Kevin Von Erich

Kevin Ross Adkisson (born May 15, 1957) is an American retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Kevin Von Erich.

A member of the Von Erich family, Von Erich is best known for his appearances with his father's World Class Championship Wrestling promotion.

He is a six-time world champion, having held the WCWA World Heavyweight Championship (NWA American Heavyweight Championship) on 6 different occasions.

Adkisson played football at North Texas State University as a fullback, second string to Garry Smith, until an injury ended his football career and dream of playing in the National Football League.

During the late-1970s, Kevin established himself in the Dallas territory.

Adkisson started wrestling as Kevin Von Erich in 1976.

He spent most of his career wrestling for his father's promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling.

Kevin's natural athletic ability and good looks made him one of the promotion's biggest stars.

He achieved great success in the company both as a singles and tag team wrestler, often participating in many of the company's high-profile feuds.

Kevin was also known for wrestling barefoot, highly unusual in a sport where almost all wrestlers wear high-topped boots.

World Class announcers often jokingly referred to him as "The Barefoot Boy" on WCCW broadcasts.

Kevin later admitted in an interview that he never set out to wrestle barefoot, but that before one of his matches someone hid his boots as a joke, and he wasn't able to find them before his match, so he just went out barefoot to wrestle, and it later became his trademark.

Contrary to popular belief, he wore boots in matches in his early career, including his debut match against Paul Perschmann and in a match against "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka.

Kevin was a big fan of Snuka's, who also wrestled barefoot, and Kevin often performed a move similar to Snuka's flying body splash from the top rope, which Snuka called the Superfly.

His first major success came in 1978 while wrestling as a tag team with his younger brother David.

During the year, they captured the NWA Texas Tag Team Championship on two occasions as well as the NWA American Tag Team Championship.

On Christmas Day 1978, he established himself firmly in the singles ranks of the promotion by defeating Bruiser Brody for the NWA American Heavyweight Championship.

In 1980, Kevin Von Erich made his only wrestling appearance in the WWF on January 21 against Johnny Rodz, in a match he won.

As the 1980s dawned, Kevin became one of the promotion's most viable performers and continued to win numerous championships in both singles and tag team competition with a variety of different partners.

However, his highest profile partners would always be his brothers Kerry and David.

As the early-1980s progressed, Kevin would appear often at other NWA-promoted territories, including St. Louis, Georgia Championship Wrestling and briefly Florida Championship Wrestling.

Kevin also competed in a few matches for the World Wrestling Federation.

In early 1982, the Fabulous Freebirds, consisting of Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts, left Georgia Championship Wrestling after meeting WCCW booker Gary Hart at a show.

Appearing in World Class, the trio instantly became fan favorites due to a combination of their unique talents and chemistry as well as their close friendship with the Von Erichs.

All three rose quickly through the ranks and in late November 1982, Hayes and Gordy defeated the team of King Kong Bundy and Wild Bill Irwin for the NWA American Tag Team Championship.

A feud between the Von Erichs and Freebirds developed roughly a month later.

During WCCW's annual Christmas show in 1982, Kerry Von Erich faced Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship inside of a steel cage with Michael Hayes acting as a special referee.

As explained in The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling DVD, the storyline, developed by Gary Hart, was written as Hayes having been selected by fans to be a special enforcer type of referee in the match.

Near the end of the match, Flair shoved Hayes, which resulted in Hayes punching him.

Hayes then tried to place Kerry on top of Flair to make the three count.

Von Erich refused to do so since it wasn't the "Texas thing to do", which led to a brief shoving match and argument between the two.

Hayes, disgusted with the situation, told Terry Gordy, who had been assigned as the gatekeeper, to open the cage door.

As Hayes is about to leave Von Erich was attacked from behind by Ric Flair, with the former accidentally hitting Hayes and knocking him out of the cage.

The angle was written as having neither Hayes nor Gordy being aware that Kerry was shoved into Hayes.

As Kerry was getting to his feet inside the ring, that was the signal for Gordy to slam the cage door shut, hitting Kerry on the head and costing him the championship.

The Freebirds immediately became the top heels in the company, due to the belief of many fans that their actions cost one of their local heroes the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.

As the feud was building, the WCCW television broadcasts were syndicated to television stations all across the United States, giving the promotion millions of viewers each week in the U.S. alone.

This changed the face of wrestling and how it was marketed and presented to audiences.

The extremely physical nature of the matches between the two factions captivated fans, changing preconceptions about what professional wrestling was and could be.

Throughout the next several years, the Freebirds and Von Erichs engaged in numerous high-profile matches that were very physical in nature with the various members of each group feuding over various championships within the promotion.