The Parade of Champions was a series of professional wrestling supercards promoted by Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling (WCCW), first in 1961, in 1972 and then annually from 1984 through 1988.
Von Erich used the "Parade of Champions" name in 1984 as a way to honor his recently deceased son, David and the subsequent Parade of Champions were all "Von Erich Memorial" Parades of Champions. At the inaugural Von Erich Memorial event, in front of the largest crowd ever to watch a pro wrestling event in the United States up to that point, Kerry Von Erich defeated Ric Flair for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, only to lose it back to Flair 18 days later in Yokohama, Japan. Over the next few years, Von Erich altered the names as tragedy repeatedly struck his family.
The Parade of Champions was the most recognized event that WCCW, later known as World Class Wrestling Association, promoted. There was a Parade of Champions super card held by Southern Sports (precursor to WCCW) in 1961 and another held by Big Time Wrestling (the previous name of WCCW) in 1972. All Parade of Champions supercards were held at Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. A wrestling organization out of Texas called NWA Southwest ran an event in late August, 2010, called Parade of Champions, which it claimed was the "Longest Running Wrestling Event In Texas History Dating Back To 1972," but there was no actual connection between the WCCW show event other than the name.
Events
{| class="wikitable" align="center" width="100%"
!#
!Event
!Date
!City
!Venue
!Main event
|-
|1
|Parade of Champions (1961)
|
|rowspan="3"|Dallas, Texas
|rowspan="3"|Dallas Sportatorium
|Pat O'Connor (c) vs. Dory Dixon in a two out of three falls match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|2
|Parade of Champions (January 1963)
|
|Lou Thesz (c) vs. Ray Gunkel in a two out of three falls match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|3
|Parade of Champions (June 1963)
|
|Lou Thesz (c) vs. Dory Dixon in a two out of three falls match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|4
|Parade of Champions (1972)
|
|Irving, Texas
|Texas Stadium
|Dory Funk, Jr. (c) vs. Fritz Von Erich for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|rowspan="2"|5
|rowspan="2"|Parade of Champions (1974)
|
|Dallas, Texas
|Memorial Auditorium
|Jack Brisco (c) vs. Clay Spencer for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|
|San Antonio, Texas
|Municipal Auditorium
|Jack Brisco (c) vs. Dory Funk Jr. for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|6
|1st Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
|
|rowspan="5"|Irving, Texas
|rowspan="5"|Texas Stadium
|Ric Flair (c) vs. Kerry Von Erich for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|7
|2nd Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
|
|Kerry Von Erich vs. One Man Gang in a Hair vs. One Man Gang facing Fritz Von Erich match
|-
|8
|3rd Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
|
|Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts) (c) vs. Steve Simpson, Kerry Von Erich and Lance Von Erich in a Lumberjack elimination match for the WCWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship
|-
|9
|4th Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
|
|Six-woman Mud Pit match
|-
|10
|5th Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
|
|Iceman Parsons (c) vs. Kerry Von Erich for the WCWA World Heavyweight Championship
|-
|colspan="10"|
|-
|}
Show results
1961
The first Parade of Champions was held on at the Dallas Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas. It was promoted by Southwest Sports, the predecessor to World Class Championship Wrestling. With a capacity crowd in attendance, the event celebrated Ed McLemore's 22nd anniversary promoting pro wrestling in Dallas and also served as a benefit show for the March of Dimes.
Five matches were contested at the event and each match featured a championship on the line. The main event was a two out of three falls match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, in which defending champion Pat O'Connor fought Dory Dixon to a ninety-minute time limit draw, thus retaining the title. In other title matches on the card, Danny Hodge retained the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against Jerry Kozak with 2-0 score, Don Manoukian retained the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship against Alex Perez in the first defense of the title in Dallas during the reign, Hogan Wharton and Pepper Gomez defeated Jet Monroe and Sputnik Monroe to retain the NWA Texas Tag Team Championship and "Wild" Bull Curry defeated Tosh Togo to retain the NWA Texas Brass Knuckles Championship.
;Show results
January 1963
The second Parade of Champions was held on at the Dallas Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas. It marked the twenty-fourth anniversary of Ed McLemore promoting wrestling shows in Dallas.
Five championship matches were contested at the event including three title matches. The main event was a two out of three falls match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, in which defending champion Lou Thesz retained the title against Ray Gunkel via a double count-out at 1-1 score. Other title matches at the event saw "Wild" Bull Curry and Relampago Cubano beat Ivan the Terrible and Tony Borne to win the NWA World Tag Team Championship and Rip Hawk retain the NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship against Bill Dromo by losing via disqualification.
