Ep. 373: The Lapsed Funk 'Going National, The WWF and Hulk Hogan'

You know, good for nothing, eggs sucking dumb. We did it our
way because we love it that way. We love it that way, and
I have this wonderful gut feeling that I've had it all my life. When
it's time to go, I think it's now, it's time to go.
Welcome back to the lapsed funk. It's time to go national boss. Oh,
I mean, oh, if you're gonna go into it and Florida and
work with Dusty Roads to light the territory on fire, if you're going to
go into Memphis and light the territory on fire with Jerry Lawler, if you're
going to tour the world or the country rather as NWA champion, and indeed
the world is one of the biggest American wrestlers ever to compete in the Rings
of Japan and you retire from said Japanese circuit in August nineteen eighty three,
Where else can you really go? Where else can you really take your your
earnings to another level, your profile to another level. Then to take advantage
of what suddenly starts to happen in and around eighty three eighty four, we
know what it is. We've talked about it at nauseum, and we will
continue to talk about it until TLF is no more. The national expansion of
nineteen eighty four, then's McMahon Junior consolidating power, buying television stations, taking
talent, raiding territories, and establishing New York dominance over every little fiefdom.
King who thought he was a real businessman. Hey, how are you,
Palell? What's going on? Fuck? You know, I gotta tell you.
I know it's been a long and involved history between you and my father.
What are you talking about? Who's what? Oh? Sorry, the
round number? What not? Hello? Terry brother? What? Why are
you calling again? Dude? You're making me nervous. Brother. Oh,
I see what happened. Terry Funk was over Terry Blay's house. Hey,
hey, Funker, you want to grab that dude, I'm on the shutter.
You know that that Hogan? What Hogan did that he was able to
patch into every phone number that has a Terry in the house. Well,
you know, you can never be too careful. Phone is always swinging off
the fuck for people asking for a Terry in Terry Funk, you have a
man who flew the flag more than anybody else for the anti National Corporate Wrestling
right, Yes, yes, you have a guy who epitomized the spirit of
ECW and just basically dedicated most of his career in the nineties to making that
not only a viable number three, but a promotion that, for all of
its wild and want and violence, he felt was spiritually closer to the business
his family grew up nurturing and loving that than what had become of the WWF
ANDWCW. Even though he certainly went through those those territories in the nineties,
those companies in the nineties and collected a check, it always ended for Terry
Funk and WCW and WWF in a way that made you feel like there was
something that was deeply unfulfilling to him about the experience. This is a guy
who certainly approved, particularly when he's NWA World Champion in nineteen seventy five,
that the rigors of the schedule are something he can countenance. Because this guy
was working, you know, a WWF eighty style in seventy five, doing
one hour matches against several times guys who weren't even up to snuff, so
you really had to drag it out of him, and you know, some
of the lower key territories around the country, and you know, basically said,
after doing his tour of duty, like so many n WA World Champions
of the seventies, that's it for me. I've made too many personal sacrifices
in terms of the divorce, in terms of everything else, all the stressors
and things. And he was ready, always ready to head back to the
ranch, was the Funker. So why would the Mega Giant World Wrestling Federation
of nineteen eighty four nineteen eighty five be any different for Terry Funk, who's
looking around having achieved all he had done in the business by his retirement from
Altapan Pro Wrestling in nineteen eighty three. Hollywood opportunities, of course, post
Paradise Alley beginning to pop up. Right The eighties were, as we talked
about recently under the Cinemat, a very busy time for Terry Funk on the
big screen absolutely and the small screen as well as we'll talk about. But
all of a sudden, the Funker started to notice something. He started to
notice that as he began taking those Hollywood opportunities and those non wrestling opportunities,
looking to turn the page in his life on a business that of course,
had defined his very presence on planet Earth and that of his family. All
of a sudden, in Funk has never been bad, has never been anything
but excellent about sniffing out changes in the atmosphere like this, All of a
sudden, they were talking about wrestling in a much different way, his beloved
wrestling, the wrestling that he looked to make his permanent family nest egg Off
of And he goes on the on the set of the television show wild Side.
We know this boss about his background? We do, Yes, yeah,
we talked about it. I think beyond the mat it's that it's a
very short lived TV show, only one season, like six episodes. And
he that's where he met the three met. What's his butt there? Barry
Blast now, no, not blasting on the on the series where William Smith
at he Peck, Howard Rolin, Sandy McPeak, John ad Diaquino, and
of course Meg Ryan now the kid uh Fishoff's partner, Jason Hervey. Jason
Hervey, Yes, right there on the set of wild Side, his future
god son, as we recently discovered, that's right apparently, But yes,
Wildside only ran a couple of months March in April. But what's key is
the year in which it ran, nineteen eighty five. What was happening in
the pop culture visa v pro wrestling on those very fertile months, Well,
it was WrestleMania one. It was the rock and wrestling connection. It was
Hulk Hogan side by side with mister T hosting Saturday Night Live, soon to
be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, and just you know, rock and
wrestling on CBS on Saturday mornings. Just a cultural phenomenon was Hulk Hogan and
the Betty of Death in these exact months when Wildside had hit share waves on
ABC. Oh yeah, And of course he had filmed Wildside several months prior
to its premiere in March eighty five. And you have to think with the
MTD stuff, rock and Wrestling, Hogan, all this Terry Funk can hear
about all of a sudden, It's much like when you know he had that
episode, he had that moment where he went into Mexico, a territory that
you know, or released, an area that was always so central to his
dad's territory in which the Funk name traveled far, and all of a sudden,
the fans are flocking to Tommy Rich who has no rooting in the area.
But because of the national profile of Georgia Championship Wrestling on WTBS, reaching
all corners of the country, suddenly things were changing. This happened again for
the Funker on the set of wild Side in nineteen eighty four Will you have
to tell it here? On his shoot interview. One of the reasons was
that I was doing a series out in LA at that time. It was
called wild Side. It was with Meg Ryan, Howard Rollins, and William
Smith, Johnnie Diaquino, a lot of good actress in the thing. And
I was out there and I was on national TV at that time. Oh
anybody was talking about was wrestling. I would be on the set at that
time because I was doing that series out there, and everybody saying, did
you see wrestling the other night? Wrestling Nison resident because it's the first national
movement that it my out of New York, And I thought, you know,
people, hol covidness, covid, n hold covid. You know,
Jesus, you know, maybe I better look back into this, try to
make a bunk out of this thing. And I doing well right now,
you know, kept that series and looks around on I called up fence.
I said, hey, y I says that, you know, I'm like
to come in there for you, so I'll come up here and meet with
me. So I went up here, I met and uh, he said
I'd like to have you. I said, that's great. You know I'm
to be here. He said, you want me big or anything like that,
he said, I said, you're just fine. Let me tell you
something about that, which, by the way, I'm glad you were able
to find those clubs because I I I skimmed through all the shoot interviews that
we have, I couldn't find it not all. Yeah, they're not all
out there, and so it's like YouTube and the article collection well. And
also it's very very hard to navigate. There's no like because there's no rhyme
or reason to those things, and so many of them are like two to
three hours long, and it's like fucking Christ. But the thing I was
going to say, though, is that, yeah, yeah, yeah,
he took a he was one to get a pay day when the show didn't
pan out. But if that show panned out, I guarantee you we would
not have seen Terry funk in eighty five. So glad you said that.
You know, he always gets made fun of for all of his retirements.
