Let me set a few things straight. I don’t do this for a living. I am not a journalist. I am not a writer. I do not have a job in pro wrestling. I have never wrestled a match. I hated Journalism class. If you have comments about my writing style, the composition of this article, my grammar, my spelling, my structuring of the column or how I could improve it? Keep them to yourself. I Do Not Care.
Now, if you have comments you want to share about my column like you disagree with my points? Good. If you want to share your own reasons why someone else should be the GOAT? Good. If you have your own memories of Terry Funk or something you would like to add to my argument? Great (because we both know I’m Right). I want this column and this thread to be about professional wrestling, not column writing.
I originally intended to include matches with this. It started out as five matches with descriptions and quotes. Then 10. Now its around 20. I will finish them up tonight and post them maybe tomorrow or perhaps the next day. Stay tuned. There are references to matches in this column but because I didnt include the matches you will just have to wait.
Kiss me I'm Irishsarah
The Greatest of All Time. It is possibly the most interesting and, at the same time, the most difficult question to answer in real sports. Wrestling is a worked sport. Thus this question becomes even harder to answer.
Terry Funk is the greatest professional wrestler of all time.
The Criteria on which I have judged Greatest wrestler of all time.
1. Drawing. You have to be a legitimate main event draw to be a great wrestler.
2. In ring skills. You have to be a good wrestler technically in the ring.
3. Promos. You talk them into the building. The greatest wrestlers of all time all could use the mic to get people to believe in their matches.
4. World Wide Star. It is great to be the king of Memphis. But Memphis alone will not make you the greatest wrestler of all time. In order to be the greatest you must have success in multiple places.
5. Hardware. I get it, belts are Kayfabe. They are props, they are not real but holding a major title for any length of time can show your value as a wrestler.
6. Legendary feuds and matches. You cannot wrestle a broom. Part of being a great professional wrestler isn’t just that you are the best in the ring but you get the best out of your opponent. Can you put somebody over?
7. Your mark on the business. To be truly great you must leave something behind after you go. Wrestling is something that is a living breathing art form and your effect on that art form matters. Truly great wrestlers leave a mark on the business that is visible long after they are gone.
I Personally believe Terry Funk Is the greatest wrestler of all time. Hulk Hogan is great but his steroids scandal almost killed the WWF. Steve Austin is great but he really was only over for a decade. Ric Flair is awesome but examples of his behind the scenes sabotage hurt his standing.Shawn Michaels actions with the Kliq damage his standing greatly (Kevin Nash: Shawn liked summers off). Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had problems putting over other talent.
Drawing. Terry Funk is an international wrestling draw.
Terry Funk was a major part of a draw at a wrestling show that drew over 10,000 people in every decade from the 1970s to the 2010s. Funk and Lawler drew over 10,000 at the Mid South Collesum ( that’s super no occupancy at Champion prices a rare occurrence) in Memphis October of 1976 Terry Funk and Carlos Colon drew 22,300 at Hiram Bithorn Stadium PR in 1986. when he was NWA Champion he broke records in florida. When Vince killed the territories and took the WWF national. Terry Funk was the first NWA Champion he brought in to feud with Hulk. Hogan and Funk battled in sold-out WWF arenas throughout the U.S. and Canada, and their big showdown on NBC's Saturday Night's Main Event posted a monster rating from The SunDome on January 4, 1986. Funk’s match against Ric Flair at were the biggest Pay per View numbers the promotion had ever gotten up until that point. The gate at the Baltamore Arena of 12,500 was the largest WCW exclusive draw until 1996. Fun Fact, Do you know that Terry Funk wrestled the semi-main event of WrestleMania 2?
Personally, ive paid money to see Terry Funk wrestle.
In ring skills. Terry Funk is a versatile wrestler who could change his style depending on the crowd and the opponent.
Terry Funk is a gifted professional wrestler. He is an athletically gifted man who was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs out of College (West Texas State best Pro Wrestling college in the country) When Terry was in the NWA in the 70s, he could wrestle the classic technical NWA style that his brother made popular. He could also wrestle the harder, faster and more aggressive Japanese style. This style was still highly technical but it also had its own psychology and rhythm. Terry Funk is one of the greatest brawlers in wrestling history. When it came to a bloody fistfight in the southern brawler style, Jerry Lawler, his feuds with Dusty Rhodes and Abdullah the Butcher show that he could throw punches that were things of beauty. He could wrestle anybody. It didn’t matter if you young, old, injured, a legend or a nobody. He always tried to make you look good.
