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The Infamous Feud Between The Junkyard Dog & The Fabulous Freebirds In Mid-South Wrestling, Explained

Posted: Jan 31st 2023 By: Shawn S. Lealos

The feud between The Junkyard Dog and The Fabulous Freebirds in Mid-South Wrestling blurred the lines between reality and kayfabe. The feud was huge because Cowboy Bill Watts had built up JYD to be the biggest star in his company. It also helped that the Dog was the most popular wrestler in Louisiana, and there was no one there who fans loved more. That helped Watts create a storyline that turned the fans rabid.

Cowboy Bill Watts knew he had something special in The Junkyard Dog. He decided he wanted to take The Junkyard Dog and make him the North American Champion, which was something that other promoters disliked. In the Mid-South Wrestling episode of Tales from the Territories, Jim Ross said that Bob Geigel, the President of the NWA at the time, called Watts and said it would "kill the business" if Watts went with a Black wrestler as his top star.

However, as the roundtable on that episode pointed out, there wasn't anyone bigger than JYD in Mid-South or even the territories at the time. Ted DiBiase said that JYD had charisma that can't be taught. This was what really pushed JYD to the top. Everyone wanted to see him, and JYD sold out shows in Louisiana based on his name being on the marquee. This made him someone who could sell a feud and who could create the next big heels, even if he wasn't that good of a wrestler in the ring.

Years before The Fabulous Freebirds turned on Kerry Von Erich and created the biggest feud in territory history between them and the Von Erichs, they did the unthinkable. They took The Junkyard Dog out of action. This happened in 1980 in Mid-South Wrestling. The Fabulous Freebirds were a young trio at the time, with Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and a clean-cut Buddy Jack Roberts working as heels in the territory. It just took one action to turn this trio into a main event heel unit that fans wanted to see taken out in the most horrific manner possible. It happened when The Freebirds fought Junkyard Dog and Buck Robley in a match where the loser lost their hair.

In the commentary after the event, Cowboy Bill Watts said it wasn't a razor or scissors that would cut the hair. It was a "potion that Paul Orndorff had for Ken Mantel" that would completely remove a person's hair. Michael Hayes brought it to use. The match was Gordy and Roberts against JYD and Robley because the Freebirds hated Robley and wanted to take him out. JYD stepped up to help his friend. That was the worst mistake he could have made. The Freebirds won, capturing the Mid-South Tag Team Championship. After the match, Hayes went to use the potion to remove Robley's hair but JYD came in to stop them. Hayes turned and threw the solution into JYD's eyes, blinding him.

What made this moment so great was that Cowboy Bill Watts ensured all wrestlers kept kayfabe at all times, even when they were not working or wrestling. The Junkyard Dog took this to the extreme. The fans loved The Junkyard Dog and knew a lot about him, including tidbits about his personal life. They knew he was married and had a baby on the way. JYD and Mid-South Wrestling took this and used it to play up the storyline. JYD was "blind" so he couldn't see his own baby after she was born. There was a camera crew at JYD's house. He pointed at his child, but because he was blind, his wife had to move his hand because he wasn't actually pointing to where the child was lying. He even wore his eye coverings at home. He would close his blinds so he could uncover his eyes. JYD sold this completely and the fans bought into it.

Hayes said in the Tales from the Territories' episode that he was confronting a blind Junkyard Dog at a show after this and someone in the audience had a gun. A bullet inside the weapon had the word "Freebird" engraved on it. Mid-South Wrestling fans made death threats to the Freebirds, and it was getting way too real. To give everyone credit, they kept it up. Michael Hayes kept mocking JYD on TV, sometimes wearing sunglasses and carrying a cane. This all paid off when JYD got a dog collar match with Hayes in a steel cage. This was so they would remain connected to each other and JYD wouldn't need his eyesight to get his hands on him. However, the payoff was huge. Just when they connected the dog collars to the wrestlers, JYD took off his blindfold and revealed his eyesight had returned. The crowd blew the roof off the building and The Junkyard Dog got his revenge against the leader of The Fabulous Freebirds.