Though originally meant to be a tag team, he soon added former Hollywood Blond Buddy "Jack" Roberts into the mix, and they became a "three man gang" type of tag-team—an unusual concept at the time.

[2] This feud was ignited by an infamous incident in which Terry Gordy slammed Kerry Von Erich's head in a steel cage door, inciting a riot.

While in the AWA they feuded primarily with The Road Warriors, costing them the World Tag Team Titles in a match against long time Freebird ally Jimmy Garvin and his partner Steve Regal.

In the WWF, they wrestled under the guidance of Cyndi Lauper's manager David Wolff,[4] but soon left the promotion after an altercation with André the Giant, who was upset when the Freebirds arrived late to a show.

[5] The group then moved on to their AWA run, returned to World Class, and then started a stint in the UWF where Gordy became the promotion's champion, Roberts held its TV title, and Hayes usually acted as their manager or served as a heel commentator on television broadcasts.

When Hayes arrived in the territory in early 1988, he announced his intention to bury the hatchet with the Von Erichs, putting himself at odds with Gordy, Roberts and their new ally, Iceman Parsons.

Hayes and Garvin were paired as the Freebirds in WCW in 1989, enjoying several reigns as World and United States tag-team champions, and were joined by Gordy for a while as well.

They later employed the services of masked third partner Brad Armstrong (under the name Badstreet) and managers Diamond Dallas Page, Big Daddy Dink, Little Richard Marley and Precious (Garvin's real-life wife and longtime valet).

The Freebirds concept was heavily derived from the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Free Bird" and the image of "Southern pride" evoked by the band.

The WWF, which hired Jimmy Hart and Jim Johnston in 1985, used their talents to write and produce music under which the copyrights could be controlled by the company.

Around this same time, Hayes recorded the song "Badstreet USA" and released a music video, which included the other Freebird members, as well as a cameo by a young Jim Ross.

[11] Examples include: In some cases, the Freebird Rule has been applied to singles titles: A slight variation of the Freebird Rule exists where a team or stable declares themselves as co-champions but the promotion only recognize the individual(s) who won the title as the official champion: The Blackbirds were formed in 1988 in World Class Championship Wrestling by Iceman Parsons.