All language subtitles for Dark Side of the Ring - S05E03 - Terry Gordy Final Flight of the Freebird

You're looking at the nastiest, devious
individual standing right here.

Terry was a beast. He was a perfect
Goliath. A prodigy who broke into the

business before he could drive.

Just drove into the man.

Terry Gordy's skill in the ring was
matched only by his legendary toughness.

Terry had the ability to make just about
anybody look good as long as they were

willing to pay the price.

He was 300 pounds, and when he picked
you upside down and dropped you on your

head, you were pretty much done.

Gordy's career skyrocketed as part of
the Fabulous Freebirds, a tag team trio

that revolutionized the business with
their in -ring theatrics and total

commitment to their rock and roll
lifestyle. Once the jack started

birds were ready to party with anyone or
fight anyone.

Do what the big boys do!

Hey. believe they are rock stars, so
they act like rock stars.

Gordy's no -holds -barred style would
take him around the world, but also

accelerate his self -destructive
behavior.

Terry was his own man. Terry did his own
thing.

The lifestyle that he led, he could have
died a hundred different ways.

You can go from being on top of the
world and have it all taken from you in

moment. Until a flight on a routine trip
to Japan.

would drastically alter his career and
the man himself.

Even though he came back, he didn't come
back as a wrestler and he didn't come

back as Terry.

He was never the same.

Never even remotely the same.

Guys, first match, five minutes.

My name gets me noticed.

Like, oh, another second gen, Terry
Gordy's daughter.

I am Miranda Gordy, and

Terry Bam Bam Gordy is my father.

They expect me to be just as good as
him, and that's just not the case.

So that's caused a little bit of
pressure on me that I have got to fill

boots.

Those are some big shoes to fill. My

name is Ray Gordy and I am the son of
Terry

Bam Bam Gordy.

People would remember me as one half of
Jesse Infestus and Slam

Master Jay.

The reason I didn't use my father's name
in WWE is simply because

I didn't feel that I could live up to
it.

Terry Gordy is fixing the bus. He told
me one time that once you learn how this

business works, you'll never want to do
anything else.

And that was his mindset. He never seen
himself doing anything else.

Terry Gordy.

Born in Rossville, Georgia, Terry Gordy
is barely a teenager when he gets his

start in the wrestling business.

I have some early stuff of my dad.

That is a report card.

It looks like a couple of Fs.

Those are days he was absent, he was on
the road.

This picture, yeah, that is a very young
Terry Gordy. 40 pounds,

Terry Meeker!

Because of Terry's size and his
eagerness, by the time he was 14 years

was wrestling on television.

I'm Jim Cornette. I've been involved in
a variety of ways in professional

wrestling over the last 40 -something
years.

I first met Terry, he was 16 years old.
He was already a professional wrestler

and had been for a couple of years at
that point.

You could use the word prodigy. You
could use the word natural.

Whatever it was, he had it. He was a
prodigy, but that doesn't mean he didn't

work hard and study the game.

My name is Mick Foley. I am a three
-time WWE champion, and I am sometimes

as the Hardcore Legend.

What he lacked in traditional schooling,
he picked up with an education on the

road second to none. This young lad here
is going to, I think, become a

superstar. He has all of the makings.
When you started getting the full Terry

Gordy, not only the physical aspect, but
the verbal, he was an all -around

performer. There was almost nobody that
could touch him. Get your sister, get

your daddy, get them all around the TV.

Because you think now I witnessed
something. When Terry was in

met a guy named Michael Hayes.

There it is, Michael Hayes.

Michael was a natural talker. You hand
Michael a microphone and he could go on

forever. When you want to talk to a
lady, you say, hey baby, why don't you

on some Teddy Pendergrass, close the
door, let me do what I want to do

all I want to do is what you want me to.

His mama must have had a hard time with
him.

I am Jimmy Jam Garvin, and I am a member
of the fabulous Freebirds WWE Hall of

Famer, and it's still not my fault. It's
not my fault! Michael and Terry, I

mean, they were just both live wires.

Terry would almost know what Michael's
thinking, you know, before Michael even

said it, and vice versa. They were just
tight.

