Dark Side of the Ring Season 5 Episode 3
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - You're looking at the nastiest,
00:08 devious individual standing right here.
00:11 - Terry was a beast.
00:13 He was a perfect Goliath.
00:14 - A prodigy who broke into the business
00:16 before he could drive.
00:17 - Just drove into the man.
00:19 - Terry Gordy's skill in the ring
00:22 was matched only by his legendary toughness.
00:25 Terry had the ability to make just about anybody
00:28 look good as long as they were willing to pay the price.
00:32 - He was 300 pounds, and when he picked you upside down
00:35 and dropped you on your head, you were pretty much done.
00:38 - Gordy's career skyrocketed
00:40 as part of the Fabulous Freebirds,
00:42 a tag team trio that revolutionized the business
00:46 with their in-ring theatrics
00:48 and total commitment to their rock and roll lifestyle.
00:50 - Once the jack started flowing,
00:52 the birds were ready to party with anyone or fight anyone.
00:56 - You're with the big boys now.
00:58 They believe they are rock stars,
01:01 so they act like rock stars.
01:03 - Gordy's no-holds-barred style
01:05 would take him around the world,
01:08 but also accelerate his self-destructive behavior.
01:11 - Terry was his own man.
01:12 Terry did his own thing.
01:13 - The lifestyle that he led,
01:15 he could have died a hundred different ways.
01:17 - You can go from being on top of the world
01:20 and have it all taken from you in a moment.
01:24 - Until a flight on a routine trip to Japan
01:27 would drastically alter his career and the man himself.
01:31 - Even though he came back,
01:32 he didn't come back as a wrestler
01:34 and he didn't come back as Terry.
01:36 - He was never the same, never even remotely the same.
01:40 - Guys, first match, five minutes.
01:51 - My name gets me noticed.
01:53 Like, oh, another second gen, Terry Gordy's daughter.
01:56 - Go, Miranda!
01:57 Go, Gordy!
02:00 - I am Miranda Gordy, and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy
02:06 is my father.
02:07 They expect me to be just as good as him,
02:13 and that's just not the case.
02:15 So that's caused a little bit of pressure on me
02:17 that I have got to fill those boots.
02:24 Those are some big shoes to fill.
02:28 - Oh, the boot comes off, Gordy smashing
02:31 on Bruce O'Brody's head.
02:32 - My name is Ray Gordy,
02:33 and I am the son of Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy.
02:37 People would remember me as one half of Jesse Infestus
02:42 and Slam Master Jay.
02:45 The reason I didn't use my father's name in WWE
02:50 is simply because I didn't feel that I could live up to it.
02:54 - Terry Gordy is fixing up my shoes.
02:57 - He told me one time that once you learn
02:59 how this business works,
03:02 you'll never want to do anything else.
03:04 And that was his mindset.
03:07 He never seen himself doing anything else.
03:11 - Terry Gordy.
03:12 - Born in Rossville, Georgia,
03:18 Terry Gordy is barely a teenager
03:20 when he gets his start in the wrestling business.
03:22 - I have some early stuff of my dad.
03:27 That is a report card.
03:28 It looks like a couple of Fs.
03:31 - Those days he was absent, he was on the road.
03:34 This picture.
03:35 - Yeah.
03:35 - That is a very young Terry Gordy.
03:39 - 40 pounds, Terry Meeker.
03:42 - Because of Terry's size and his eagerness,
03:45 by the time he was 14 years old,
03:47 he was wrestling on television.
03:50 - I'm Jim Cornette.
03:51 I've been involved in a variety of ways
03:53 in professional wrestling over the last 40 something years.
03:56 I first met Terry, he was 16 years old.
03:58 He was already a professional wrestler
04:00 and had been for a couple of years at that point.
04:02 You could use the word prodigy.
04:05 You could use the word natural.
04:07 Whatever it was, he had it.
04:09 - He's getting a couple of Xs.
04:11 - He was a prodigy,
04:12 but that doesn't mean he didn't work hard
04:14 and study the game.
04:17 My name is Mick Foley.
04:18 I am a three time WWE champion
04:21 and I am sometimes known as the hardcore legend.
04:26 What he lacked in traditional schooling,
04:29 he picked up with an education on the road, second to none.
04:33 - This young lad here is gonna, I think,
04:35 become a superstar.
04:36 He has all of the makings.
04:38 - When you started getting the full Terry Gordy,
04:40 not only the physical aspect, but the verbal,
04:43 he was an all around performer.
04:44 There was almost nobody that could touch him.
04:46 - Brothers, get your sister, get your daddy,
04:49 get 'em all around the TV.
04:51 - Because you thinks now I witnessed something.
04:53 - When Terry was in Mississippi,
04:54 he met a guy named Michael Hayes.
04:56 - There it is, Michael Hayes.
05:00 - Michael was a natural talker.
05:02 You hand Michael a microphone and he could go on forever.
