Meeting a professional wrestler is not something that the average person makes plans to do, but it is something that I did once. As a teenager, I sometimes watched wrestling on television to keep myself entertained on Saturday afternoons. My favorite wrestlers were Bruiser Brody (because he would always jump in the ring unexpectedly with a 2 by 4 or a chair) and Kerry Von Erich. Von Erich was a colossal hero who you always rooted for to win. He was very popular and always had the fans in the palm of his hand. Of course, he was always pitted against sneaky villains. But everybody expected that, and that’s what they liked about Von Erich. They knew that when they watched him, he would stand up for Good — usually winning, but sometimes losing. It didn’t matter. He was the good guy, sort of like a big brother who you could depend upon to scare the bullies away.
Well, once in 1988, I went shopping with my parents at a new electronics store in Houston, and there to my surprise was Kerry Von Erich. He was promoting the store’s grand opening by signing autographs at a table near the entrance. The line was not very long to wait for an autograph, so I broke away from my parents and took my place in the line. I was about 17 at the time.
As I have mentioned, meeting a wrestler is not something that most people — including myself — ever plan to do. I was not a wrestling-maniac. I had only watched wrestling occasionally for recreation, being just as amused at the obvious theatrics of it as I was with the powerful physical feats displayed in every match.
I was not prepared to meet this man, and because I was young, I thought I was obligated to make a silly little comment when it was my turn to receive an autograph. Since fame is such a two-dimensional thing, I have never been obsessed about getting someone’s autograph. Rather, I have been more interested in getting a better understanding of who this famous person is, and how he or she responds to life. So I made a silly comment for this reason, and I never could have expected the response I was about to receive.
It was my turn, so I stepped up and Kerry Von Erich asked who he should make the autograph out to. I then asked, “Can you write a little poem . . . like, ‘Roses are red/Violets are blue/I’m Kerry Von Erich/Nice to meet you.” Yes, that is exactly what I said.
Kind of dumb and disrespectful, without meaning to be either.
Kerry Von Erich glared at me and commanded me, “Give me your hand!” I did exactly as he said without thinking, and with his massive arm he shook my hand and literally began to pull me over the table he was standing behind. I was suddenly like a puppet, and the table began to move all over the place as he pulled by body this way and that. I would have felt humiliated if I hadn’t been so surprised.
When he finally stopped, he propped me back up in place and barked at me, “ARE YOU GOING TO WORK OUT?!!!!!!!” At the same time, a glare in his eyes communicated rage. I got the clear feeling that if we had met in an alley and I had said the same thing, he would have slapped me to the ground like a pesky mosquito. Here we were now, surrounded by about 20 onlookers, and this was how he expressed his displeasure.
An agent or someone came and tried to pull him back a little, to calm the situation. Still, Kerry kept his eyes fixed on me intensely, repeating his challenge: “ARE YOU GOING TO WORK OUT?!!!!!!” He even said it a third time, until I finally gave in, saying, “Yes, I’m going to work out.”
I won’t tell you whether I did or didn’t, but I will tell you that I still think of this incident all these years later, and it has made me want to improve my character.
What I did not realize at the time was that Kerry Von Erich would commit suicide 5 years later. Wrestling was not a “game” for the Von Erich family, whether or not the fights were ever “fixed” or “rigged” to maximize their entertainment-value.
On the contrary, for Von Erich, wrestling was a do-or-die sport. If he could not do it to the best of his ability, apparently he did not want to live.
An essential thing that I did not know about Kerry at the time was that because of a very unfortunate motorcycle accident 2 years before, his foot had been amputated, and he still managed to wrestle despite the injury. However, this incident marked the beginning of years of further disappointment for him.
At the time that I met Von Erich, I also was not aware of the fact that two of his brothers had recently died from self-destructive behavior. For this reason, I could not even imagine that both another brother and himself would soon be dead also for the same reasons. (Only one of the Von Erich brothers lives today, and I respect this man for his strength and love for his family.)
Kerry was a victim of both his own drive to be the very best and of drug problems. Before he committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart, he faced the possibility of extensive jail time for violating parole. Adding to his depression was the loss of his 3 other brothers, each of whom had died a self-destructive death.
I still think about this time when I met Kerry, and the first thing I do when I think of it is to pause to pray for him. Secondly, I reflect on ways to improve my own character.
While there are often times in life when we seek to amuse ourselves by having others perform for our entertainment, or by making a silly comment that doesn’t add much to the world, in the meantime there are people all around us whose lives are in crisis.
There are very few people you can save when they are on a one-way track to self-destruction, but by investing in your community and by loving your own family, you will be able to save others and yourself from feeling that life is not worth living.
I thank Kerry Von Erich for teaching me that there are more valuable things to do in life than to make empty comments, and I pray that God blesses him for sharing this lesson with me.