You've got Michael Hayes.

who would come out and he would piss
people off. There's always a big

He would talk himself right into the
corner. But then behind his back, you've

got Terry Gordy.

As a team, they were just unmatched.

They just were like soulmates.

It's where his friends go.

Michael was a big fan, as every
southerner was in those days in the 70s,

band Leonard Skinner.

Michael had the idea, what about if we
called ourselves the Freebirds?

Monday night in Memphis at the Mid
-South Coliseum, I was a photographer at

ringside, and all of a sudden, over the
PA system, here comes Freebirds.

And then out comes Terry and Michael,
these silver robes flowing everywhere,

they're doing a slow -motion strut to
match the beat of Free Bird.

There you hear the music of the family
of Free Bird, Mary Gordy and Michael

Hayes.

This was back in the day where if you
went to an arena event, the bell rang

the wrestlers walked to the ring and
they got introduced. There was no music.

And I said, you know, I think this might
catch on.

The Freebirds soon joined Mid -South
Wrestling when promoter Bill Watts pairs

them up with Buddy Roberts, converting
the tag team into a trio.

You got the Freebirds' attention, and
that just might be your downfall.

Buddy was the veteran, Michael was the
promo, Terry was the physical enforcer.

Watch that hand bite the dust!

And that three -man combination made one
of the most legendary tag teams in the

history of wrestling.

Together, they were bigger than the sum
of their parts. And I think it's

important to point out that this was not
a case of lightning striking once.

They got over everywhere they went.

The fabulous Freebirds got through with
the victory.

Welcome back to the wild and wonderful
Freebirds.

Then they had the natural three -on
-three rivalry with the Von Erich boys

Dallas.

Deep in the heart of Texas, world -class
championship wrestling is dominated by

the three eldest sons of promoter Fritz
Von Erich, David, Kerry, and Kevin.

The Von Erich boys were already popular,
but the Von Erich boys had never been

tested. We wanted badasses, and that's
who the Freebirds were.

Backbreaker across the knee of Michael
Hayes. I'm Kevin Von Erich, and for

I've battled the Freebirds.

They were legitimate rough guys, you
know, and they didn't have any apologies

for anybody.

Oh, that fella hit the deck.

We had a common goal.

We wanted to put the best wrestling
match we could in that ring.

And so it was just a marriage made in
heaven.

Wrestling in the mid -80s in Dallas was
the top of the game. We were selling out

every venue, everywhere, every night.

But the magic really hit when the
Freebirds came.

I'm talking about this binary.

They don't stick their nose in the free
bird's business.

My name's David Manning. I was the
promoter, booker, and referee for World

Championship Wrestling.

The Von Erichs were like the good
cowboy.

And here was three guys that were
obnoxious, rude to the fans.

Well, let me tell you something, Texas.

There ain't no place that I would rather
be than in Georgia right now.

Kevin referred to them as filth. Michael
Hayes.

is bringing the flag.

Terry and Michael come to the ring.
They've got Dixie flying, and they're

talking about Texas, and it just burned
me up. And so I grabbed the mic, and I

said, you got everybody in the world
thinking this is a war between Texas and

Georgia, and this is not. This is a war
between decency and filth.

There was so much love for the Von
Erichs, but there was total hate for

Terry, and Buddy.

They could get a ton of heat.

Because of the way they acted, the
things they said, the things they did.

I didn't want my dad to get beat up, but
I was still a fan of

the Von Eriks.

Who didn't love the Von Eriks?

Some of the guys who didn't like the Von
Eriks because their girlfriends liked

them, they're saying, well, look at
these shit -kicking, Jack Daniels

flag -waving.

Southern assholes. So they started
getting in the free bird camp.

I think the free birds were the original
cool heels.

Far more often, they were the cooler of
the two teams in the ring.

For the next two and a half years in
every city in Texas, it was the free

against the Von Eriks.

I'm going to hurt him. They'll take
Kerry across the ring.

They main evented in Texas Stadium, for
God's sake. It was the most magic three

-on -three combination. Perfect time,
perfect place, perfect setup, perfect

participants.

