Born on May 15, 1957, Adkisson was Garry Smith’s running back while he played football at North Texas State University.
Unfortunately, an injury cut short his football career and his desire to play in the National Football League. In 1976, Adkisson began competing as Kevin Von Erich, which marked the start of his glorious wrestling career.
He wrestled for his father’s organization, World Class Championship Wrestling, for most of his career. Kevin was one of the promotion’s biggest stars thanks to his inherent athletic talent and appeal.
Von Erich had significant promotion success as a singles wrestler as a member of tag teams, frequently participating in high profile feuds. In a sport where virtually all wrestlers wear tall boots, Kevin was well known for competing barefoot. He was frequently sarcastically referred to as “The Barefoot Boy” by world-class announcers on WCCW broadcasts.
Kevin later said in an interview that he never intended to wrestle barefoot, but one of his fights was interrupted by someone hiding his boots as a prank, and he couldn’t. not find them in time, he simply went barefoot, which later became his trademark.
Contrary to popular opinion, he participated in matches throughout his career while wearing boots. These battles included his first contest against Paul Perschmann, aka Playboy Buddy Rose, and against Superfly Jimmy Snuka. Jimmy, who also wrestled barefoot, was much admired by Kevin, who frequently mimicked his soaring body splash from the top rope, known as the Superfly.