Terry Funk was also the greatest hardcore wrestler that ever lived. In one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite pay per views of all time. Mick Foley describes himself thusly "I used to say that Bubba Ray Dudley was nothing but a cheap, second-rate Cactus Jack knockoff, but, as cheap second-rate Cactus Jack knockoffs go, the guy's pretty damn good. And if he's just a cheap, second-rate Cactus Jack knockoff, I'll confess to being a cheap, second-rate Terry Funk knockoff." From ECW One Night Stand.
Promos. I might be biased but Terry Funk is in my top 5 of favorite promo guys in the business. Its not just that he could talk you into the building. He could. He could go on local TV and cut a face promo talking about his father, about wanting to be champion, or about wanting to win and come across as so genuine and human that you just wanted to gather him up in your arms and tell him “You can do it Terry!”
His heel promos were things of beauty. He really seemed like a wild-eyed psychopath. He would insult the fans and he had no problem using racially charged terms to do it. There is a great moment before Carlos Colon vs Terry Funk’s match in 1986 for the universal title where he calls the island of Puerto Rico a pig farm and all the people in it pigs. He has a great Florida promo where it looks like it was shot from his bathroom where he said to be a Florida Cracker (insulting term for white person) he had to dump pounds of dirt on himself because he was from Texas. He would personally insult the wrestlers (Calling Ric Flair Yellow had real consequences when Flair was on the booking committee in WCW) and he would say things like Dusty was an egg sucking dog. They were outlandish but you could see he could get real heat.
His promos were often really funny. Just google Terry Funk's Beautiful Dream or Old Yeller aint no dog. Terry Funk was great about getting around the censors. He would tell a story about a Jackass but by the end of the story the audience would know that Terry wasn’t talking about a horse. They make me laugh. For example, When Terry Funk was feuding with Lawler in Memphis, Terry walked out on the TV show looked dead in the camera and said "First of all I'd like to say that Jerry Lawler is a son of a jackass. He is a lover of chickens." Then, after calling Lawler a chicken-fucker, he says that Funk cannot get a fair match in Memphis because Lawler owns the refs. He then hands a letter to Lance Russell which has a time and place (which leads to the empty arena match).
This lead directly to the greatest Terry Funk promo of all time and it’s in a match … but ill get to that later.
World Wide Star.
In 1975, Terry Funk was selected as the next NWA Champion. Especially when you are selected as NWA Champ by a close call like Terry and you hold the title for over a year, it means that the Board of Directors thought that Terry Funk had the ability to get over anywhere they sent him. Terry Funk was NWA World Champion for 14 months.
Terry Funk main evented sold out buildings in Japan, Mexico, Africa (He sold out Sun City South Africa as the Co-Main Event against Hulk Hogan) Canada, America and Australia.
Terry Funk was a major star and main evented for ECW, NWA/WCW, WWE, WWF, All Japan, New Japan, He main evented against Mil Mascaras in Mexico City. How many guys can say that?
Steve Austin is one of the greatest stars of all time but he was only mildly successful in WCW.
Terry Funk is a god in Japan. Terry and Dory Funk were the first White, American faces in Japanese Wrestling History. Terry Funk was so over in Japan that The Funks are still a draw there as they enter their 70s. Terry Funk was so over in Japan that for the King of the Deathmatch tournament in 1995, he rode a white horse into the arena.
Here is an Except from Mick’s book Have a Nice Day about what happened to the King of the Deathmatch.
“While I celebrated, Terry was placed in an ambulance and rushed to hospital. It was truly a touching scene as the adoring crowd reached out just to touch him, and chanted his name. Terry had done me a gigantic favor. Terry had only lost a couple of matches in the last decade in Japan, and a victory over The Funker was a huge milestone. Terry Funk, who had spent his entire career giving, had just given me a hell of a gift”.
Terry Funk was so over in Japan that he had a major character in an anime/manga based on him from about 1979-1986. Terry Funk was so over in Japan he saved Sabu from getting killed by the Yakuza in FMW. Terry Funk was so over in Japan that he recorded and released a music record in 1985.
