The End of World Class

[LWPD]

The End of World Class

tinyurl.com/2p6nct

This was from the very last World Class Championship Wrestling card held at the Sportatorium in Dallas, TX circa August '89. It's a cage match between Eric Embry vs P.Y. Chu Hi (played by Phil Hickerson)...which culminated with a stip finish that saw WCCW morph into the USWA. Watch in amazement as the long standing World Class banner is stripped from the wall, thrown into the ring and then stomped upon while fans 'cheer' the symbolic dissolution of the most successful independent form of full time pro wres the state of Texas had ever seen...and would ever see...dying for good right before the eyes of a jubilant hometown audience in a moment that's most surreal when taken out of context.

LWPD (by this point Fritz Von Erich had seen the death of sons David, Mike, Chris and Kerry...along with countless top stars such as Bruiser Brody and Gino Hernandez...and had little hand in the now perishing promotion...in early '89 wrestler/booker Eric Embry miraculously revived attendance by playing a righteous underdog hero in a program against the corrupt 'army' of Skandor Akbar...a program which cast the 'creative forces' behind World Class as corrupt...this match segued into full ownership of WCCW for Jerry Jarrett who had brought controlling interest in the promotion and would use it as a step child to his Memphis operation until the day he put a bullet in it for good...the end of an era)

Now Main Street's whitewashed windows
And vacant stores
Seems like there ain't nobody
Wants to come down here no more
They're closing down the textile mill
Across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys
And they ain't coming back
To your hometown

-Bruce Springsteen 'My Hometown'

[hofclemens]

shows how much the business has changed. The look of the workers, the crowd heat it all almost seems foreign

[LWPD]

hofclemens said:

shows how much the business has changed. The look of the workers, the crowd heat it all almost seems foreign

True that. This was a downright shameful way for it all to come to an end. World Class...with all it's great performers...it's innovations and contributions to the industry...it's incredible global legacy...WCCW deserved a much better send off. Yet in the end 'what is deserved' seldom means very much in relation to 'what is given'.

LITTLE BILL: "I don't... deserve this... to die this way. I was...building a house."

MUNNY: (aiming his pistol point blank) "_Deserve_ don't mean sh*t, Little Bill."

LITTLE BILL: (the pistol in his face) "I'll see you... in hell, you
three-fingered azzhole." (BLAM! Munny shoots Little Bill)

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer
My grubby halo, a vapor trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

-Pink Floyd 'Learning to Fly'

[wildcat]

lwpd said:

LITTLE BILL: "I don't... deserve this... to die this way. I was...building a house."



MUNNY: (aiming his pistol point blank) "_Deserve_ don't mean sh*t, Little Bill."

(aiming a Springfield rifle point blank) "Deserves got nothing to do with it." 'snarling'

LITTLE BILL: (the pistol in his face) "I'll see you... in hell, you
three-fingered azzhole." (BLAM! Munny shoots Little Bill)


"I'll see you in hell William Money........."

"Yeah, .... I reckon so." BLAM!

Sorry, Unforgiven is the greatest western ever put on film IMO.

"Any man that's gonna decorate his saloon with my friend should have armed himself."

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer
My grubby halo, a vapor trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

-Pink Floyd 'Learning to Fly'

That truly was a sad way for a legendary territory like World Class to go out. Friggin' Lawler and the USWA.

[LWPD]

Butcher

Those words were from the original script as written...but you're right on target with how they were eventually delivered and filmed. A great movie and arguably Eastwood's best!

William Munny Avenges The Death Of His Friend Ned

[GalactiKing]

Honestly, I don't blame Lawler too much. FVE did more than enough to drive World Class into the ground and Vince also has his share of the blame to take.

[mwjergs]

Yes, there is plenty of blame to go around and if Fritz had any foresight they might have challenged on a larger scale.

By the way - "MAKE SURE YOU BURY NED RIGHT!"

[shemp]

Yeah strange the annpuncer saying an end to the WCCW but they guys are stomping on it. Not a good way to treat the promotion. I have the Clash of champions 3. Not a great card but some good matches.