Everything Wrong with 'The Iron Claw'

The Iron Claw (2023)

Directed by Sean Durkin

Written by Sean Durkin

Starring Zac Efron, Holt McCallany, Harris Dickinson, Jeremy Allen White, Lily James, Maura Tierney

Release Date December 22nd, 2023

Published December 12th, 2023

Instead of reviewing what I think is a very bad movie, The Iron Claw, I am going to make a list of the many things the movie gets wrong combined with a list of things the film omitted that might have made the film better. As a wrestling fan, I am remarkably familiar with the controversies, the tragedies, and the triumphs of the Von Erich family. The misery porn that director Sean Durkin is engaged in in The Iron Claw is nothing compared to the real life tragedies and controversies that the Von Erich family were part of from the late 1970s and into the early 1990s.

What The Iron Claw gets wrong: Spoilers ahead, it's based on a true story, but the movie fictionalizes so much that, I guess, this stuff qualifies as spoilers.

The Timeline

The Iron Claw proceeds essentially from 1980 when Kevin Von Erich, played by Zac Efron, met and married his wife, Pam, played by Lily James. While at Kevin's wedding, we see Kevin's brother, David, played by Harris Dickinson fall ill. He's vomiting blood and Kevin advises David not to take a trip to Japan the following week, advising David to get some rest first. David assures Kevin he will be fine and he goes on the trip to Japan. Cut to, Fritz Von Erich alone at his kitchen table, distraught. While on tour in Japan, David suffered from Enteritis and died in his hotel room.

From Kevin Von Erich's marriage in 1980 to David's death from either Enteritis or a drug overdose, depending on whose story you believe, were four years. Four years in which David Von Erich had the biggest successes of his career. In 1980 he broke away from his father and traveled the country working in Florida, where he played a bad guy for a while, a rite of passage in the industry that would not have been afforded to him by his father. He also went to Missouri and was able to win the Missouri Heavyweight Championship, arguably the biggest solo honor of his short career.

There appears to be little justification for compressing four years into one week and it only serves to remove the devastating emotional impact of David's death, which is reduced to a single scene of Fritz telling Kevin that David had died. Tell don't show is a plague on The Iron Claw as so many significant incidents in the lives and careers of the Von Erich's are either ignored completely or we are told that they happened offscreen.

Kerry Von Erich's personal life

In The Iron Claw you would assume that Kerry Von Erich, as played by Jeremy Allen White, was a lonely, drug addicted playboy whose only life was in the wrestling ring. That's partially true. But what The Iron Claw fails to tell you, I assume because they were cut for time, is that Kerry was married and had children. In the movie, Kerry's marriage and his children, including future pro wrestler Lacy Von Erich, are never mentioned. As Kerry spirals toward his tragic, far to young death by suicide, his brother asks him about some random woman that he'd brought home for the holidays. She was some woman he met on the road or something. He never asks about Kerry's wife or mentions his children as a reason for Kerry not to take his own life.

More Timeline shenanigans

If David's death happened a week after Kevin's marriage in 1980, then Kerry Von Erich won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the David Von Erich Parade of Champions event a little over a month and a half later, also, by the timeline of the movie, in 1980. Of course the David Von Erich Parade of Champions didn't actually take place until after David's death in 1984.

And then, according to the timeline in The Iron Claw, the same night Kerry won the title, he went out and got very drunk and crashed his motorcycle and lost part of his right leg. If you're watching the movie it's 1980. In real life, Kerry won the NWA title in 1984 and had his tragic motorcycle accident happened two years later in 1986. Why the needless compression of the timeline? If you see this movie you will assume that Kevin got married, David died a week later, and Kerry nearly died in a motorcycle accident just over a month after that and the movie never slows down for any of this tragedy to have the kind of profound effect that it had in real life.

The remarkable and tragic story of Kerry's motorcycle accident.

By the way, the story of what happened to Kerry Von Erich after his motorcycle accident is remarkable and tragic and not featured in The Iron Claw. It's glossed over, it's mentioned but the full breadth of this remarkable story is left on the cutting room floor. On June 4th, 1986, Kerry Von Erich was involved in a near fatal motorcycle accident. He dislocated his hip, and his injuries were so bad that doctors amputated a portion of his right leg, several inches below the knee. Remarkably, the fact that Kerry had his leg amputated remained a wrestling urban legend until after his death in 1993.

