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Heroes Of World Class


flyonthewall2983

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Of all the wrestling DVDs I have watched, I agree that Heroes of World Class is the best one. The way the story is pieced together and how things are put into perspective makes it a very good documentary.

 

Wrestling with Shadows was good but it seems to have lost its luster over time, partly because Bret has mended fences with Vince.

 

I was not really impressed with Beyond the Mat. Nothing really seemed to stand out, it was just a run-of-the-mill "wrestlers are fucked up" tale.

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  • 2 weeks later...

To me, it hits the nail on the head of how tragic the whole Von Erich debacle was. I have 3 siblings, and cannot imagine life without any of them. That's what Kevin has to deal with each day. And it's nothing short of miraculous that he's come out of it how he has, businessman with a family of his own now. It also gave me a good idea of how big wrestling was in Texas then. During that time in the early 80's, they were the eye of that storm of popularity in that regional area that was being duplicated by Vince & co. on a national level. Days gone by wrestling fans will never see again.

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  • 3 years later...

That is not the finished product that came out...its like an extended version with all the extras and full information...I LOVE it...

 

But for the editing and what not that some mentioned, this is not the version that came out on the original DVD...at least not in this order of cuts as well with long black breaks in between.

 

Maybe a director's Cut? Or something like that?

 

EDIT - NEvermind, The first part was additional I guess...started right about 20 min in...forget I said the above..

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  • 4 months later...

Being in the middle of a Texas binge watch, among other things, I've decided to watch that Heroes of World Class documentary. And :

 

I loved Heroes of World Class, but I watched the whole thing wishing I could re-shoot and edit it. Great storytelling, though.

 

Pretty much what I came off thinking. The shooting, editing and sound mix of the interviews is pretty bad for something that wants to look pro. And it's too bad, because the story it tells, even when you know about it, is pretty fascinating, especially when everything spirals down into a nightmare of drug related deaths and suicides.

 

One particulary powerful statement about Kevin is that he's not even a brother anymore, because they were five and he's alone now. Amazing how the guy could survive to all of this, and he's absolutely right when he says it takes balls to live, as opposed to what his cancer-damaged father was telling him about not having the guts to kill himself.

 

Gary Hart, as always, is a great storyteller. And the idea of ending with the old Sportatorium was perfect.

 

Too bad about the production values, but even then, it smokes any dull and overproduced (and most of the time revisionnists) stuff WWE puts out. It's surprising Hollywood never did a movie about this story, because there's this whole arc of american mythology turning awry, with the lone survivor at the end who manages to still build himself a life. Would make a terrific fiction in the hands of a really good director.

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I'm unsure of the timeline of all the interviews done but I think it may have been early-to-mid 2000's. It looks like the interviews were done on whatever VHS format was left by that point. I think if it had been done maybe 5 years later they could have done it in HD for the same or maybe less.

The Sportatorium was demolished in 2003, so the bit with Kevin was done before then. And Gary Hart died in 2008, so your time frame sounds pretty dead-on.

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