To the non wrestling fans that have watched or are going to watch The Iron Claw for the first time, make no mistake about it Fritz Von Erich loved his sons and they all loved him. Kevin Von Erich still speaks positively of his father to this day. Keep in mind he was never the same and never really learned how to cope with the loss of his first born son. Wrestling and success for himself and his family was the only way he could cope. Was he hard on his sons? Absolutely. Did he love his sons? Absolutely. It was just one heartbreaking tragedy after another. I highly recommend you watch Dark Side of the Ring: The Last of the Von Erichs to hear for yourself the real story behind the Von Erich family.
he is SO real (transcription under cut) (also so people know RJ is very much playing an asshole interviewer character here like this is a comedy interview show)
RJ: You have said that you are on the spectrum and you're proud of it.
WILL: Yes.
RJ: I'm gonna read you a quote. "All of us autistic kids were so much better than regular normal people."
WILL: Yeah man.
RJ: "We can lock into s*** and do it. To all my autism kids out there, we're top."
WILL: Yeah buddy.
RJ: Are you shaming people without autism?
WILL: F*** yeah I am. [laughs] Yeah. Have you not got autism?
RJ: I don't have it, and now I feel bad about it!
WILL: You should. You should.
RJ: Why are we ascribing values? We're all unique in our own special ways!
WILL: Nah, nah, look, look. No, because in the school system, like, I didn't find out a lot about my, I didn't find out a lot about myself until like, after I left. So like, I wasn't afforded any of like, the extra time or like, extra, like... There were so many things in my education that I really needed help on, and I didn't get that help. And it's not just me, it's a f***in' wide bunch of people. So finding out all this s*** about myself, I just wanna show people that like, y'know, like, yeah I've got autism, I've got ADHD as well, I'm super dyslexic, I can't read, I had to have someone f***in' read my contract out for me. So like, it's super embarrassing man, it really is, but like, I feel like I've got to the point where I am because of all these things that I, that make me who I am, and I wanna inspire people. So like, a lot of people like, don't take risks on people that do have like, autism around my area, and like, I would like to hope that seeing me doing all this stuff, it does inspire other people.
The thing I love most about the whole Marq Lynch debacle is how it's been embraced by both the Punk-lover blogs and the Punk-hater blogs. A rare glimpse of harmony among wrestling fans. 😌