10 Things We Learned From Dark Side Of The Ring: Terry Gordy

10. Terry Skipped School To Wrestle

There's a fascinating scene early in the episode that has Terry's kids Miranda and Ray (both wrestlers) looking through some of their dad's old report cards from school. Gordy received a lot of 'F' grades, but not because he was an unruly wild child during classes. No, Terry would skip those classes to live out his wrestling dreams.

It's true.

Terry started working shows aged just 13/14, and school clashed with many of the dates he was booked for out on the road. So, rather than attempting to juggle education with wrestling, Gordy would favour the latter and go for headlocks over headmasters. He debuted as a wrestler back in 1974, and didn't look back.

Some of Terry's earliest matches were even televised, which is ridiculous to think about now. No 14 year old kid in 2024 would get away with skipping school to go wrestle on TV, put it that way. Things were different in the 70s though, so nobody back home saw Gordy's localised TV bouts elsewhere.