And as we're going through the Lapsed Funk here, I'm kind of developed in
this thesis that he retired because he thought he actually had the opportunity to transition
into a new way of life in terms of making the living. Yep,
I agree. And then all of a sudden, one project didn't lead to
another, and a promoter comes around dangling a bigger pay day than he was
accustomed to making the last time he retired. Yep. And it's a lesser
rask of his time, and he's got the bag of tricks to leave town
before he overstays. Is welcome. He's not afraid of being pinned down or
you know, caught in this perpetual hamster wheel of working in a business that
he's losing passion for. He knows how to get out, when to get
out, He knows when it's time to go. But in this case,
it was time to phone Vince. And it might not have been the easiest
telephone call for Terry Funk to make for reasons that we will outline here this
week on the Lapsed Funk. As we continue our probing journey of one of
the great careers ever in the business, and it's time to talk about Terry
Funk. We talked about him versus Dusty Rhodes, We talked about him versus
Jerry Lawler. How about Terry Funk versus Hulk Hogan, Boss Brother? What
do you? What do you mean to I don't I don't understand. What
do you? They'll understand because, as we'll get to, a key part
of the reason that Terry Funk was welcomed in with open arms in nineteen eighty
five into the fledgling World Wrestling Federation is one of He was one of the
few heels with significant steam and ability and background who was willing to go in
there and sight unseen count the lights for the Hulkster without any complaining with that
any that's it trepidation. The marketplace was suddenly wide open for veterans of the
business who had drawn all over the country, who were willing to sacrifice a
little bit of that equity, if you will, at the altar of Hulkamania,
and Terry Funk is always the man for the job when it comes to
earning his keep, not by getting the one two three, but by making
you happy you watched someone else get the one two three over him and realizing
over the years and decades that he is the common denominator and not the guy
who was beating him up necessarily. And so it's so important to remember because
you want to cast Funk is this guy that sort of achieved the highest of
heights of his career before there was you know, broadest, the broad most
widespread television coverage. You know, a lot of it happening out of the
spotlight. We've talked about how a lot of his NWA title defenses don't even
exist on film, for example, things like that. But no, that's
just one stage of Terry Funk's life, whatever criteria you want to lay down,
and this WWF run proves it. Saturday Night's main event headlining against the
Hulkster. We'll talk about it WrestleMania two and the rest. Terry Funk did
that too. That's the thing about the Funker. He did it too.
He did it too to a degree that no other pro wrestler who is ever
lived in the history of this planet ever did. And we're getting there here.
When it's time to go national, it's time to link up with those
goddamn Yankees, though i'd his teeth doing it down there in the World Wrestling
Federation. It's it's a new time for Terry Funk. It's a new outlook,
it's a new modus up Randai. But here at TLF it remains the
holiday season as absolutely it does, and we just continue to give you daily
gifts under the Digital Christmas Tree, as Austin King Saliver was so keen to
point out on x as we continue to roll out the twenty twenty three TLF
Christmas Show, gift by gift for that ass stuff still coming into TLF h
Q, still being unwrapped as we speak, Boss, they are, indeed,
I'll tell you we've I've been. We got a fair doozy coming out
over the next few days, without a doubt. Oh God, such good
stuff. It's really it was Horse by the time we were done recording Horse,
I mean, it was so and that's all we did that night too,
that's right, And it was like it was, it was wild.
It was wild. And you know we still got you know, we still
got more. There's more coming, so we'll see, we'll see what happens.
Honest to god, I don't know. I don't know what the hell.
I don't know what the hell is in store for us as we keep
on keeping on with this shit. Generosity in the ingenuity of the TLF solar
system continues to exceed expectations each and every year, and that is no small
part of why we're coming up on ten years of the Lapsed Fan next year,
celebrating TLFX, and again so many things happening behind the scenes to appropriately
mark that occasion. I imagine from January to December, we're going to be
doing things in spirit of, you know, putting our finger on why we've
been around for ten years and why we stand so strong and so yeah,
you know, vibrant and so consistent, and look forward to celebrating that much
more in the year twenty twenty four. But we're ringing out twenty twenty three
in style. Of course, as mentioned, you should be getting those digital
stocking stuffers there via the TLF unwrappening too, the Christmas Shows twenty twenty three.
That continues, but also a ton going on for the lapsed Fan in
your life. If you're looking for gifted, if you're looking to suggest to
somebody what to get you this holiday season. Look no further than Pro Wrestling
Teas dot Com and cameo boss. Oh, we've been seeing the uh you
know, the the the store has been lit up over at Pro Wrestlingtees dot
Com because we have I've seen just a wild number of people just ordering shirts.
It's been great and it's been the busiest has been in a long time.
So we're thrilled about that. Lots of goodies out there. Fortunately,
you know, I have not I have not come up with any good ideas
for some Christmas ones for this year, but there are Christmas ones from last
year. And you don't probably just buy Christmas theme shirts. By the time
they open it, it's too late, I mean next year. It used
to have. But that's true. You get your swag for Mania season for
any wrestling course, you know, for for sure, there's there's a lot
of Mania stuff you know, in there that just kind of came out of
the blue. Like I said, the Wrestle Penias shirt is one that I
personally will be getting come WrestleMania season without a doubt. Is there a Wrestle
Mamia shirt up there? Uh, there is not a Wrestle Mamia shirt,
but I probably should do that when there are wrest Mamia based shirts like Dan
Cook and a couple others. But how deep are your cuts? Folks?
That's remote tear members only, by the way, Yeah, it's right,
You're damn right. That's a premium reference. I mean there there is literally
you know that is, Yeah, it really is, because there there are
only literally an elite amount of people who who know what the fuck that means.
And I and I and I encourage anybody to fucking wear that shirt out
in public. What the fuck is going on? Yeah? Blow your coachairman
away? Yes, by uh what you wear on your sleeve in twenty twenty
four and get it under the tree this year Pro Wrestlingtees dot Com Slash the
Lapsed Fan and also rock in this holiday season is Cameo Bosson. It's awesome
and it's George Santos. I guess so when once that George Santos shout out
in Jesus Christ, what a what a fucking world we live in? So
true? Could you imagine, like you think, could you imagine could you
imagine if if Cameo was around, like when you know Joe McCarthy was doing
like, could you imagine like he would have been all over that shit.
It's unreal. It's for Pariah's you know, it's like yeahs like us,
you know, right right, So I mean that's you either get some some
really good ship or you have right, you have Pariah's. How was Jason
Herving not on there? I know he is like the exact person that belongs
on Cameo. And man, I could ask you a producer undred one thousand
questions. He's a producer though he's a producer. Well, you know,
at a certain point you have to give up the ghost and just collect.
That's a cameo. That's what I love most about cameo. Oh yeah,
it lays bare the folks who are just like, all right, well the
fone's probably not gonna ring. Let's fuck do Yes, yeah, yep,
that's exactly it. I mean, there's so many fucking people out there who
I'm always surprised are out there. But uh, you know, nonetheless,
you know, hit us up on cameo, create canon. That's where that's
right. You guys come up with the ideas, you guys come up with
the scenarios. There have been so many different uh uh stories that have just
unfolded over, you know, throughout the time we've been on Cameo and just
every single one there's you know, there's there. I'll be honest, there's
always there's always a dreaded feeling. I see one come in and I'm like,
okay, like what is it? Yeah, you up to the right
right, Like you know, there's always there's always a moment and then it's
like okay, well if we do this and the okay, all right,
and then it's like all right, you know what, let's just fucking wing
this and see what happens. And that's always where it goes. Yes,
you never know, you never know, never never know. Fuck me,
it could be you know, it could be any number of lapsed characters put
in scenarios that you choose and bossmen can go to work. It can be
just simple Christmas greetings from your co chairs to somebody that means something to you,
perhaps a lapsed fan in your life. It's all available at Lapsed Fans
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This holiday season, do the right thing, ladies and gentlemen, and deep
thanks to those who have taken us up on set off for in recent weeks
as we do what we can to give you laps to prove giftage for the
holiday season. We're keeping busy, boss, and the lapsed funk is absolutely
no exception. We're about to enter the we're about to enter the national expansion.