05:04 - When you wanna talk to a lady,
05:06 you say, "Hey baby,
05:07 "why don't you put on some Teddy Pendergrass,
05:10 "close the door, let me do what I wanna do,
05:12 "'cause all I wanna do is what you want me to."
05:15 - Yeah.
05:16 - His mama must've had a hard time with him.
05:22 I am Jimmy Jam Garvin,
05:23 and I am a member of the fabulous Freebirds
05:25 WWE Hall of Famer,
05:27 and it's still not my fault.
05:29 - It's not my fault!
05:30 - Michael and Terry, I mean, they were just both live wires.
05:34 Terry would almost know what Michael's thinking,
05:36 you know, before Michael even said it, and vice versa.
05:38 They were just tight.
05:40 - You've got Michael Hayes,
05:42 who would come out and he would piss people off.
05:45 - As always, a big conflict.
05:47 - He would talk his self right into the corner,
05:49 but then behind his back,
05:53 you've got Terry Bordy.
05:54 - Here comes Bordy!
05:55 - As a team, they were just unmatched.
06:00 They just were like soulmates as far as friends go.
06:06 - Michael was a big fan,
06:08 as every Southerner was in those days in the '70s,
06:10 of the band Leonard Skinner.
06:12 Michael had the idea,
06:15 what about if we call ourselves the Freebirds?
06:18 Monday night in Memphis at the Mid-South Coliseum,
06:23 I was a photographer at ringside,
06:26 and all of a sudden, over the PA system,
06:29 here comes Freebird.
06:30 And then out comes Terry and Michael,
06:38 these silver robes flowing everywhere,
06:41 and they're doing a slow motion strut
06:45 to match the beat of Freebird.
06:48 - Very good, the music in the stadium is Freebird.
06:51 Terry Bordy and Michael Hayes.
06:53 - This was back in the day
06:55 where if you went to an arena event,
06:58 the bell rang and the wrestlers walked to the ring
07:00 and they got introduced.
07:01 There was no music.
07:02 And I said, you know, I think this might catch on.
07:08 - The Freebirds soon joined Mid-South Wrestling
07:11 when promoter Bill Watts pairs them up with Buddy Roberts,
07:14 converting the tag team into a trio.
07:18 - You got the Freebirds attention,
07:20 and that just might be your downfall.
07:23 - Buddy was the veteran, Michael was the promo,
07:26 Terry was the physical enforcer.
07:27 - Watch that hand, bite the dust.
07:30 - And that three-man combination
07:32 made one of the most legendary tag teams
07:34 in the history of wrestling.
07:36 Together, they were bigger than the sum of their parts.
07:40 And I think it's important to point out
07:41 that this was not a case of lightning striking once.
07:45 They got over everywhere they went.
07:48 (upbeat music)
07:51 - The fabulous Freebirds are winners of the bout.
07:57 The fabulous Freebirds got through with a victory.
08:00 Welcome back to the wild and wonderful Freebird.
08:03 (crowd cheering)
08:07 - Ah, and a new one.
08:08 - Then they had the natural three-on-three rivalry
08:12 with the Von Erich boys in Dallas.
08:15 - Deep in the heart of Texas,
08:16 world-class championship wrestling
08:19 is dominated by the three eldest sons
08:21 of promoter Fritz Von Erich, David, Kerry, and Kevin.
08:25 - The Von Erichs.
08:27 - The Von Erich boys were already popular,
08:29 but the Von Erich boys had never been tested.
08:32 - We wanted badasses, and that's who the Freebirds were.
08:35 - Backbreaker across the knee of Michael Hayes.
08:39 - I'm Kevin Von Erich,
08:40 and for years I've battled the Freebirds.
08:43 They were legitimate, rough guys, you know,
08:46 and they didn't have any apologies for anybody.
08:49 - Whoa, that fella hit the deck.
08:51 - But we had a common goal.
08:53 We wanted to put the best wrestling match we could
08:56 in that ring, and so it was just a marriage made in heaven.
09:00 - Here comes Kevin.
09:03 - Wrestling in the mid '80s in Dallas
09:05 was the top of the game.
09:06 We were selling out every venue, everywhere, every night.
09:10 But the magic really hit when the Freebirds came.
09:14 - I'm talking about them Von Erichs.
09:16 They don't stick their nose in the Freebirds' business.
09:20 - My name's David Manning.
09:21 I was the promoter, booker, and referee
09:23 for world-class championship wrestling.
09:25 The Von Erichs were like the good cowboy,
09:28 and here was three guys that were obnoxious,
09:32 rude to the fans.
09:33 - Well, let me tell you something, Texas.
09:36 There ain't no place that I would rather be
09:39 than in Georgia right now.
09:41 - Kevin referred to him as filth.
09:43 - Michael Hayes is bringing the flag.
09:45 - Terry and Michael come to the ring.
09:47 They've got Dixie flying, and they're talking about Texas,
09:51 and it just burned me up.
09:52 And so I grabbed the mic, and I said,
09:54 you got everybody in the world thinking
09:55 this is a war between Texas and Georgia, and this is not.
