The Fabulous Freebirds

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The Fabulous Freebirds were a popular tag team in the 1980s, some of which also served as a stable . It consisted primarily of the three wrestlers Michael Hayes , Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts , although it has been rearranged several times over its 15 year history.

Wrestling career

The Fabulous Freebirds were founded in 1979 by Michael "PS" Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and Buddy "Jack" Roberts. What was unusual about the Freebirds was that as a tag team they consisted of three wrestlers instead of the usual two. Most of the time the wrestlers worked as heels , but they were also used as faces on occasion . The name is based on the song Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd , which also acted as performance music at the beginning, before it was replaced by the piece Badstreet USA composed and sung by Hayes .

The group became famous especially in the Promotion World Class Championship Wrestling , where they had a long-running feud with the Von Erich brothers (David, Kevin, Kerry and Mike), whose father Fritz Von Erich owned the territory.

They also appeared in the NWA- affiliated Georgia Championship Wrestling , World Championship Wrestling , American Wrestling Association, and Universal Wrestling Federation promotions . In the AWA they often competed against the Road Warriors and ensured that Jimmy Garvin , an ally from the WCCW era, received the tag team titles there with his partner Steve Regal .

In 1984 they were briefly in the World Wrestling Federation . Your manager there, David Wolff, was Cyndi Lauper's manager in real life . They left the WWF because the management there had plans to use the three wrestlers as lone fighters and to disband the team.

Then the Freebirds rejoined the WCCW, but also wrestled in the UWF, where Gordy and Roberts were successful as individual wrestlers and Hayes acted as their manager or was used as a commentator. After Jim Crockett Promotions bought UWF in 1987, Hayes began working as an individual wrestler in World Class and various independent leagues. Gordy spent most of his time in Japan while Roberts wanted to end his career.

Hayes and Jimmy Garvin appeared in World Championship Wrestling as freebirds and became multiple titleholders there. Gordy sometimes helped her with this. Later, with “Fantasia” or “Badstreet” (Brad Armstrong), a permanent third man was added. They were managed by Little Richard Marley . The Freebirds (Hayes, Gavin and Gordy) last appeared together in the Global Wrestling Federation in 1994 and then disbanded the tag team after 15 years.

meaning

It has often been claimed that the Freebirds were the first wrestlers to use performing music. While it is true that Lynyrd Skynyrd's “Free Bird” was the first tag team to use rock elements in their performances, it was Gorgeous George who used pomp and circumstance music for enema back in the 1940s.

The Freebirds were among the most popular tag teams in wrestling in the 1980s and, alongside the Von Erichs, were one of the WCCW's draft horses. The three-man cast and the orientation of the tag team were often imitated and were also the inspiration for stables such as D-Generation X or the New World Order .

Freebird Rule

During their appearances at the NWA, they held the local tag team belt. The promoters introduced a rule, unofficially called the "Freebird Rule", which states that only two members of each of the three wrestlers had to defend the title.

This rule has also been used by other promotions, especially with three-tag teams:

successor

Blackbirds

The Blackbirds were founded in 1988 by Iceman Parsons in the World Class Championship Wrestling . He had a tag team with Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts who feuded against their former leader Michael Hayes. As The Blackbirds they also appeared in the Global Wrestling Federation in 1992.

Extreme freebirds

The Extreme Freebirds passed in the independent promotions NWA Wildside and NAWA. The tag team was founded by Ray Gordy , Terry Gordy's son, who formed the tag team with wrestlers Tank and Iceberg in 2004.

Performances outside of wrestling

The three freebirds Hayes, Gordy and Roberts appeared in the opening sequence of the film Highlander - There Can Only Be One (1986). Excerpts from a match against Greg Gagne , The Tonga Kid and Jim Brunzell were shown .

Michael Hayes composed, wrote the lyrics and sang the song Badstreet USA , which was used as performance music for the Freebirds. Terry Gordy and Buddy Rogers also appear in the accompanying video in the style of Michael Jackson's bathroom . Hayes recorded the album Off the Streets in 1987 with the backing band The Badstreet Band . Since the performances were also used to promote wrestling events, Gordy and Rogers were often seen at the band's concerts.

Members

Main members

  • Michael Hayes was portrayed as the leader of the tag team. His nickname was "PS" for "Purely Sexy". Despite his heel status, he was very popular with fans.
  • Terry Gordy was portrayed as the strongest of the group, but who was mentally a little sluggish. He got his nickname "Bam Bam" because he quickly got into fights and ruthlessly knocked down his opponents. He was also responsible for the comic elements in the promos.
  • Buddy "Jack" Roberts had his nickname because of his fondness for Jack Daniel's - whiskey . He was the fastest and most tech-savvy of the three main members.
  • Jimmy Garvin joined the Freebirds in 1983 and was practically the fourth Freebird, especially in the WCCW and the AWA. In 1988 he formed a short-lived version of the Freebirds with Steven Dane because Hayes was injured. He was also a main member alongside Hayes during the freebird phase of WCW from June 1989 to July 1992.

