Chavo Guerrero has explained why not all of the Von Erich family is featured in The Iron Claw biopic of the family.
The film focuses on the triumphs and heartbreaks of the Von Erichs, specifically the brothers Kevin, Kerry, David and Mike. As many wrestling fans are aware, Fritz Von Erich had six children. Along with the aforementioned brothers, the firstborn son, Jack Adkisson Jr., tragically passed away at 6 years old.
The youngest of 6 children, Chris Von Erich, did attempt to follow in his brothers’ footsteps in the wrestling world and would hold multiple victories over Percy Pringle [Paul Bearer] and Steve Austin while wrestling in the USWA in 1990. However, Von Erich would never achieve the same success as his brothers, mainly due to having brittle bones and only being 5 foot 5 in height.
Chris Von Erich would suffer from depression due to the suicide of his brother Mike and frustrations from not achieving the same achievements as his siblings. The youngest Von Erich would sadly take his own life in 1991.
Chavo Guerrero Recalls Conversation With The Iron Claw Director Regarding Chris Von Erich
Chavo Guerrero was a large part of The Iron Claw both in front of and behind the camera. Along with training stars Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White on how to wrestle in the biopic, Guerrero stars in the movie as The Sheik. Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Guerrero recalled talking to director Sean Durkin about Chris Von Erich not being included and the decision was made to keep the film at a reasonable runtime:
“I brought that up to Sean [Durkin, director] when I read the script, I said, you know that there’s the other [brother], Chris Von Erich, he’s is not in the movie. And Sean had a great point. He just said it was too much tragedy. I mean, we only have a certain amount of time to tell the story. I explained this to, I think it was Lacey and Hollie. And they kind of mentioned you know, Uncle Chris isn’t in the movie. And I said, Well, this thing about where the movie wanted to go, are we doing a great movie or are we doing a documentary? Two different things.
They’re like, Yeah, you got a point here and I said [if we make a] documentary and we’re gonna put it on Discovery Channel, the whole three-part series, you know, whatever. Great, let’s do it to tell it justice. I go but for a movie. I mean, who wants to see a three-and-a-half-hour movie with more and more tragedies and more and more? It’s gonna be tough.”
According to IMDB, the runtime for The Iron Claw is 2 hours and 10 minutes. While many wrestling fans are hotly anticipating the release of The Iron Claw, the movie has been snubbed in a recent round of major movie nominations.
During the same interview, the ex-WWE star revealed why full matches were filmed for The Iron Claw.
If you use any quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet and leave a h/t to Inside The Ropes.