In 2017, Kevin Von Erich stepped back into the squared circle for the final match of his illustrious career. The match, which took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, was notable for both Von Erich’s retirement as well as the inclusion of Kevin’s sons and the now-MLW Tag Team Champions Ross and Marshall. The event not only marked the first time the three had teamed together in an official capacity but was the first time in over 20 years that three Von Erichs had stepped inside the ring together.

Recently, both Ross and Marshall joined me to discuss a variety of topics, including being a part of their Dad’s retirement match.

Wrestling in their Dad’s retirement match in Israel

SL: “One other thing I want to touch on with your dad specifically is you guys have wrestled with him in his retirement match in Israel. How cool was that for you guys? Take me through the circumstances of how that came about.”

Marshall Von Erich: “That was just unreal. It was a dream of ours our whole life to even go to Israel. We were doing a lot of indie shows, we had just become the IWR World Class Revolution Champions, so we just-“

Ross Von Erich: “To us, that was a big deal, you know, for any company to put you know their belt on you is a huge honour to us, you know and so we just, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves at the time.”

Marshall Von Erich: “We became really close to the promoter, real good friends, his name is Jerry Bostic, we became good buddies, and he wanted us to defend those belts around the world. So, we got an opportunity to go to Israel. My dad set it up and we were going to defend our belts in Israel. It was just – to be in Israel, be so far away from home, and just the love and respect the fans had for my dad was unreal. Back in the 80s (in) Israel, after their Shabbat, they had one channel and that was World Class Championship Wrestling, so it was the first time ever the ratings were 100%.

After Shabbat, after they see the first star in the sky, they turn their TVs on.

It was like almost part of a tradition. They love what my dad stood for.

They loved my dad never cheated, he fought his heart out, he would always – he was just Kevin Von Erich. They have a saying, I think it’s called ‘Von Erich Hazakim,’ it’s ‘what do you think you are, strong like Von Erich?’ You know, like how we say ‘what, you think you’re Superman?’”

SL: “Very cool.”

Marshall Von Erich: “It’s a saying down there, and so they told us like stories and stuff, we had posters of Israel on our wall like we always wanted to go. Getting to go with the entire family, all 20 of us – it was the first time my nieces and nephews got to watch us wrestle. My sisters, my brothers-in-law, it was the first time they all got to watch us wrestle. It was just a surreal moment. Going in there with my dad, you know, seeing how my dad prepared for matches it was just like, if my eight-year-old self could have seen that or to (have) known this would have happened would have been insane.”

Ross Von Erich: “For me, you know how you get that numb feeling when you’re like, ‘this is like some pivotal moment in my history in my life right now?’ I just had that feeling. Like, ‘I’m never gonna forget this,’ the whole night. Even being in the ring-“

Marshall Von Erich: “It was all slow motion.”

Ross Von Erich: “I remember being on the apron and my dad you know givin’ me pointers like ‘when you get back in, do this and that,’ and it was just so awesome to have that. Three Von Erichs in the ring at the same time.”

Marshall Von Erich: “First time in 20 years and you know, we always – my dad, I can’t tell you how many times he’s like, ‘Man, I wish I was in the ring with y’all. I would do this, I would do that,’ and then to have him in there. It was crazy, though I think he wanted to do a lot more, but he had the flu the day of the show, and so he kind of had to slow down a little bit, but to see him – he was literally throwing up in the locker room before the match, he was sick, he had a fever, everything. And then, as soon as this music came on, it was – he like nipped up, he turned it off, and we watched him get his body back in shape, he was over 200 pounds and he just turned back into Kevin Von Erich and it was just, it was unreal. Just being in there with him and listening to everybody in the crowd was like crying and stuff. It was in Israel, you know, there’s a lot of tension there with the Palestinians and the Jews and the Arabs, there’s all this, and then to see that wrestling brings all these people together, they’re cheering, they’re booing together, they have their arms around each other and it was just (spreading) peace and love through wrestling. It was just like, we got to see the power of wrestling, too, and I was also a pivotal thing in our careers that really made us know that we’re in the right place.”

SL: “That’s incredible, like, you hear that (and) it’s almost like Pavlov’s dog when he hears a bell ring. It’s just like, snap Kevin Von Erichs back!”

Ross Von Erich: “Yeah, exactly. You could just see this thing come over him and he’s like okay, now he’s Kevin Von Erich, he’s not dad right now.”

Marshall Von Erich: “It was weird. When the bell rung, my dad grabbed us and told us ‘hey, I’m passing the torch on to you guys. Take it and run with it,’ and I’ll never forget that, either. It really felt like we were taking the name from there and now we’re gonna leave it to our kids and stuff, so it was just a beautiful moment for us.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used. 

MLW star Mance Warner is certainly a man of many names. Whatever you know him by, whether it be Ol’ Mancer, the Souther Psycho, Lariats and Light Beers or any of the other myriad of nicknames that he can claim to be his own, there’s no shortage of descriptions for one of the most entertaining professional wrestlers in the game today.