We're about to enter the boom period. We're about to enter Terry Funk
navigating what this new national wrestling scene means. I'm, I mean, it's
the it's the period that I really just never remember for him and the stuff
that I know I should say, because obviously there's stuff I dont remember because
I didn't even know it happened. But I'm I'm I'm fascinated to see what
what comes from this, because I really I have so little knowledge. I've
never seen I mean outside of the wrestlming of two stuff and him tagging with
with with with Dunk Hass and hoss as Hass. Besides that I have,
you know, I don't remember anything with Hogan. I don't you know,
I never saw one of the matches, And so I'm excited you're in for
treat. Yeah, for sure. You know, we're unashame at Hulkamaniacs here
in terms of talking about our origin story as wrestling fans and the feud with
Terry Funk. I'm just endlessly like enchanted by this idea of you know,
kids who are five six years older than we were, who came up in
the LJN era as opposed to the Hasbro era, yep, and they have
I like to think they have this vague memory of this Terry Funk, who
was that that cowboy guy that Hogan wrestled on NBC once, fascinating that he
may live in the memory of some fans of you know, National wrestling that
way so crazy and invite you to consider for Terry Funk LJN. I've seen
it. It's it's it's I mean, it's it's it's a shame that he
didn't. That he didn't would have been amazing. If he was like one
of those like like a chem yes, and man, he's one of those
guys who just fucking hung on just long enough to have a Hasbro made out
of him, I would have been phenomenal too, you know, like a
nineteen to ninety Terry Funk. He would be a terrific retro Hasbro, the
ninety eight Funk, you know, with the yeah, oh sure, black
and white striped pants and the red headband. Yeah. I think that'd be
a really cool piece, but particularly you know, upon his passing. But
here we are taking a look back. So I've made reference to the fact
that that might not have been the easiest phone call for Terry Funk to make.
Is he referenced there from the set of wild Side about coming into work
for Vince McMahon Junior, because while there was some respect between the Funk family
and the McMahon family prior to Vince Junior taking over, of course Vince Senior
running the company, there wasn't a whole lot of harmony between the two of
course Camps. And it's for a number of reasons, several of which we've
already alluded to, particularly in going through our history of Terry Funk in Japan
and how he rose to power as the booker for All Japan and Giant Boba's
right hand man and one head up against New Japan Pro Wrestling and really a
war that in many ways foreshadowed the w w F w c W war that
we're about to enter into. As we go through a chronology here of Terry,
Sharks and Boss. Who was the w w F and the www F
associated with in Japan, which company All Japan? It would be New Japan.
Oh they were New Japan. Oh yeah, they were new Okay,
very much New Japan. When you think about Antonio and Oke coming to Madison
Square Garden, Oh sure, yeah, all right, all right, yeah,
of course, Hulkgan going to the Japan tournament winner. The Japan's always
fucking confused me. Yeah, yeah, well we're we're all Japan, New
Japan, you know, not all Japan. We haven't talked about old Japan
yet. That's a good point. Yeah, New Japan, what it right?
I mean? Also, what about current Japan. We all to talk
about it. I think you did current Current Japan, Prof. C.
J. P W. I don't know. It doesn't have a ring to
it to me. I. So you had, of course the split with
Baba and Ok. They went their separate ways, as we talked about,
and there was that period of the JWA when they were both together as proteges
of Ricky dozen, that Dewy Funk went over there as world champion and defended
against Antonio and Oke and Giant Bob. It wasn't a big deal. But
when the split happened in Aljapan and New Japan were respectably formed in nineteen seventy
two, it was time to take some sides because these two guys, Bob
and OK were going to jockey for position of king of pro wrestling in Japan,
you know, post Ricky dozen, And of course the Funks fell in
line with Giant Baba who sent Jumbo Sharuda to Amarillo to get seasoning and to
learn. Even Antonioki himself had come through before the split had happened to get
seasoning as well in the United States. But as we know, all Japan,
the Funks became the conduit. The Funks became the conduit for Al Japan
to get foreign talent, to get wrestlers in who had made a splash in
the United States. Of course, West Texas, what was a great place
to start. You think about the Bruis of Brody's and the stan Hansens.
Of course, Hansen came over after starting with New Japan. Abdullah came in
Visa Vi. You know, the Funks tight with the Sheik and working Detroit
and getting to know that family well and establishing a relationship the Sheik himself.
As we saw when we went through Terry Funks all Japan years very much a
key contributor to early hear pro wrestling and New Japan's doing its thing in concert
with New York and Vince. It was always very important to Antonio and Oke
into the New Japan guys that they be thought of in Japan as people who
were capable of going to New York and wrestling in Madison Square Garden. It
was a huge prestige deal to show New Japan wrestlers in Madison Square Garden wrestling
on Japanese television. That always meant a lot, and they imported a lot
of guys in the early eighties and had a tournament called the MSG Tournament.
It was in fact the MSG Tournament that saw Hulk Hogan's debut in Japan.
I believe it was in the year of nineteen thirty working for Pro Wrestling.
So these two are on decidedly different sides, the Funks and the McMahons as
it regards the Japanese power struggle and mean we referenced, of course, and
talked a lot about in nineteen eighty one when Terry Funk was able to pick
up the phone and sway Stan Hansen to jump in the middle of the night
from New Japan to All Japan, one of the first jumps of its type
after New Japan had sort of raided. As the Funk saw it. Abdullah
the Butcher who was Stan Hanson aligned with at the time, who was Stan
Hanson headlining for Vince McMahon Senior as a key Foil to Bob Eckland to the
WWWF champion, And so when the Funks poached Stan Hanson, they didn't just
poach him from Antonio and Oki. They very much poached him from Vince McMahon
senior as well. This is fucking real. Yes it is, and yess
not, like, what's that? I said, Yes it is. I
mean it's pretty simple. You know, Vince McMahon had that strange in and
out status with the nWay. He was on the board of directors in the
seventies, even though he had his own World champion. You know, you
can talk about that, but you know, they would make space and MSG
cards for guys that were breaking through in other circuits. That's how Flair came
through in the seventies, how Kurt Henneck came through in the seventies. How
so many guys who went on to be the top guys in the business in
the eighties had these sort of you know, wet behind the ears, still
relatively green msgppearances in the seventies. Was because of that loose NWA affiliation that
McMahon sort of resurrected after the Buddy Rogers, Brunis and Martino era and by
virtue of that. It's kind of like, you know, frenemies. It's
a frenemy situation, all right, all right, I mean Vince was probably
closer to to Gania than he was to the Funks. You of course saw
The Wrestler, the movie where Vince Senior's pooled side with vern Gania cast in
the film himself as Alrea, the you know, cigar chomping promoters. First
time I ever heard Vince Senior's voice, by the way, yep, yep.
And that wasn't quite you know, that wasn't quite the deal with the
Funks. The Funks. It was a little more of a chili arms length
relationship, and it came after the Funks actually did get to come through Madison
Square Garden once. Okay, there was a period of time in the early
seventies. Of course, we know Terry Funk made his debut in the business
in nineteen sixty five, his brother a couple of years before that. Between
nineteen seventy one and nineteen seventy three, Terry fun made three appearances in Madison
Square, Guard and Boss. Really, as this is hard for a lot
of people to accept, but it's the absolute both very hard to accept.
And it it you know, it indicates a little sliver of sunlight in the
relationship between the McMahons and the Funks, because you know, this is right
up until the battle lines were being drawn in Japan. You know, right
at that time period was becoming clear that you would have to take a side
in Japan. And I think once sides were firmly taken, and it was
clear that the Funks not only were with Baba, but were helping book for
Baba and recruit talent for Baba from every you know, outfit and office in
the United States, that uh yeah, you're on the other side. So
that does pretty quickly as of a February of nineteen seventy three, but the
three Misgy appearances he made. The first was August thirtieth, nineteen seventy one.
This is according to wrestling data, where al Castello and Don Kent teamed
up to defeat Terry and Dori Funk and uh no, pardon me, it
was a time limit draw. It was a time limit draw according to these
results. So I invite you to consider a world where Terry and Dory Funk,
the same guys we saw tearing up in all Japan worked Madison Square Garden
in nineteen seventy one. I I can't that's flabbergasting. Yes, yep,
they came back. Let's see July of the next year, nineteen and seventy
two, and on July one, Terry and Dorrifunk defeated King Curtis i AKA,
who of course was a huge inspiration to Terry and many others at the
time in terms of promo skills in particular, and Luke Graham. So the
Funks picking up a victory in the hallowed halls of the world's most famous arena.
