With thanks to my old friend Don Becker over at www.thesmarks.com:
Gordy rose to fame in the Southern US as a member of the Fabulous Freebirds,
the seminal heel stable that ran roughshod over many NWA territories.
Considered to be the muscle behind flamboyant pretty-boy Michael
“P.S.” Hayes and schemer Buddy “Jack” Roberts, “Bamm
Bamm” spent a lot of time in the spotlight as both a tag champion and
a former American Heavyweight champion in World Class Championship Wrestling,
as well as the first UWF World Heavyweight Champion. An auto accident
in 1986 forced Gordy to forfeit the title to One Man Gang.
Gordy also spent a lot of time as a favorite gaijin in All Japan
Pro Wrestling, where he had two very brief reigns as Triple Crown champion
– he defeated Jumbo Tsuruta on June 5, 1990 to become the fourth champion,
but lost only three days later to Stan Hansen. He regained the
title from Hansen on July 17, 1990, but was stripped of the title when
he was hospitalized. True to his status as part of a successful Freebirds
team in the States, Gordy also was very successful in Japan as a tag team
wrestler, winning the AJPW World Tag Team titles twice with Stan Hansen
in the late 80’s.
It was also in All Japan where he first teamed with “Dr. Death” Steve
Williams to form the Miracle Violence Combination, considered by many
to be one of the greatest tag teams ever. Williams and Gordy were
five-time World Tag Team champions with All Japan from 1990 to 1993.
When the MVC signed with WCW in 1992, they continued to dominate their
competition, winning the NWA and WCW World Tag Team titles within a
week of each other, beating the Steiner Brothers for the WCW straps,
and winning a tournament for the NWA straps.
However, Gordy’s career took a turn for the worse in 1994, when he overdosed
during a flight. When Gordy was revived, he had suffered significant
brain damage. He returned to the ring, but Gordy was noticeably slower
in the ring and had lost quite a few steps. During this time Gordy
had brief stints with IWA Japan (as Cactus Jack’s first-round
opponent in the King Of The Deathmatch tournament), the WWF (as The
Executioner, one of Paul Bearer’s henchmen) and ECW (where he competed
in the historic “Battle Of The Bam Bams” against Bam Bam Bigelow, which
was released on ECW’s Extreme Warfare, Vol. 2.) After his WWF run,
Gordy entered semi-retirement, popping up occasionally at independent shows.
Gordy was found dead by his girlfriend at his Chattanooga, Tennessee
residence on June 16, 2001. He was 40.