Jim Cornette on The Von Erichs & World Class Running In Massachusetts 

I was at the show. I still have the program.

"Kentucky public television, which I watch so I can be smart." I can't stop laughing at that. Jim Cornette could read the list of ingredients on a bottle of water, and it would be funny.

Lynn Lynn the city of sin, you never come out the way you went in.... I'm from East Boston and anyone from the Boston area knows this old ,famous poem about Lynn and what the city is about.

The old stadium does have a place in history though. Manning Bowl was the site of the first US concert by The Rolling Stones in 1966. They had a riot and the fans were teargassed, so could have been worse.

1985 WCCW came to Fort Smith Arkansas and we had about 7500 fans there. It was loud and crazy. Kerry Pinned One Man Gang and Kevin and Mike beat Gordy and Hayes. Was so much fun.

People knock WCCW but do people realize how many wrestlers cut their teeth on wrestling there, before they became famous ?? Maybe in the scope of things, WCCW was never intended to be a long lasting promotion of its own, but functioned as a boot camp / training ground for the career starts of King Kong Bundy, Rick Rude, Jake Roberts, Undertaker, One Man Gang, Ultimate Warrior, Midnight Express, so on and so forth.

I remember World Class being on espn or some sports channel in the afternoon after school. Great matches with Kerry, Kevin, Flair, Chris Adams, Iceman Parsons, and so many others. They had awesome matches that held your attention without all the gimmicky stuff from the WWF. Kevin always seemed to be the biggest potential star. He had the feel of Snuka with an approachable attitude and great moves. Kerry was the man, but Kevin always got the surprise pops. Kevin v Adams and Kerry v Flair marathon matches were so great.

Am from the Boston area. wanted to go...couldn't do it. Anyway, in Boston, WCCW aired opposite WWF Championship wrestling in the same time slot. I watched WCCW over WWF everytime. I could catch the WWF all star wrestling show later that day.

Dream matches that never happened the Von Eric family vs the Hart family

@JimCornette I was there at the Manning Bowl for that 1st event ! I think I was 13, my mom drove me & my buddy to see it. We came from Blackstone Massachusetts on the north Rhode Island border, it was a long drive at least a good hour. I remember a couple matches: Kerry Von Erich vs One Man Gang. Kerry won. True story: So OMG was in the ring waiting for Kerry with Gary Hart, his manager. Some lady in the front row - I'm in the 2nd row BTW, says to Gary "Fuck you !" real loud just at Kerry's intro music, and Gary looks at the lady and says "Lady I wouldn't fuck you if you were the last woman on Earth" lol Kevin Von Erich vs Chris Adams. Kevin rolled him up for the pin. Chris landed 2 sidekicks & a front handspring to show off haha. I smacked Adam's on the back as he ran to the dressing room. Great night of wrestling, there was light rain and warm weather that night. The Manning Bowl was a dump. A shitty high school football stadium falling apart. I'd say that night there were 4 to 6 thousand fans in attendance. Good size turnout. Floor seating sold out, the stands on both sides were about 2/3rds full.

I wish Fritz would’ve booked more outside market cards. They had good draws. Fritz had the old school promoter mentality and wanted to keep it all in Dallas. In Chicago we had high ratings with WCCW and we were starved for them to appear as opposed to the AWA who had old wrestlers, and the dammed WWF circus.

The Manning Bowl stadium was build in the 1930s and renovated in 1974. It was shut down in 2004 and subsequently torn down in 2005.

WCCW could have done shows all the time back in the day in Massachusetts. I played either a track meet or football game in the Manning Bowl!! total sh*t hole - the bowels of the stadium and locker rooms were frightening.. As a kid, I lived for WCCW on Chanel 25 boston UHF - I LOVED WCCW....

Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin, you never come out the way you went in.

Saw Aerosmith and Motley Crue there consecutive years. BTW Lynn is my birth town. Still got family there.

Impressive that Jim Cornette remembers that.

I grew up in Reading, MA, and have vague memories of another promotion doing card in Lynn. While I was pretty much a pre-cable '70's WWWF guy, a lot of the girls were nuts over the Von Erich boys. It was a bit like when ECW used to run up here in the mid 90's as we were so sick of the cartoon WWF at the time - people just went nuts for something different.