Another Except from Funk’s book "Jimmy Hart wrote the songs for me because I was too cheap to pay for the rights to songs that people had already heard. All the songs on that album had one thing in common—they all sucked. One of them was called, “I Hate School”! Can you imagine? Who in the hell would think it would be a good idea to have a 35-year-old man singing “I Hate School”?"
Terry Funk's " I Hate School" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkH49U9ZCj8
I could keep going why Terry Funk is over in Japan. But Terry is so over that The Funks even appeared on those huge Tokyo Dome shows (even though they were put together by New Japan). During his first tour of Japan in 1970, Dory Jr. and Terry wrestled Shohei "Giant" Baba and Antonio Inoki in a series of matches for the Japanese Pro Wrestling Alliance and Dory Sr. was the first foreign booker of All Japan Pro Wrestling.
The Hardware.
Terry Funk was NWA Champion when being NWA World Champion meant you were the World’s Champion. WWWF was still affiliated with the NWA. The AWA recognized the NWA Champion as a World Champion. The Champ could work 300 dates a year. Going from territory to territory. You were the face of the National Wrestling Alliance. You were in Parades (like the Calgary Stampede), and you were treated like a legitimate star. The NWA World’s Champion made 10% of the house when he worked a territory.
To be champion, the NWA’s Board of Directors had to decide you were worthy of it. If you weren’t the draw they thought you were? You wouldn’t last long. The NWA Board had a ton of power. As a Board member and World Champion Dory Funk refused to drop the Title to Jack Brisco so the other owners agreed that he would drop it to someone else instead and they sent in Harley Race to make sure Funk dropped the belt. Dory had to lobby hard to make sure his wild fire-breathing younger brother could get his shot at being world’s champion.
Terry beat Champion (and long time rival) Jack Brisco and held the belt for 14 months before losing it to Harley Race early in 1977. This win for Race was not seen as the fluke that the win against Dory was seen as and it cemented Race as a national star.
Funk’s long and successful title reign cemented him as an International star. For example in December 1977, Terry and Dory won their first All Japan's Real World Tag League Tournament. Winning a title is more than about being predetermined champion of a sport. It is about how you win the title, how you carry the title and how you lose the title. It is about the stories you tell and the wrestlers you make a long the way. Terry Funk’s run as champion made himself a star but it also put him into the position to make other stars.
While Terry Funk would hold a number of championships, I feel the most important was his world championship runs with ECW.
While Terry Funk was wrestling in Japan for IWA Japan and FMW, Terry Funk would also become a mainstay in a small northeastern promotion called Eastern Chanipionship Wrestling.
In the words of Paul Heyman from the Rise and Fall DVD
"There would not have been an ECW without Terry Funk. He was the only veteran from that era who had the reputation of being legitimately tough but also had the business sense to realize that he had to get the next generation ready for their to be a business and an industry to leave behind. Terry had that mindset because a lot of veterans back then were unwilling to get the young guys ready and were still clinging and clutching to their spot, to their reputation of being THE GUY...THE CHAMPION and Terry Funk just said, 'Oh I Can make him....Oh I can make him too...Oh let me make him, I'll do something special with him' and did with everybody he worked with."
Terry Funk’s early reigns with the championship (and his feud with Shane Douglas) helped establish ECW after it withdrew from the NWA. At arguably the two most important times in ECW history, ECW turned to Terry Funk to bring credibility and make someone a star in the eyes of the crowd.
Terry did. Terry turned Shane Douglas into The Franchise, He made Sabu more than just a sideshow main event and his feud with Raven, even more than Tommy Dreamer, made Raven into the star which he would be in WCW.
What he did at Barely Legal? He arguably took Tommy Dreamer’s spot on the card and they held a special dinner for him the night before. I recently found tape of it and its truly touching.
During the Terry Funk Retirement Show Paul Heyman presented Funk with a special championship belt, which made him the Lifetime Champion of ECW. In a true show of respect, of what a title truly means the belt was actually paid for by donations from the ECW Locker room, as a true gesture of respect.
Tommy Dreamer said once “Terry Funk has done a lot for this business and he doesn’t get enough credit. But in ECW, we gave him all the credit in the world.”
Legendary feuds and matches.
“Pain is temporary. Pride is forever. That could sum up the attitude Terry Funk and I shared toward wrestling” – Harley Race.
