If the Freebirds had stayed in the WWF....

[willywonka666]

What might have been?

They had a great run, regardless of their brief WWF run no doubt, but I've seen pictures recently of them with Cyndi Lauper and forgot that they were ever associated, even if it was for pictures.

The Rock'n'Wrestling era was just taking off at that time and the Freebirds already had Badstreet by the time they got there, didn't they?

I'm still puzzled that Vince didn't want Mickie James doing an album while she was with the E, but considering the fact that he was behind the Wrestling Album, wouldn't he have welcomed a Freebirds album?

Granted, Michael Hayes didn't release a full length album until 1987, but would Vince have made it happen quicker? Or maybe he didn't want competition for the Wrestling Album?

I mean, hell, a team that made music seemed tailor made for success in the 80s WWF.


Thoughts?

[Deleted]

Hard to say. Vince had such a different vision from everyone else, and not always a good vision. To me, the Freebirds were kind of edgy for their day, much like Flair. When Flair came to WWE, he had no edge, but became a cartoon caricature of himself. I tend to think the same thing would have happened to the Birds.

[somsta]

Dok Hendrix and his good time gang.

[auph10imitated]

Vince wanted full control of Mickie James (and Maria actually) creatively when it came to thier music, something neither wanted as they wanted that as a sideline. Same thing happened to Stacy Keibler with Dancing with the Stars, they stopped promoting her on it when they wasnt in full control of what she was doing, even had Candice Michelle bury her in a promo and she never came back and sat out her contract, they say this is one of the reasons why Vince started giving people gimmick names more often including 2nd gen stars like Michael McGuillicutty, Husky Harris, Raquel Diaz to gain more control of thier names and gimmicks.. oh and if you go back even further its the reason why Madusa was renamed Alundra Blayze because she had the rights to that name and refused to hand it over to Vince.

[willywonka666]

Oct 29, 2014 17:37:47 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

Vince wanted full control of Mickie James (and Maria actually) creatively when it came to thier music, something neither wanted as they wanted that as a sideline. Same thing happened to Stacy Keibler with Dancing with the Stars, they stopped promoting her on it when they wasnt in full control of what she was doing, even had Candice Michelle bury her in a promo and she never came back and sat out her contract, they say this is one of the reasons why Vince started giving people gimmick names more often including 2nd gen stars like Michael McGuillicutty, Husky Harris, Raquel Diaz to gain more control of thier names and gimmicks.. oh and if you go back even further its the reason why Madusa was renamed Alundra Blayze because she had the rights to that name and refused to hand it over to Vince.

Wow, I didn't know all of that-Good move on Madusa's part.

Is this why the Freebirds left? I don't see them being controlled much back in the day

[Joe Neglia]

Oct 29, 2014 19:03:56 GMT -5 willywonka666 said:

Is this why the Freebirds left? I don't see them being controlled much back in the day

By most accounts, McMahon really only wanted Hayes; the other two he only took because they were a package, and fired them as soon as he could (allegedly, Roberts passed out or was drunk during a match, and Gordy did the same during a meeting, so they didn't really help themselves). It was also an attempt to get recognizable faces on his newly acquired TBS slot, which was still featuring his version of Georgia Championship Wrestling a month after Black Saturday.

If memory serves, they debuted "Badstreet" when they entered the WWF; their new connection to Dave Wolff got it made.

Freebirds in the WWF was a bit of a trainwreck waiting to happen. They were in the exact same role Dick Slater would hold a couple of years later - disturbing paradox of Southern babyface who really didn't fit the babyface mold and also toted around Confederate-related regalia. Most likely he would split the team not too far into the future had they stayed, with Roberts likely relegated to a Tiger Chung Lee/SD Jones level jobber and Gordy getting a short house show program with Hogan before getting saddled with some gimmick that didn't suit him. Hayes probably would have done well and stuck around the IC level. Had they remained a team, their options were limited as babyfaces. Perhaps they were hoping to recreate a variation of their heel turn in World Class, which put them on the map.

Other teams around during their brief tenure included the Moondogs (their primary opponents during the run), the Wild Samoans, Murdoch and Adonis....and that's about it, outside of whatever JTTS combo of SD Jones, Rocky Johnson and Tony Garea was on hand that night. Hell, the womens tag division had almost as much depth, and it only had two teams (Princess Victoria/Velvet McIntyre and Lelainai Kai/Despina Montagnes). At that exact point in time, they were looking at either going heel and feuding with the recently-turned babyface but very closely nearing the end of their careers Samoans, or stay face and take on the Tag champs Murdoch and Adonis in some fashion, and to be honest, those two against Hayes/Gordy (with Roberts seconding the team) would have been a wild ride. Murdoch was still within his final year and a half of being one of the best in the business before he started declining somewhat, Adonis was likewise, Hayes had a motormouth ready for some serious promo-cutting and Gordy was getting better every time he blinked.

While they were there for all of two months (first promo on July 30 and last appearance on September 30), there literally no other teams for them to face besides tossed-together one-shots. Volkoff and Sheik teamed two or three times during this period but hadn't become an official team yet (that would start the following month). Two days before the Freebirds left, the Briscos arrived and basically took over the Moondogs "placewarmer" feud while immediately getting thrown into TV angles with Piper and a path to the titles. A month after that, Windham and Rotunda were brought in, but only teamed once that entire first month. They would then take the Moondog feud while the Briscos went up against Murdoch and Adonis, finally giving the poor Samoans a break (they'd feuded nonstop for over half a year). Oh, and Patera and Studd became a semi-regular team at the end of the year too, but that was just to continue the Andre feud.

So yeah, if they had stayed, it would have been difficult for them to really make a mark for a while. Where would they, as Southern boy gimmicks, fall in with a team that represented *all* of America in the US Express? Redundant? Would Windham and Rotunda have even been paired? If not, where does that leave their theme song "Real American" and how does that change things if it's never carried over to Hogan? Would the Freebirds have been as successful, even as briefly, as the US Express had they been the transition team to bridge the gap from the old way into the pop culture phenomenon WWF was about to become? Could/would Gordy and Roberts have even gotten their shit together in time and become reliable in McMahon's eyes? And where does this leave World Class and Mid-South/UWF in the next couple of years, as the 'Birds were integral and central to much of the success they'd enjoy before crumbling? Would Roberts get phased out as expected and if so, what becomes of him? His time as a solo worker was pretty much over outside of smaller venues. Would Gordy still find his way to Japan and become the legend he did there?