David Von Erich’s cause of death is alluded to in The Iron Claw, but conflicting real-life stories have caused confusion about what really killed the ill-fated pro-wrestler. Written and directed by Sean Durkin, The Iron Claw is a sports biopic about the famous Von Erich brothers from Texas who followed in the footsteps of their pro-wrestler father, Fritz Von Erich (Holt McCallany), and created a dynasty. The Iron Claw tells the true story of the Von Erichs’ rise to fame as pro-wrestlers in the ’80s and the “curse” believed to have caused a string of tragic deaths in their family.
Although there were six Von Erich brothers in real life, the eldest, Jack Adkisson Jr., died at the age of six before the timeline of the movie. The Iron Claw also leaves out the youngest Von Erich brother, Chris, who died by suicide in 1991. As such, not every death in the Von Erich family is shown in The Iron Claw. While Kevin (Zac Efron), the second-eldest and only surviving Von Erich brother, explains what happened to Jack Jr. in The Iron Claw, the first death that happens in the movie is David Von Erich (Harris Dickinson), the third-eldest brother.
On February 10, 1984, David Von Erich died at age 25 in Tokyo, Japan, while touring with All Japan Pro Wrestling. He was found dead in his hotel room by a wrestling referee after failing to show up in the lobby (via Dallas Morning News). David’s official cause of death was listed by The U.S. Embassy as acute enteritis, a type of intestinal inflammation that can lead to complications such as heart failure.
According to Fritz Von Erich, David had been sick with flu-like symptoms “for about six weeks” before he died but continued to wrestle despite being “in no condition” to enter the ring. Kevin Von Erich believes that David died of a heart attack caused by his enteritis (via The Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW).
While the film doesn’t explicitly mention his age or the date when he passed, David Von Erich’s death is portrayed fairly accurately in The Iron Claw. David’s fatal illness is even foreshadowed in The Iron Claw when Kevin walks in on him throwing up blood in the bathroom at Kevin’s wedding reception a week before David heads to Japan. Kevin tries to convince him to see a doctor, but David claims he just has “stomach cramps” from “a bug [he] picked up on the road.”
The Iron Claw then skips ahead to David’s death, which is not shown onscreen. Instead, Fritz tells Kevin that David died in his hotel room in Japan from “a ruptured intestine“ but does not elaborate on what caused it. After David’s funeral, Kevin and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) flip a coin to decide who will take their late brother’s place in the title match against Ric Flair. During the tribute show for David at Texas Stadium, which took place a few months after his death in real life, Kerry defeats Flair and becomes the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion.
While the official account of David’s death is properly depicted in The Iron Claw, the film fails to address the rumors about his “true” cause of death. In his 2004 autobiography, To Be the Man, Ric Flair claimed that “everyone in wrestling believes” David actually died of a drug overdose, which Mick Foley, David’s close friend and fellow wrestler, had previously alleged in his 1999 autobiography, Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. Flair added that another wrestler, Bruiser Body, allegedly found David in his hotel room and flushed the drugs down the toilet before the cops arrived.
The Iron Claw does hint at David’s possible drug abuse. Before the Von Erich trio’s victorious match against The Fabulous Freebirds, clips of David and Kerry partying hard and doing drugs on the road are interspersed in a montage of them training and fighting in the ring. However, the film never suggests that an overdose may have actually killed David Von Erich.
Sources: Dallas Morning News, The Triumph and Tragedy of WCCW, To Be the Man by Ric Flair and Keith Elliot Greenberg, Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks by Mick Foley,