And then on December eighteenth of that year in MSG they brought it ell
Olimpico and Victor Rivera. Of course, Victor Rivera a big Puerto Rican star
in the area for years and years. And on that card they defeated Dori
and Terry Funk via disqualification in a two out of three falls match. Now
it's this match that I think for sure Terry Funk is referring to whenever he's
been asked and shoot interviews about whether he ever worked for Vince Senior or whether
he you know a lot of people destraight aut ask him, do you ever
wish you could have worked Madison Square Garden in the time period where that was
you know, the thing to do in wrestling like that was your real highest
earning, biggest exposure thing to do was get to the guard Gastle Bruno or
Backland or Pedro, and Funk always sort of had to correct him and say,
well, I did well, I want I hadn't did a lot of
people to know that before these websites like Wrestling Data collated everything, so because
it was such a limited run and a lot of you know, resources,
and you know, like the J. Michael Kenyon book on the history of
MSG right hadn't come out yet, the Scott tealbook, so so it wasn't
necessarily understood. But you know, he always talked about a show where he
went out there and, as he put it, got too much heat for
the McMahons against a pair of Puerto Rican opponents, playing to you know,
what you had done down in Amarilla to get the Mexicans to want to kill
you, right, you know, it's like walk that fine line you talked
about how he pressed of course, probably won too many racial buttons against Chavo
Guerrero in La for example, when he went through there in the seventies,
and so I'm not sure, you know, there's there's much more meat on
the on the bone beyond just you know, working aggressive and stiff and getting
heat. I'm not sure anything derogatory was set on a microphone or anything like
that, but I'm pretty sure it's this ell Olimpico and Victor Rivera match here
that Terry Funk is referring to in this bit of shoot interview, reflecting on
well, you know, I did work for Vince's father for a little while,
but didn't really end well how cal I could be wrong by by thinking
this, But I don't recall any video or anything. Have you ever worked
for Vince senior? There? On that second? Did you work for Vince
Senior? It worked out about the way that it did down in Houston.
Whenever I was on the oh, okay on the Monday night shotgun okay,
whatever I called no, no, I know, I know, but whenever
I called uh, I called Jim Ross Oklahoma asshole and bench mcmahony Yankee Bashard.
Didn't realize that was in vulge at the time, you know, and
the damn get him out of here, you know, And yeah, that's
what they did, you know, But I stirred him up for one night,
you know, But that's kind of what happened. My father and I
came up here and wrestled, wrestled in the gardens Square gardens, and h
we were wrestling. H gosh, I wish I would. I think it
was Rocks and somebody, and we were wrestling Puerto Ricans up here, you
know. You know, I talk about fourth or fifth match, you know,
and we had a riot going, you know. Uh been a matter
of a few minutes, and and some guy came running that And this is
the truth, and it's not meant mat or anything, but I meant this.
What it was is, I think, Uh, what I know is
as Vince McMahon Junior ran down and ring and he says, he says,
you know, you guys, you know it's got too much. He'd stop
it, stop it, you know. And then I think that I ran
him back down the aisle down there. Picture crazy ass Terry Funk chasing young
Vince Junior back up the isle at MSG in seventy one. God damn it,
you could have got shot down. What do you think you're fucking doing?
I want ahead and ate your fucking head. That's brother, you ate
his head. Let's fucking get it. I want tod and made ahead.
I want ahead and do it. The garden. I want ahead and ate
the garden salad, Madison Square garden salad. Oh, how is it taking
us ten years to come up with that one little hit? Hidden valley ranch
on the side. I know that's doubles ranch, double trash, double cross
branch dressing. So yeah, he made a key point there that I totally
messed this up. It wasn't Terry teaming with Funk Junior an MSG. It
was Terry Teaman with the old man an MSG. That's crazy Funks Senior getting
a couple of goes in the MSG ring here. Yeah, because it says
Dory Funk and these results, but it doesn't say Dory Funk Jr. And
says Dorry Funk And so yeah, those matches I just referenced were in fact
with with Dory Senior. And yeah, that's got to be at Olympico and
Victor Rivera that he remembers, you know, doing what the Funks do.
And he ran into this in Saint Louis as well as you would call in
the early parts of his career where he just you know, did what he
did in every territory that he did in the Marilla to get heat and get
over and do things that people remembered. Andrew drew money and sold tickets and
got people animated about seeing him getting his come uppance. Yeah, and that
wasn't the style that Sam Muchnick and company were looking for in Saint Louis,
and he basically was, you know, kind of swatted away for a couple
of years from the sort of you know, pole position in the industry such
that you know, the Saint Louis wrestling circuit is interpreted by Sam Muchnick illustrated
the heights of wrestling like the most elite way to do pro wrestling, such
that you be in consideration for the NWA World's Championship, you had to exhibit
certain qualities. You had to you know, protect the idea of wrestling a
sport to a much greater degree than you would if you were Terry Funk going
in there with the mentality of doing the most violent things possible to get the
people to come back. That's not the wrestling that Sam Muchnick wanted to sell
to the public. He to be much more in keeping with every other sport
going on in a city where he was actually taken quite seriously and was extremely
well connected in and wasn't seen as some lower brow promoter of some lower brow
form of sport or entertainment. And I guess similar here. I mean,
we've certainly seen and heard about and talked about, and you know this having
done tours over there. There have been times when MSG has had to shut
down pro wrestling because of the unruly crowds, and some of the rants sure
happened in the sixties with Raka and others when you know, they would just
get too much heat, and the police and the State Athletic Commission, which
was always very active in New York in terms of kind of you know,
elbowing their way into affairs, what would not let kids go to the shows,
do all kinds of things that would make it harder to do business in
the most important reren in the country and in fact the world. And so
you had a situation where I can believe there was a bit of a hair
trigger there from the McMahon's about guys coming into the territory and playing the tricks
to that would fill the house. Smaller territories but when you're talking New York
might just create a public safety issue that would cost them in the long run.
And so that's how we remembered it. In his funnies, he called
it Monday night shotgun in Houston, which is fine. That's the most Terry
Funk way of remembering the shotgun Saturday night deal he did in nineteen ninety seven.
We'll get to that here on the laps trunk as we go, But
do you remember that where he came in and they did that shotgun in like
the nightclub atmosphere and he started calling Vincy bastard and he had a big ball
with Steve Austin. I remember hearing about it, I think, but I
don't. I can't wait to get to that. I don't think that.
I I don't think I saw it. I never watched. I never watched
a Saturday night shotgun Saturday night. I never saw one. Yeah, and
that was in the early days too, when they actually had ambition for it,
and we're trying to do basic Honestly, they're trying to be BCW.
They were trying to do shows looked like that gritty, smaller, intimate,
ultra violent arena setting where VCW had epitomized, well, Jesus, you bring
Terry Funk in, and that was Houston, and that was right around when
he came back to do the Rumble in nineteen ninety seven in San Antonio.
Don't forget, Terry Funk was in that right, So that's all to come.
But the reason he brought that up was because it was a very short
lived engagement in early nineteen ninety seven. Terry Funk was back with ECW so
quick that he was headlining their first pay per view barely legal come April of
that very year. And that's how we remembered this run through Madison Square Garden
in seventy one, seventy two, and I was were about to talk about
seventy three, where it just there is just sort of a clash of philosophies
of the business, a clash of sort of like how to regard New York
and how to talk about New Yorkers. That seemed to really be a hang
up for Terry in for the McMahons, and so the distance was there.
