Kevin Von Erich in 2009
|
|
Birth name | Kevin Ross Adkisson |
---|---|
Born |
Belleville, Illinois, United States |
May 15, 1957
Spouse(s) | Pam Adkisson (m. 1980) |
Children | 4 |
Family | Von Erich |
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Kevin Von Erich |
Billed height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) |
Billed weight | 222 lb (101 kg) |
Billed from | Denton, Texas |
Trained by | Fritz Von Erich |
Debut | 1976 |
Retired | 1995 |
Kevin Ross Adkisson (born May 15, 1957) is an American retired professional wrestler under the ring name Kevin Von Erich of the Von Erich Family. He is the last surviving son of wrestler Fritz Von Erich and had four brothers who wrestled, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris, as well as an older brother, Jack, who died in 1959.
Kevin Adkisson played football at North Texas State University as a fullback, second string to Garry Smith, until an injury ended his football career and dream of playing in the National Football League.
Kevin started wrestling as Kevin Von Erich in 1976. He spent most of his career wrestling for his father's promotion, World Class Championship Wrestling. Kevin's natural athletic ability and good looks made him one of the promotion's biggest stars. He achieved great success in the company both as a singles and tag team wrestler, often participating in many of the company's high-profile feuds. Kevin was also known for wrestling barefoot, highly unusual in a sport where almost all wrestlers wear high-topped boots. World Class announcers often jokingly referred to him as "The Barefoot Boy" on WCCW broadcasts. Kevin later admitted in an interview that he never set out to wrestle barefoot, but that before one of his matches someone hid his boots as a joke, and he wasn't able to find them before his match, so just went out barefoot to wrestle, and it later became his trademark. Contrary to popular belief, he wore boots in matches in his early career, including his debut match against Paul Perschmann aka Playboy Buddy Rose and in a match against Superfly Jimmy Snuka. Kevin was a big fan of Snuka's, who also wrestled barefoot, and Kevin often performed a moved similar to Snuka's flying body splash from the top rope, which Snuka calls The Superfly.