Dale Hey

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Dale Hey (born May 16, 1945) is a retired professional wrestler better known as Buddy Roberts.

1 Career
2 Profile
3 Championships and accomplishments
4 References

Career

Early life and career

Dale Hey grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia. He started wrestling in 1965 as Dale Valentine, the "brother" of Johnny Valentine. By 1970, he had formed a tag team called the "Hollywood Blonds" with Jerry Brown and they won numerous regional tag team titles across the United States throughout the 1970s. In the late 1970s, he split from Brown and changed his name to Buddy Roberts. He joined the Fabulous Freebirds with Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy and became famous as Buddy "Jack" Roberts, due to his penchance for drinking Jack Daniel's whiskey.

World Class Championsip Wrestling

In the ring, they won several titles and moved on to World Class Championship Wrestling in late 1982 and began a legendary feud with the Von Erich family. They wrestled David Von Erich, Kerry Von Erich, Mike Von Erich and Kevin Von Erich numerous times through 1986. Also during his time in WCCW came Roberts' most famous individual angle, which in 1983 involved the invention of what they referred to as "Freebird Hair Removal Cream", the culmination of the angle being a hair match between Roberts and Iceman Parsons. The result was Roberts seemingly winning the match via tight-pulling but the decision was reversed and the match restarted and in the fracas, Roberts' head was lathered in the hair cream. Subsequnet events showed Roberts wearing a wig kept in place by boxing headgear, an angle which would be recycled by the WWE's Kurt Angle after losing a hair vs hair match in 2002 to Edge. At the AWA's SuperClash in 1985, Roberts helped Hayes and Gordy apparently defeat the Road Warriors for the AWA Tag Team titles, but the decision was later reversed.

Universal Wrestling Federation

In early 1986, The Freebirds went to the Universal Wrestling Federation, where Roberts won the Television Title.

Return to World Class Championship Wrestling

In 1987, The Freebirds split up until reforming in WCCW late in the year. Buddy and Gordy turned on Hayes and teamed with Iceman Parsons to feud with Hayes and the Von Erichs. Gordy eventually left Roberts to rejoin Hayes. The feud ended in late 1988 when Hayes and Gordy left for the NWA's Jim Crockett Promotions.

Retirement

Roberts made one appearance as the manager for Hayes and Jimmy Garvin in a match against Steve Armstrong and Tracy Smothers in the NWA and then retired in 1990. Roberts had throat cancer after he retired but had surgery to beat it. He now speaks with a voice transmitter.^[1] He also quotes on WWE.com "Don’t smoke. I think the reason this happened to me is because I was smoking too much. I recommend to anyone who smokes to quit now. It is hard, but it is worth it."^[1]