There was one more match Terry Funk had in the Garden, in this very
short early career run in the building, and it was February twenty sixth,
nineteen seventy three, where he picked up a victory over Chuck Richards in ten
minutes and fifty five seconds. Chuck Richards, interesting enough, the grandfather of
a wrestler that would go on to so deeply idolize Terry Funk that he basically
started wearing the exact same trunks as him in the tail end of his career
before his his career end life tragically was cut short. Chris Candido really his
grandfather, Kak Richards, wrestled Terry Funk in the garden and that was something
he was always quick to talk about as one of the ultimate like wrestling nerds
who became a wrestler. Chris Carr was yeah, before the Internet and everything,
of course, this is like the ultimate wrestling nerd who loved the business
so much and was so passionate about studying the business from every corner of the
globe and tape trading and everything else it took and reading the sheets to get
informed on all the styles out there that he actually was able to put together
a package that got him booked for years and years, and so that that's
a key part of you know, Candido, who was in the ECW locker
room when Terry Funk was the grand old man of that of that group,
So that would be recalled for years to come. But besides that, that's
about the extent of the note variety of timan Funk's very short lived first run
through New York. And then it was back to the NWA title track.
You know, Dory's about to give it up to Jack and we go from
there. And Hanson, as mentioned, was a big deal in WWF at
the time when the Funks took him over to All Japan and complicated the relationship.
I mean, I was just taking a look here. Here, here's
Hanson's WWF schedule right up until he made the jump. Oh boy, let's
see March tenth, eighty one Augusta, Maine against Bob Backland. March eleventh
against Backland in Richfield, Connecticut. March twelfth in Parsipone, New Jersey against
Pedro Morales Bayone, New Jersey. March thirteenth against Dom Denucci, New Haven,
Connecticut, Dom de Nucci, Boston Garden, Brunos, Si Martino and
A. Steele k cauntain Stan Hanson March fourteenth, eighty one. Think about
the history with Hanson right having broken San Martino's neck legitimately seventy when we watched
all that Bruno, so that you know, so Stan Hansen's He's now legendary
status and MSG because of that whole thing March, so it really hurts to
lose him if you're Vince Senior. March sixteenth, eighty one, Hanson over
Backland pedro Verus Hanson in a Noura, Connecticut in March. It just goes
on and on through March, and he works Andre and Worcester. He works
Backland over and over again. When Backlan was establishing himself as champion. He
works Backland here on a TV taping on April sixth, nineteen eighty one in
Madison Square Garden. So he's headlining Madison Square Garden against Bob Backland for the
heavyweight Championship. Wrestling Backland through Baltimore and Boston, and the last shot he
did was WWF at Hartford Civic Center against Berno San Martino June twenty eighth,
nineteen eighty one, and then pretty soon he was gone. So Jesus,
you can see how there was some distance created between the Funks and Vince Senior
at that particular yeah and so peaked apparently was the the competitive tensions between the
two families that Terry Funk went ahead and in nineteen seventy four, two years
before the McMahons played a critical role in putting the Ali versus Anoke mixed martial
arts match on closed circuit in arenas across the United States, with Vince McMahon
Junior being the American promoter along with Bob Aram of the event. Terry Funk
tried to preempt that. Here's an article that ran in the Tampa Tribune in
nineteen seventy four, and it actually I think it got picked up nationally via
the AP where Terry Funk's out there, you know, doing publicity for the
Dusty Rhoades feud, talking about how Dusty took his eye out and his whole
history with the business and how you know. It's just a snippet of something
and the large this is sort of like a sidebar to a main article about
Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk being involved in sort of like a community fundraiser football
game, almost like a charity football game in town. It says Terry f
Unk and Rhodes have been better enemies. He calls me to lose fifteen to
twenty percent of the vision in my left eye last August. I don't like
it, but it's something I've got to live with. So and if you
can read this, Boss offers Ali money for about Terry Funk also went ahead
and tried to preempt Ali Andoki by calling out Ali while he was, you
know, sitting there representing all Japan. I mean, what a dickhead move,
considering this is a big new Chapan promotion, but hey, this is
war. Wrestler Terry Funk says he will give heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali two
hundred and fifty thousand dollars to get into the ring with him in a combination
boxing wrestling match. You know, we're very serious about this. And my
brother Junior, oh god, my brother Junior backs me up. I'm sick
and tired of cash. Is Clay going around and saying he's the greatest and
what a tremendous boxer he has been my brother and I I've got the money.
I will give Cassius Clay two hundred and fifty thousand dollars cash two hundred
and fifty thousand dollars in Cassius if he will just get in the ring with
me anywhere in a combination boxing wrestling match. This is two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars for him personally, not with fifteen or twenty of his people getting
a piece of a pie. Funk on a wait. Funk in Tampa to
wrestle Dusty Rhodes last night said this is the first time he's made such an
offer. We have an unlimited checking account of Amilla, and we will give
I'm sure you do, and we'll give him a two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars Cassius celear k checks Casius cashier's check. Confused if well, if he'll
get into the ring with me, Funk charge that Ali has become vindictive over
beating the draft. What white hope has he forever has he fought other than
Quarry, who has been punched so silly he can't even talk. I don't
think there's anybody in the US who can compete in the ring with Junior or
me. Dory Funk said if it were him, he would wrestle Ali.
Terry said Ali can wear gloves. He said he would be barefsted. It
was suggested that Ali won't answer the CHALLENGEH No, he won't, said Terry
Funk, getting angrier. He'd be a fool to do it. I'd break
his leg, He'd be a fool to do it. Ali just had a
five million dollar payday for beating George Foreman for the boxing title in Zayre,
Africa. I just I just love that he knows and Noki's working on this.
Yeah, he knows. He's working on it with Vince. He knows
this is war. And he steps up in grandstands as soon as there's a
you know, a reporter in front of his face and starts calling out Muhammad
Ali like there's any chance that's gonna happen. It's just to make it look
like Ali's afraid when he when he fights an Oki instead, Right, Terry
Funk? A worker? What is he? Their workers? They're working you
and they're working with the worker the worker either worker too, a worker,
either worker, Terry the worker? He the worker, worker, He's a
worker, the worker. And so we talk so much on the Lapsed Funk
about how you know Terry Funk played a role in all of your favorite wrestlers
at some point deciding to lean into a wrestling career. It seems like the
list is endless of wrestlers of all level of stardom that he crossed paths with
who recall him interacting with them in such a way that it convinced them to
stay in the business when they may have been having doubts, or it convinced
them that they actually had some talent when perhaps promoters were recognizing it. And
no exception to that rule and trend is the Hulkster himself. According to his
book, Boss, please pass along some passages from our favorite work of fiction,
Hollywood Holkogan. Yeah, once I was confident that I knew what I
was doing, I talked my way into the into the what Steve Doors.
Yeah, Steve Door. It's someone who works on a boat. They like
it's like a lung shortman. Almost all right, the Steve Doors Union.
As a Steve Door, I directed the loading and unloading of these big ocean
going ships. I checked boxes and stamped them so everyone knew where they were
going. And I was really excited to be doing this because I was making
six or seven hundred dollars a week, which was huge at the time.
I figured I'd do this for a long time. Because I still hadn't been
given a professional wrestling match. Then came my little professional run with Eddie Graham,
my time in Cocoa Beach with Whiteie Bridges and ed Leslie, and my
short lived career is Terry Boulder and Sterling Golden. But all along, whenever
I had some time in my hands, I would head back to the docks.
So, with my wrestling career behind me, or so I thought,
I returned to the docks one more time, and I got real comfortable down
there working the ships. It was a predictable existence, unlike the wrestling business,
and there wasn't any uncertainty factor. I did my work and I got
paid. I got I got out of it exactly what I put in.
Then all of a sudden, I got a call from my old friend,
Terry Funk. I mean, I don't know check fact check this Terry Funk,
old friend. I mean he's saying he's his old friend. Now reflecting
while writing, Oh, okay, are you sure all right? No,
it's not actually yeah, exactly that's the problem. Then all of a sudden,
I got a call from my old friend Terry Funk. Terry was a
big name of the wrestling business, a second generation wrestler who'd already been a
National Wrestling Alliance World champion. When I was a mark, before I got
into the business, I used to chase him around and ask questions all the
time. Terry, Terry, Terry, are you a father? I'm a
Terry too, dude, Terry too, Terry too too. Well, here's
here's you gotta realize. When Terry Buley introduces himself to Terry Funk, he
literally says Terry, Terry and shakes his hand. My name is Terry,
dude, Terry, Terry, Terry. What. Yeah, I'm Terry.
