In this week’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring, we are focusing on the life of Terry Gordy and his career, which I was not alive for. One of the things that Gordy is most famous for is being a part of the legendary trios, The Freebirds, but with both of his kids being second-generation wrestlers there is more to his career that we were able to learn throughout this episode.
Gordy started wrestling while in high school because he wanted to make a name for himself in the business. While on the road he met Michael Hayes as they formed the Freebirds. Hayes was the talker who always talked a game that was a little too big, whereas Gordy was the fighter who always had Hayes’s back. When they signed to Mid South they had Buddy Jack Roberts who made the team a trios team. As the trio kept getting over every week, they were put to the test with the Von Erich brothers in some of the most memorable matches in Texas. This feud lasted for two and a half years, even main-eventing in Texas Stadium. However, outside of the ring the Freebirds were a bit of a hassle. They were always looking for trouble and drank all night only to burn it all off in the ring the following night. This then resulted in Gordy turning to smoking marijuana and popping pills to just drive to the next town.
The Freebirds were able to catch the attention of WWE, however, with Gordy falling asleep during the meeting and all of them being hungover, Vince McMahon had no interest in dealing with those problems on the road. Instead, Gordy went to Japan where he became a bigger name. Since the Japanese style of wrestling is different than the American style, injuries were more common so he was competing with no ACLs in any of his knees. The doctors told him that he had to lose weight to heal up faster, so he hired Gene Simmons (not that one) to help him.
He became the first American to ever win the Triple Crown championship as he became the main event star in Japan. In WCW he then started teaming with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, but The Freebirds needed a third member Jimmy “Jam” Gavin to replace him. However, with his hectic schedule, he was missing time at home which led him to a depression where drugs and alcohol were his solution to his problems. One night in Japan he suffered from his first overdose and even though Williams tried to tell him to stop taking drugs he did not listen.
As Gordy and Williams board a flight to Japan Gordy takes a bunch of muscle relaxers and with 30 minutes left till he lands, he starts turning blue. He stopped breathing and he was rushed to the hospital when he landed. He was in a coma for three days and he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t hold a conversation. He has to re-learn basic motor skills because of this. A few weeks after this his nephews started to re-train Gordy on how to wrestle so he can be able to return to the road in a couple of months.
In the last year of Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Jim Cornette brought Gordy in, but nothing was the same. He was struggling to cut promos and his matches did not have the electricity that they once did. Gordy then went to Japan for the King of the Death Match Tournament, in the first round he was going to wrestle Cactus Jack. Foley was able to talk some sense into him and have a decent match and he was even able to cut an amazing post-match promo as well.
In 1998 he agreed to do a shoot interview with RF Video where you can see that he was not able to answer a lot of the questions because of how much the coma took out of him. Once Michael Hayes made the jump to WWE he convinced them to hire Gordy and they put him under a mask as the Executioner. In his match with the Undertaker, you can tell that it was getting worse and he told WWE that this was not going to work. Once on a plane, there was a woman who was taking pills and he asked for extras, without knowing what it was and he took them. There were even times when Foley and Bearer had to drive up and down the road looking for Gordy because he would just disappear.
After his stint with WWE, he went back to the independent circuit. Foley tells a story that they were both on the same show and Foley had a huge line of people while Gordy only had a couple of people on the line and Foley felt guilty. He felt like all the fans should be on Gordy’s line, not his. After this, he shifted his focus towards his family and spending more time with them, which he was not able to do before since he was on the road. One night he and his son were supposed to tag on a show together but his son was unable to go to the show. The next day his cousin called him saying that his dad stopped breathing again and he had to start praying that he was going to survive this again. Gordy passed away at 40 years old due to a blood clot in his heart. As both of his kids became wrestlers they tried to live up to the Gordy name, even though his son did not take the Gordy name because he felt like that was too much pressure.
Overall: Going into this episode I did not know Gordy’s story, but there was a lot to be learned here. With the accident on the plane, it was evident that he probably should not be wrestling anymore, but since that was the only thing he knew he kept at it. The episode did a good job of explaining the highs and lows of his career and it lived up to the dark side moniker.
Dark Side of The Ring — Terry Gordy: Final Flight of a Freebird is now available on demand.
