The Von Erichs vs The Fabulous Freebirds (continued)

Kerry Von Erich vs Terry Gordy, 7/5/84

Kerry’s first title defence 24 hours after winning the belt from Flair. This felt like one of those hot RAW main events the night after a big PPV. The outcome was never up for debate but the crowd were still really hot and they had a really fun match. When it comes to singles, Kerry was always a better guy being lead than the one taking the reigns, but he pushes the pace here and keeps things moving, even if there isn’t any many story beats or memorable moments. Both dudes hit hard and I did love Kerry using the claw when applying the abdominal stretch to Gordy. Good drama at the end with Kerry having to survive the Asiatic spike before using Gordy’s momentum against him for the win. Neither guy was a top tier singles guy but they weren’t slouches either.

The Von Erichs vs The Fabulous Freebirds, 4/7/84 [Badstreet Match]

This was another major 4^th July meeting between these teams and won the WON MOTY for 1984. Absolute firestorm of a sub-10 minute brawl, much closer to a televised scrap outside a bar than a wrestling match. The Von Erichs were just seething with hatred, and this is a swirling whirlwind of fists, eye-gauging, blood, and guys trying to beat the shit out of each other. The leather boot was the weapon of choice, and guys were just cracking each over the craniums with them. This felt as authentic as any pro wrestling brawl as you’ll see. Stink-o finish with Killer Khan knocking Kerry out, but everything up until then was fucking rabid. Not sure where it stands as an all-timer but it’s up there with the best of this feud for sure.

The Von Erichs vs The Fabulous Freebirds, 3/9/84 [Elimination Rules, Steel Cage Match]

This was for the vacant 6-man trophy and worked with elimination rules, but Mike had a shoulder injury and couldn’t compete, so it’s worked as a 2-on-3 handicap match. That dynamic actually really added a lot here and instantly created some drama with the Von Erichs fighting an uphill battle. Plenty of beef, another hate-filled brawl with great punches and guys getting thrown into the cage face first. Buddy’s bleach blonde gets stained red and Kevin takes off Hayes’s leather boots and beats everyone over the head with them. Kerry gets eliminated first after a spike piledriver and the second act with Kevin fighting 3-on-1 is really awesome. He wildly swings the boot around, hitting anything in reach before going gown and the Birds start whipping him with a belt. Great elimination of Hayes as Kevin catches him with a sunset flip in a small window of opportunity, but the finish was really choice. Gordy nails Kevin with a piledriver, pulls him up at 2, Buddy goes up top of the cage for another big spike version but Mike topples him (leading to another great Buddy crotch bump) before diving in the cage himself and the Von Erichs get stereo pins out of nowhere for the win. I can see people poo-pooing that finish with Mike coming in to steal the win, but everything up until that was a barn-burner. Just a super violent, raging fight with a bunch of natural drama, and the 3-on-2 dynamic makes it memorable. Maybe my favourite match from this feud.

The Von Erichs vs Terry Gordy/Buddy Roberts, 12/2/88

The Freebirds returned to World Class in 1988 and the whole storyline with Hayes making amends with the Von Erichs and Gordy/Roberts turning on him (and Gordy later turning on Buddy) sounds really messy and was supposedly not well received. But for this short window they were able to recapture the magic of this feud, like two friends who were catching up after a long time apart. Another wild, heated, violent brawl with tons of hate. Even though this was Badstreet Rules, guys were still on the apron and the ref was trying to enforce some semblance of order. Kevin especially was fucking awesome here, just completely uncontrollable in his single-minded pursuit of beating the shit out of the Birds. Him and Gordy both take some big bumps on the concrete floor, Gordy wastes Kerry with some chairshots and both teams use the belt. They were a little quick to recover from some of the damage being dished out, especially Kerry, but it’s a 10 minute brawl so easy to overlook. Another trash finish with interference causing a DQ in a No DQ match, which was a real cruddy way to cap off such a wild match. Still there was some fizz left in the bottle for this rivalry.