Recently, Warner joined me to discuss his nicknames and his favourite beer-drinking partners in professional wrestling.

Earning all of his nicknames and if one is particularly meaningful:

“There’s so many nicknames there, because I started out doing shows in Ohio and Indiana and the Midwest, out in Tennessee, wherever I could go I would drive and go to the show and hit the pay window and fight people. The one – I got a beer mug that a fan made for me, and they took their free time to make every nickname that I have on the back of it. And they had it cut out, each little piece, and they glued it on there and stuff. So, I’m sitting there drinking beer out of this thing, and it’s cool to know the connection I have with the fanbase to where they’ve given me these nicknames.”

“I guess, for me, Southern Psycho kind of represents everything that I do, because when you hear that, you automatically – if you don’t know who I am, you go ‘what’s happening,’ and then you watch and you go ‘awe, I get it.’ Back in the day, people had nicknames, you would hear it and you knew exactly what it meant. So, for me that kinda represents exactly what I’m bringing to the table.”

“I always feel bad. Nick Manawa, the ring announcer out there at IWA Mid-South, he pinned that tweet on there and he told me to put all the nicknames there, so when people gotta do the introduction, they can look and say the names right there. Guys will come up at different shows and they’ll be like ‘hey man, which one do you want me to say?’ And I always go ‘say whichever ones you want, man!’ And they’re like ‘well, now I gotta read ‘em all, man! That’s like your thing!’ And I go ‘no, no, no. You ain’t gotta waste all your time reading all that s**t. Take some that you like, I don’t care which ones you say, say whatever one you want. Let’s just go out there and do what we’re doing.”

His favourite people to have a beer with:

“I’m gonna pick two, though. I’m gonna pick Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk would be the two I would wanna sit down and drink with. Currently, I’m gonna say Stone Cold, because he, maybe we get him one more match at some point, but I would like to sit down with him.

”

“Another guy that I’ve drank with – I’m trying to think of the most oddball one I could think of. I drink with a lot of people, man!

It’s hard to think of just one.

Like I said, usually after shows I go out in the parking lot and drink beers with fans, they bring beers (and) it’s a good time. I’ll just say all the fans, man. I like sitting out there, bulls**ting, drinking a beer and talking about life.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used. 

There’s simply no arguing that Ravenous Randy Myers is one of the most beloved professional wrestlers in the world today. That fact is exponentially true in Seattle, Washington, and in DEFY Wrestling specifically, where the Weirdo Hero is in the midst of a 116-day reign as the promotion’s world champion.

In a recent interview, Myers described to me his love of wrestling for DEFY, as well as how meaningful it was to win the DEFY World Championship.

His love of DEFY Wrestling:

“When I got involved with DEFY, it was at a point where I was taking my first-ever break from professional wrestling. I’ve been doing wrestling for the last twenty years, so I’ve been going, like, every weekend, (a) couple shows for quite a while. And then, it was a time where I developed some mental health issues that I’d kind of needed to focus on, so I’d taken a step away from wrestling. But, then, there was a big show at DEFY down in Seattle, and they had Davey Boy Smith versus…who was he wrestling that night? It was a stacked card, and I needed to go down and I needed to witness this live. So, I went down. I had heard good things, I went down, had some friends down there, and I was blown away when I saw the product. The fans were incredible, the actual in-ring was awesome, and just the vibe was phenomenal. So, I just went down there as a fan and was blown away.

“

“Then, Matt Farmer, who’s one of the promoters of it, we’ve known each other for quite a while. We toured a couple years, probably ten years ago, eight years ago now. So, we knew each other, and then we kind of got to talking. He sent me a message asking me if I wanted to be on their next show. Like I said, I was taking some time away, but I was so blown away and this kind of rejuvenated me and it got my heart pumping again. It got those juices flowing. So I was like “of course, I’d love to take part in your show.’ I thought I was going to maybe only go down for one, but then the crowd was so loving and embraced me so much that I was like ‘well, I can’t leave. They pulled me back in. It’s like the mafia, right? You try and get out but they pull you back in, but happily.

”

Succeeding names like Artemis Spencer, Shane Strickland, and Schaff as DEFY Champion:

“It’s incredible. Representing DEFY as a whole, being in that lineage of champions that (were) just named, it means so much to me. I can’t even really put it into words. I (feel) like DEFY’s what I always wanted from wrestling. I always wanted something that was an inclusive product where you could feel safe as a fan no matter who you were, no matter what kind of place you were coming from in life. Whether you’re a freak, a geek, a misfit, a weirdo, felt that you were strange, or felt that you needed to change, or any of those things. (If) you ever felt that you were different, this is the place for you. It’s so embracing and so loving.”

“To represent a company that is what I’ve been looking for for twenty years in wrestling means the absolute world to me, and means every drip of sweat I’ve had, means all the blood, means all the tears that I’ve cried, all the times I said I was going to quit, all the workloads I didn’t want to do but did anyways, all the gross cans of tuna I shoved down my throat, they were all worth it.”

