Terry Funk passed away.  

RIP to a legend Terry Funk

Such sad news

He was in real bad shape for a while. But the old bastard did make it to 79 despite the abuse he put himself through.

Oh no. So fucking sad. 

FOREVER

I love seeing the calls to put him in the WWE hall of fame. Like some people honest do not realize he worked there. And was on  wrestlemanias. Fucking worked WM 2.

What a punch to the gut. And what a legend...

Back in 1996 armed with nothing more than 9 years of fandom, a few weekend tape rentals, and some Apter Mags, I had this idea Flair, Lawler, and Funk were the 3 greatest of all time. Some of my opinions from this era aged like milk, but this one aged like fine wine. This one only feels more true with each passing year. This is one I'm proud of...

Terry Funk did it all in wrestling, from NWA Champ in the 70s, to an epic feud with Lawler in Memphis, to achieving Godlike status in Japan, to being a bit player during WWF's Hulkamania boom period, to an epic feud with Flair which just so happens to be my 2nd favorite feud of all time, to death matches in Japan, to becoming the revered elder statesman of the fledgling ECW promotion, to another boom period WWF run- this time as goofy Chainsaw Charlie during the Attitude Era, to still kicking ass in his early 60s at ECW tribute shows. What a career. What a legend.

The 1996 PWI Almanac included a line that went something like "You're not a real wrestling fan until you've seen Terry Funk live." This is terribly pretentious, but my brother and I (and probably our other friends tbh) took this as Gospel. In our own minds, we finally became real wrestling fans on 5/11/98. I was lucky enough to see Terry tear it up live a few more times, most notably at ECW Hardcore Homecoming in June 2005 where Terry, Sabu, and Douglas turned back the clock to 1994 with a real barnburner on the ECW tribute show.

Rest In Peace, my 10th favorite wrestler of all time, and thanks for the memories, Terry.

So what are we watching, Barely Legal? The banquet? The Bret Hart retirement match from '97? Just dropped a Cactus vs Funk match in Fan Fic last week that is a fitting tribute to the man. Rest in peace.

^I'ma try to find Flair vs. Funk from Great American Bash 1989. That was my favorite match for about a year and a half prior to Canadian Stampede and it still ranks mighty high.

What's the consensus of the best Funk matches in Japan? Might watch a few of those I've never seen.

Me and my oldest buddy still know this by heart. Will crack the other up by dropping this at the most random times. 

Aug 23, 2023 23:29:49 GMT Kilgore said:

What's the consensus of the best Funk matches in Japan? Might watch a few of those I've never seen.

vs. Hansen- AJPW 4/14/83
w/ Dory vs. Hansen & Gordy- AJPW 8/31/83 (Funk's first retirement match and the one of these I have seen)
w/ Dory vs. Sheik & Abdullah- AJPW 7/15/79
vs. Onita- FMW 5/5/93- Death Match

Aug 23, 2023 23:02:42 GMT c said:

I love seeing the calls to put him in the WWE hall of fame. Like some people honest do not realize he worked there. And was on  wrestlemanias. Fucking worked WM 2.

Wait? What? Terry Funk isn't in the WWE Hall of Fame?!? H...how is that possible?

OK. Just checked. He was inducted in 2009. Whew. WWE dodged a bullet there.

Aug 23, 2023 23:46:11 GMT Baker said:

Aug 23, 2023 23:02:42 GMT c said:

I love seeing the calls to put him in the WWE hall of fame. Like some people honest do not realize he worked there. And was on  wrestlemanias. Fucking worked WM 2.

Wait? What? Terry Funk isn't in the WWE Hall of Fame?!? H...how is that possible?

OK. Just checked. He was inducted in 2009. Whew. WWE dodged a bullet there.

Baker was fixing to show up to Titan Towers for a game of "pick a hand"

Aug 23, 2023 23:43:12 GMT Baker said:

Aug 23, 2023 23:29:49 GMT Kilgore said:

What's the consensus of the best Funk matches in Japan? Might watch a few of those I've never seen.

vs. Hansen- AJPW 4/14/83
w/ Dory vs. Hansen & Gordy- AJPW 8/31/83 (Funk's first retirement match and the one of these I have seen)
w/ Dory vs. Sheik & Abdullah- AJPW 7/15/79
vs. Onita- FMW 5/5/93- Death Match

vs. Hansen- AJPW 4/14/83

A good theme is half the battle and you'd be hard pressed to find two themes more fitting for a character than what Funk used as a hated middle aged and crazy heel in 1989 NWA and later as a beloved living legend in 96-97 ECW. Enjoy!





