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The Fabulous Freebirds were a professional wrestling tag team that usually consisted of three wrestlers. They were famous in the 1980's and wrestled into the 1990's.

History

The Fabulous Freebirds started wrestling together in 1979 when Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and Buddy "Jack" Roberts started teaming. They were heels and were among the first to come to the ring to music in the United States; one of the few known to have used music before them was Gorgeous George. They first came out to Lynyrd Skynyrd's song "Free Bird" and then Hayes recorded the other song that they made famous in wrestling, Badstreet USA. They wore the colors of the Confederate States of America and had rebel flags everywhere.

They always told people that they were from "Badstreet, USA" and that the street they lived on was the toughest and that they got tougher as you went down the street, and they lived on the last house on the right.

They wrestled in WCCW, where they had a legendary feud with the Von Erichs (David, Kevin, Kerry and Mike).

They also wrestled in the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions, Georgia Championship Wrestling, the American Wrestling Association, Universal Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. They had a very brief run in the World Wrestling Federation in 1984, but left when they wanted to split the Freebirds up. The Freebirds were last together when Hayes, Gordy and Garvin teamed up in the Global Wrestling Federation in 1994.

Freebird Rule

During the Freebirds run in NWA they captured the tag team championship. While holding the title they operated under the (unofficial) "Freebird Rule" which allowed any two members of the team to actively defend the titles on any given night. This "rule" has since been adopted by a number of other companies when a three (or more) man team captures a tag team title. Examples of this include Triple X in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, the Jersey Triad in World Championship Wrestling, and in World Wrestling Entertainment both Demolition and the Spirit Squad.

Members

  • Michael Hayes - the leader and talker of the group, called "P.S." which stood for "Purely Sexy".

  • Terry Gordy - the big brute of the group, called "Bam Bam". The most successful of all Freebird members.

  • Jimmy Garvin - a member in WCW and a friend to the group in WCCW & AWA.

  • Badstreet - the masked member 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 - Freebird alias of Sir Oliver Humperdink and "tour manager" in WCW, 1990-91.

  • Little Richard Marley - WCW Jobber Rocky King, who as "Little Richard Marley" served as a ringside pest to Freebird opponents in 1990.

Famous Quotes

"My momma always told me, 'Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!'" - Hayes

Championships/accomplishments


  • Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked them # 3 of the 100 best tag teams during the "PWI Years" in 2003 (Hayes & Gordy).
  • They won the 1981 PWI Tag Team of the Year Award (Hayes, Gordy & Roberts).

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.

World Championship Wrestling teams and stables | American Wrestling Association teams and stables | Independent promotions teams and stables | World Wrestling Entertainment teams and stables

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Fabulous Freebirds".

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