09:58 This is a war between decency and filth.
10:01 - There was so much love for the Von Erichs,
10:02 but there was total hate for Michael, Terry, and Buddy.
10:06 - Go, O'Brien! Go, O'Brien!
10:09 - They could get a ton of heat because of the way they acted,
10:12 the things they said, the things they did.
10:14 - What about your friend right here,
10:16 boy, and what you think about him?
10:18 - I didn't want my dad to get beat up,
10:20 but I was still a fan of the Von Erichs.
10:24 - And it looks like a barroom brawl.
10:27 - Who didn't love the Von Erichs, huh?
10:28 - All the adoring young ladies having a good time.
10:31 - Some of the guys who didn't like the Von Erichs
10:34 'cause their girlfriends liked them,
10:35 they're saying, well, look at these shit-kicking,
10:37 Jack Daniels-drinking, flag-waving, Southern assholes.
10:42 So they started getting in the Freebird camp.
10:44 - I think the Freebirds were the original Cool Heels.
10:51 Far more often, they were the cooler
10:53 of the two teams in the ring.
10:56 - For the next two and a half years,
10:58 in every city in Texas,
11:00 it was the Freebirds against the Von Erichs.
11:02 - Up for the take!
11:04 - Get him out!
11:05 (crowd cheering)
11:08 - I want Terry Gordy and I don't just wanna beat him,
11:10 I wanna hurt him!
11:11 - They'll take Terry across the ring.
11:13 - They main-evented in Texas Stadium, for God's sake.
11:17 It was the most magic three-on-three combination.
11:20 Perfect time, perfect place, perfect setup,
11:23 perfect participants.
11:25 And they drew nothing but money for two years.
11:28 - What we had created in the ring was phenomenal.
11:32 Anybody would want that.
11:33 But then when you got out of the ring,
11:35 you had all the other problems,
11:36 oh, they came with the birds.
11:37 They were trouble looking for trouble.
11:40 - You know, they just raised hell.
11:43 - They'd drink all night,
11:45 and then they'd get in the ring,
11:48 and they'd sweat all them booze out.
11:50 They always told me that the best cure for hangover
11:54 was wrestling.
11:56 - Yeah.
11:57 - Terry's temperament was like so even,
12:00 until we drank.
12:02 - My parents were at a bar,
12:05 and a man was hitting on my mom.
12:07 My dad became very enraged,
12:11 and there was a bar fight.
12:13 The cops went to restrain my dad to calm him down,
12:19 which I think did the opposite.
12:23 - He beat up a cop car
12:25 with his hands cuffed behind his back.
12:30 - It was like he had taken a hammer about this big around
12:35 and hit the hood of the car,
12:38 and knocked dents in it where he had head-butted it.
12:41 - He was kind of a little spoiled kid.
12:45 You know, that's Terry.
12:45 He did stuff like that.
12:47 - Terry Gordy was not gonna back up from anybody,
12:50 nor was there anybody walking
12:51 that was really gonna make him back up.
12:53 - Do you think there was a point where it got
12:56 a little bit out of control as far as the partying,
12:58 or that's just the way it was in the '80s and early '90s?
13:01 - Jeez, I mean, if you look back at it today
13:03 from today's perspective,
13:04 it got out of control at the very beginning.
13:07 - You know, having people throw different things at you,
13:11 like, "Here, take a shot.
13:12 "Y'all are awesome,"
13:13 or, "Here, take this for your pain so you can sleep,"
13:16 or, "Here, take this so you can stay up
13:19 "and drive eight hours to the next show."
13:22 I don't know exactly when the evolution happened
13:26 from smoking marijuana and drinking booze
13:29 to more of a pill problem.
13:34 - Despite their wild reputation,
13:44 in 1984, Terry Gordy and the Fabulous Freebirds
13:47 catch the attention of Vince McMahon
13:49 and the World Wrestling Federation.
13:51 - Was it a week?
13:52 Did that last a week?
13:53 - They were in the meeting with Vince,
13:57 hung over, still partially inebriated.
14:01 Terry fell asleep.
14:02 And that didn't get over with Vince too good.
14:08 - That was the only time that the Freebirds
14:12 ever worked for the WWF.
14:15 - After wrestling a handful of matches,
14:17 the Freebirds flame out at the WWF.
14:20 But Terry has a chance to take his career
14:23 in a new direction.
14:24 - That is my dad and Bruiser Brody.
14:29 It's in Japan.
14:30 - My dad got the opportunity to go work in Japan.
14:34 The Japanese wrestling is very different
14:37 from what it is over here.
14:40 When you get the Freebirds and more glitz and glamor,
14:43 they see that and they're really not interested.
14:47 They were more interested in Terry Gordy by himself.
14:50 - Ready, ready.
14:51 (speaking in foreign language)
14:54 - The Monster American, the Abdullah the Butchers,
14:57 or the Bruiser Brody's, or the Stan Hansons,
15:00 or Terry Gordy.
