The list of legendary tag teams in professional wrestling stretches far and wide, but the Fabulous Freebirds have long been regarded as one of the top trios to ever compete inside the squared-circle and now they are finally being honored for their work.
The WWE announced on Monday that the Fabulous Freebirds would finally be inducted into the Hall of Fame class of 2016.
BREAKING: The #FabulousFreebirds will be inducted into the #WWEHOF Class of 2016. https://t.co/lmRKf1zrIf pic.twitter.com/T07TWoBet2
— WWE (@WWE) February 29, 2016
"Every year around this time, I'd be on pins and needles, hoping we'd get in, because our career speaks for itself," Hayes told Rolling Stone after the announcement was made. "We put asses in seats and I think you could take a poll of anybody who ever paid their hard-earned money to come see us, and they'd say they got more than their money's worth. And that was huge to us, because we were wrestling fans too."
The original team that was comprised of Michael "P.S." Hayes, Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy and Buddy "Jack" Roberts drew incredible heat during their performances throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.
Congrats to the Birds. An influential group of friends who changed the wrestling business https://t.co/8hz4TBbSJY
— Scott Hall (@SCOTTHALLNWO) February 29, 2016
The team primarily competed out of the Texas based World Class Championship Wrestling in their early days so being inducted at a ceremony that will be held in Dallas a day before WrestleMania 32 will likely be that much more special.
The team continued to wrestle and compete in several different promotions over the years including AWA and eventually WCW, where Hayes was paired up with Jimmy Garvin as Gordy and Roberts' careers started to wind down.
The Fabulous Freebirds are also well known for being one of the first factions in professional wrestling history to use entrance music for their walk to the ring. In 1984, Hayes co-wrote a track called "Badstreet USA" that was later recorded and released as the group's entrance music.
The trio filmed a music video for the song that was released as well.
Sadly, Hayes is the only surviving member of the original Fabulous Freebirds line up.
Gordy passed away in 2001 after suffering from a heart attack while Roberts died in 2012 after complications from pneumonia.
Garvin retired from wrestling in 1994 and now works as an airline transport pilot.
Following the close of his wrestling career, Hayes took a job with WWE where he acts as one of the lead road agents and producers for the live shows.
The Fabulous Freebirds join Sting and "The Godfather" as the other inductees of the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2016.
