10 Wrestlers With Surprisingly Successful Japanese Careers

Terry 'Bam Bam' Gordy is a WWE Hall of Famer for his role in the legendary faction 'The Fabulous Freebirds'. The Fabulous Freebirds - Von Erichs feud is one of the most well regarded feuds of all time and the freebirds are seen as innovators in gaining crowd heat, instituting the famous 'freebird' rule and being the first to popularise entrance music.

While much has been made about his inclusion in the Freebirds, Terry 'Bam Bam' Gordy himself was never seen as a top guy in North America, however, he was revered as a legend in Japan.

Terry's penchant for tag team wrestling continued in Japan while forming the Miracle Violence Connection with Steve 'Dr. Death' Williams. They captured the All Japan World tag teams champions a remarkable 5 times, with Gordy going on to capture them another two times with Stan Hansen. He also was a legendary singles wrestler in Japan, twice winning the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship from Jumbo Tsuruta and Stan Hansen and competing in cult classic IWA 'Death Matches' against Cactus Jack.

As for his non Freebirds career in North America, outside of his tag team wins with Steve Williams, Gordy never really panned out. He wrestled in short lived federations UWF and GWF where he feuded with the One Man Gang and Hacksaw Jim Duggan, returned from Japan to job to ECW stars Raven and Bam Bam Bigelow and finally, and most embarrassingly he feuded with the Undertaker as 'The Executioner' where he was destroyed in the main event of In Your House 12.

All in all, Terry Gordy had a great career. As a singles competitor who began his career at the age of 14, Terry never achieved the heights in North America that he did in Japan where he is still revered for his strong style and matches and alliances in AJPW in the early 90s.