10 Wrestlers Too Big To Fail (That Failed Anyway)
6. The Fabulous Freebirds (WWF, 1984)
In the early eighties, the Fabulous Freebirds - Michael ‘P.S’ Hayes, Terry ‘Bam Bam’ Gordy and Buddy ‘Jack’ Roberts - were the last name in tag team wrestling, over like clover wherever they went.
Arguably the first cool heels to get the fans behind them (the clear blueprint for D-Generation X), they were the obvious talent to bring into Vince McMahon’s new WWF, perfect for the Rock N’ Wrestling Connection. The Freebirds were rock n’ roll.
In summer 1984, the WWF was just coming off the Brawl To End It All show and looking ahead to the inaugural WrestleMania. Introduced alongside Cyndi Lauper’s manager David Wolff (the man who’d brought the Rock N’ Wrestling concept to the WWF), the Freebirds seemed like a sure thing.
Yet the Freebirds lasted barely long enough in New York to have a cup of coffee. Part of the problem was the southern wrestling thing. The McMahons saw tag teams as a means to an end, a way to build up eventual singles performers or for singles performers to tread water until their next push cycled back around. Vince McMahon was already making plans to split the band up, something that didn’t sit well with them.
The other issue was their attitude. Like many other performers from the era, the Freebirds maintained their hard-partying, bad-attitude image in real life. They were hard to control and unreliable, putting everyone’s noses out of joint backstage - supposedly, a run-in with WWF royalty Andre The Giant was the last straw.