;Show results
June 1963
The third Parade of Champions was promoted by Southwest Sports on June 4, 1963 at the Dallas Sportatorium in Dallas, Texas. It marked the first time that a Parade of Champions event was held twice a year.
In other prominent matches on the card, Chris Adams and Sunshine defeated Jimmy Garvin and Precious in a mixed tag team match, Fritz Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich, and Mike Von Erich defeated Fabulous Freebirds (Buddy Roberts, Michael Hayes, and Terry Gordy) to win the WCCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship, Rock & Soul (Buck Zumhofe and Iceman King Parsons) defeated The Super Destroyers (Super Destroyer #1 and Super Destroyer #2) to win the NWA American Tag Team Championship, and Kamala wrestled The Great Kabuki to a double disqualification.
The NWA World Heavyweight Championship match between Kerry Von Erich and Ric Flair was awarded the Match of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
In 2013, WWE wrestler Cody Rhodes considered the NWA World Heavyweight Championship main event, a five-star classic match.
2nd Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
The 2nd Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions was held on May 5, 1985 at the Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. It drew a crowd of 26,153.
Nine professional wrestling matches were contested at the card. The main event pitted Kerry Von Erich against One Man Gang. The match stipulated that if Von Erich won, Gang's manager Gary Hart would have his head shaved bald, but if Kerry lost, his father Fritz Von Erich would have to come out of retirement and face One Man Gang one-on-one. Kerry won the match and as a result, Fritz's head was shaved bald. Another major match at the event featured Ric Flair defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kevin Von Erich. The match ended in a double count-out, meaning Flair retained the title.
In an other prominent match on the card, The Von Erichs (Kerry Von Erich, Kevin Von Erich and Mike Von Erich) and Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts) defeat The Dynamic Duo (Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez), Rip Oliver, One Man Gang, Kamala and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams in a twelve-man tag team match, where the winning team would split $100,000 and the wrestler who eliminated the last wrestler won a brand new Lincoln Continental. Kevin Von Erich scored the win by pinning Steve Williams. Also at the event, The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) controversially defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey) (with Jim Cornette) in a two-ring no disqualification match to win the vacant NWA American Tag Team Championship.
The event was praised by critics. One critic stated "From the world title match to the 12-man best of five match to the tag team title match, this show completely overshadowed last year’s event."
3rd Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
The 3rd Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions event was held on May 4, 1986 at the Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. It was the first Parade of Champions promoted under the World Class Wrestling Association banner after WCCW separated from the National Wrestling Alliance in early 1986 and rebranded as WCWA. The card drew a crowd of 24,121.
Ten professional wrestling matches were contested at the event including eight televised matches. The main event was a lumberjack elimination match, in which Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts) defended the WCWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship against Steve Simpson, Kerry Von Erich and Lance Von Erich. Simpson, Kerry and Lance won the match and the titles. In other prominent matches on the card, Rick Rude retained the WCWA World Heavyweight Championship against Bruiser Brody via a disqualification, Bruiser Brody defeated Terry Gordy in a barbed wire match and Brian Adias defeated Steve Regal to retain the WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship.
4th Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
The 4th Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions event was held on May 3, 1987 at the Texas Stadium in Irving, Texas. Fritz Von Erich promoted it as a tribute show for his sons David Von Erich, who died in 1984, and Mike Von Erich, who committed suicide in 1987. It drew a crowd of 5,900, the record lowest attendance in Parade of Champions events.
Eleven professional wrestling matches were contested at the event. The main event was a six-woman Mud Pit match, won by Candi Divine. However, it was not included in the video. The televised main event saw Bruiser Brody defeat Jeep Swenson. In other prominent matches on the card, The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton and Tommy Rogers) and Steve Simpson defeated the Rock 'n' Roll RPMs (Mike Davis and Tommy Lane) and Eric Embry in a scaffold match and Kevin Von Erich retained the WCWA World Heavyweight Championship against Nord the Barbarian via a double count-out.
This event won the 1987 award for Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter; the combination of Mike Von Erich's name attached to the event (his suicide had been less than a month before it) and use of stipulations such as a scaffold match and women's mud wrestling was seen as exploitative.
5th Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions
References
External sources
- Parade of Champions Results at World Class Tribute
- WCCW Wrestling Cards at the Wrestling Information Archive