And they drew nothing but money for two
years.

What we had created in the ring was
phenomenal. Anybody would want that.

But then when you got out of the ring,
you had all the other problems that came

with the birds.

They were...

Trouble looking for trouble.

You know, they just raised hell.

They'd drink all night, and then they'd
get in the ring, and they'd sweat all

them booze out.

They always told me that the best cure
for hangover was wrestling.

Yeah.

Jerry's temperament was like so even
until we drank.

My parents were at a bar, and a man was
hitting on my mom.

My dad became very enraged, and there
was a bar fight.

The cops went to restrain my dad to calm
him down, which I think did

the opposite.

He beat up a cop car with his handcuff
behind his back.

Like you had taken a hammer about this
big around and hit the hood of the car.

and knocked dents in it where he had
head -butted it.

He was kind of a big old spoiled kid.

You know, that's Terry. He did stuff
like that.

Terry Gordy was not going to back up
from anybody, nor was there anybody

that was really going to make him back
up.

Do you think there was a point where it
got a little bit out of control as far

as the partying, or is that just the way
it was in the early 90s? I mean, if you

look back at it today from today's
perspective, it got out of control at

very beginning.

You know, having people throw different
things at you, like, here, take a shot,

y 'all are awesome, or here, you know,
take this for your pain so you can

or here, take this so you can stay up
and drive eight hours to the next show.

I don't know exactly when the evolution
happened from smoking marijuana and

drinking booze to more of a pill
problem.

Despite their wild reputation, in 1984,
Terry Gordy and the Fabulous Freebirds

catch the attention of Vince McMahon and
the World Wrestling Federation.

Was it a week? Did that last a week?

They were in the meeting with Vince,
hungover, still partially inebriated.

Terry fell asleep.

And that didn't get over with Vince too
good.

That was the only time that the
Freebirds ever worked for the WWF.

After wrestling a handful of matches,
the Freebirds flame out at the WWF. But

Terry has a chance to take his career in
a new direction.

That is my dad and Bruiser Brody.

It's in Japan.

My dad got the opportunity to go work in
Japan.

The Japanese wrestling is very
different.

from what it is over here. When you get
the Freebirds and more glitz and

glamour, they see that and they're
really not interested.

They were more interested in Terry Gordy
by himself.

The monster American, the Abdullah the
Butcher's, or the Bruiser Brody's, or

Stan Hansen's, or Terry Gordy.

These giant guys that were just crazy
and beat up everybody in their path,

became the darlings of the Japanese
wrestling fan.

And that's the kind of atmosphere that
Terry could flourish in.

He loved the hard, physical style
associated with

Japan. And that's why he became one of
the biggest and best stars to ever

cross the ocean.

It takes a big toll physically

with the injuries.

Putting your body through that, every
bump is like a mild car wreck.

I knew that he was having knee problems.

One of my big concerns was my dad wasn't
going to blow out his knees.

He tore both of his ACLs.

He was going to Japan six months a year,
working as a main event star over there

at a high level with no ACL in either
knee. He had to have double knee

but the doctor told him he had to take
the weight off.

So he contacted Richard Simmons.

Yeah! Right?

This huge 6 '5 man just, you know,
jazzed or something, whatever Richard

did.

Come on, Terry, you've got this. Yeah.

Terry was like 300, 320, and then he
pared down to like maybe 265, something

like that.

And you see the more athletic, built -up
Terry Gourney. You can absolutely blame

that on Richard Simmons.

Now leaner and more powerful and working
in a physical style that plays to his

strength, Terry's performance in the
ring reaches new heights.

Terry Gordy versus Misawa, June 1st,
1991.

Yeah, in my opinion, that's one of the
top five matches of all time.

The Japanese crowd, traditionally, they
will ugana. This match,

they tore the house down.

Terry Gordy was a master of his craft.
People look at him and they see this big

monster doing all these power moves.

But if you really watch, you'll see the
little things that he done in the ring

that people just don't do. Even down to
the chin lock in this match, he's

actually using his fingers to try to pry
fingers away.

And this is a work, but that little bit
just.

had so much more.