One of my favorite heel factions was Devastation Inc. with cactus jack, missing link, kamala. To this day I still didn't get the whole Eric Embry push. Dingo warrior, I get.... Rick Rude, I get but Eric Embry????

Built by the WPA during the Roosevelt administration. I was at The show. Mark Lewin almost knocked me down.

I grew up in Lynn, ha! I know right where this is. Excellent shoot interview!

I’m from Saugus next door , I just heard about this a few years ago , David manning promoted it. Vince prob was saying “I’ll keep Boston and you can have that shithole Lynn “

I don’t think any girls were going to see Dutch Mantell unless they have a hair fetish

What if World Class Championship Wrestling & Jim Crockett Promotions merged in the 1980's. Imagine Kerry Von Erich vs. Lex Luger, Magnum TA vs. Chris Adams, or Kevin Von Erich vs. Barry Windham.

It's been demolished since 2005, now called Manning Field for baseball.

I was there!!! It was the first and last non WWF wrestling show my father ever took us to. Between 1984 and 1988 my father took me to almost every single WWF show at the Boston Garden. I found out later we got in for free because he had connections at the garden. We also saw a lot of icecapades and ringling brothers but I digress,lol. So although we went to every WWF show I was a HUGE fan of the NWA and World Class. I used to watch the World Class show with my dad whenever it was on. He was a big Gino Hernandez and used to randomly say to my mother "I am YOUR champion!" It used to piss her off and make us kids laugh. So when we heard they were coming to Lynn my father decided we would all go. It was me my parents and my 2 sisters. The traffic was awful, my sisters were super bored, my mother and dad fought for some reason the whole time, we had awful seats that were too far from the ring and were like hard wooden benches with no back support which made my father even more irritable. I can honestly say I have almost no memories of the matches. My most vivid memory of that night is my dad almost getting in a fistfight in the jammed parking lot as we tried to leave,lol. Hearing Jim talk about it is a funny trip down memory lane.

World Class used to advertise shows out of the Hartford Civic Center every month or so in 1985 and 1986

How fucking awesome the Von Erich coming to my neighborhood!!! RIP David Kerry Mike Chris Fritz and Momma VE!!!

For more on Lynn, check out HBO's 'High on Crack Street."

When I was stationed at Ft. Hood, I had a buddy who discovered World Class, and he was hooked, he stopped doing anything else it seemed, with his off time.

I would have loved to have caught this in the day. I did watch on our local UHF when aired in Boston, but don't remember them having a local show

Saw World Class at the Austin City Coliseum many times!

I remember when Kerry got busted writing himself a prescription at a pharmacy in my hometown Texarkana,Ar. For me World Class went downhill after that.

Manning Bowl!!!! That's where Mr and my friends use to hang out at and get drunk. Lots of good times and memories there too bad they let it go to shit and get condemned. It's been torn down and replaced with a standard track football field and bleachers. It sucks.

One Man Gang was cool back then, I seen a lot of the Gangs early day video's. I bet Boston loved that show, all they had was the Clown Wrestling from the WWF, dad was at a WCCW show when he was stationed in Texas back in the 80's.

That was at Manning bowl inn lynn

Thanks for sharing this... laughed my rear off... those were the days!

i remember this very well !!

We beat Lynn in the Div 3 superbowl at Foxboro stadium in 1990. Final score: Case 14 -- Lynn English 0.

I believe Missy Hyatt made a name of Hollywood John Tatum. Without her he faded into the misty past. Same fate with Al Madril.

Did he just say the girls starting seeing Bill Dundee and Jerry Lawler?

Jim great show ..take it easy guy

Jim sure has a sharp mind regarding the biz. I'd sure like to have a few beers with Jim and pick his brain on his career. I've always been a big fan of his since the wccw years and beyond. Jim won me over when he was shootin how fit he was and began to show an example. He positioned himself and began to do girl push ups with knees bent and all. I got it, the biz, from then on. 😄

June 1, 1985 FYI

Cornette trashing world class as usual

3rd!

I knew world class merged with icw in 87 never knew this been to lynn