World Class Championship Wrestling
April – May 1985

Back to Business 

After a brief hiatus from our historical tour of World Class we are back on the road. This month we will look at the months of April and May of 1985. These months were full of action as World Class headed towards the Second Annual David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions at Texas Stadium. A lot of things that happened in these months set the table for angles and feuds that encompassed the rest of the year. Let’s get started. 

The Champions 

The title scene was fairly stable in World Class during the spring of 1985. Gino Hernandez continued his long-standing run as Texas Champion. Chris Adams continued to reign as the American Champion. The Six Man Title was still held by Kevin, Kerry, and Mike Von Erich, but was rarely defended let alone mentioned during this time. Rip Oliver held the TV Title until being suspended for breaking Mike Von Erich’s hand. Scott Casey then claimed the TV Title in Fort Worth on April 1, 1985 after beating Dennis Condrey in a tournament final. The main action centered on the American Tag Team Title. The Midnight Express had reigned since January and battled over the belts mainly with The Fantastics. A March 8, 1985 bout at The Sportatorium in Dallas saw the title held up due to Jim Cornette interfering with his tennis racquet. A rematch to settle the issue was ordered for the Parade of Champions at Texas Stadium in May. 

The Roster  

As ever the top babyfaces were the Von Erichs, Kerry, Kevin, and Mike, although Mike was often absent due to injury. Sunshine was still very popular in her babyface manager role. Her main protégé remained Hercules Hernandez. Sunshine then added a new charge in the form of The Great Kabuki. Kabuki had not competed fulltime in World Class since early 1983 although he made a brief return in mid 1984. Kabuki had always been a heel. Seeing him as a babyface for the first time and managed by Sunshine was a delightful surprise for the fans. The Fantastics remained very popular on the tag team scene. Other babyfaces included Brian Adias who had returned after an extended run in the Mid-Atlantic territory, Scott Casey who enjoyed tremendous popularity with Southwest Championship Wrestling in San Antonio, and Skip Young whose career had fallen off considerably from his days in Florida as the masked Sweet Brown Sugar. Johnny Mantell was also on hand as a babyface although he could occasionally play a subtle heel role in the undercard. 

Unquestionably the top heels were Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez who united as The Dynamic Duo. More on the formation of this duo is forthcoming in this article. Gary Hart continued to guide the One Man Gang. Jim Cornette was the area’s other heel manager, leading The Midnight Express, consisting of Dennis Condrey and Bobby Eaton, as well as Rip Oliver. Kelly Kiniski continued to wrestle as a low midcard to undercard heel. Steve Williams made some appearances in Fort Worth, but never came in on a permanent basis. As you can see, the heel roster was a bit light. However all the main heels had tremendous heat and reinforcements were due in after the Parade of Champions. 

The Feuds

As was its usual policy, World Class Championship Wrestling kept the number of feuds small, but then put as much push behind those feuds as possible. Kerry and Kevin Von Erich found themselves wrestling quite often against Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez, The Dynamic Duo. This was a continuation of Kevin’s long running feud with Chris Adams that showed no signs of subsiding. Meanwhile Kerry battled with One Man Gang in a version of The Unstoppable Force vs. The Immovable Object. Gino Hernandez continued to feud with Hercules Hernandez and now had back up from Adams leading to Sunshine bringing in Kabuki to back Hercules.  More...