Yeah, Terry, Terry. What I don't I don't understand. I'm gonna
go ahead and say I don't know what you're talking about. Right, I'm
gonna go ahead and call it right here, flag on the play. I'm
gonna go ahead and call a flag on this scenario. I know I'm Terry,
but I'm just one Terry, no brother, Terry Terry. Well,
you keep saying that, and it's it's making me think you're a goddamn lunatic.
You keep saying that, and it makes me wonder if if you're seeing
double or if I'm seeing single. It makes less sense every time you say
it. And I want ahead, and you know I want ahead, and
and buckle down and did an You know that's sometimes, but you what you
have to do in this business. You know, it's it's you know,
but at the end of the day, you play your cards right, and
it's it can be wonderful at the end of the day. Sometimes you play
your cards. Sometimes you don't play cards at all. It depends on who
you're working with, Ahad, And you know, my father, he was
playing cards and when it went down with less Thornton and it broke down on
a shoot match right there in the living room, we cleared out the furniture
and you know, we want ahead, and we were playing cards, and
pretty soon, you know, he was dying in my arms. And I
said to myself, you know, Dada, I'm gonna if I had only
not taking you to canyon first, you better believe I'm walking around and making
that fun noise just like a back of the tach days. Yep, uh
ask some questions all the time. You know, most of the wrestlers were
mean to me in those days, so they would try to scare me off,
like the ame was gonna try to scare off this fucking giant asshole that.
Yeah, you know, I believe it. I mean, I don't
know, but Terry Funk was always nice to me. So this one day
he came out to the docks where I was working and said, way,
what the hell is wrong with you? Can you picture seventy five Funk with
his fro standing on the docks in Templea. What the hell are you doing?
What are you doing up the docks, your dumb son of a bitch?
What do you mean you know could be the biggest star in the wrestling
business? Or are you crazy? I'm not interested in wrestling anymore. I
tried two or three times now. I can't make any money at it.
I don't want to jump off the top rope. I don't drop kick.
I'm not the most athletic. Is that what they were demanding of him?
What do you mean jumping off the top jump of dumb? Drop kick?
No? I might just shove you off the top of the goddamn building.
You used to son up a bitch? Don't drop kick? What do you
what do you? What? Are you a fucking idiot? Steer a Steve
Door. Isn't that one half a well done, and I'm off the most
with a guy in the world. You know, I may look great,
I may have a physical presence, but I'm off this technical trained wrestler from
the Olympics. Oh yeah, because the business full of these technically trained wrestlers
from the Olympics. What the are you watching of the Olympics is getting my
ass and I Dick caught in a bunch of rings down on the ramp.
Only the close cyver been in the Olympics is the goddamn auditorium in l A,
You son of a bitch. I've been to the Olympic. That's about
it. I'm let me tell you something else, only been to one.
I've never been to the Olympics. But I've been to the Olympic, and
I think pretty soon you're gonna be intersted in the torch more than anything else
speaking. So I went ahead and put in a call and I told him,
I said, you know, you know I need a job. I
know, Terry, I got a problem. We never book you to win
anyway. On top of it, I told him I didn't like the wrestling
lifestyle. I don't like all I drinking. The hell raised in the atmosphere
I just want to stay home, Okay, then to get in the business
and go home after the matches exactly. Terry Funk said, well, there's
this guy in New York, this promoter who heard about you when you were
in the Pensacola, Alabama territory and when you were in Memphis. He heard
that wherever you would wrestle, the arenas would be sold out and that the
crowd would really responded to you, and he wants to see you. Then,
Terry Funk told me, at this guy in New York was a good
friend of his father, who was also a promoter. And this guy literally
ran Madison Square Garden and his name is Vince McMahon. Wow, now the
vins kick man who runs w w E today. This is Vincent's father,
Vince nick Man Senior. I didn't know the name. I told Very Funk.
I still wasn't interested. I figured that was the end of it.
But the next day Terry called me at home and asked me to come down
to the Florida Wrestling Office the f W O. Brother Terry, It's Terry,
Terry, Terry, Terry Terry. I got to thinking, you know,
we were talking the other day and you said, you know, you
don't want to party with the boys, you don't want to go out and
you know live that lifetime. I could understand that, but Terry, when
you say, you know, I just want to go home, the problem
is we've only been wrestling for nine to second. You know we will Yeah,
we only just got in the ring. The bell just rang and the
referee hasn't called for it. Where are we going and you want to go
home? Oh God, damn it. I want to go. I want
to I want to go the distance. I want to go Broadway, brother,
Thanks exactly, Like, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?
You want to go to New York? We go to MSG go Broadway?
Brother, But of course he's gonna remember this guy showing up at the Terry
paranoid, Terry showing up at his place of work, and I'm calling him
the next day. I believe this story. Why do you call me,
dude? I don't even know who you are, brother. What's going dude?
What's going on? I just want I just want ahead and dialed your
phone number. Clearly, I'm just gonna know. I just want to happen.
Dialed your phone number. I just want to have him picked off the
phone. Then I think we found it. I think we landed on it.
What Terry does is he describes in completely unnecessary, blow by blow detail,
the most banal things he did that day. I want to and took
some pieces of bread out of the bag, and you know, walked around.
I putted around the kitchen a bit, and what do you know,
pretty soon I was putting that thing right in the toaster. But before I
did that, you know, I scratched my balls a bit, and then
you know, I went ahead, and I went ahead and picked up the
phone. I dusted off the receiver a little bit because there was a little
bit of dust right there in the in the hole. So when I went
ahead and got my dustbuster and it just kind of sucked that dust out of
there. And then I went ahead and put it to my ear to make
sure that the dial tone was still there. But it wasn't. It was
the busy signal. So I said, well, I might as well go
ahead and put the receiver back down and then pick it up again. So
I did that, and then the dial tone came back, and I felt
relief. Because of that, I was a little bit nervous. So then
I went ahead and started looking through the pages for your phone number. Hogan's
listening and rapped. He's enraptured by this because he doesn't know where the twist
is coming. I told Ricky to hand me the dustbuster, and she handed
me the chair Dusty's knee with and I said, I said, you know
what she said? You know, Vicky said, And I was looking up
your phone number in the in the telephone book. Vicky said, Hey,
do you want do you want to get me? Do you want to get?
Do you want me to get some dunkin donuts? And I said,
I don't know where Dunk is right now. I don't know if he's gotting
donuts or not. But if you want to get but if you want to
get dunk and donuts, go ahead and get them, right, that's fine
by me. You can go pick up pick up, pick up Dunk,
get some donuts on the way home, ship then dunk. I mean,
I don't care what order. You don't have to get Dunk and then donuts.
You can get donuts and Dunk and then and then she went ahead and
went out and went out and got Dunk and and some donuts. And I
just sat there flipping through the phone book forgetting who I was gonna call,
and then I went ahead and remembered, and I said, oh, I'm
going to call Hulk Hogan. So I started looking up in the HS here,
and then I remembered, Hey, you know what, he's not in
the ages because his name's not Hogan, and so I went in. It
occurred to me at that time, and then it occurred to me that way,
you know what, he has the same first name as I do.
So I started looking up in the t's and then I remembered that, hey,
you know what, phone books they're not by the first name, they're
by the last names. So I went ahead and had to figure out how
to get a hold of your last name, which I didn't know at the
time. That's so good. That's pretty much how he'd say it. I
swelled to God, that's how he's saying. Listen to hours of this man
talk by this point, I'm telling you that's how he'd say it. I
said, you know, this phone book might be better with some ketchup on
it. So I put some ketchup on it, and then I looked through
it, and then so I decided the best way to get a hold of
it. To get a hold of it was to start calling every terry in
the book. So so I call each terry and I'd say, So,
I went ahead and dialed the first Terry and I said, hello, is
this Hull Cogan? And they hung off on me. So I went ahead
and again and died, Oh. I realized, wait a minute, he
hung up on me because he's not Hul Hogan yet, that could have been
the Terry I was looking for. So I called him back, so I
said, So I called him back. I said, Hey, are you
Terry the Wrestler? And they said, no, don't stop calling me anymore.