Terry was a guy who made everything he
did mean something.

And when he threw a punch, brother, it
was a thing of beauty.

It was so animated.

It connected.

It looked great.

He was just simply one of the best.

He was the first American ever to win
the Triple Crown Championship.

He was the top guy in Japan at that
time.

It's great to be alive and it's great to
be number one in Japan.

In Japan, Terry starts working with Dr.
Death Steve Williams and a tag team

known for their brutality, the Miracle
Violence Connection. If the aliens

tomorrow, and you had to pick two human
beings to represent Earth

in a fight to the death, pick Terry
Gordy and Dr. Death Steve Williams.

They brought that Japanese style over to
the U .S.

They're not resting up in between
Japanese tours.

They're taking on these very physical
matches on a very regular basis.

Terry and Doc did a lot of tours
together.

So to keep the Freebird thing going,
they needed to replace...

Terry, when he was gone, that's what I
did.

We're not following no rules that we
don't want to follow. Terry, when he

in Japan, he would join us.

That's a very heavy schedule.

I honestly believe that it was too much.

I mean, really, it was just part of
life. Like, he would just be gone for a

time, and it was like a treat, almost,
when he would be home.

Miranda, smile.

Life at one point was really good.

We did normal family things. He took us
skating.

He taught me how to fish and ride a
bike. All the dad stuff.

He did that for us when he could. But it
just wasn't a lot, unfortunately.

Yeah, he hated to be separated from his
family, man.

My name is Richard A. Slinger. I went
under the ring name of Richard Slinger

Japan, trained and lived over there. I'm
the nephew of Terry Gordy.

He would talk to me about being over
there in Japan.

He said I would go into a state of deep,
dark, miserable depression.

I know it wore on him. He looked tired.

I know he missed being home, and he
missed his own mom, and he missed his

and he missed his wife.

Being on the road 360 days a year, that
wears on you.

You live in hotels.

airplanes, rental cars.

It's just constant go.

Your mind never really has time to
reset, to relax, to say, okay, where am

in this life?

A lot of times in those days, especially
the well -seasoned travelers to Japan,

they would take whatever pills that they
took so they could sleep, and when they

woke up, they'd be in Japan.

The drugs.

can be seen as a necessary evil when
you're going from time zone to time

when you're expected to be at your best
on a nightly basis, when you feel far

from your best, when you're worn down.

And it is a very short step from use as
needed to

use as liked.

While on a tour with Steve Williams,
Terry suffers his first serious

First time he dropped on me, he
accumulated too many pills. It was

We went out that night. He just dropped
and I didn't see PR.

Ambulance took him. He was in the
hospital. He didn't remember what

when they brought me in.

I had to refresh his mind, tell him what
he'd done and this and that.

I tried to straighten him up from there.

But take away he had a problem with
drugs.

There's going to be a time where your
body tells you, where your mind tells

that you need to stop.

And I really believe that during that
time, my dad was at that point.

It's a tough business. You know, it's a
heartless business.

Set to return to Japan, Terry boards a
flight that will change his life

Terry's accumulated so many pills
that...

I'm having to push him with a
wheelchair.

He's out, you know, he's out. So 30
minutes before the plane lands, I look

him and he's dying on me.

Before a flight to Japan, Terry Gordy
consumes an excessive amount of muscle

relaxers. Dr. Death Steve Williams
notices Terry has stopped breathing.

He's dying on me.

I mean, he's turned blue. He's sucking
barely any air, like he was about to

swallow his tongue.

I used to be able to knock him back
loose if I slapped him a couple times in

face or kick him out of it, you know.
Just like if you put somebody asleep,

hit him in the back and knock him back
out of it.

Well, I did it and he wouldn't come back
alive.

So right then I knew he was dying.

I had to get him off the plane,

get him in an ambulance, and get him to
the hospital.

They just started emergency procedures.

What little bit of Japanese I spoke and
what little bit of English they spoke,

we were able to communicate about
Terry's condition.

The biggest fear that I might be losing
my uncle, Terry, in there.

He was in a coma for a couple days.

I remember being right there by him
pretty much the whole time, camping out

beside his bed.