Why he enters to “At Last”:

“I was working out at the gym. I like powerful, strong women to encourage me while I’m working out. That energy is what fires me up. I was scrolling through, and that song came on, and I just started moving differently. I just started feeling like I blossomed as soon as I heard it.

”

“I’m so tired of rap songs. I’m from the prairie. I’m a Canadian prairie boy. Everyone’s coming out to these hardcore rap songs and I’m like ‘I don’t know how you relate to any of this music.’ I don’t know if that’s your life, and If it does, that’s cool, I want you to come out to something that relates to you, but these either metal or hard songs never quite fit me. I was always kind of trying to find something that worked, and then this, Etta James just felt like it was so different, and what I want to give is something different, so it just worked so well.”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used. 

Long before becoming one of the most well-decorated wrestlers in the world, Taya Valkyrie was a trainee at the Storm Wrestling Academy in Calgary, Alberta. Not only did La Wera Loca kickstart her career in the province, but as part of her training, appeared on the World of Hurt TV series hosted by both Lance Storm and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.

Valkyrie recently joined me to discuss her experience breaking into the business in Alberta, wrestling for the PWA, and her feelings on World of Hurt.

Her memories of working in Alberta

Spencer Love: “We were talking before this, you were genuinely on the first-ever professional wrestling show that I ever went to. (It was) just such a highlight for me (and) something that obviously has been a huge impact on my life, but obviously, you’re the guest! I want to pick your brain: What  was your experience like when you were working here in Alberta?”

Taya Valkyrie: “I mean, it’s so crazy to think back on it, (because) it feels like a million lifetimes ago, just because so many things have happened and changed. I’ve just grown up so much over the last almost 10 years in this business. Oh my god, almost ten years! I mean, back then I was just like a wide-eyed, you know, excited, new wrestler. (I was) so green! So green. I mean, I watch some of those old matches. I’m like, ‘Oh my god, what is happening?’ But, I mean, everyone starts somewhere, and Alberta as a whole, I mean I went to the (University of Calgary) when I first graduated high school. I’m born and raised in Victoria, BC, so I spent a lot of time in Calgary and in Edmonton, Alberta as a whole. It’s always – I always think about Alberta with a smile on my face, and it definitely was where Taya Valkyrie was born basically. So, it’s a good feeling to think about. I’m excited to get back there at some point when things kind of start calming down.”

World of Hurt

SL: “One other part I did want to touch on as far as Alberta goes, because going through and doing my research there’s always some stuff that I find that I hadn’t found out before, take me through your experience with World of Hurt?”

TV: “Oh my gosh, you’re really going for it! I was on – for people that don’t know, World of Hurt (was on) for two seasons. When I first did World of Hurt, I think it worked kind of like a, I mean, a wrestling school scenario, quote-unquote ‘reality show,’ and season one was taught by Lance Storm, my actual wrestling coach, and then Season Two was actually with Rowdy Roddy Piper. Season One, I literally had been wrestling probably for about three months when I was on that show.

My first-ever match as a professional wrestler was for TV, aka World of Hurt.

When everybody looks at that stuff, you’ll be like, ‘holy crap, that was Taya’s first match,’ and I remember we had to do to on that first day and I was petrified, and I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ like, I’ve been a performer and an athlete my whole life, so I’m very much a perfectionist. And I just was – I mean, I had confidence, but I mean, obviously, I was worried that I was not that good at the time.”

SL: “Not quite where you are now.”

TV: “Now, looking back I’m just like, ‘wow, yeah, that was not good,’ but, I mean, it was a huge part of like, how I started, and I love it! And, like, Lance was such a huge part of like my entire career, obviously, having been my first coach and that’s where I met a lot of people that are still, you know, in my life when it comes to professional wrestling and PWA was where I started in Calgary and Edmonton. So, World of Hurt was a lot of fun.”

TV: “The second season, when we did it was Rowdy Roddy Piper, was incredible and crazy and fun as well, and I learned so much from him and getting to have learned from him. I feel like I always say that that month when we were shooting that, he really helped connect me to my character for promos and things like that. I would say that’s probably the most important thing I took away from getting to work with him for a month straight. So, yeah, it was just – it makes me laugh to think about the whole situation. I think it was on like, some channel called the Cave Network or something. I don’t even know if that’s a thing! Like, I don’t even, is that still a thing?”

SL: “I couldn’t even find it on YouTube. It’s on some weird, like, Vista or something like that.

”

TV: “Yeah, I think there’s some weird clips on YouTube of it, but it’s quite – if you are a Taya Valkyrie fan, you should watch it just to have a good laugh.”

SL: “Well, for what it’s worth, you weren’t the one that I think a lot of people were laughing at more, but we’ll let people tune in to the show to find out more on that end!”

TV: “YEAH! Okay, I know who you’re talking about!”

Please credit Spencer Love/Love Wrestling with any transcriptions used.