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.
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.
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).
They also worked in Georgia Championship Wrestling, Jim Crockett Promotions, the American Wrestling Association and the Universal Wrestling Federation. While in the AWA they feuded primarily with the Road Warriors, costing them the AWA World Tag Team Championship in a match against Jimmy Garvin and 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, but they soon left the promotion due to unprofessional behavior including arriving late to events.
The Freebirds were last together when Hayes, Gordy and Jimmy 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 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 turned on Hayes and aligned with Gangrel to create the new Brood.
In wrestling[]
- Entrance music
Championships and accomplishments[]
- Georgia Championship Wrestling
- NWA National Tag Team Championship (3 times) – Hayes and Gordy
- NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Hayes and Gordy
- Global Wrestling Federation
- GWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Gordy and Garvin
- Mid-South Wrestling/Universal Wrestling Association
- Mid-South Tag Team Championship (2 times) – Hayes and Gordy (1), Gordy and Roberts (1)
- UWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – Gordy
- UWF Television Championship (1 time) – Roberts
- NWA Mid-America
- NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (2 times) – Hayes and Gordy
- Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
- Class of 2015 – Roberts, Gordy and Hayes
- Pro Wrestling Illustrated
- Tag Team of the Year (1981) – Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy
- Ranked Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy #3 of the 100 best tag teams during the PWI Years in 2003
- World Championship Wrestling
- NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – Hayes
- NWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Hayes and Garvin
- WCW United States Tag Team Championship (2 times) – Hayes and Garvin
- WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Hayes, Garvin and Badstreet
- WCW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Hayes and Garvin
- World Class Championship Wrestling
- NWA American Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – Gordy
- NWA American Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Hayes and Gordy
- WCWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship (6 times) – Hayes, Gordy and Roberts (5 times) Gordy, Roberts and Parsons (1 time)
- WCWA Television Championship (1 time) – Roberts
- NWA Knuckles Championship (Texas version) (1 time) – Gordy
- WCWA Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time) – Parsons
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter
- Tag Team of the Year (1980) – Gordy and Roberts
- Feud of the Year (1983) – Freebirds vs. the Von Erichs
- Feud of the Year (1984) – Freebirds vs. the Von Erichs
- Match of the Year (1984) – Freebirds vs. the Von Erichs (Kerry, Kevin, and Mike), Anything Goes match, July 4, Fort Worth, Texas
- Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 2005) – Hayes, Gordy, and Roberts
- World Wrestling Entertainment
- WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2016 – Hayes, Roberts, Gordy, and Garvin)