When he woke up, he started calling my
name, Richard.

I thought, yeah, I'm here.

I'm here, I'm here.

Eventually, he was able to be maneuvered
between me and the nurse into a

wheelchair to go to the shower.

You know, maybe a little bit of cold
water.

It might show that he still has the
feeling.

And it did.

His face grimaced a little bit whenever
I sprayed him with cold water.

I was like, you know, we might have some
luck here.

getting him back to normal.

They called my stepmother, and she flew
over to be with him.

And she got him home, and my mother was
there to greet him, and she said that

was a heartbreaker to see him coming off
the airplane in a wheelchair.

He couldn't really carry on that much of
a conversation.

He was very quiet.

There was an obvious difference.

He had lost a lot of his motor skills.

He was very slow to react.

He had to relearn a lot of things.

He had some permanent physical and
mental

damage from that.

He wasn't the same person anymore.

Whatever happened, Oxygen to the brain,
he was unconscious too long. Whatever

all that medical hoo -ha is, it erased
something in his brain.

There's this local promoter. He was kind
enough to give us the key, and we was

training within a couple of weeks of me
coming back from that tour.

Ironic, you know, somebody's training
me.

I'm teaching my uncle, you know, this is
how it goes. Remember?

Remember?

There was progress, and we were all
hoping that he would

just miraculously kick out at some
point, and it would all come back to

and he would be Terry Gordy again.

During the last year of Smoky Mountain
Wrestling, we heard that he had started

wrestling a little independent shows,
and I said, if Terry is anywhere back,

And anywhere near what he needs to be,
my God, if we could get him up here,

that'd be great.

So I made the arrangements to have him
come in.

I have added another member to
Cornette's militia.

Everybody in the locker room in Smoky
Mountain had known him for years and

him and was wanting to help.

But he couldn't do a promo anymore.

And I'm coming to show you, boy.

that I'm going to take that title, and
I'm going to take it, and ain't nothing

you or your old lady can do about it.
And we kept thinking, it'll come back to

him, or he's taking steps.

But he'd just walk up to you, and he'd
just stand there.

Then you'd look, oh, Terry, do you need
something?

Yeah, Jim, I was just wondering if you'd
like me to do the powerbomb?

Yes, Terry, if you'd like to, please.

There is Gordy, sets him up for that
powerbomb.

Because he had been such a great
wrestler and he could still do these

And it was the same frame, but there
wasn't any life in it.

He was going through the motions, but
the face, the expression, the intent,

everything that makes you a personality,
it just was gone.

Because he wasn't there anymore.

That was gone.

Despite a challenging rehabilitation,

Terry stages a comeback, culminating in
a legendary match against Cactus Jack at

IWA's now infamous King of the
Deathmatch tournament.

You become the King of the Deathmatch by
kicking out of all the moves.

Terry and I are going to face in the...

First round of what was known at the
time as the Kawasaki Dream Match

Tournament. It's gone down in lore as
being the King of the Death Match

Tournament. Three, two, one.

One of the holes in his game since the
accident on the plane was the punches

were no longer there.

And out of concern for his reputation, I
said, Terry, I said, you're a legend

here. I said, you have to really bring
those punches.

To his credit, I didn't have to tell him
that more than once.

I've read letters that said Terry Gordy
was the king of the death match.

And all that happened after the
accident.

So I can only imagine bull Terry Gordy
having a death match.

We did pretty good.

And it resulted in what may have been
the greatest...

post -match interview of Terry's career.

I felt

like maybe we pushed the hands of time
back just a little bit.

But it was not meant to be.

Despite an impressive performance at
King of the Deathmatch, It's clear that

Terry Gordy's overdose has changed him.

I think that he continued to wrestle
after the accident is because that's all

knew. That's all he ever did. He wasn't
a cashier for a grocery store and then

started wrestling. Like, he wrestled.
There were a lot of people rooting for

dad. Terry Bam Bam Gordy, who has been
crowned critically dead twice, is making

a comeback.

He could work through a match.

It just wasn't the same.

I'm sure that was the hope, that maybe
if they just kept at it, that he would

eventually come to it. But it just, it
was never there.

