What started off as a good friendship in World Class Championship Wrestling turned into one of the greatest feuds of all time, and while it isn’t technically a straight two-on-two rivalry like every other entry on this list, The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Von Erichs is simply too important to ignore.

Those who tuned in to see WCCW’s offering on Christmas Day in 1982 were hoping that Kerry Von Erich could gift everyone in Texas a ceremonial Christmas present by dethroning Ric Flair for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship inside a steel cage. To make sure that there was a third man in the cage that handle what chaos could unfold, Michael Hayes of The Freebirds was voted as the special guest referee, while Terry Gordy occupied the ringside area. David Von Erich had helped The Freebirds win the WCCW World Six Man Tag Team Championships earlier that night, so the deck was firmly stacked against “The Nature Boy.”

However, Hayes was being a little too biased towards Kerry, something he didn’t appreciate, and when Flair managed to shove Kerry into Hayes, the fuse was lit. Hayes thought the attack was intentional, and after Gordy slammed the cage door on Kerry’s head, Flair left Texas with the title in hand, and the greatest rivalry in WCCW history was born. 

Throughout all of 1983, the feud between The Fabulous Freebirds and The Von Erichs was the most exciting feud in all of wrestling. This was before the likes of WrestleMania and Starrcade became marquee events, meaning that any show that had a combination of the two groups taking on each other would be a sell out, and WCCW was genuinely making progress towards being the best NWA territory in the country. What sold people on the feud was the dynamic between the two groups as you had The Von Erich brothers who would fight for “Texas Pride,” and being the hometown boys at virtually every show made them the biggest babyfaces in the country. Whereas The Freebirds were from Georgia, acted like thugs at every opportunity, and as Kevin Von Erich once put it, the feud was “a battle between decency and filth.”

Singles, tag team, and six man tag team gold would come and go throughout the feud, and it seemed like there was absolutely no signs of slowing this feud down, that was until tragedy struck. In February 1984, David Von Erich passed away while on tour in Japan. The news sent shockwaves through the wrestling world as David was earmarked as the man to dethrone Ric Flair for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, but sadly that never came to be. The feud between The Fabulous Freebirds and The Von Erichs would continue after David’s death, but was never the same and fizzled out by the end of the year. It would be revived in 1988, but nothing would ever get close to the magic the two groups made earlier that decade.