15:01 - Your suplex.
15:02 - These giant guys that were just crazy
15:05 and beat up everybody in their path,
15:07 they became the darlings of the Japanese wrestling fan.
15:10 And that's the kind of atmosphere
15:13 that Terry could flourish in.
15:15 - He loved the hard physical style associated with Japan.
15:22 And that's why he became one of the biggest
15:28 and best stars to ever cross the ocean and work there.
15:33 (speaking in foreign language)
15:36 - It takes a big toll physically with the injuries.
15:42 Putting your body through that every bump
15:44 is like a mild car wreck.
15:46 - I knew that he was having knee problems.
15:49 One of my big concerns was my dad
15:52 wasn't gonna blow out his knees.
15:55 - He tore both of his ACLs.
15:58 He was going to Japan six months a year,
16:03 working as a main event star over there at a high level
16:06 with no ACL in either knee.
16:08 - He had to have double knee surgery.
16:10 But the doctor told him he had to take the weight off.
16:14 So he contacted Richard Simmons.
16:17 - Yeah!
16:18 - This huge six five man just, you know,
16:23 jazzercising, whatever Richard Simmons did.
16:25 Come on Terry, you got this, yeah.
16:29 - Terry was like 300, 320,
16:32 and then he pared down to like maybe 265,
16:35 something like that.
16:36 - And you see the more athletic built up Terry Gordy.
16:39 You can absolutely blame that on Richard Simmons.
16:42 - Now leaner and more powerful,
16:45 working in a physical style that plays to his strengths.
16:48 Terry's performance in the ring reaches new heights.
16:53 - Terry Gordy versus Misawa.
16:54 - Oh.
16:55 - June 1st, 1991.
16:57 - Yeah, in my opinion,
16:58 that's one of the top five matches of all time.
17:01 The Japanese crowd, traditionally, they will ooh and ah.
17:06 This match, they tore the house down.
17:10 (crowd cheering)
17:13 Terry Gordy was a master of his craft.
17:18 People look at him and they see this big monster
17:21 doing all these power moves.
17:23 But if you really watch,
17:25 you'll see the little things that he done in the ring
17:29 that people just don't do.
17:31 Even down to the chin lock in this match,
17:34 he's actually using his fingers
17:36 to try to pry fingers away.
17:39 And this is a work,
17:41 but that little bit just adds so much more.
17:45 - Terry was a guy who made everything he did mean something.
17:50 And when he threw a punch, brother,
17:52 it was a thing of beauty.
17:54 It was so animated, it connected, it looked great.
17:58 He was just simply one of the best.
18:00 - He was the first American ever
18:02 to win the Triple Crown Championship.
18:04 He was the top guy in Japan that time.
18:07 - It's great to be alive
18:11 and it's great to be number one in Japan.
18:14 - In Japan, Terry starts working with Dr. Death,
18:17 Steve Williams, and a tag team known for their brutality,
18:21 the Miracle Violence Connection.
18:24 - If the aliens landed tomorrow,
18:27 and you had to pick two human beings
18:31 to represent Earth in a fight to the death,
18:34 pick Terry Gordy and Dr. Death, Steve Williams.
18:38 - Look at the strength of Dr. Death.
18:41 - They brought that Japanese style over to the US.
18:44 - In my opinion, they may be
18:48 the best tag team in the world today.
18:51 - They're not resting up in between Japanese tours.
18:54 They're taking on these very physical matches
18:56 on a very regular basis.
19:00 - Terry and Doc did a lot of tours together.
19:03 So to keep the Freebird thing going,
19:05 they needed to replace Terry when he was gone.
19:08 And that's what I did.
19:09 - We're not following no rules
19:11 that we don't wanna follow.
19:12 - Terry, when he wasn't in Japan, he would join us.
19:15 That's a very heavy schedule.
19:18 - I honestly believe that it was too much.
19:21 - I mean, really it was just part of life.
19:23 Like he would just be gone for a long time
19:26 and it was like a treat almost when he would be home.
19:31 - Miranda, smile.
19:33 - Life at one point was really good.
19:35 We did normal family things.
19:38 He took us skating.
19:40 He taught me how to fish and ride a bike.
19:42 All the dad stuff.
19:43 He did that for us when he could.
19:45 But it just wasn't a lot, unfortunately.
19:49 - Yeah, he hated to be separated from his family, man.
19:52 My name is Richard A. Slinger.
19:54 I went under the ring name of Richard Slinger in Japan.
19:58 I trained and lived over there.
20:00 I'm the nephew of Terry Gordy.
20:02 He would talk to me about being over there in Japan.
20:06 He said I would go into a state of deep, dark,
20:09 miserable depression.
20:11 - I know it wore on him.
20:12 He looked tired.
20:14 I know he missed being home and he missed his own mom
20:19 and he missed his kids and he missed his wife.
20:22 Being on the road 360 days a year, that wears on you.
20:28 - You live in hotels, airplanes, rental cars.
