise that Kerry was heading down the cards. In truth, he was one of Flair’s first WWF opponents and was still opening on house shows. However, he was having pain killer issues and had even stolen a prescription pad from a doctor to make his own orders. His marriage ended, causing personal problems that hastened him leaving the company. 

Back in Texas, he was arrested twice. The second charge would have violated his probation, which was leading to jail time, which is why many believe he killed himself with a bullet to the heart, using the gun he gave his father, on February 18, 1993. In his book, Bret Hart mentions that Kerry – who consoled the Hitman when his brother Dean died – often told him that his brothers were calling him to heaven, a scene that this movie shows.

As you can see, beyond the bad wigs, there’s a lot off with this movie. There are moments when people like Sam Muchnick and Jerry Jarrett are brought up. Fritz even mention that Kerry should get a shot at Hellwig – the Ultimate Warrior – a fact that seems like an inside joke but Fritz was a former NWA President. He knew how the business worked and that that would never happen. 

The movie also doesn’t show just how bad WCCW got. In 1985, they used Mike’s near death to draw fans and death in 1987 to sell tickets to the David and Mike Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions. Fritz also used the death of Gino Hernandez the next year to get over an angle where Chris Adams was blinded. This was only beat by an angle where Fritz had a heart attack in ring and depending on the ratings that week, he was either near death – after the loss of his children and a market numb to family tragedy – or getting better.

Nor does the movie talk about family friend Brian Adias, who saved Kevin’s life with CPR in ring and then was given the gimmick that he had an “oriental spike” that he would use when he feuded with Mike.

It’s impossible to get all of this in a movie this short, but most glaring is that Chris, another brother who also was too small to wrestle and killed himself, is not in the movie. Nor is the fact that Doris divorced Fritz on July 21, 1992 after 42 years of marriage.

Jack Adkisson died of brain and lung cancer at his home in Lake Dallas, Texas, pretty much all alone, on September 10, 1997. By that point, Kevin and his family had moved to Kauai, Hawaii. That’s where Doris died on October 23, 2015, surrounded by Kevin and her grand and great-grandchildren. Kevin’s daughter Kristen said, “I kissed her hand, and didn’t let it go. Those hands raised six babies, taught me how to crochet, made about a million cups of coffee and held each one of us at one time or another as we cried over the deaths of our brothers or uncles, her sons. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much comfort her hands had offered considering what grief she’d experienced, and that I’d never see them outstretched again for a hug or hear the words, “Come here, baby. Cry with Meme.” She was a rock, as cliché as it sounds, always willing to talk you through the sad times even though her own losses were so much greater.”

Doris once told an interviewer, “We hardly know who the Adkissons are anymore. We have been a wrestling family for so long. I suppose I want the family to know that when they are tired of being Von Erichs, there is a place they can come to where they can still be Adkissons. But I don’t know if you can ever stop being a Von Erich.”

Kevin would say of her, “Boys learn a lot from their dads. Things they’ll need as they grow. They may not realize it but they learn a lot from their mothers too. Life is not always about win this or defeat that, but also about ​mercy and understanding. I learned that from my mom.”

For all it gets wrong, the wrestling in The Iron Claw looks great. But what it misses is the sheer mania of The Sportatorium. It makes it seem like a small regional group instead of a wrestling company that was changing the sport. It doesn’t get across how wild the fans were, women of all ages charging the aisle just to touch one of the Von Erichs, people wanting to fight the Freebirds. It gets the idea but it doesn’t translate the feeling, the joy of watching good against evil. 

The major downer? How did they pick Aaron Dean Eisenberg to play Ric Flair? This is one of the most important wrestlers of all time and they picked someone who doesn’t look, sound or appear to be him. The moment of his promo took all the air out of the room.

Director and writer Sean Durkin said that the story couldn’t withstand more tragedy. Yet that is life, a real life, lived and survived by Kevin who famously said that he used to have brothers and now, he’s the only one left. Holt McCallany is a great actor but he only gets across a little of how frightening of a human being Fritz was; the meanest he is in this movie feels like the nicest that he was in real life.

It’s worth seeing but there are so many great documentaries about the real story that I would watch afterward so you can see how it really was. Efron does a great job at this, he looks awesome and his wrestling basics — he runs the ropes better than most people today — are great. I just wish the movie got more of the basics correct too.