Chris Von Erich, the Missing Brother
Once the trailer first hit, fans were a bit disturbed to see that the family photo of the Von Erichs only had four brothers in it. While the movie does make mention of the oldest brother, Jack Jr., who died tragically at age six, there was yet another Von Erich brother who adds to the family’s upsetting history. Chris Von Erich (Chris Adkisson, but I’m just going to use their wrestling names for the rest of this article for the sake of simplicity) was the youngest of the brothers and was involved in WCCW for years, acting as a camera man among other jobs. Occasionally, as a teenager, he would get involved in certain on-camera Von Erich storylines.
While Chris was interested in becoming a wrestler like his brothers, he was physically not made for it. Like a real-life Steve Rogers without science fiction to save him, Chris pushed himself despite certain drawbacks like his size, asthma, and brittle bones. Just over a year into his short career of under a dozen matches, Chris became depressed and disillusioned, ultimately taking his own life at the young age of 21 in 1991.
The belief was that adding Chris to the movie would add to what was already a lengthy runtime. Regardless of the reason, it seems that some of Chris’ story is absorbed into Mike, whose screen time can be summed up with, “He shouldn’t have been wrestling to begin with.”
Mike Von Erich’s Career
The rapid pacing gives an idea that the youngest onscreen brother, Mike Von Erich (who is played by Stanley Simons), was pressured into wrestling, messed up his shoulder in his debut, and that was the end of his career. It’s a very simplistic reduction of what really was a career that lasted nearly 200 matches.
Yes, Mike was not a muscular god like his brothers before him. He was thinner and he was definitely stuck in the shadows of Kevin (Zac Efron), David (Harris Dickinson), and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White). He still got by well enough, but his shoulder was a regular problem for him. As shown in the movie, a routine surgery did end up going very badly and he suffered from toxic shock syndrome. There was indeed brain damage and he was very out of it during his press conference, but Simons’ performance does make it a bit more overt for dramatic effect.
Mike did come back to wrestling a year later and wrestled regularly, performing in over 50 matches for another nine months. He really shouldn’t have, but he did. He lost a lot of weight from his near-death experience, and there were lingering brain problems, including some random bouts with rage. What the movie definitely got right was the indications that he was not truly passionate about becoming a wrestler to begin with and was more into camerawork and being a musician.
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December 23, 2023 at 10:00PM
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The Iron Claw: True Story of Von Erich Family Curse Is Even More Tragic Than the Movie - Den of Geek
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