Other members

  • Iceman Parsons was a member of the Blackbirds in 1987 when Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts had a feud with Hayeas. Parsons was known as the "Blackbird" because he was an African American .
  • The Angel of Death (David Sheldon) formed the Freebirds from 1987 to 1989 together with Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts and Iceman "King" Parsons.
  • Steve Cox was part of the Freebirds along with Hayes and Jimmy Garvin and performed with them on the WCCW, CWA and AWA.
  • Badstreet (Brad Armstrong): Brad Armstrong was initially part of the tag team at WCW under the name “Fantasia”. The name was later changed to "Badstreet" to prevent a lawsuit from The Walt Disney Company , which had a cartoon of the same name in the program. He was the group's cruiserweight .
  • Big Daddy Dink (Oliver Humperdink) worked for the WCW as the group's “Tour Manager” (1991).
  • Little Richard Marley (William Boulware, Jr.): aided the freebirds in the WCW and attacked wrestlers outside the ring.
  • Ray Gordy, Terry Gordy's son, took part in a one-time reunion of the Freebirds with Michael Hayes in honor of his late father.

Manager

Titles and awards

title

Individual titles are only given if the member was part of the Fabulous Freebirds at the time.

  • Global Wrestling Federation
    • GWF Tag Team Championship (1x) - Terry Gordy & Jimmy Garvin
  • Georgia Championship Wrestling
    • NWA National Tag Team Championship (3 ×) - Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy
    • NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1x) - Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy
  • NWA Mid-America
    • NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (2 ×) - Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy
  • World Class Championship Wrestling
    • NWA American Heavyweight Championship (1x) - Terry Gordy
    • NWA American Tag Team Championship (1x) - Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy
    • WCCW Six-Man Tag Team Championship (6 ×) - Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts (5 ×), Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts and Iceman Parsons (1 ×)
    • WCCW Television Championship (1 ×) - Buddy Roberts
    • NWA Knuckles Championship (Texas version) (1 ×) - Terry Gordy
    • WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 ×) - Iceman Parsons

Awards

  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated
    • PWI Tag Team of the Year 1981 for Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy
    • # 3 for Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy in the 2003 Top 100 Tag Team List
  • Wrestling Observer Newsletter
    • Tag Team of the Year 1980 - Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts
    • "Feud of the Year" 1983 and 1984 - Freebirds vs. the by Erichs
    • "Match of the Year" 1984. - Freebirds vs. the Von Erichs (Kerry, Kevin and Mike von Erich), Anything Goes match on July 4th in Fort Worth , Texas
    • Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (2005) - Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniel Cohen, Susan Cohen: Wrestling Superstars II , ISBN 0-671-63224-8 , p. 88.
  2. ^ A b Daniel Cohen, Susan Cohen: Wrestling Superstars II , p. 89.
  3. ↑ Tag Team Profile: Fabulous Freebirds. Online World of Wrestling, accessed October 16, 2007 .
  4. ↑ a b c The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling, DVD, World Wrestling Entertainment , 2008
  5. ↑ Greg Oliver: "Crush" Brian Adams dead at 44th SLAM! Sports, accessed October 16, 2007 .
  6. ↑ Lennie Difinio: Catching up with Buddy Roberts. WWE.com, accessed October 16, 2007 .
  7. ^ Matt Mackinder: Sir Oliver Humperdink recalls career of yesteryear. SLAM! Wrestling, January 17, 2008, accessed April 4, 2008 .
  8. ↑ Ross Davies: Diamond Dallas Page . ISBN 0-8239-3493-4 , pp. 31 .
  9. ^ NWA National Tag Team Title. (No longer available online.) Wrestling-Titles.com, archived from the original on December 18, 2007 ; Retrieved October 16, 2007 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wrestling-titles.com
  10. ^ NWA Georgia Tag Team Title. Wrestling-Titles.com, accessed October 16, 2007 .
  11. ^ Pro Wrestling Illustrated Award Winners: Tag Team of the Year. Wrestling Information Archive, archived from the original on September 30, 2009 ; Retrieved October 16, 2007 .
  12. ^ Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 100 Tag Teams of the PWI Years. Wrestling Information Archive, archived from the original on July 7, 2011 ; Retrieved October 16, 2007 .

literature

  • Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson: Top 20: # 7 The Fabulous Freebirds . In: The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams . ECW Press, 2005, ISBN 978-1-55022-683-6 .