You can see it even in pictures. In his
eyes, he was full of life.

And then you look at pictures after the
coma, and he looks like a deer in

headlight.

Terry Gordy, probably one of the
greatest tag team wrestlers of all time,

course the legendary heel and the member
of the Fabulous Freebird group,

probably the greatest heel trio in the
business.

In 1998, Terry agrees to film an
interview out of character, and for the

time, fans at home are able to see for
themselves the change in his cognitive

capabilities.

I've seen parts of the shoot interview.

The emotions when I first saw that, I
was enraged.

A little embarrassed.

Do you have any good road stories?

Yeah, man, there's a bunch in there.

What are some that stick out in your
mind?

Seeing your dad like that, he couldn't
remember a lot of stuff from the past.

The coma took a lot of his memories
away.

But in that, they're just hounding him
for all these questions.

As his daughter, you just want them to
leave him alone.

Now, why would you stay so short in WCW?

Was it Japan? You wanted to go back to
Japan? As

Terry attempts to get back

into the spotlight, his longtime friend,
Freebird Michael Hayes, convinces the

WWF to add Terry to their roster.

Vince put him under a hood as the
executioner.

Of course, when I was a kid, I'm like,
oh, why would they do that?

Really, it was to protect him, and I'm
glad they did.

It was a good respect move on the part
of WWE.

They didn't want to destroy Terry Gordy
by putting him

on TV as Terry Gordy and him not being
Terry Gordy.

Michael Hayes was able to get him in
with Terry as a menacing, foreboding

executioner with me and Paul Bearer. We
became kind of like a faction.

As soon as mankind is buried alive, the
undertaker, his hand will be raised by

the official.

Then the executioner came, friend in
need, a friend in deed.

Part of what...

What made Terry's character so
intriguing is that he was like a man

He breaks in at age 14 years old.

He is a child among men, but at the same
time, he's a man among men.

When it gets to WWE, there's still the
ways of a child.

And that's not the way to succeed in a
main event with The Undertaker.

It was pretty sad, man. Pretty sad to
watch.

My Uncle Terry, he was once at his
prime.

From doing that to not hitting on all
cylinders, it was pretty sad.

And I'm sure all the people that looked
up to him and that he helped along the

way in his career were just, I don't
know how to describe it, but

Just looking at someone that is like a
superhero to you and just...

And I don't want to say helpless, but he
wasn't the same person.

An undertaker had to say, it won't work.

And the executioner has been executed.

Everybody loved him, but, you know, he
wasn't there anymore.

It's also a bit sad to overhear a
conversation he had with a woman on an

airplane where she goes to take some
medication, and he goes, Got any extras?

She gave him a couple pills.

So he was at a point where he was taking
anything, regardless of whether he knew

what it was.

We would be worried because he would go
from being completely coherent to

obviously under the influence of
something seemingly within minutes.

And so he had reached a...

Pretty dangerous point.

It's hard for me to say because I looked
up to him and I will always appreciate

the kindness he showed me when he was on
top of the world and I was breaking in.

But, you know, we've got to be adults
out there on the road.

We look out for each other, but you also
have to look out for yourself.

We would have to, on a few occasions,
try to track him down when he was not in

his hotel room. I think it was about the
third time that Paul Bearer and I were

searching the roads and making drives
and calling his name.

We realized that this was not going to
be a long -term team.

When Terry's short -lived stint in the
WWF comes to an end, he finds himself

back on the indie circuit.

It's hard to grasp as a kid what that
was to see the downfall of him being on

top to doing little independent shows
around Tennessee and Georgia.

I was at those indie shows.

As a kid, it was fun.

But looking back at that...

It's really sad.

I think the last time I saw Terry was at
an independent wrestling show.

During intermission, Terry's daughter
was taking Polaroids of Terry and the

in the ring.

And there were only about two people who
made that trip into the ring.

Seeing literal minutes go by with no one
on that line.

No one getting into the ring just struck
me as being extraordinarily sad.

And I'm over in a different part of the
building at a table, and I'm signing

autographs feeling guilty, saying they
should be on that line.