How? Fritz Von Erich used his influence to cover up Kerry's injury and made his recovery from the accident a story on their wrestling show. With the help of a prosthetic and way too many painkiller medications, Kerry Von Erich not only learned to walk again without the aid of crutches or a cane, and, in an even more remarkable event, he learned to wrestle again in a style that allowed him to hide his prosthetic. So, few people were aware of the extent of Kerry Von Erich's injury that he was able to leave Texas and go to wrestle for the then WWF and Vince McMahon. Working in the WWF, Kerry would enjoy some of the biggest success in his career while continuing to hide from the fans, the fact that he was working with a prosthetic leg.

How dramatic was Kerry's comeback? In 1990, four years after losing a portion of his right leg, Kerry Von Erich competed against Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig on a massive pay per view event and won the WWF International Championship, the second highest honor in the WWF behind the Heavyweight championship held by Hulk Hogan. Not just anyone gets chosen to be the Intercontinental Champion. It's what is known in WWF/WWE lore as the 'workhorse' belt. It's the belt held by guys who can be trusted to headline at events where the world champion was not performing. Kerry was so talented and well liked and such a strong performer, on one leg, that the WWF gave him this honor. That's amazing. Kerry's win at Summerslam in 1990 is mentioned in passing as Kevin's kids watch their uncle on TV.

The Iron Claw Doesn't Understand Professional Wrestling

It's strange to think that filmmakers would make a movie about professional wrestling that doesn't understand how professional wrestling works. For those who are not familiar with professional wrestling, it's a scripted sporting event in which competitors in the ring know the outcome of the match before it happens and use their remarkable physical gifts to tell a story that climaxes with the predetermined ending of the match. In the past, from the 1920s through the early to mid 1980s, many fans were unaware of the scripted nature of professional wrestling.

Wrestlers kept what is called 'Kayfabe,' which is a code intended to protect the secrets of the business. An example of Kayfabe would be making sure that the beloved heroes of wrestling were never seen in public spending time with their hated rivals. An example of this in the history of the Von Erich brothers would be that the brothers, though they were close friends with The Freebirds, Michael Hayes, Terry Garvin, and Buddy Roberts, the Brothers maintained their distance from The Freebirds in public in order to keep up the appearance that the wrestling show they were on was real.

Kayfabe has become a relic today, but it was a code of honor in the era of Fritz Von Erich. Breaking kayfabe made headlines in actual newspapers. Breaking kayfabe back in the day got wrestlers fired or, at the very least, fined. Wrestlers could get banned from different states if they did not agree to maintain kayfabe. A guy could be a hero in Texas and a villain in Missouri, in the days before cable TV deals, and would have to remember when he was supposed to be a hated heel or a beloved babyface so he knew how to interact with fans in public.

That's inherently comic in so many ways and it never comes up in The Iron Claw. Instead, in the movie, wrestling is sort of treated like it's an actual sport. There is a pivotal scene late in the movie where Kevin Von Erich finally gets a chance to fight for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. It's the belt that his brother David was once on track for winning. It's the belt that his little brother Kerry had held. It's a big moment and it seemingly arrives out of nowhere late in The Iron Claw with no build up. The match happens, after we see the single worst Ric Flair impersonation ever shown publicly, and Kevin gets his Iron Claw finisher on Ric Flair.

Unfortunately, for Kevin, as he locks in The Claw on Flair, his rival manages to reach the ropes. This means that Kevin is supposed to relinquish the hold. But, Kevin does not let go. The referee warns Kevin with a 5 count to let go of the claw, Kevin does not let go. Finally, left with no other options, the referee calls for the bell to end the match and officially disqualifies Kevin. Kevin has lost the match. After the match, in the Von Erich locker room, his father, Fritz, and his brother Kerry, are dejected. They seemingly cannot believe that Kevin has blown his big chance to become champion. This makes absolutely no sense.

