The Fabulous Freebirds

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The Fabulous Freebirds
Statistics
Members Michael Hayes (leader)
Buddy Roberts
Terry Gordy
Jimmy Garvin
Badstreet
Name(s) The Freebirds
The Fabulous Freebirds
Debut 1979
Disbanded 1994
Years active 1979-1994
Promotions AWA
GWF
NWA / WCW
UWF
WCCW
WWF

The Fabulous Freebirds were a professional wrestling tag team that attained fame in the 1980s, performing into the 1990s. The team usually consisted of three wrestlers, although in different situations and points in its history, just two performed under the Freebirds name.

History

The Fabulous Freebirds started performing together in 1979 when promoter Bill Watts teamed up the trio of Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, and Buddy "Jack" Roberts. Originally meant to be a tag team, they became a "three man gang" type of tag-team—an unusual concept at the time. They usually worked as heels but also had several face runs as well.

The group wrestled in the Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling territory, where they had a legendary feud with the Von Erichs (David, Kevin, Kerry, Chris and Mike).[1] This feud was ignited by an infamous incident in which Terry Gordy slammed Kerry Von Erich's head in a steel cage door.

They also performed in the NWA-affiliated Georgia Championship Wrestling and World Championship Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, and the Oklahoma-based Universal Wrestling Federation. While in the AWA they feuded primarily with The Road Warriors, costing them the World Tag Team Titles in a match against long time Freebird ally Jimmy Garvin and his partner Steve Regal.

They had a very brief run in the World Wrestling Federation in 1984, where they were a part of the Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection period. In the WWF, they wrestled under the guidance of Cyndi Lauper's manager David Wolff,[2] but soon left the promotion after an altercation with Andre the Giant, who was upset when the Freebirds arrived late to a show.[3]

The group then moved on to their AWA run, returned to World Class, and then started a stint in the UWF where Gordy became the promotion's champion, Roberts held its TV title, and Hayes usually acted as their manager or served as a heel commentator on television broadcasts. After JCP purchased UWF in 1987, Hayes wrestled in World Class and several independent promotions, sometimes with Gordy, who began spending most of his time in Japan, and Roberts began to wind down his career.

Hayes and Garvin were paired as the Freebirds in WCW in 1989, enjoying several reigns as World and United States tag-team champions, and were joined by Gordy for a while as well. They later employed the services of masked third partner Fantasia/Badstreet and manager Little Richard Marley. The Freebirds were last together when Hayes, Gordy, and Garvin worked for the Global Wrestling Federation in 1994, ending the group after 15 years.

Their name was inspired by the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird," which would be their theme song until "Badstreet USA" (sung, composed, and co-written by Hayes) replaced it in 1984. It is often claimed that the Freebirds were the first wrestlers to use entrance music for their ring introductions, although Gorgeous George's use of "Pomp and Circumstance" predates the Freebirds. They were, however, the first to use a rock song as entrance music.

Gordy died of a heart attack, caused by a blood clot on July 16, 2001 at age 40 while Roberts died on November 29, 2012, at the age of 67, of pneumonia and on November 1st, 2012 Badstreet died of a suspected heart attack making Hayes and Garvin the only living members of the Freebirds.[4][5] Hayes (who retired from in-ring competition shortly after the Freebirds disbanded) is currently the head of the road agents/producers within WWE, while Garvin retired from wrestling shortly after disbanding and has become an Airline Transport Pilot.

Entrance music

The Freebirds concept was heavily derived from the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird" and the image of "Southern pride" evoked by the band. For most of the team's early existence, the song was used as their entrance music, in both television and live appearances. On occasion, they would also enter the ring to Willie Nelson's rendition of "Georgia on My Mind".

During the mid 1980s, a number of North American wrestling promotions who licensed copyrighted music faced difficulties in continuing those licenses. Other promotions which did not license music were under scrutiny for the practice. Promotions began looking for solutions. The WWF, which hired Jimmy Hart and Jim Johnston in 1985, used their talents to write and produce music under which the copyrights could be controlled by the company. Around this same time, Hayes recorded the song "Badstreet USA" and released a music video, which included the other Freebird members. This song would largely be used as the entrance music for the Freebirds from that point forward, though they would use the other songs on occasion.