That's the line they should be.

There's the real superstar.

There was part of me that wanted to get
out there in the ring, grab that

microphone, and start yelling at people.

Trying to knock some sense into them.
Don't you understand? This is a legend.

He's here in your midst. And you can see
him. You can get a photo taken with

him. And times had changed.

As his wrestling career winds down,
Terry redirects his focus and embraces

what matters to him most.

During this time, he was home.

I got to see my dad more than I had ever
seen him

in my entire life.

I look back on that and as rough of a
time as that was

for him and our family, it was the time
of my

life where I got to know my dad and
become...

really great friends with him.

We would see each other every single
weekend.

I'd go pick him up. I'd take him to the
gym.

We'd work out.

I'd take him home.

It was probably the best years of my
life getting to hang out with my dad and

really getting to talk to him and
getting to know the person that he

I'm really thankful for that time that
he wasn't on the road.

that he was at home because, yeah, we
became best friends.

We really did.

Do you have anything you want to say to
your fans out there that are watching

this video?

I'm just, yeah, I'm really, really
sorry, you know, that, uh...

Sorry

about that.

Sorry about going to Japan, you know,
and stuff, you know.

He was actually doing a show, and he
asked me to go do the show with him.

And we were actually going to tag that
night.

And I couldn't go.

Next day, I get a call from my cousin
Richard.

And his exact words were, Ray.

Get down on your knees and start praying
because your dad is on this mountain

and he stopped breathing.

After wrestling an indie match the
previous night, Terry is found

at his home in Saudi Daisy, Tennessee.

I got in the car as soon as I could and
traveled to his home.

I was there before emergency services.

One of the boys that stayed with Terry
the night before, he was doing the CPR.

While he was doing chest compressions, I
was, I still hate knowing this, but

Terry was already gone, and I was trying
to bring him back by, you know,

slapping him in the face because I
remember Doc telling me that's what he

bring him back, and I thought, you know,
maybe this is one last.

thing I can resort to to, you know,
bring Terry back.

There was a police officer standing in
front of the door, guarding the door and

wouldn't let anybody in.

I put my hands on the police officer and
told him he was going to let me in that

door, and that's when Richard grabbed me
and told me that he was gone.

My mom knew that there was an emergency,
and they said to get to my granny's

quickly, and I just... I hear my mom
scream, no.

She had to tell us they had passed.

On July 16, 2001, Terry Gordy dies of
congestive heart failure caused by a

blood clot.

He is only 40 years old.

Of all the stuff that my dad did and the
lifestyle that he led,

And all the partying that he did, it's
amazing that it wasn't an OD. It

wasn't anything like that.

Maybe his legacy is you can't push
yourself too hard. You can't take shit

not supposed to take. You can't do shit
you're not supposed to do over and over

on a regular basis.

Whoa, that's cold.

If you sat Terry down, if he was here
right now and said, Hey, Terry.

You think maybe if we tell this story,
it'll make some of the other guys stay

away from it? He probably would say,
yeah, go ahead and tell it. He wouldn't

worried about whether he looked good or
not, but if he could help somebody else.

You know, it's just such a tragedy.

I mean, the wrestling lost not only one
of the best workers ever, but he was a

good guy.

Why did Terry Gordy touch so many
people's lives? Well, with the wrestling

it was easy because he was great. He was
great at what he did. He was exciting

to watch.

If you like wrestling, he did it better
than almost anybody else in it. I'm not

claiming to be the best wrestler in the
world.

But you know something, world champion,
this right here does better.

Terry Gordy is a surprise.

He will never be forgotten.

He contributed so much to this business,
more than people realize.

What

I've gotten

most out of wrestling is how much people
just really love my dad. So if I walk

away with just that, it's been a very
healing experience.

But his influence can be seen almost
every week on television.

Whether it's the hyper -realistic but
theatrically enjoyable punches he threw,

or somebody winding up a clothesline
before throwing it hard.

Anytime you see any variation of a
powerbomb, that's Terry Gordy. Don't it

good sitting up here? I mean, up at top?

Looking down at everything, don't it
feel good?