First of all, of course Kevin lost, he was scripted to lose the match via disqualification. Who decided how he would lose? His father, Fritz, the promoter of the event. Why would Fritz be disappointed that Kevin lost? He wrote the story. When the NWA World Heavyweight championship was defended back in the day, a committee of member territories in the NWA would meet and decide whether or not to choose a new championship. Promoters would pitch their star to be the champion and a consensus would be reached among them, including Fritz Von Erich, who the champion would be. The outcome is predetermined. Even Kerry, who may not have been part of the decision making process, would have been aware that Kevin was going to lose that night.

It gets worse. The scene ends with Ric Flair coming into the Von Erich's locker room. Heels and babyfaces don't share locker rooms in case some fan gets backstage and catches them breaking kayfabe. But, more importantly, the Ric Flair character asks Kevin and Kerry if they want to go have a beer. This would never have happened. The Von Erich's would never be caught in public with Ric Flair. It would have destroyed kayfabe. Now, I am sure there are many examples where guys in the late 70s and early 80s forgot or disregarded kayfabe, but someone as old school as Fritz Von Erich would not be one of them. Nor would Ric Flair for whom, breaking kayfabe would have meant risking his status as the world champion with world champion level paydays. If you're not a wrestling fan, this scene probably won't bother you. For a wrestling fan however, this scene will be downright insulting.

The Iron Claw Omits an Entire Von Erich Brother

Watching The Iron Claw as someone who knows a lot about the Von Erichs, I was deeply confused. The film depicts only three Von Erich brothers. The oldest Von Erich brother, Jack, died very young. But there were five Von Erich brothers in total. In 1969 Fritz Von Erich and his wife, Doris, welcomed their fifth son, Chris Von Erich. Chris was born under sized and only grew to be 5 feet 4 inches tall. He suffered from asthma and had a mild case of brittle bones that had to be treated with high doses of prednisone. You can imagine that this is less than ideal for someone who wants to become a professional wrestler.

Sadly, being a wrestler, working with his older brothers, is all that Chris ever wanted. He trained and hurt himself and put himself through hell but he did manage to make into the wrestling ring, teaming with his brothers and having opponents carry him through matches to make sure he didn't get hurt too badly. But it didn't save Chris from getting hurt. His brittle bones eventually kept him from being able to wrestle and that, combined with addictions to alcohol and drugs led to Chris taking his own life in September of 1991, seven years after David's death and two years before Kerry took his own life.

Chris was a pugnacious fighter, a striver. He's ready made for a big screen supporting character. Why pretend that he never existed? Why make a movie about the Von Erich brothers and leave out one of the most unique and tragic elements of the Von Erich story. The heartache that Chris Von Erich endured as he was told so many times he could not be a wrestler, to the verbal and emotional abuse of his father who denigrated him for being so small and vulnerable, to his actually making it into the ring despite his shortcomings, that's a great story and it's entirely true. What a missed opportunity.

Fritz Von Erich's Many, Many Controversies

I get the need to try and create a shorthand to compact the story of The Iron Claw into an audience friendly two hour run time, but the reason Fritz Von Erich ended up selling his company out from under his sons, was because Fritz destroyed the show with his terrible and controversial decisions. For instance, the David Von Erich Parade of Champions. Fritz exploited the death of his son David in order to promote a card at Dallas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. It worked, The Parade of Champions in 1984, with Kerry defeating Ric Flair for the World Heavyweight Championship, was then the biggest wrestling card in the history of the state of Texas and one of the biggest in the entire country at the time.

When wrestler Gino Hernandez died from a drug overdose in 1986, the news of his death was reported on Fritz's wrestling television show. But rather than a show of respect over the tragic death of a 28 year old man, the story was told that his death was but one of two tragedies afflicting WCCW, the other being the blinding of Chris Adams, a beloved babyface hero who happened to be Hernandez's rival at the time. Here's the thing, Adams wasn't actually blinded by Hernandez. That was part of a story they were telling. They used the real life tragedy of Hernandez's death to get over how tragic Chris Adams' fake injury was on television. When the ruse was revealed in the wrestling press, Fritz was castigated and shamed.