You're freaking me out. And then I said, well, wait a
minute, Terry does get freaked out at times. I said, are you
sure you're not the Terry that I met at the docks? I think we
got the working title for the whole Cogan biopic. By the way, Terry
the Wrestler got to going back to the beginning before he was shit, and
they said, no, stop calling my number. I'm going to have you
arrested. So I went ahead and hung up, and then I called the
next Terry and we went through the same sun and hung up and then turned
myself into police. I wasn't willing to take any chances. I wanted to
get my side of the story out, you know, So I went ahead
and called the police, and I said, I just want to let you
know in case somebody calls about Terry Funk. You know, you know making
prank phone calls, I want to let you know that I wasn't making a
prank phone call. I was just making sure that I was calling the right
Terry. And I didn't want to call the right Terry and not get the
right Terry on the phone. Then I got rid. When I called the
police, a guy named Sting answer, and I said, he's not Sting
yet. I said, wait a minute, Steve Bord is not even wrestling
yet. What's going on? Where are you at? Where am I at?
And VICKI came back with the donuts and done? And then I lost
track of where I was. Please continue continue. But the next day Terry
called me at home and asked me to come down to the Floor Wrestling office.
I didn't want to go, but I couldn't say no to him.
And when I got there, it wasn't just Terry Funk waiting for me,
it was Jack and Jerry Brisco there there too, and so was Eddie Graham
and his son Mike. You know, they all sat in this room and
talked to me all along. I thought that these wrestlers really didn't like me,
you know. They said that wasn't true. They were just testing me
to see if I could stick it out, if I could make it.
I was almost there, they said, but just as I was about to
turn the corner, I'd caved in, I'd given up. They gave me
all this confidence that I could be a big star in the world of wrestling
if I came back, if I just stayed with it and kept working hard.
And they said I needed to talk to with Vince McMahon. Wow,
Well, well, you know, Terry. I you know, I've never
been to New York, Terry, but at least not I should say.
I've never been willingly to New York, never been on purpose. But I've
heard things about Vince McMahon. I've had meetings with him, and I don't
you know, I didn't really catch a vibe from him, because, to
be quite honest, I was thinking about Twinkle to Really, I was thinking
about Twinkle Toes and and and fairies. Kind of granting wishes to little children
and their dreams. And then I just said, you know, I said,
you know, I need a sandwich. So I went down and started
rummaging through the garbage can and found a couple of pieces of stale bread,
took out all the you know, the fixings, well, took out all
the the mold marks of it, you know, and slept on some butter
and cheese and you know a piece of ham or something, some kind of
a pink meat. And I had a sandwich. And that's my memory of
Vince McMahon, m brother Rott, what do you what? What? What
do you mean a ham sandwich? Brother all started here. It's uh,
you know the scene he outlines in the office with everybody saying we didn't mean
to, you know, run you off. You actually see a lot of
that actually does track a bit, you know, the hero Matsuda stuff and
everything. And they just did the Tales of Territories with Florida Championship Wrestling and
they talked about the Joe Briscoll on there and Brian Blair talking about remembering Hogan
breaking in and tell a very similar story. I just I've never heard I
don't think I've ever heard of Terry Funk being in the room, but you
know, ul Cogan inserts him squarely, uh squarely into the middle of the
uh the equation and makes him an absolutely central figure to getting hult Cogan started.
So there's another feather of the cap of Terry Funk as far as I'm
concerned, of course, and of course, and you documented this brilliantly when
we did Rocky three under the cinemat Hulk has Terry to thank for fucking being
a movie starts? What do you recall? Do you recall because there's a
few different origin stories. Bill After claims to have a lot to do with
this too. I know I remember, wasn't it he takes full credit for
it? Terry Funk for like recommending, wasn't he up for it? Wasn't
Terry Funk up for it? Or was he? Am? I just thinking
of one of the later Rockies he said that he said that Stallone reached out
to him looking for a muscular wrestler, that that's what he wanted to cast.
So it sort of like saying, it's not not exactly you, Terry,
because what's so hard for me? And I remember saying this during the
episode. It's so hard for me to accept that Rocky one came out before
Paradise Ally. Oh yeah, yeah, total, totally yeah, Rocky one
first and then he bombed with Paradise Ally. I mean, I was so
convinced that Rocky paradaie Aally was him testing the waters of what would be Rocky
just using wrestling and then switching to boxing. So it's it's you know,
it's interesting that when you know he'd already done the boxing and the wrestling movies,
and he knew what he wanted out of the wrestling business. You know,
he knew what the type of character he wanted, and so where the
stories kind of diverge a bit. Is Terry Funk remembers suggesting Superstar Graham and
or Hulk Cogan based on the criteria that Stallone was laying out, and he
would have been familiar with Hogan because I think Rocky one Rocky three was shot
in eighty one, if I'm not mistaken, Uh yes, I believe so
it was, and so he would have been familiar with Hulk from Japan because
Hogan had started with New Japan, as we talked about in nineteen eighty and
of course he would have been familiar with him from Florida. If the story
that Hulk Cogan just conveyed in his book is one hundred percent accurate about Terry
Funk's involvement in getting him to, you know, lean into breaking into the
business in the seventies in Florida in the mid seventies, so it makes sense
that that Terry would have had Terry Funk would have had Hulk Hogan on the
mind or at least in sort of like his sphere of awareness. Once Stallone
started looking around after claimed that that he was making the phone calls to connect
Hogan to the opportunity. I think what what we kind of landed on,
if I remember correctly under the cinemat was that what probably happened. So they
filmed in eighty one and it came out in eighty two, right, yeah,
and that's Thunderlips and then he gets huge in the AWA because of that
hull coach, Right. But I think what we thought was probably likely was
that, yes, the Loane reached out to his buddy from Paradise Alley,
Terry Funk, looking for a wrestler that fit this criteria, and then they
had trouble reaching Hogan and so after eventy this is sort of how they you
know, how bill out role in getting Andy Kaufman down to Memphis is because
he knew people's phone numbers as a reporter and and things like that. So
he Apter has a whole story, as you conveyed on the Rocky three under
the Cinemat, about how he called hul Cogan's mom at home trying to get
in touch with him, because at the time, he said, the after
Mags had been banned from Madison Square Garden and they didn't really have a working
relationship with the New York office, so it wasn't as simple as you know,
Bill Apter just picking up the phone and calling people in New York to
get hul Cogan's number. So he kind of worked back channels, and he
remembers Hulkogan's mother being completely unaware that Sylvester Stallone was trying to reach him,
right, And what Aptor could do is provide photos, because what Stallone wanted
more than anything at this stage, it seemed like, according to your Apter
tell it in particular, was not so much like give me the phone number
of the wrestler. It was to give me photos of wrestlers. That I
can look at to make a decision on casting m h which makes sense.
I mean, you couldn't google it, for God's sakes, like he wanted
to have some degree of idea what you were looking at in terms of presence
and look before you started making phone calls. But yeah, I mean that's
Terry Funk hul Cogan definitely. No matter what version of the story you you
get wetted to, Terry Funk plays a key role in putting Hulk Hogan on
Sli's mind. Yeah, which is and it's crazy when you really think about
it. That means he's, uh, you know, he's he's in some
ways you can say he's responsible for the rock and wrestling connection, you know,
because if Hogan hadn't, if Hogan hadn't become you wonder, would Hogan
have become that big had he not been in Rocky three. No, No,
I don't think. I don't think the AWA crowds would have responded him
the way they did to get Vince's attention and convince McMahon that if we're going
to go national, this is the charismatic force we need, right, Yeah,
because he'd already had Hogan. I mean you know, Vince Senior already
had Hogan in the late seventies, right, they programmed against Andre It's not
like he wasn't pushed eight nineteen eighty again Chase Stadium and andreeh. They knew
Horse Hogan, they knew who he was. But it was this the fresh
coat of paint that the Rocky three exposure and then the Awa babyface push.
