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| Courtesy: WWE |
December 15, 1990: Kerry Von Erich loses the Intercontinental championship to Mr. Perfect.
This match actually happened in November of 1990, but it aired on Superstars in December of that year. Back then, before the internet, they could tape weeks of shows and not worry about spoilers getting out to the masses.
I've mentioned before that Kerry Von Erich is one of my all time favorite wrestlers. I had followed him in his early days in World Class Championship Wrestling and marked out big time when he beat Ric Flair for the NWA World title in 1984.
So when Kerry left Texas and headed north to New York and the WWF in the summer of 1990, I was stoked.
I was even happier when he replaced Brutus Beefcake in his match against IC champ Mr. Perfect at SummerSlam 90. Only known as the Texas Tornado at that point, Von Erich dominated the match and won the strap in about 5 minutes. His reign was shortlived, which I thought sucked.
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| Courtesy: WWE |
Kerry was defending the title against the likes of Perfect, Haku, and even Ted DiBiase. Something happened on an episode of the Brother Love show that set up a feud between Von Erich and the Million Dollar Man. I think it involved DiBiase being critical of Texas, and Dusty and Dustin Rhodes, but that's all hazy to me right now.
Anyway, DiBiase ended up interfering in the match between Von Erich and Perfect. After that, Kerry's stock seemed to drop. He competed at Wrestlemania 7, beating Dino Bravo, but he never regained any kind of traction in terms of fighting for the WWF or IC titles again.
There was much speculation that had he not had the personal demons he did, Vince was ready to hand him the ball and take the role that eventually went to Bret Hart. I often wonder how wrestling history might have changed had that happened.
That's a quick look back at December 1990, when the winds of change started blowing for the Texas Tornado.
Will Flashback Friday last longer than Freak of the Week did?
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