20:31 It's just constant go.
20:36 Your mind never really has time to reset, to relax.
20:41 To say, okay, where am I at in this life?
20:45 - A lot of times in those days,
20:47 especially the well-seasoned travelers to Japan,
20:50 they would take whatever pills that they took
20:55 so they could sleep and when they woke up,
20:57 they'd be in Japan.
20:59 - The drugs can be seen as a necessary evil
21:02 when you're going from time zone to time zone,
21:06 when you're expected to be at your best
21:08 on a nightly basis, when you feel far from your best,
21:11 when you're worn down.
21:12 And it is a very short step from use as needed
21:16 to use as liked.
21:23 - While on a tour with Steve Williams,
21:25 Terry suffers his first serious overdose.
21:29 - First time he dropped on me,
21:32 accumulated too many pills, it was Halcyon.
21:35 We went out that night and he just dropped
21:38 and I didn't CPR, ambulance took him.
21:42 He was in the hospital, he didn't remember what happened.
21:45 When they brought me in, I had to refresh his mind,
21:48 tell him what he'd done and this and that.
21:50 I tried to straighten him up from there,
21:53 but Terry Boyd, he had a problem with drugs.
21:56 - There's gonna be a time where your body tells you,
21:58 where your mind tells you that you need to stop.
22:03 And I really believe that during that time,
22:07 my dad was at that point.
22:09 - It's a tough business.
22:12 You know, it's a heartless business.
22:15 - Set to return to Japan, Terry boards a flight
22:19 that will change his life forever.
22:21 - Terry's accumulated so many pills
22:24 that I'm having to push him with a wheelchair.
22:27 He's out, you know, he's out.
22:31 30 minutes before a plane lands,
22:35 I look at him and he's dying on me.
22:38 - Before a flight to Japan, Terry Gordy
22:46 consumes an excessive amount of muscle relaxers.
22:49 After death, Steve Williams notices
22:51 Terry has stopped breathing.
22:54 - He's dying on me.
22:55 I mean, he's turned blue and he's sucking
22:59 barely any air, like he was about to swallow his tongue.
23:03 I used to be able to knock him back loose
23:06 if I slapped him a couple times in the face
23:08 or kick him out of it, you know?
23:10 Just like if you put somebody asleep,
23:12 if you hit them in the back,
23:13 it'll knock them back out of it.
23:15 Well, I did it and he wouldn't come back alive.
23:19 So right then I knew he was dying.
23:22 Stewardess got up, man, and they was all freaking out.
23:27 And I was giving him CPR to keep him alive,
23:31 to keep that heart going.
23:34 As soon as we landed, the ambulance was right there.
23:38 - I had to get him off the plane,
23:40 get him in the ambulance and get him to the hospital.
23:44 They just started emergency procedures
23:46 and what little bit of Japanese I spoke
23:49 and what little bit of English they spoke,
23:50 we were able to communicate about Terry's condition.
23:55 Biggest fear that I might be losing my uncle, Terry,
23:58 in there.
23:59 He was in a coma for a couple days.
24:03 I remember being right there by him
24:07 pretty much the whole time, camping out beside his bed.
24:11 When he woke up, he started calling my name, Richard.
24:14 Richard, Richard, Richard.
24:16 I'm like, yeah, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.
24:20 Eventually he was able to be maneuvered
24:23 between me and the nurse into a wheelchair
24:25 to go to the shower.
24:27 You know, maybe a little bit of cold water
24:33 and he might show that he still has the feeling.
24:38 And he did.
24:39 His face grimaced a little bit
24:41 when I sprayed him with cold water.
24:44 I was like, you know, we might have some luck here
24:46 of getting him back to normal.
24:49 They called my stepmother and she flew over to be with him.
24:53 And she got him home and my mother was there to greet him
24:59 and she said that was a heartbreaker
25:02 to see him coming off the airplane in a wheelchair.
25:07 We couldn't really carry on that much of a conversation.
25:12 He was very quiet.
25:13 There was an obvious difference.
25:20 He had lost a lot of his motor skills.
25:23 He was very slow to react.
25:28 He had to relearn a lot of things.
25:32 He had some permanent physicality
25:35 and physical and mental damage from that.
25:39 He wasn't the same person anymore.
25:43 Whatever happened, oxygen to the brain,
25:46 he was unconscious too long,
25:47 whatever all that medical hoo-ha is,
25:50 it erased something in his brain.
25:53 There's this local promoter.
25:55 He was kind enough to give us the key
25:58 and we was training within a couple of weeks
26:00 of me coming back from that tour.
26:04 It's ironic, somebody's training me.
26:07 Here I am, I'm teaching my uncle.
26:10 This is how it goes, remember?
26:12 Remember?
26:14 There was progress and we were all hoping
26:17 that he would just miraculously kick out at some point
26:23 and it would all come back to him
26:27 and he would be Terry Gordy again.
