WWE Hall of Fame 2016: Who Are The Fabulous Freebirds?

Taking a look at a legendary team, who will be one of the star inductees of the 2016 WWE Hall of Fame Class, The Fabulous Freebirds.

Many fans of the current WWE product may only have heard of the Fabulous Freebirds due to the “Freebird Rule” being used by The New Day. The WWE Tag Team Champions use the rule that allows more than the usual two men to defend the titles. The Freebirds made it famous during their 1980’s heydey, and the team of Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods have brought it back to prominence in the mid-2010’s. The Freebirds though were so much more than just a unique way to represent their team.

Way back when in 1979, Michael “P.S.” Hayes and Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy formed a tag team and won the NWA Mid-South Tag Team Championships. They went on a six month run as champions before dropping the belts to the Junkyard Dog and Buck Robley. They built themselves as hated heels during their time in Mid-South, even going as far as to blind JYD with powder, which led to some epic “Blind” Dog Collar matches. The team added Buddy “Jack” Roberts and the three-man Fabulous Freebirds were born.

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They broke the mould and set about changing the world of wrestling. Their early days in Georgia Championship Wrestling saw them win that territories tag team gold, on their first night in the NWA’s Georgia-based territory. They gate crashed a match between Mr. Wrestling’s 1 and 2 and The Assassins, a match that was meant to be the culmination of a long-running feud between the two teams. With them, all in the ring, Roberts and Gordy, lead by Hayes, came out and demanded a shot at the Georgia Tag Team Championships. No one would have expected the to turn up that night, and even fewer would have expected them to walk away with the titles.

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In the following months, they set up the “Freebird Rule” which saw any two-man combination of the three men able to defend the titles. They made the rule work to their advantage, they never gave their opponents the upper hand by letting them know who they would be facing, it could be any combination of the three. In a wrestling world that was still stuck in the 60’s and 70’s era, the way the Freebirds went about things was a shock to the system of many people. It was a massive talking point during the early 80’s as to whether the Freebird Rule should be allowed or not, many established teams weren’t happy with the idea.

In late 1980 the Georgia tag titles were renamed the National Tag Team Championships, and the Freebirds would lose the gold to the team of Ted DiBiase and Stan Frazier. They quickly won them back and then lost them again six months later to the team of DiBiase and Steve Olsenowski.

Following that loss Gordy and Roberts turned on Hayes and the team was over, for the time being. All three men went their separate ways but were still tangled together.

Gordy teamed with Jimmy Snuka and won the National Tag Team Championships. Hayes wouldn’t let the betrayal go away and eventually defeated the team of Gordy and Snuka with his new teammate Otis Sistruck. They didn’t last long as a team and the titles were vacated. After all, they had gone through as opponents, and with Hayes being one of the biggest babyfaces in the territory he persuaded Gordy to reform the Freebirds. They went on to hold the National tag titles on one more occasion before leaving the company for good.

That wasn’t the end, though, some would say it was only the beginning. Christmas Day 1982 was the day that their legendary feud with the Von Erichs began. The Freebirds arrived in Texas based N.W.A. World Class Championship Wrestling, winning the brand new NWA World 6-Man Tag Team title with David Von Erich, who was subbing for Buddy Roberts. Later that night Hayes was the referee for the match between Kerry Von Erich and the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair inside a steel cage. Hayes offered Kerry the unfair chance to beat Flair, which he refused, and then Kerry went to leave the cage, only to have the cage door slammed into his head by Gordy who was at ringside. That lead to Flair retaining his title and the feud between Freebirds and Von Erichs began.

The Freebirds arrived in Texas based N.W.A. World Class Championship Wrestling, winning the brand new NWA World 6-Man Tag Team title with David Von Erich, who was subbing for Buddy Roberts. Later that night Hayes was the referee for the match between Kerry Von Erich and the NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair inside a steel cage. Hayes offered Kerry the unfair chance to beat Flair, which he refused, and then Kerry went to leave the cage, only to have the cage door slammed into his head by Gordy who was at ringside. That lead to Flair retaining his title and the feud between Freebirds and Von Erichs began.

The fans in Texas worshipped the Von Erichs and the Freebirds had cost one of their favourite sons his chance to hold the biggest title in wrestling at the time. That was enough to make this feud the brutal epic that it was. During their time in Texas, Hayes recorded the iconic song “Bradstreet USA” which became their entrance music. While they weren’t the first men to have entrance music they were one of the first to popularise the idea, and definitely the first to use their own recorded song.

In 1984, the most popular, flamboyant and colourful team in wrestling joined the WWF as part of Cyndi Lauper’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection. They would leave a short while later after an alleged altercation with Andre the Giant. During the mid 80’s the Freebirds also wrestled in the AWA and UWF and held gold wherever they performed. They added Jimmy “Jam” Garvin to their ranks during this time and he made sporadic appearances with the group.

In the UWF, they took on all comers, including old foe DiBiase and eventually Dr. Death Steve Williams, and Gordy would become the first UWF World Heavyweight Champion. When the UWF became part of the NWA the Freebirds returned to Dallas and rekindled their feud with the Von Erichs. Hayes and Gordy would fall out again and Hayes would become an ally of the Von Erichs. With Hayes as a top babyface in the territory, Gordy and Roberts would add “Iceman” King Parsons and make a new Freebirds. They would feud with the team of Hayes, Kerry and Kevin Von Erich and trade the 6 man tag titles.

In the late 80’s they all went their own way. Hayes became a big singles star around the United States, Gordy became a megastar in Japan and Roberts would become a great heel manager for the Samoan Swat Team (known as the Headshrinkers in the WWF). Hayes made a name for himself in the newly formed WCW and Gordy joined him there not long after. With Roberts now retired they needed a new third man, along came “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin, and again the Fabulous Freebirds were flying high.

Hayes and Garvin won the NWA Tag Titles in late 1989, and Gordy was unhappy with the team. He would continue to increase his presence in Japan a,d the team of Garvin and Hayes would drop down the card in WCW. They tried to bring other men into the team to keep the Freebirds gimmick going, but nothing seemed to bring back the glory days. Gordy would come back to the States and star in WCW alongside Dr Death Steve Williams, whilst Hayes and Garvin would drop off the radar.

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The final throes of the Freebirds would come back in the GWF in 1994. The team of Gordy and Garvin would win the GWF Tag Team Titles. Later that year the Firebirds name would disappear along with the GWF as a company. It had been a legendary career, involving some groundbreaking matches, and so many epic moments it would be hard to list them all in one post.

As they enter the WWE Hall of Fame, there are only two surviving members of the Freebirds. Hayes is now the well-respected head of Road Agents and Producers for WWE while Garvin is an airline pilot. Gordy died of a heart attack, caused by a blood clot on July 16, 2001, at 40 years of age, while Roberts died on Nov. 29, 2012, at the age of 67, after suffering from pneumonia.

The Fabulous Freebirds can probably claim to be the greatest tag team in wrestling history, not many people could argue with that. They did something unique with the three man tag team idea, they dominated wherever they wrestled, they were innovators of entrance music, they were some of the best in-ring talents of their era and they laid the foundations for so many teams that followed them. The Fabulous Freebirds are truly deserving of a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame. The men from Badstreet, USA, are here to tear things up.

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