Freebird Rule

During the Freebirds' career in the NWA, they won its tag team championship. While holding the title, promoters added a sub-gimmick to the team - "The Freebird Rule" - which allowed any two of the three members of the team to defend the title on any given night.[6]

This rule has been re-used by a number of other companies when a three (or more) man team captures a tag-team championship.[7] Examples include:

In some cases, the Freebird rule has been applied to singles titles, most notably when Chyna and Chris Jericho co-held the WWF Intercontinental Championship in 2000.[8] Other such cases included when 3 Count won the WCW Hardcore Championship in 2000,[8] and when Matt Bentley and Frankie Kazarian co-held the TNA X Division Championship in 2004. In 2010, after Layla won the WWE Women's Championship, Team Lay-Cool (Layla and Michelle McCool) co-held the title. This was a slight variation to the Freebird rule, as while both divas defended the title, only Layla was recognized as the official champion. Later that year, the same rule was instituted when Michelle McCool won the WWE Divas Championship; both members of Team Lay-Cool defended the title, but only McCool was recognized as official champion.[8]

Offshoots

Blackbirds

The Blackbirds were formed in 1988 in World Class Championship Wrestling by Iceman Parsons. He had just teamed with Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts as the "Blackbird" in their feud with Michael Hayes. He teamed up with Perry "Action" Jackson and Harold T. Harris to form the Blackbirds. They also wrestled as The Blackbirds in the Global Wrestling Federation in 1992.

Extreme Freebirds

The Extreme Freebirds were formed in NWA Wildside and the NAWA by the son of Terry Gordy, Ray Gordy. He teamed up with Tank and Iceberg in 2004 to form this group.

Other appearances

The original three Freebirds briefly appear in a match against Greg Gagne, The Tonga Kid, and Jim Brunzell during the opening sequence of the 1986 fantasy film Highlander,[13] which occurs at a show in Madison Square Garden (although the scene was actually filmed at the Brendan Byrne Arena across the river).

Members and incarnations

  • Main Members
    • Michael Hayes was the leader of the group. Nicknamed "P.S." (Purely Sexy), he was known to get the crowd going with his antics.
    • Terry Gordy was the powerhouse of the group. Nicknamed "Bam Bam," he loved to fight and beat his opponents down.
    • Buddy Roberts, nicknamed "Jack" for his love of Jack Daniel's whiskey, was the speed of the group, who would often frustrate other wrestlers into chasing him, until Hayes and/or Gordy surprise them with a move. Buddy was also acknowledged as the best ring technician of the group.
    • Jimmy Garvin's association with the Freebirds began in 1983, as he had often teamed with Hayes, Gordy, and Roberts in WCCW and AWA. In 1988, he teamed with Steven Dane while Hayes was injured as a watered-down version of the Freebirds, and with Hayes during a reignited WCW run between June 1989 and July 1992. He was always considered the fourth Freebird by Hayes, Gordy and Roberts, although no one really believed it until 1989, when Hayes and Garvin (nicknamed "Jam") teamed up for the NWA World Tag Team Championship tournament.
  • Associated members
    • During the Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy feud against Michael Hayes:
      • Iceman Parsons – in late 1987, he joined Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts after Michael Hayes left the Fabulous Freebirds to help them get revenge on him. Parsons was known as the "Blackbird" during this feud.
      • The Angel of Death teamed with Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts and Iceman "King" Parsons in the late-1987-1988 version of the Freebirds. He had previously feuded with Gordy, Roberts and Michael Hayes in the UWF prior to joining the group.
    • During the Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin tag team era:
      • Steve Cox teamed with Hayes as The Freebirds in WCCW, CWA, and AWA. When Hayes was injured, he would team with Garvin.
      • Badstreet – Brad Armstrong under a mask in WCW, and the group's light-heavyweight/cruiserweight. Originally appeared as "Fantasia", but WCW changed the name to Badstreet to avoid a legal confrontation with Disney.
      • Big Daddy Dink – the Freebird alias of manager Sir Oliver Humperdink; in keeping with the Freebirds' "frustrated rock & roll band" gimmick, he was referred to as their "tour manager"/"road boss" in WCW (1991).[14]
      • Little Richard Marley – WCW jobber Rocky King, who as "Little Richard Marley" served as a ringside pest to Freebird opponents in late-1990.
    • Lately:

Championships and accomplishments

1Hayes' reign as NWA United States Heavyweight Champion occurred after Ted Turner purchased Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling from Jim Crockett, Jr. in 1988, which resulted in renaming the promotion World Championship Wrestling. This was also prior to the title's name being changed to the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship and prior to WCW's withdrawal from the NWA.
2During Hayes and Garvin's first reign, the titles were known as the NWA World Tag Team Championships.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Andre the Giant - Bleacher Report.com
  4. ↑ Kevin von Erich comments on Buddy Roberts' passing
  5. ↑ Jim Ross comments on Roberts' death
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Fabulous Freebirds - WWE.com
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 Frebbird Rule - WWE.com
  9. ↑ Wrestling 93: Rulebreaker, Spring 1993 issue, P.10.
  10. ↑ Wrestle America, June 1993 issue, p.60.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ New Day - WWE.com
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Further reading

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Fabulous Freebirds's profile on WWE.com

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