PREVIEW: "The Triumph & Tragedy Of World Class Championship Wrestling" (out Jan. 12)

BACK in the early 1980s, the hottest wrestling promotion in the US wasn’t the WWF. It was the Dallas-based World Class, headlined by the mega-popular Fritz Von Erich and his sons, David, Kerry, Kevin and, later, Mike and Chris.

The company scaled new heights of success through such innovations as the introduction of entrance music for its wrestlers, state-of-the-art camerawork, exciting matches and compelling feuds, led by the Von Erichs vs the Fabulous Freebirds, which lit a fuse under the Texas promotion.

Kevin, Kerry and David Von Erich...only Kevin is still alive today

Fritz takes on the Fabulous Freebirds

The Freebirds: Michael "PS" Hayes, Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy and Buddy "Jack" Roberts

But within 10 years all the brothers except Kevin were dead - as were Terry Gordy, Gino Hernandez, Bruiser Brody and others - and World Class went quickly out of business. WWE's two-disc DVD The Triumph & Tragedy Of World Class Championship Wrestling examines the reasons surrounding the company’s speedy rise and equally as speedy destruction.

OK, the documentary's quite good even with all the WWE spin and bullshit – Kevin Von Erich is an hilarious liar, by the way.

The Freebirds in 2007 are tragic to look at - Buddy Roberts uses a buzzbox in the throat to talk, Jimmy Garvin's a fat fuck and Michael Hayes looks like he's eaten half of the WWE roster. At least Hayes is still interesting when he talks.

And, frankly, they're just about the only guys from the glory days of WCCW still alive to talk about it, so it's good they're on this DVD. At least they're more honest than Kevin.

Gary Hart's good value, too, as is "Wild" Bill Irwin. Even Mick Foley drops by to throw in a few thoughts.

But the doco gets hazy with the facts (surprise, surprise) and the World Class timeline at times. It’s also loose with history when it suits the story (e.g. they pretend Michael Hayes' final babyface run in World Class in 1987 never happened. Admittedly, he'd probably want to forget about that disastrous run, too).

The documentary hints that David died of a drug overdose, but it's mainly the same kayfabe "stomach burst" bullshit we've read elsewhere. WWE can't hide it, but they let slide a lot of the bad-taste angles Fritz did to exploit the boys' deaths and illnesses. The Lance Von Erich debacle is also glossed over.

Triple H takes on the Steve Lombardi role in this DVD - he's all over it and, for some reason, takes great delight in dissing "the hard-core style...well, I don't even like to call it a style" while talking about Bruiser Brody and Abdullah The Butcher. He also says the classic lesson learned from the Von Erich story is “don’t do drugs”…I found that an ironic statement.

Overall, Triumph & Tragedy is an adequate doco. WWE and Kevin can put as much spin on the subject as they like, but it's so powerful and tragic that the truth still cuts through all the crap.

I’d recommend the DVD although I was disappointed with the extras. At least they have the full Christmas Day 1982 match between Kerry Von Erich and Ric Flair - where the Freebirds turned on Kerry - which is an absolute highlight (I’d only ever seen it before as a blurry 25th generation dub).

It’s also nice to see a classic Midnight Express (w/- Jim Cornette) vs Fantastics match (whatever became of “Little John”, I wonder?) and Brody vs Abdullah in a cage. Plus the "Jimmy Garvin and Sunshine as David Von Erich's valets for a day" skit and the music video for the Freebirds' Badstreet USA are priceless.

But there are so many other great, important matches WWE could have included that were left out. And tons more Freebirds promos, too.

Maybe they're saving them for a second volume?