Former WWE Star Recalls David Von Erich's Final Day

The sudden death of David Von Erich in a Japanese hotel room on February 10, 1984, at just 25 years old has long been the subject of much controversy. Though the official documentation from the U.S. Embassy, later shown to a D Magazine reporter, listed the cause of death as acute enteritis, other sources have taken issue with that, with Ric Flair's first memoir, for example, saying that "[e]verybody in wrestling believes that he overdosed and that Bruiser Brody flushed a bunch of pills down the toilet before the police arrived." With Bill Irwin—The Goon to mid-'90s WWF fans—having been on that Japanese tour and being the guest on "Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw" last week. naturally, the topic of Von Erich's death came up.

"I was the last guy to see David Von Erich alive," he said. "You know how you go to Japan and you drink before you get on the plane, then you get on the plane and you drink a little bit more so you fall asleep, then you wake up when you get there, what do you do? You start drinking a little bit more, they take you to dinner, they start doing all that introduction stuff, and then we went out to Ribera's Steakhouse and ate and drank some more, and David's right there with us." At the eatery that became popular with American wrestlers for its large portion sizes, Irwin says that Von Erich drank more and downed two full plates of food, only to order a bunch of snacks when he returned to their hotel, going upstairs before returning to get the food. They went to David's room, and when Irwin left, Von Erich was sitting on the edge of the bed, about to call his wife.

The next day, when the afternoon came and it was time for the foreign wrestlers to get on their bus to the first show of the tour, nobody had seen David Von Erich and he didn't show up when it was time to leave. Eventually, Joe Higuchi, head referee for All Japan Pro Wrestling and liaison to the foreign talent, ran onto the bus.

"He come[s] on the bus," Irwin explained. "'Brody! Brody! Come! Come!'" he remembered Higuchi saying frantically as he beckoned Bruiser Brody, who was based out of Texas and close with the Von Erichs. "Brody gets up and goes with him, and all of the other guys, we all look t each other, and everybody gets up and [gestures that they all ran off]. I'm right behind Brody, he's right behind the ref, and we go up to the first floor in the corner suite of that hotel, went in the door—'cause a guy from the hotel opened the door—and [David was] laying exactly where I left him. Where I left him sitting, he was now laid back on the bed, and he was as blue as this thing I'm wearing." Paramedics entered the room and tried to resuscitate him; in the process of moving him, a small amount of food came out of his mouth. "But we knew he was dead when we saw him."

Asked by John "Bradshaw" Layfield if he thinks David choked on the food that he saw fly out, Irwin answered in the affirmative. "He was a purger," Irwin said, equating David's behavior with bulimia without using the word. "When we came back to the hotel, he went upstairs for two seconds. Well, he went upstairs and puked, and then went back downstairs and ate a bunch more food. Then when he went upstairs, I think he regurgitated it...I think he purged on it, it kicked up in his throat and killed him." This is consistent with what Irwin said in WWE's "The Triumph & Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling" documentary, although he was more overt here about knowing that David Von Erich had a history of purging after meals.

"It would have been pretty quick [that he died after I left," Irwin continued. "It was late when I got out of the room. I don't know what time it was, but it's probably midnight or something. And nobody saw him the whole next day until late afternoon...and there he is, laying on the bed, and you looked at him, you knew he was dead."

Irwin continued on that AJPW tour as one-half of the masked Super Destroyers with his brother, Scott. Back in Dallas, the outpouring of grief was such that fans lined the streets for David's funeral.