Fascinatingly Tragic: The Iron Claw

You've seen the documentaries and heard the stories, but the movie version of this infamous family in wrestling will leave you smiling in the end. As a hardcore pro-wrestling fan, I wasn't sure what to expect going into the theater to The Iron Claw. I have read the books, seen the documentaries from WWE Home Video as well as Vice covering the triumph and tragedy of WCCW, and, more specifically, the Von Erich's. After watching this film though, I came away appreciative of what filmmaker Sean Durkin did to bring movie fans as well as wrestling fans, together to enjoy this movie.

While there are some aspects of this movie not historically accurate, both from timeline wise as well as family context wise, this was a good movie overall. While I understand why Chris Von Erich was not featured in the movie, I felt we could have left out some of the filler scenes by putting him in the movie, since he was a real life brother and member of the family. Also, while the timelines don't match up verbatim (especially at the end of the movie where Kevin was playing with his 2 sons and his wife was pregnant, even though their daughters were already born and were older than their sons), I didn't let that takeover my overall perception of this film. I enjoy when wrestling meets Hollywood and movies like this and The Wrestler become must see films regarding the industry. After all, isn't wrestling at its core, entertainment and cinema? This is a movie wrestling fans and movie goers should watch because you will enjoy the incredible sadness mixed with joyfulness rolled up into one. So get up and go see it!

On a slight side note, my podcast partner, Junkyard James and I will be discussing the most historical families of wrestling as a mini series on our podcast, "Beyond the Junkyard", starting tonight, January 11, 2024, with the Von Erich's (was there any other choice to start out?). So come join us live on our YouTube channel (Junkyard Media Group) as we dive into the history of this famous family, and others, starting tonight at 9pm eastern! Also, click the links below to follow us on social media, and join the Discord where fans of wrestling from casuals to die-hards convene together!