26:30 During the last year of Smoky Mountain Wrestling,
26:34 we heard that he had started wrestling
26:35 a little independent shows
26:37 and I said, "If Terry is anywhere back
26:40 "and anywhere near what he needs to be,
26:44 "my God, if we could get him up here, that'd be great."
26:46 So I made the arrangements to have him come in.
26:49 I have added another member to Cornette's militia.
26:54 Terry Gordy.
26:56 Everybody in the locker room in Smoky Mountain
26:58 had known him for years and liked him
27:01 and was wanting to help.
27:02 But he couldn't do a promo anymore.
27:05 - And I'm coming to show you, boy,
27:09 that I'm gonna take that title and I'm gonna take it
27:12 and ain't nothing you or your old lady can do about it.
27:16 - And we kept thinking it'll come back to him
27:19 or he's taking steps, but he'd just walk up to you
27:23 and he'd just stand there.
27:25 Then you'd look, "Oh, Terry, do you need something?"
27:27 "Yeah, Jim, I was just wondering
27:31 "if you'd like me to do the powerbomb?"
27:35 "Yes, Terry, if you'd like to, please."
27:38 - And there is Gordy, sets him up for that powerbomb.
27:41 - Because he had been such a great wrestler
27:44 and he could still do these moves
27:47 and it was the same frame,
27:51 but there wasn't any life in it.
27:54 It was going through the motions,
27:58 the face, the expression, the intent,
28:02 everything that makes you a personality,
28:05 it just was gone because he wasn't there anymore.
28:09 That was gone.
28:12 - Despite a challenging rehabilitation,
28:14 Terry stages a comeback,
28:16 culminating in a legendary match against Cactus Jack
28:19 at IWA's now infamous King of the Deathmatch tournament.
28:23 - You become the King of the Deathmatch
28:26 by kicking out of all the moves.
28:28 - Terry and I were going to face in the first round
28:32 of what was known at the time
28:33 as the Kawasaki Dream Match tournament.
28:36 It's gone down in lore
28:37 as being the King of the Deathmatch tournament.
28:39 - Three, two, one.
28:41 - One of the holes in his game
28:46 since the accident on the plane
28:48 was the punches were no longer there.
28:51 And out of concern for his reputation,
28:54 I said, "Terry, you're a legend here.
28:57 You got to really bring those punches."
28:59 To his credit, I didn't have to tell him that more than once.
29:03 - I've read letters that said
29:08 Terry Gordy was the King of the Deathmatch.
29:11 And all that happened after the accident.
29:14 So I can only imagine full Terry Gordy having a deathmatch.
29:19 - We did pretty good.
29:25 And it resulted in what may have been
29:27 the greatest post-match interview of Terry's career.
29:31 - Shit.
29:32 Oh, (beep)
29:36 (beep)
29:38 - I felt like maybe we pushed the hands of time back
29:41 just a little bit.
29:42 But it was not meant to be.
29:47 - Despite an impressive performance
29:55 at King of the Deathmatch,
29:56 it's clear that Terry Gordy's overdose has changed him.
30:00 - I think that he continued to wrestle after the accident
30:05 is because that's all he knew.
30:07 That's all he ever did.
30:09 He wasn't a cashier for a grocery store
30:12 and then started wrestling.
30:13 Like he wrestled.
30:15 - There were a lot of people rooting for my dad.
30:18 - Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy,
30:20 who has been pronounced clinically dead twice,
30:23 is making a comeback.
30:25 - He could work through a match.
30:28 It just wasn't the same.
30:30 - I'm sure that was the hope
30:33 that maybe if they just kept at it
30:35 that he would eventually come to it,
30:38 but it just, it was never there.
30:42 You can see it even in pictures.
30:44 In his eyes, he was full of life.
30:46 And then you look at pictures after the coma
30:50 and he looks like a deer in headlights.
30:52 - Terry Gordy, probably one of the greatest tag team wrestlers
30:54 of all time.
30:55 And of course, a legendary heel
30:57 and the member of the Fabulous Freebird Group,
30:58 probably the greatest heel trio in the business.
31:01 - In 1998, Terry agrees to film an interview
31:04 out of character.
31:05 And for the first time, fans at home
31:07 are able to see for themselves
31:09 the change in his cognitive capabilities.
31:13 - I've seen parts of the shoot interview,
31:16 the emotions when I first saw that.
31:19 I was enraged.
31:21 A little embarrassed.
31:24 - Do you have any good road stories?
31:26 - Yeah, man, there's a bunch in there.
31:30 - What are some that stick out in your mind?
31:34 - Seeing your dad like that,
31:41 he couldn't remember a lot of stuff from the past.
31:44 The coma took a lot of his memories away.
31:46 But in that, they're just hounding him
31:48 for all these questions.
31:49 And as his daughter, you just want them to leave him alone.
31:54 - Now, why was your stay so short in WCW?
31:56 Was it Japan?
32:00 You wanted to go back to Japan, maybe?
32:01 - Oh, yeah, yeah, I think so.
