When The Von Erichs, Marshall and Ross, the sons of The Iron Claw subject Kevin Von Erich, exited MLW at the end of their contracts in the spring of 2022, it felt like only a matter of time before the third-generation wrestlers would be off to bigger and better things in the business.

And yet, since their final match in MLW, which saw Calvin Tankman and EJ Nduka successfully defend their tag team titles in a match that also featured 5150, the brothers have wrestled exactly two matches, one at Ric Flair's Final Match – ha – against The Briscoes in July of 2022 and one in November of 2023 against Texas Treats at RCW The Iron Claw.

Set to face off against Angelo Parker, Jake Hager, and Matt Menard in a trios match with Orange Cassidy on Rampage after making their AEW debut alongside father Kevin on Dynamite, Ross, and Marshall stopped by Busted Open Radio to discuss where they've been and what they're hoping to do moving forward now that there's a renewed interest in the Von Erichs.

“So we came to Texas about six months ago to start a wedding business. Originally, Ross and I, our MLW contracts were coming up, so we were talking, I have two boys now. I want to show them that I did my best on the time I had here on this earth, that I gave it my all. Being in Hawaii, it’s a place where you retire, we love it, it’s beautiful. But we almost felt like we didn’t deserve it yet. So we came to our dad and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna go to Texas, get an apartment up there. Our contracts are up, and [we’ll] see what doors open. It’s easier to take bookings and things like that.’ My dad was like, ‘Well, h*ll, I love Texas, I’m coming too. Don’t leave me here,'” Marshall Von Erich told Busted Open Radio via Fightful.

“Now we’re all out here. We got this wedding business. My sister and all her kids are here, my boys are here, we’re all working as a family. Then AEW has reached out to us. We’re coming up, December 13, Winter is Coming. The Von Erichs, our dream is, we want to be champions of a major company one day. That’s been the dream since we were kids, and we’ve never doubted it. But there’s been some times where we’ve had, being in Hawaii was difficult. But we both feel mentally, and physically that we’re mature enough now that it’s time. It just feels like it’s time. It’s a big opportunity, and no, we’re not blind. The timing of this couldn’t be better,”  “December 22, the Iron Claw movie comes out. We didn’t have anything to do with it, and luckily we could watch it, and it was a good movie. So we’re proud of it. Me and my brother, not many people know this, but we actually got invited to be in it. One of the final scenes, we have a little training match against each other. But then the AEW thing, and we’re getting calls from bigger people now, so it’s exciting. It’s exciting, but it feels like it’s the right time.”

Is this a one-off appearance for The Von Erichs in AEW, or will it build up to something bigger and better for the brothers long-term, with a spot in Ring of Honor potentially on the table – they're wrestling at Final Battle, too, against The Outrunners – if they aren't quite “main roster” ready? Fans will have to wait and see, but after a year away, it looks like The Von Erichs are back in professional wrestling, and the sport is better off for it.

Chavo Guerrero reveals how Iron Claw filmed The Von Erics wrestling.

While there are “real” wrestlers in The Iron Claw, from MJF to Ryan Nemeth and beyond, much of the in-ring efforts in the film are done by the non-wrestling trio of Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson, who portray the trio of Kevin Von Erich, Kerry Von Erich, and David Von Erich, respectively.

Discussing how the actual matches came together in an interview with Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Chavo Gurrero, who served as a wrestling coordinator on the film in addition to playing The Sheik, explained how the actual wrestling came together, which is very different from how a match would be worked in an actual professional wrestling promotion.

“In ‘Iron Claw,' we filmed entire matches. Sean Durkin, the director, really wanted to get the feel of a real match, and then pick and choose what he wanted. There's other productions that I'm shooting like 30 seconds or 10 seconds or sometimes they want one move. But Sean wanted these wrestling sequences. So, if you see one of the opening matches, that happens to be me and Zac. That's probably a 10 to 12-minute match. And we filmed that probably 10 or 15 times,” Chavo Guerrero said via Wrestling Inc.

“So I tell the actors that go, ‘Sometimes this is easier than what we do in WWE, but sometimes it's much harder.' Because I can go 20 minutes in a match at WrestleMania. Great, let's do it on a pay-per-view. But I'm 20 minutes, and I'm done. I go, ‘You're doing this three to four to five or 10-minute match 10 to 15 times you're doing over four hours, and then you're taking a break to go to lunch and you're coming back and filming it again.' So it's very difficult. By the end of a couple of those matches that Zac had, he was spent. You couldn't tell in the match. But afterward, he even came to me, and he goes, ‘Man, this is maybe one of the hardest days I've ever had on set. This is really hard.' Well, yeah.”

Now, for fans of wrestling who may not be tuned into the magic of movie marking, in-ring work, from boxing to wrestling, is usually shot in long takes in order to maintain optionality, even if the action between the bells is eventually cut up to maximize the energy and excitement of the proceedings, assuming a director doesn't want to lean into the one-shot nature of the match a la the first in Creed. Shooting a single match that many times, assuming the takes were good, feels a tad excessive though, as even the true iron men of the sport would get winded after a while under such a blistering clip. There's nothing wrong with the occasional one-shot, Sean Durkin, just look at Raging Bull.