Elaine's boyfriend understood.

Love the timely edit to that YT clip with RIP. Like that's dedication or it's a semi active account.

Aug 24, 2023 0:14:25 GMT Baker said:

 what Funk used as a hated middle aged and crazy heel in 1989 NWA and later as a beloved living legend in 96-97 ECW.

Just reminded myself of another testament to Funk's greatness. The true greats generate a passionate response from the fans as both face and heel. Naturally Terry Funk did that, too. You'd be hard pressed to find a wrestler more loved than Terry Funk in early 80s Japan or mid 90s ECW. Conversely, it would be an equally daunting task to find a wrestler more hated than Funk was in early 80s Memphis or 1989 NWA. What a real one. 

I think I remember hearing Terry had onset of dementia, so I knew his time could be limited in life. I still have great memories of seeing Terry wrestle, that was during the late 90s (not even his prime stuff from before I was born). One of the all time greats, from one of the greatest families in wrestling.

RIP Funker. You will be missed by us all.

Weird, I had a craving to see the Desperado music video just 2 days ago and watched it again after a few years. Even before knowing he died that video still puts a lump in my throat.

In my mind still the most well rounded wrestler of all time, his versatility with different styles (NWA champion, ECW champion) and personas (workhorse wrestling guy in the 70's, middle aged and crazy heel in the 80's, hardcore godfather in the 90's) is nearly unmatched. Looking back at my last list, my 6th favorite wrestler of all time. I just can't think of any more words to say right now, a massive loss.

I'll let the Funker say the rest:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}

RIP legend

Trying to remember why I didn't upload the Desperado music video on Extreme Music Videos. Was it already on YouTube and I decided not to? I failed, any way you look at it.

Was he the poster child for wrestling retirement? This is probably the only way guys like that truly retire.

2 hours of Funk and Corny chopping it up, just posted to the KC vault channel. I expect another 2 hour eulogy from Cornette on his podcast.

In such a divisive industry, I've yet to meet somebody who didn't appreciate Terry Funk. Doesn't Pro Wrestling owe a great debt to Terry because of his relationship with Stallone? What was the story there? Stallone was looking to recreate the Pro Wrestler vs. Boxer match that happened and I think he put him in touch with Hogan right as Hulkamania was starting to get over?

I think my favourite Terry story involved the Insane Clown Posse. They had a bunch of heat because ICP sold a bunch of tapes where they dubbed over FMW matches and were just completely obnoxious douchebags burying all the talent. Foley eventually ended up confronting them over it and implored them to go apologise to Terry Funk in person. So somehow they organise it and not only do they apologise but he invites them over for dinner and they have a bowl of chilli Terry's wife made. Boys just burying the hatchet. ICP still felt bad about the whole ordeal and offered to reimburse Terry but he wouldn't have it, so they settled and said they'll just leave the money on the table. Even then Terry thought they were just paying for the meal, it ended up being four-grand so it just ended up being this wholesome story.

Then of course there's Beyond The Mat still the best wrestling doco of all-time. It was crazy to think back then he was well and truly ready for retirement and then fast forward 20 years later and he was still performing. Fast forward 9 and he was having the best match on the card with Foley taking all sorts of crazy bumps. He just lived, breathed the stuff and left this amazing body of work for us yellow bellied egg-sucking dogs to enjoy.

So many wrestlers that stick around so long have the aura of, "Oh, this guy is broke. He has to do this." I remember the saddest example I had ever seen was Tony Atlas on some indie card, taking shoot punches to the face in a gym with 50 fans in some MTV Wrestling Documentary. They show him afterwards, face all swollen from really being punched (it was some wrestler vs MMA worked-match gimmick). Now Terry, may well have needed money at various points of his post-retirement career, but it never seemed that way. Terry just seemed like a guy that loved wrestling, a guy that would genuinely try to step away, but immediately realize he was put on this earth to wrestle, so he'd come back. He didn't know what to do with himself, otherwise.

