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.

The Von Erichs vs The Fabulous Freebirds

credit: pro wrestling stories

The Von Erichs vs Freebirds rivalry was a legendary feud, probably the most revered and most well known program to come out of the Texas territory in the 1980s. It started on Christmas Day 1982 when the 'Birds cost Kerry a World Title match against Ric Flair, which Michael Hayes was the referee for. Before then, the Birds and Von Erichs were allies, but when Kerry refused Hayes's approach to cheating a victory against Flair, Gordy slammed the cage door in Kerry's face. From there the feud sustained through 1983 and subsequent revisits as the Birds came and went from the territory. Underneath this pro wrestling feud sat a deep-rooted regional rivalry between Texas and Georgia, with the Birds often coming out to 'Georgia On My Mind' and wearing the confederate flag, to which the Texan fans often chanted 'Go home Freebirds'.

The two sides had over 100 matches together in various iterations with different family members and formations. Here are some of the best matches from this rivalry based on the footage available online.


The Von Erichs vs The Fabulous Freebirds, 27/2/83 [Lumberjack March]

Good grief the crowd are nuclear for this one, the Freebirds have only been feuding with the Von Erichs for a month and are already as over as any heel act as you’ll hear. This was dead simple pro wrestling, a bunch of charismatic babyfaces throwing hands which some dirtbag heels. Kevin and Kerry were especially fired up and moving a million miles an hour. The Birds cut the ring in half, get their heat, and have a bunch of amusing facial expressions throughout. At one point Gordy gets bonked on the head and looks like he’s Elmer Fudd seeing stars dance around his noggin. The lumberjacks did very little, which is probably for the best, but the inability to go to the floor and stall meant the Birds were forced to stand and fight, and the pace was pushed as a result. Fun match showing this rivalry got off to a hot start.

The Von Erichs/Iceman King Parsons vs The Fabulous Freebirds, 20/5/83

A similarly simple but hot match. Wrestling doesn’t need to be more complicated than beloved babyfaces and hated heels throwing fists, and that’s exactly what this feud is all about. All of these guys had a lot of energy and some great punches, and I especially liked Gordy bouncing around on his toes while boxing like he thought he was Ali or some shit. Iceman was a solid addition to the formation and had some heavy hands himself. We get a hot FIP section on David including two great disallowed tags to Kevin, who was chomping at the bit and working the apron like a mad man, and when the hot tag finally comes the place explodes. The ending is a bit abrupt by modern day standards; we’d expect a good run after that tag with the babyfaces making their comeback, here we just get a minute or so of pandemonium and bodies flying with the Birds stealing one out of nowhere. The Von Erichs looked a bit dumb letting the pin happen metres behind them, but I doubt anyone in the arena paid it any mind.

The Von Erichs vs The Fabulous Freebirds, 4/7/83 [2/3 Falls]

This is one of the most famous and revered matches from this rivalry, taking place on the 4th July in front of one of the loudest crowds you’ll ever hear. Going 30 rather than 13 though, there was a lot more padding. Buddy Roberts had been shaved bald and comes in wearing a wig and head-gear, which is something pretty wonderful. Due to the length this was a bit more mid-tempo than the previous matches, with more stalling, more playing to the crowd, more rest-holds, though the fisticuffs are still on point when they throw down. After the second fall the ref gets on the mic and cuts a promo about how if both sides don’t start following the rules more, he will DQ them both, and brings out a second ref to help him. AEW should give his guy a job. He still ends up taking a bump in the end, but it is at least a manly ref bump getting dump tackled by David out of the ring by mistake. Watching this in 2022 feels a lot more 'good match with an all-time crowd' than it does a real classic, I prefer the shorter, sprint-ier runs of this match-up.

Kerry Von Erich vs Michael Hayes, 24/11/83 [Loser Leaves Town, Steel Cage Match]

The blow-off to the nearly year long feud. This is as hot of a 10 minute brawl in a cage as you’ll see; no need to run 40 minutes, no constant nearfalls, no NXT facial reactions, just 2 guys who hate each other punching each other in the face in front of a rabid crowd. Both dudes have great punches, Hayes bleeds, and this is moves as fast as any modern day match. Hayes chokes Kerry with tape from his knee-pad, and Kerry pays him back for it. The final minute is pure mayhem as the other 2 Birds try to interfere – Fritz fights off Gordy, Buddy tries to climb into the cage and gets crotched on the top (which looked wild for a comedy bump), and Kerry uses the brass knucks thrown into the cage to nail Hayes and finally vanquish the birds. Fritz slamming the cage door in Gordy’s face was a wonderfully violence piece of symbolism and the image of the Freebirds left in the cage, beaten, bloody, and exiled as the crowd go bananas is an all-time wrestling moment. What a tremendous bit of business this was.