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Michael Hayes and The Fabulous Freebirds:
"Michael's mouth. Mike's mouth made up like that. He can talk. But and also, let me tell you, he can swing a cowboy boot, too. Because, he'd knock teeth out of each one of my brother's mouth. With that, swinging that boot, heel first, my, if you'll notice, my brothers trying to whack him with the toe of it, and and it's not so bad, but swinging that heel knocks teeth out. I can't help myself. Mike, the thing is that you have to have to make, we were, we poured our guts into it. It's getting out there and for these 15, 20 minutes, we're going to try to kill each other. Now, we're not going to hit the nose, the teeth or low blows, but everything else we're going to, we're going to bring it home and it made for great TV ratings. So Terry [Gordy] and Buddy [Roberts], they were willing to go to any degree. Michael could talk, but he really couldn't stand in there and fight like Buddy and Terry could, but he could come, but he would surprise you. That was Mike and that's why people love to watch him, because he's so unpredictable, he can say anything and then do anything. Mike's a special character."
Whether Kevin Watches His Old Footage:
"I like to watch matches I haven't seen before, but, yeah, I just, I'm not really...I got my fill of it, but I sure like to watch my sons wrestle because I see them, it reminds me of Dave and Kerry. I just love seeing that and they love it too, man. They love it. And but the big thing is my, what I'm looking forward to is their [MLW[ contracts are finally up and they got with the company, this kind of a TV It was more of the Mexican style with Lucha Libre. it's all different than our type [of wrestling] I think [when] they signed they learned a good lesson there and I think they're looking forward to... I know they're looking forward to their contracts being up and so it's gonna be a new day when that happens."
Professional Wrestling's Style Today:
"I have a feeling, Mike, that wrestling is going through revolutions, yeah. Mike, I think it's going through another one. I think that people..I think it's strange from the point of...we used to tell a story in that ring. What was one man versus another man, stalking, outperforming and then winning the match. I don't think you see that anymore. You're seeing this guy's getting the ring and doing their flips and their dives and their spot show spot monkey kind of highspot match. Oh, it's just almost like the old Lucha Libre. I think there is a demand out there for the old style. The old style where we just got in the room and went from when the bell rang and went after it, we started off, trying to do your best, but if a guy's gonna fight you with fists, then you'll do that too. But, I think there's something missing, and I think that's it."
Bill Mercer:
"Oh, I love Bill Mercer. What a great guy. Bill was particular and my dad and he fought all the time. My dad and he were always...he didn't like that, but but me, Dave and Kerry, we all got along real well with Bill and had a lot of fun.....Bill went to our North Texas, where he was a professor, and the voice of the Dallas Cowboys, and he was great there. Then, also, when Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, he was the guy. Him and Jerry Haines, the old Mr.Peppermint, those are the two men on the scene, and they were, and Bill did a great job with that."
Jerrry Jarrett taking over the WCCW territory and what went wrong:
"[There] was a lawsuit. That was a big lawsuit there. I don't want to go on into it. That was like...some of my worst days. There, it was terrible, but that's when I just pulled out and I went down to Mexico and started wrestling in the Caribbean. It was just the worst thing had stopped being fun for me when I could not stop what was going on with this insanity. It was just. I didn't like the way it was happening, and I don't want to bring up any more negatives."
Eric Embry:
"I'll tell you this about Eric Emory. He's a good little worker and could really get the crowd behind him. Maybe a lot of people will hold those stories [from Embry booking for Jarrett] in high regard, but, I didn't have fun. To me, if I had fun in the ring then it showed and I didn't want people to see me in the ring not having fun. That's why, that's really why I retired, Mike because I wanted to be, always be Kevin Von Erich in that ring and not get old like I've seen so many guys do."
How Often Kevin would like to do appearances now that he's back in Texas:
"Yeah, I might do, I might do a few appearances or something, but not really a lot, Mike. I have a lot of injuries and riding on a plane is actually...it's painful, man. My feet, my hands go to sleep, my feet burn...it hurts to fly and I just rather not but I'm not gonna say never, try to say never or always two words I try to keep away from.."
His First Reaction when learning about The Iron Claw and seeing Zac Efron as Kevin:
"Yeah, it sure was [a weird experience seeing Efron in character]. I guess we'll just see how it goes. I did, alarm me in the way that I got a brother that I love and I love my dad and I don't want them to be slammed with a title like Iron Claw. It sounded like it could be one of those kind of things. I don't know. I just got a little worried about it. It's just...life is life. You do your best, and that's all you can do. Do what you do your very best. We'll just see how it goes, but at least I'll be able to chill myself a little bit as I did now talk to the director. His name's Sean Durkin, and he's a real nice guy. Friendly, happy guy. I think it's gonna go just fine...I'm looking forward to it."
For more on the Iron Claw, click here.
Kevin Von Erich can be found on Instagram at this link.
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