Terry Funk has had great feuds. It is a requirement I think of being a great pro wrestler is to be more than just a great main eventer. You have to be able to be someone else’s foil. You have to be a part of the story as much as the main character. You have to be able to enhance the stories of others just as much as you can tell your own. This was CM Punk’s weakness, he never fit well into the stories of others, it always had to be about him in order to get the best work out of him. Edge on the other hand could play multiple parts and give the story what it needed. Terry Funk could play multiple parts. He could be the main event like in Japan or in ECW, or he could be the foil like he was in Memphis or WCW. He could tell a story within a feud. He could advance the feud in the ring and make people want to see more.
If one looks at his feuds with Harley Race or Dusty Rhodes you see someone who could play a role. For Harley, he was trying to overcome the great challenge. It was a matter of pride. For people like The Franchise or Flair it was a personal attack, a matter of respect. For people like Lawler or JYD or Carlos Colon It was Funk’s habit to make things a personal insult.
Something Terry Funk did which is very rare is he had the ability to put guys over clean and always get his heat back or restore his shine. He never had a problem putting guys over. He had a way of doing it that not only put the talent over but also made himself greater in the doing. When he triumphed? He triumphed over great adversity which made the win greater. When he lost? He lost but just barely, and even when it was clean, it was a close thing and he might still be able to win best 2 out of 3. Just because funk lost, it didn’t mean he wasn’t the better man.
Your mark on the business.
That transitions great into what I believe to be one of the most important quality of the greatest wrestlers.
I believe professional wrestling is performance art. It is like greek storytelling or The Detective Story or Flamenco. It is something passed down from generation to generation. The style and movement reflect those who came before. The ok wresters borrow from eachother but the best wrestlers? They steal. Ask The Nature Boy Ric Flair where he got the gimmick …
So there is a little Terry Funk when Cena tells a story and then drags it around to wrestling. There is a little Terry Funk when Lawler heels the fans. There is a little Terry Funk in the way Mick Foley would sell a shot like he was dead. There is a little Mick Foley in the way Tommy Dreamer sells a beating and tries to stand up anyway. There is a little Terry Funk when Dean Ambrose throws a punch.
Wrestling at its very best should be about passing something down to the younger generation. Wrestlers from the early 90s to today are too caring of their spot. They do not mold the younger generation. There aren’t as many places to learn anymore. The worst thing about the death of the territories is the death of the wrestler who wants to go out on his back.
Its like Paul E. said earlier, the reason Funk is the greatest wrestler isn’t what he does in the ring but the wrestlers he leaves behind when he rides off into the sunset.
Here is an example from Eddie Guerrero’s book,
“When I got to the arena, I was totally paranoid that I’d made the wrong decision ( Sarah’s Note : a very green Eddie had agreed to lose to Funk in a WCW squash). I told Terry what I was thinking and he said ‘you ain’t gonna do a squash job. I’ll make you look good’. That really gave me confidence. Instead of being afraid, I was determined to do my best. More than just wanting to impress the bosses, I really wanted to justify Terry’s support. He was awesome. He gave me room to get in a bunch of offence. I also did a few high spots – I hit Terry with the head scissors, he caught me doing a top rope plancha. That kind of stuff just wasn’t done in WCW at that time.”
Eddie Gurerro vs Terry Funk squash match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs54-UTakgg
This is different from Scott Hall's first words to Eddie Gurerro "Tuck your Chin"
The way Terry carries himself makes him the greatest wrestler of all time. It is how he treats the undercard ham and eggers, the enhancement guys. The top guys and the guys fighting for the spot. It’s the way he treats the fans too.
Here is an example from Mick Foley’s Have A Nice Day,
“I had been a friend of Terry’s for years, and he was pretty much my hero in the business. He had seen it all and done it all, but he still had the decency to respect all the other wrestlers and he never failed to be polite to the fans”
Terry Funk is 70 years old and he is truly a legend. He respects the livelihood of professional wrestling. He understands that it’s the boys and the fans that allow this art form to survive. At the end of Jeremy Borash’s 2005 ECW documentary Forever Hardcore, Terry Funk pretty much sums up something that, for me, makes Terry Funk the greatest Pro wrestler of all time. What Terry thinks is important about the business. I probably should quote it, but I don’t want to spoil the effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ongKq0aCqG4
Terry Funk is the greatest professional wrestler of all time.