The most promising wrestler of the Von Erich brothers, David Von Erich also known as "The Yellow Rose of Texas"earned several state and regional titles in his young adulthood. He often fought in tandem with his brothers as a "tag team," but his specialty was solo matches; by the mid-1980s he was considered a contender for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Championship.
In 1984, at age 25, following several weeks of illness, David died while working in Tokyo. He had been suffering from untreated acute enteritis, an inflammation of the intestine.