Terry Gordy's Nephew Talks Michael Hayes' Creative Impact On WWE, Growing Up With The Freebirds
Today The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling interviewed former All Japan Pro Wrestling Star and the nephew of Fabulous Freebird Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, ring veteran Richard Slinger. You can download and listen to the full interview by clicking here, they sent us these highlights:
Growing Up around "Uncle" Terry Gordy & The Freebirds during their most successful era
"It was nothing more then elation. I was somewhat smartened up but not really and I was still a huge fan at that point and stayed glued to it. When I went to the matches I didn't cheer and I wouldn't do anything but study them and that helped me in my future as a wrestler. Those guys, Michael Hayes, Buddy Roberts and my Uncle Terry (Gordy) had such a phenomenal presence. They were the first ones to walk out to entrance music and whenever the 'organ' version, not the 'piano' version of 'Freebird' blasted and echoed through the arena people would stand on their chairs to watch them. Buddy had the jacket, my Uncle had the vest and the chaps and Michael had the robe. They matched but they each had individual characters to them."
Memories of some of the legendary exploits of the Freebirds:
"There are so many. One of the things that stands out to me is whenever they were doing video taped interviews at Georgia Championship Wrestling I got to go into the back where the producers were and all the monitors were at CNN. Terry and Michael were working an angle where they were splitting up from each other and from there they went on to a big match in Augusta (Georgia) and as a young kid, I got to travel with Terry in his van. Sometimes Terry would just live in his van down by the beach and it had a sink and a couch in the back and just me and him traveling through Georgia was amazing. So, I remember seeing Michael after the match in Augusta and here I thought that they were getting into it and I thought it was kind of heart-breaking that those two split up and Michael comes up to me and says 'Hey Richard, how's the family?' I remember I was shaken because I wasn't completely 100% smartened up to the business yet. "
Michael Hayes impact in WWE creatively still in 2016:
"Michael has the ability to evolve and adapt. The man has got a great mind. He's always been able to talk and do interviews and he is great with a microphone. If you ever go back and look at some of those old videos and you hear of the Freebird rule of him, Buddy and Terry and it was their first big promo on Georgia Championship Wrestling and when he is referring to Terry he says that this is not a drug store cowboy or an urban cowboy it is a space cowboy. Some of the things that he could come up with were just mid blowing."