32:03 - As Terry attempts to get back into the spotlight,
32:10 his longtime friend, Freebird Michael Hayes,
32:13 convinces the WWF to add Terry to their roster.
32:19 - Vince put him under a hood as the executioner.
32:22 Of course, when I was a kid, I'm like,
32:24 oh, why would they do that?
32:25 And really, it was to protect him, and I'm glad they did.
32:29 - It was a good respect move on the part of WWE.
32:34 They didn't want to destroy Terry Gordy
32:39 by putting him on TV as Terry Gordy
32:44 and him not being Terry Gordy.
32:48 Michael Hayes was able to get him in with Terry
32:50 as a menacing, foreboding executioner
32:54 with me and Paul Bearer.
32:56 We became kind of like a faction.
32:58 - As soon as mankind is buried alive,
33:02 the Undertaker, his hand will be raised by the official.
33:06 - Then the executioner came,
33:08 friend in need, a friend indeed.
33:10 Part of what made Terry's character so intriguing
33:18 is that he was like a man-child.
33:20 He breaks in at age 14 years old.
33:23 He is a child among men, but at the same time,
33:27 he's a man among men.
33:29 When he gets to WWE, there's still the ways of a child,
33:34 and that's not the way to succeed
33:36 in a main event with The Undertaker.
33:39 - Off the ropes, scoops him up.
33:40 What's he gonna do with him?
33:41 Slams him down.
33:42 - It was pretty sad, man.
33:43 Pretty sad to watch.
33:46 Uncle Terry, he was once at his prime,
33:49 and from doing that to not hitting on all cylinders,
33:54 you know, it was pretty sad.
33:57 - And I'm sure all the people that looked up to him
33:59 and that he helped along the way in his career
34:01 were just, I don't know how else to describe it,
34:04 but heartbreaking, just looking at someone
34:07 that is like a superhero to you
34:10 and just seeing, I don't wanna say helpless,
34:13 but he wasn't the same person.
34:15 (crowd cheering)
34:17 - An Undertaker had to say, "It won't work."
34:20 - And the Executioner has been executed.
34:23 - Everybody loved him, but, you know,
34:26 he wasn't there anymore.
34:28 - It's also a bit sad to overhear a conversation
34:33 he had with a woman on an airplane
34:36 where she goes to take some medication,
34:39 and he goes, "Got any extras?"
34:43 She gave him a couple pills.
34:45 So he was at a point where he was taking anything,
34:49 regardless of whether he knew what it was.
34:53 We would be worried because he would go
34:56 from being completely coherent to obviously
35:00 under the influence of something seemingly within minutes.
35:04 And so he had reached a pretty dangerous point.
35:13 It's hard for me to say because I looked up to him,
35:17 and I will always appreciate the kindness he showed me
35:20 when he was on top of the world and I was breaking in.
35:25 But, you know, we've gotta be adults out there on the road.
35:30 We look out for each other,
35:31 but you also have to look out for yourself.
35:33 We would have to, on a few occasions,
35:38 try to track him down when he was not in his hotel room.
35:41 I think it was about the third time
35:43 that Paul Bearer and I were searching the roads
35:47 and making drives and calling his name.
35:50 We realized that this was not going to be a long-term team.
35:56 - When Terry's short-lived stint in the WWF comes to an end,
36:08 he finds himself back on the Indy circuit.
36:11 - It's hard to grasp as a kid what that was
36:15 to see the downfall of him being on top
36:18 to doing little independent shows
36:21 around Tennessee and Georgia.
36:23 I was at those Indy shows.
36:25 As a kid, it was fun.
36:28 But looking back at that, it's really sad.
36:33 - I think the last time I saw Terry
36:37 was at an independent wrestling show.
36:40 During intermission, Terry's daughter was taking Polaroids
36:43 of Terry and the fans in the ring.
36:46 And there were only about two people
36:49 who made that trip into the ring.
36:51 Seeing literal minutes go by with no one on that line,
36:57 no one getting into the ring,
36:59 just struck me as being extraordinarily sad.
37:02 And I'm over in a different part of the building at a table
37:05 and I'm signing autographs feeling guilty,
37:07 saying, "He should be on that line.
37:10 "That's the line they should be.
37:12 "There's the real superstar."
37:14 There was part of me that wanted to get out there in the ring,
37:18 grab that microphone, and start yelling at people,
37:23 trying to knock some sense into them.
37:25 "Don't you understand this is a legend?
37:28 "He's here in your midst and you can see him.
37:30 "You can get a photo taken with him."
37:32 And times had changed.
37:36 (soft music)
37:38 As his wrestling career winds down,
37:41 Terry redirects his focus
37:44 and embraces what matters to him most.
37:46 During this time, he was home.
37:51 I got to see my dad more than I had ever seen him
37:58 in my entire life.
38:03 I look back on that and as rough of a time as that was
38:08 for him and our family,
38:13 it was the time of my life where I got to know my dad
38:18 and become really great friends with him.
