Fabulous Freebirds

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The Fabulous Freebirds
Statistics
Members Michael P.S. Hayes
Buddy Roberts
Terry Gordy
Jimmy Garvin
Badstreet
Big Daddy Dink
Name(s) The Freebirds
Debut 1979
Disbanded 1994
Promotions AWA
NWA
UWF
WWF
WCCW

The Fabulous Freebirds were a groundbreaking 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.

Contents

[edit] History

The Fabulous Freebirds started performing together in 1979 when Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and Buddy "Jack" Roberts decided to try a ' 3-man gang' -type tag-team -- an unusual concept at the time. They worked as heels (i.e., 'bad guys').

They wrestled in the Dallas-based World Class Championship Wrestling territory, where they had a legendary feud with the Von Erichs (David, Kevin, Kerry and Mike).[1]

They also performed in the National Wrestling Alliance (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 Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal (this is not the "Lord Steven Regal, currently William Regal in WWE).

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 they soon left the promotion when WWF officials wanted to split the team up.[3] The Freebirds were last together when Hayes, Gordy and "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin worked for the Global Wrestling Federation in 1994.

Their name was inspired by the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird", which would be their theme song until "Badstreet USA" (sung, composed, and co-wrote by Hayes) replaced it in 1984. It is often claimed that the Freebirds were the first to use entrance music for their ring introductions, though this is not completely true. The Freebirds were the first to use Rock n'Roll entrance music. The first to use actual entrance music was Gorgeous George.

In 1999, Hayes became the manager for the Hardy Boyz and although it was never said on camera, this was WWE's attempt to create a new version of the Freebirds, but this alliance was short lived as the Hardys fired Hayes as their manager and alligned with Gangrel to create the new Brood.

[edit] Freebird Rule

During the Freebirds' run in the NWA, they won its tag-team championship. While holding the title, promoters added a sub-gimmick to the team: the (unofficial) "Freebird Rule", which allowed any two of the three members of the team to defend the title on any given night.[4]

This "rule" has been re-used by a number of other companies when a three (or more) man team captures a tag-team championship. Examples include the Midnight Express in Southeastern Championship Wresling, New World Order and the Jersey Triad in World Championship Wrestling; Triple X, 3 Live Kru and Team Pacman in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling; and, in World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment, both Demolition and the Spirit Squad, as well as various teams on the independent scene. In rare cases, a similar rule has been applied to singles titles, such as when Three Count won the WCW Hardcore Championship, or Chris Jericho and Chyna co-held the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

[edit] In wrestling

  • Members
    • 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).
    • Little Richard Marley - WCW jobber Rocky King, who as "Little Richard Marley" served as a ringside pest to Freebird opponents in late-1990.
    • Jimmy Garvin teamed with Steven Dane while Hayes was hurt as a watered-down version of the Freebirds, and with Hayes during a reignited WCW run in between June 1989 and July 1992. Garvin often teamed with the Freebirds from 1983 on, and was always considered the fourth Freebird by Hayes, Gordy and Roberts.
    • David Sheldon teamed with Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts and King Parsons in the late-1987-1988 version of the Freebirds as The Angel of Death. Sheldon had previously feuded with Gordy, Roberts and Michael Hayes in the UWF prior to joining the group.
    • Ray Gordy and Michael Hayes formed a one-night Freebirds reunion in tribute to Terry Gordy.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Offshoots

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Other appearances

The original three Freebirds briefly appear in action against Greg Gagne, The Tonga Kid, and Jim Brunzell during the opening sequence of the 1986 film Highlander,[10] which occurs at an arena-based wrestling show in "Madison Square Garden" (the actual site was the Meadowlands in New Jersey, as they didn't take the Meadowlands banners down for filming but was said to be Madison Square Garden), as wrestlers in-action.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cohen, Daniel; Susan Cohen. Wrestling Superstars II, pg. 88. ISBN 0-671-63224-8. 
  2. ^ a b Cohen, Daniel; Susan Cohen. Wrestling Superstars II, pg. 89. 
  3. ^ Tag Team Profile: Fabulous Freebirds. Online World of Wrestling. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
  4. ^ Oliver, Greg. "Crush" Brian Adams dead at 44. SLAM! Sports. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
  5. ^ Davies, Ross. Diamond Dallas Page, pg. 31. ISBN 0823934934. 
  6. ^ N.W.A. National Tag Team Title. Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
  7. ^ N.W.A. Georgia Tag Team Title. Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
  8. ^ Pro Wrestling Illustrated Award Winners: Tag Team of the Year. Wrestling Information Archive. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
  9. ^ Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Top 100 Tag Teams of the PWI Years. Wrestling Information Archive. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.
  10. ^ Difino, Lennie. Catching up with Buddy Roberts. WWE.com. Retrieved on 2007-10-16.

[edit] Further reading

Professional wrestling
Portal
  • Greg Oliver and Steve Johnson (2005). "Top 20: #7 The Fabulous Freebirds", The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame: The Tag Teams. ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-5502-2683-6.