The Fabulous Freebirds (Gordy/Hayes/Roberts)

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

[Timbo Slice]

They will definitely be on my list. Fantastic brawlers, great sellers, and knew how to make a big match memorable. I could see them in my Top 10 when it's all said and done, actually.

[Danish Dynamite]

I'm a Freebird-fan-who-has-them-in-my-top-5, what's your excuse?

[El-P]

After watching shitloads of WCCW stuff, I gotta say most of the Freebirds vs Von Erich stuff just don't translate well to me in 2015. It really has a feel of "you had to be there", because it got great heat, but the matches really weren't all that. I could elaborate on the Michael Haye case (from underrated to overrated), but I'll just point out that as a unit, the Freebird really weren't *that* innovative.

 

Buddy Robert & Terry Gordy were the workhorses, Buddy being better than Gordy at the beginning of the decade (during the peak of the Von Erich feud), then Gordy getting ahead probably after getting to work Japan with Hansen. Lot of fun brawling matches. But they were just that : fun. I haven't seen any match I'd call great, then again, working with three guys whose finishers were the fucking claw, and were awkward as hell, good luck.

 

You often hear how much Texas was a snug territory and how things were realer than elsewhere. Ok. But that doesn't mean it looked better than elsewhere. It clearly didn't. Thus, you have a case where maybe they were beating up each other for real, but it looked worse than other places where they didn't beat up each other for real.

 

Anyway, I enjoy the Freebirds, I'm a big Gordy fan, I like early Robert a lot, I tolerate Hayes despite his shit looking, well, like shit a lot of the time (and yes, execution matters), but to me they clearly are overrated both as a working unit and an "innovative" act. Ishin Gundan thet aren't. Great draw and great heat against the three big Von Erich bros though, but that doesn't mean I think their matches were terrific. They weren't, at least not in World Class.

[thebrainfollower]

I agree with El-P on the VE stuff. As he said it doesn't hold up. If you ever want an argument FOR calling it backstage beforehand their matches are it. I have often torn apart modern stuff or Dean Malenko matches as too choreographed but this stuff is problematic in the opposite direction.

 

On the other hand, even Michael Hayes hyperbole aside, you cannot deny the huge impact this trio had on wrestling. Or how good Roberts and Gordy were. Or the success they had nearly everywhere they went (And in WWF it was not their in ring stuff that did them in). So they're going in and going ahead of a team they are technically vastly inferior to on my list.

[dawho5]

I think part of the problem with the Von Erich feud, a BIG part of it, is that the 'birds were always working against a lot of obstacles. Kevin von Erich refusing to get any heat on him outside of a few matches can't help them at all. The fact that they were able to make the matches they had entertaining at all is something in their favor. I actually prefer their babyface work against Devastation, Inc. to their von Erich matches. For one because the babyfaces in the match were willing to let some heat build before they came off as world-beaters (if they did). Also, once Mike von Erich enters the scene the VE feud really takes a turn. You can at least see where David would be able to dominate Roberts or Hayes. I'm not sure I see Mike von Erich as a dominating wrestler. And I will say that Gordy's work in Texas runs circles around his work in 1990s AJPW for me.