Fritz would continue to alienate fans in 1987 when, on a Christmas Day broadcast of WCCW he faked having a heart attack. So convincing was the kayfabe surrounding the heart attack that both Kevin and Kerry Von Erich were interviewed by multiple television outlets outside the hospital where Fritz was pretending to be cared for. Eventually, all of the media attention forced the Von Erich's to admit that Fritz did not actually have a heart attack but not until Fritz had milked his 'terrifying health scare' for a few weeks of ratings on TV.

The Horrifying Michael Von Erich Press Conference and Aftermath

I will give The Iron Claw a minor bit of credit for depicting one of Fritz's most despicable stunts. After Mike Von Erich suffered a shoulder injury in the ring and then suffered toxic shock syndrome and a full blown coma following surgery, Fritz forced Michael to sit down at a press conference and show how tough he was and promise that he would make a full comeback. As seen in the film, Michael was in no shape to be in front of cameras. He was dazed and gaunt, he'd just come out of a coma. The idea that he would ever wrestle again was silly.

Nevertheless, Fritz insisted on the press conference. The movie doesn't show Fritz insisting on the press conference, rather it just shows the press conference, but it's strongly implied that this was not Mike's idea and certainly not that of his doctors. The press conference was part of a WCCW storyline where Mike was labeled 'The Living Miracle.' His effort to recover was chronicled on TV until it became clear that there was no hope that Michael would ever get back in the ring. Mike Von Erich took his life two years after he was dubbed 'The Living Miracle' on his dad's wrestling show.

Lance Von Erich

In order to fill the void left by David's death and Michael's career ending diagnosis, Fritz tried to fool the fans again by introducing a new Von Erich. Independent wrestler William Vaughn, who had wrestled in Texas, in WCCW, under his real name, was suddenly reintroduced as Lance Von Erich, Kevin's cousin and the son of Fritz's brother, Waldo. Fritz doesn't have a brother named Waldo though, when he wrestled in Canada in the 60s, he was partnered with a man who was playing his brother Waldo, so, in kayfabe terms, it kind of works. But it didn't work well enough. Fans rejected Lance Von Erich entirely, booing his entrances and hounding him out of the company not long after he'd arrived.

Oddly, pre-release hype for The Iron Claw has Lance listed in the cast as being played by current professional wrestling champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Being a huge fan of MJF for his work in All Elite Wrestling, I was excited to see him as an actor in a rather juicy role as the controversial fake Von Erich brother. I was interested to see how the movie would depict the strange notion of Lance Von Erich. Kevin, who is, after all, the lead character of The Iron Claw, fully opposed the idea of bringing in Vaughn to play a new Von Erich. So, it was a disappointing surprise to find that Lance is never formerly introduced in The Iron Claw. We see him only briefly in a montage where he's tagging with Kevin and trying to steal all the glory for himself. Since it's part of a montage, you likely don't even realize that Lance is in the movie, an utterly baffling choice among many, many baffling choices in this terrible movie.

Kevin Von Erich Returned to the Ring and Wrestled Alongside his Sons

The movie ends with Kevin Von Erich alone and telling his sons that he's no longer a brother. It's heartbreaking and sad and Zac Efron plays this dramatic moment with heartbreaking gravity. But, there was a better ending. At the age of 60, Kevin Von Erich returned to the ring alongside both of his sons in Major League Wrestling. Kevin wrestled barefoot, a detail you see in the movie. Imagine ending the movie with Kevin in the crowd, his sons are being attacked by the baddies, he starts taking off his shoes and jumps in the ring at 60 years old and they run off the baddies together. Afterwards, everyone congratulates Kevin and his sons, they share a moment with the guys they were in the ring with, and the movie ends on a moment of modest joy and triumph signifying that with all that life can take from you, there are moments of joy and grace along the way that make it worth it.

But nope, The Iron Claw is just misery porn for non-wrestling fans. It's the MOST sad not the best sad. It's the MOST dramatic and not the best drama. You can see director Sean Durkin's every manipulative twist and turn in obvious fashion. Critics and Awards voters love it when a director shows there work by making it the BIGGEST, the MOST, and the LOUDEST dramatic beats. That's what wins awards and thus, don't be surprised when this terrible movie goes on to win awards and make Top 10 lists.

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