It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the tale of the Von Erich Family is one of the saddest in pro wresting.
- Fritz would end up outliving all of his sons except Kevin, who is still alive, and with Fritz's death it means that Kevin lost his entire family.
- The death of Jack Jr. in 1959 at the age of six, in what appeared to be a freak accident (he was accidentally shocked unconscious by an exposed wire and fell face-down in a puddle, drowning). Sad enough on its own, but even sadder when combined with the fact that Kevin would later suggest that Fritz became a Death Seeker after the death of Jack Jr., and it may have led to the creation of his more aggressive in-ring style as a means of trying to provoke his opponents into shooting on and possibly killing him. The thought that at the heart of one of the most hated men in wrestling in the 1960s was just a grieving father unable to cope with the far too early death of his son is rather tragic.
- The death of David, which was the beginning of the end. After he died, the Von Erichs fell apart one by one. Even more heart-wrenching is that no one really knows what killed David. It might've been a drug overdose that was covered up by the Von Erichs' long-time friend Bruiser Brody, or an acute enteritis (or a heart attack) brought on by an infection which David had been showing symptoms of prior to going to Japan. It should be noted that acute enteritis is listed as David's official cause of death.
- Mike never wanted to be a wrestler at all; he liked music and playing his guitar and was more interested in running the cameras and learning about the production on World Class's television shows. But then David died and had to be replaced and Mike looked uncannily like him even if he didn't share his wrestling talent, so he was pressured into joining the family business. He was immediately pushed into the main event scene despite being hopelessly green, built up with a mostly fictionalized backstory that presented him the same kind of all-round athletic star his older brothers had been in high school (when in fact he'd never competed much in sports) and then when he suffered an in-ring injury that brought on an attack of toxic shock syndrome that nearly killed him (and might well have left him permanently brain damaged), Fritz had him in a press conference in the hospital, with Mike looking like death and barely able to string a sentence together, talking about how Mike wasn't just going to come back to wrestling, he was going to come back to wrestling and "be a champion". Eventually he killed himself with a drug overdose in 1987 after getting arrested on DUI charges and drug possession. He was 23 years old.
- Poor, poor Chris. Unlike his brothers, Chris was sickly and injury prone, but desperately wanted to be a wrestler anyway. When it became apparent that he was never going to be able to wrestle competently or be anything like his brothers, he became depressed and Mike's death drove him over the edge to suicide, shooting himself in the head in 1991 at the age of 21.
- Kerry was eventually destroyed by his own bad choices. He lost his foot to his own recklessness and impatience, and was going to lose his freedom because of his drug use. At that point, he failed to reconcile with his wife and children, most of his family was dead, and Kerry just gave up. In his autobiography, Bret Hart recalled a chilling exchange he had with him indicating that he had become a Death Seeker, where Kerry had told him months before his suicide about his plans, that he had wanted to "follow" his deceased brothers and that they were "calling him". Bret told Kerry that his living daughters would need him more than his late brothers, and afterwards Kerry mostly convinced Bret that he had changed his mind, but Bret feared that it was only words. Kerry shot himself in the chest in 1993 at the age of 33.
- Kevin himself related a story in the Heroes of World Class documentary in which Fritz - old, bitter and dying of brain cancer - pointed a gun at Kevin and told him the only reason he (Kevin) was still alive was that he wasn't "man enough" to kill himself like his brothers were.
- In a positive way, Dark Side of the Ring has Kevin tell a story about wanting to steal a gun and go to jail during the lowest, angriest point in his life, only for the gun store owner to tell him "I love you, Kev," leading him to return it and embrace him and the other customers. Also, seeing him in Hawaii, happy and at peace, surrounded by his beautiful children and grandchildren.
- This heartbreaking quote that Kevin once said:"I used to have five brothers, now I'm not even a brother."