I think that love is why Terry was always in the middle of whatever was popping. He could see it coming. Something cool potentially happening in wrestling? Terry Funk wants to be a part of it. Doesn't matter if it's WrestleMania 14 (the beginning of a boom from the biggest wrestling company that would ever exist) or ECW in 1993 (the coolest thing happening in wrestling in front of a couple hundred people).

It's truly wild what he was a part of. The coolest period of classic NWA (60s into the 70s), the best thing in the greatest year the NWA would have towards its final years (1989), a golden age of AJPW in the late 70s/early 80s, wrestling Hulk Hogan at the peak of Hulkamania in 1986. He's already had several historic careers here and he's just getting started. Really helps give birth to ECW in its earliest days, sees it all the way to its first pay per view. Is part of a worldwide hardcore revolution with his '90s work in Japan, which is just a more extreme version of stuff he had been doing in spurts in Texas all the way back in the 1960s. Returns to the WWF in the year the Attitude Era explodes and the industry becomes bigger than it had ever been before or since. Then in that post WCW/ECW death dystopia, Terry is going to every small promotion around America with the faintest potential to try and do this all again. He seemed to never stop trying to make another ECW happen. Because he loves wrestling and he wants wrestling to have nice things.

And he's one of the best workers in the world throughout every phase and every run, no matter how old he gets, earning the love of seemingly everyone he comes in contact with along the way. In a business with the bitterest, most hateful motherfuckers who ever lived, Terry only receives love because he is simply impossible not to love.

Terry Funk really is the GOAT. This is pretty widely acknowledged now, and it still somehow seems like an understatement.

Aug 23, 2023 23:46:11 GMT Baker said:

Aug 23, 2023 23:02:42 GMT c said:

I love seeing the calls to put him in the WWE hall of fame. Like some people honest do not realize he worked there. And was on  wrestlemanias. Fucking worked WM 2.

Wait? What? Terry Funk isn't in the WWE Hall of Fame?!? H...how is that possible?

OK. Just checked. He was inducted in 2009. Whew. WWE dodged a bullet there.

Yeah, he was added really early with Dory.  But since people were not watching back then I guess they just assumed Funk was never added for some reason.  Like Dusty inducted the Funk Brothers and he was one of the few people everyone was like universally happy seeing honored.

For the best of Funk in Japan add in the Finals of IWA King of the Deathmatch 95 vs Jack. Not the best match objectively, but a lot of emotion in it and one crazy deathmatch. Shows what landmines are supposed to look like.

Here is the full event. Some great Foley and Funk promos mixed in. Two other Funk matches as well.  One is vs the OG Leatherface, second is Tiger Jeet Singh in a match that used the old ass glass boxes that were retired extremely fast for being too dangerous.  For those who do not know the story of this event it was Funk refused repeatedly to Jack in ECW, so Jack chased him to Japan and entered KotDM solely to get to the final where Funk could no longer avoid him.  The bed of nails match Jack does against Nakamaki is the origin of many of his iconic scars.  Finals are weird because Funk was legit out of his feet and kicks out at 2 but the ref calls the match.  Foley wanted to do a tribute to him in the ring, and Funk just wanders off as they try to push him towards an ambulance waiting on site to get checked out.  Foley quickly worked it into a different angle that even beating him at what he was the very best at was not enough to get his respect.  For a deathmatch tournament like this had a lot of emotion in it, by two experts at the top of their game.

Aug 24, 2023 1:43:43 GMT Kilgore said:

You could do this at many different points in Terry's career. Wrestles Baba, Hansen, Brody, Lawler, Hogan, Flair and Steamboat and working AJPW, Puerto Rico, Memphis, Florida, WWF and NWA. That's a career for most, just a decade for Funk and most of it post 40.

With Funk the main thing was you felt he cared and he made you believe. He had amazing range not only with the way he worked but with his promos. He could make you laugh and make you think he really was crazy in just a few sentences. He pushed the limits whether getting into it with fans during a match or threatening a commentator. Everything was 100% with Terry, just thinking about him screaming about Lawler blinding him after the empty arena match is one of the more uncomfortable moments in wrestling history.


He's the personification of everything that was right with wrestling.