38:24 We would see each other every single weekend.
38:27 I'd go pick him up.
38:28 I'd take him to the gym.
38:30 We'd work out.
38:32 I'd take him home.
38:33 It was probably the best years of my life
38:38 getting to hang out with my dad
38:40 and really getting to talk to him
38:41 and getting to know the person that he really was.
38:45 I'm really thankful for that time
38:48 that he wasn't on the road, that he was at home,
38:52 because, yeah, we became best friends.
38:55 We really did.
38:56 Do you have anything you want to say
38:58 to your fans out there that are watching this video?
39:01 - Yeah, I'm just, yeah, I'm really, really sorry,
39:04 you know, that, uh, heck, I,
39:08 (crying)
39:10 - Sorry about?
39:13 - Sorry about going to Japan, you know,
39:16 and old Dan and stuff, you know.
39:18 - He was actually doing a show
39:22 and he asked me to go do the show with him.
39:28 And we were actually gonna tag that night.
39:32 And I couldn't go.
39:36 Next day, I get a call from my cousin Richard.
39:41 And his exact words were,
39:46 "Ray, get down on your knees and start praying
39:51 "because your dad is on this mountain
39:54 "and he stopped breathing."
39:56 (somber music)
39:58 - After wrestling an indie match the previous night,
40:11 Terry is found unresponsive at his home
40:14 in Saudi Daisy, Tennessee.
40:16 - I got in a car as soon as I could
40:18 and traveled to his home.
40:20 I was there before emergency services.
40:25 One of the boys that stayed with Terry the night before,
40:27 he was doing the CPR
40:28 and while he was doing chest compressions,
40:30 I was, I still hate knowing this,
40:34 but Terry was already gone
40:35 and I was trying to bring him back
40:37 by, you know, slapping him in the face
40:38 because I remember Doc telling me
40:41 that's what he did to bring him back.
40:42 And I thought, you know,
40:43 maybe this is one last thing I can resort to,
40:46 to, you know, bring Terry back.
40:49 - There was a police officer standing in front of the door.
40:55 Guarding the door and wouldn't let anybody in.
40:57 I put my hands on the police officer
40:59 and told him he was gonna let me in that door.
41:01 And that's when Richard grabbed me
41:03 and told me that he was gone.
41:05 - My mom knew that there was an emergency
41:08 and they said to get to my granny's quickly.
41:12 And I just hear my mom scream, "No."
41:15 She had to tell us that he had passed.
41:21 - On July 16th, 2001, Terry Gordy dies
41:26 of congestive heart failure caused by a blood clot.
41:29 He is only 40 years old.
41:31 - Of all the stuff that my dad did
41:37 and the lifestyle that he led
41:41 and all the partying that he did,
41:44 it's amazing that it wasn't an OD.
41:48 It wasn't anything like that.
41:51 - Maybe his legacy is you can't push yourself too hard.
41:54 You can't take shit you're not supposed to take.
41:56 You can't do shit you're not supposed to do
41:58 over and over on a regular basis.
42:01 - Whoa, that's cold.
42:03 - If you sat Terry down, if he was here right now
42:06 and said, "Hey, Terry, do you think maybe
42:08 "if we tell this story, it'll make some
42:10 "of the other guys stay away from it?"
42:12 He probably would say, "Yeah, go ahead and tell it."
42:14 He wouldn't be worried about whether he looked good or not,
42:16 but if he could help somebody else.
42:20 - You know, it's just such a tragedy.
42:23 I mean, the wrestling lost not only
42:25 one of the best workers ever,
42:28 but he was a good guy.
42:29 - Why did Terry Gordy touch so many people's lives?
42:33 Well, with the wrestling fans, it was easy
42:35 'cause he was great.
42:36 He was great at what he did.
42:37 He was exciting to watch.
42:39 If you like wrestling, he did it better
42:42 than almost anybody else in it.
42:43 - I'm not claiming to be the best wrestler in the world,
42:48 but you know something, world champion,
42:51 this right here does better.
42:53 (crowd cheering)
42:55 - Terry Gordy is a surprise.
42:58 - He will never be forgotten.
43:00 He contributed so much to this business,
43:04 more than people realize.
43:06 - Gordy putting on a clinic here.
43:08 (crowd cheering)
43:11 - What I've gotten most out of wrestling
43:16 is how much people just really love my dad.
43:20 So if I walk away with just that,
43:23 it's been a very healing experience.
43:25 - But his influence can be seen
43:28 almost every week on television.
43:32 Whether it's the hyper-realistic,
43:34 but theatrically enjoyable punches he threw.
43:38 Or somebody winding up a clothesline
43:41 before throwing it hard.
43:44 Anytime you see any variation of a powerbomb,
43:47 that's Terry Gordy.
43:50 - Don't it feel good setting up here?
43:52 I mean up at top, looking down at everything.
43:55 Don't it feel good?
43:57 (chimes)
43:59 (chimes)
44:01 (chimes)
44:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]