They never saw the baby face potential in Hulkgan. That's what Rocky three brought
out by the way Verne used him after and then of course goes to Japan
and blows him, blows him out of the water there as well as kind
of like a babyface with Ichiban as Hogan's on Hogan Son is number one,
as we talked about in Paying Off the Pacific, and Jimmy Hart produced a
record album for Terry Funk and Japan. He produced a record album for Hulkga
and Japan. There's some more common DNA. Yes, these two are just
in lockstep. And so the two terries and look at that, and we
did a year on both year of this turned out to be the Year of
the Terry in so many ways here at TLF and so as mentioned Hulkogan debut
in New Japan Pro Wrestling in nineteen eighty as part of the what they called
the MSG series, which is basically importing you know, big time New York
based wrestlers or these guys who worked for the wwwf into Japan, and hul
Cogan was among them and immediately broke through as a partner of Stan Hansen before
Hanson made the jump, of course, and was you know, basically the
guy that kind of took up for Stan after he left that void in the
Japan roster by making the jump, and then Hogan became, you know,
a key adversary of Antonio and Oki in the early days of Hogan's career.
So this all happens Rocky three is taking shape, and further to nineteen eighty
one, we talked about Rocky three being filmed that year. Another apocryphal tale
between Terry Funk Hulkokein takes place in nineteen eighty one, and it's going to
take us here in our lapsed Funk journey Boss to South Africa if you can
believe. Oh wow, great story here between these two. Because the politics
are clear, Hogan's New Japan, Terry Funk's all Japan. But they're still
obviously on good enough terms with each other to be, you know, recommending
each other from movie roles and such. So what if an opportunity comes along
We're outside of the scrutiny of the US and Japanese wrestling magazines, outside of
the political dynamics keeping them apart on the major American wrestling circuits. What if
a promoter in South Africa, way outside of where anyone would ever find out,
wanted to match Terry Funk with Hulkovid in nineteen eighty one. What if,
Oh my god, what would it take and what would the terms of
that engagement be? What results is perhaps the most classic Hulkogan story you'll find.
We're going to go ahead and turn to Terry Funk's book and I'll share
this, yes, as he conveys the soup to nut story about how Hulk
Hogan himself and Terry Funk went over to Sun City, South Africa in nineteen
eighty one and ended up on opposite pages. Let's say, oh, I
can imagine I had worked with Hogan before and nineteen I'd worked with Hogan before.
In nineteen eighty one, we worked in Sun City, South Africa.
And the ad and the dodge was true. Don't go to Sun's city,
especially if you're wrestling on a show run by a bunch of packies. Oh,
I want ahead and use the word package in my book. I went
ahead and showed how racist I am is that? Where you get booze in
Boston? By the way, how you gotting on of the fucking pack I'll
set the whole thing up for Hogan thirty five thousand dollars cash, which was
certainly more than the eight thousand dollars I was getting. Good thing. I
had a big run on a blackjack table. I'll set him up with a
better deal than I did for myself. But I went directly to Hogan with
it and around Verne Gagney, and I was happy about that because I wanted
him to make the money from it and not have to share it with Gagney.
Well, you know, Hogan, now you do these things for Terry
Funk, you're gonna have to you have to give me ninety percent, even
though though he didn't go through me. Brother, Well that's it, I'm
your brother. I'll tak it. I'll take his Japanese T shirt sales too
as well. That's right, you know, and keep in mind, you
know, I just because you're going to go eventually work over for you know,
for Vince, for Vince Junior over there. You know, you know
that that according to the contract that that you signed with me and the handshake
deal, the handshake represents ninety of your future goes to me. That's right.
And we really had a great match. And then Terry would ask me,
you know, would you pick up my money? He said he was
due to wrestling Japan, so I told him getting him his money would be
no problem. But when I did, I had to do all the money
changing. I had to ride. I had to ride with the Pakistanis.
I don't know, I don't know. Maybe maybe not, but let's see
if it's a derogatory tone, maybe it's under yeah, per yeah, Persian
people. I don't know. I don't even know if it's necessarily derogatory.
It's just what he says. So and they took the worst rows I've ever
seen there. I was riding into Mercedes with one idiot to the right of
me, one to the left, and three in the front seat. Sun
City was technically in South Africa, but everything in the city was done in
butts wan of money, including our wrestling payoffs. We had to change our
butts want of money into South African rans. To do that, we had
to go to this remote outpost in the damn Jungle The Adventures of Terry Funk,
where there were baboons, lions, and every other goddamned animal you can
think of. The packings were not happy. They only drew a crowd of
about three hundred for the show and they'd laid out all this money. So
I was telling them what great guys they were and laughing at their shitty jokes.
After getting the money in rams, I had to take you to a
South African bank and I have a transfer to my bank in the States my
money in hoax because I couldn't change it into dollars there. They said the
transfer would take ten days to two weeks. About two days after I got
home, I got a call from Hogan's mama. A lot of people calling
Hulk's mom back in the day, right, where's Terry's money? Oh that's
Ruth play all right, if I've ever heard her, where's Terry's money?
Brother? B Well, ma'ama, it's going to be here. It's going
to be a little while. It finally came through and I'll send it to
him. The mere fact that we actually got paid made the trip better than
my other excursion into Africa a couple of years earlier. There we go.
That one was a trip to Nigeria, the true asshole of the world for
wrestler promoter power Mic. If there's anybody in the world, I trust,
it's power Mic, right, the most rotten son of a bitch in the
world. Junior, and I should have known something was wrong on the plane
over there. We were nearly there and all the natives in their suits got
up and went to the bathroom. They came out wearing all their crazy ass
African costumes. I swear they had bones in their necks and all that shit.
We slay, We stay slaid. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in
Lagos, Nigeria. We would turn on the TV and see the picnic at
the beach, which was where they had thirty or so people, criminals,
I guess, todd to posts. People would be leaving lunch in this field,
well, soldier even lunch in this field. While soldiers would talk,
would walk by the people who were tied to stakes in the ground and shoot
them. It was public execution while people were dying. Frenchie Bernard was on
the tour with us. He was a referee and we were going to a
small town called Katana, about seventy miles from Lagos. It was an all
day trip and we were in this bus and about halfway there French she said,
my god, look over there, it's a body. I looked,
and sure enough there was a dead body. I said, hey, there's
a body on the side of the road. It's always on the side of
the road. Yeah, Terry fun of course, Hey, haulk Cogan's on
the side of the road. We should pick him up. The driver didn't
say a word, he just kept on going on our way back. Two
days later, I looked out the window when we got to the same spot
and there was the damn body, except by now someone had sown the dead
man's clothes undertaker's clothes, and some animal had eaten some big chunk out of
his torso. At the holiday inn, we'd sit back and drink beer when
we weren't working. When you went to the bottle, yeah, right,
the work working at a Q He's a worker. He's a worker, worker,
I's all he is. Here's a worker. There is a worker.
There is a worker. There is a worker. Okay, there is a
worker. When you had a bottle of beer outside there, you had to
put your thumb over the opening when you weren't drinking, because that was the
only way to keep flies from flying down into the bottle. I set my
clothes off once to be washed, and the dirty bastard stole my clothes.
They sent back what they didn't want. One night, we went out to
eat, and they brought us a plate of oors d'eures with little toothpicks and
these small pieces of meat. I said, what is this. The waiter
said, oh, it's very good bush meat. Okay, I said,
and tried one. Well, this is good. I said, what is
it. Oh, in America you call it rat goofy sons of bitches.
One time I asked one of the locals, so what do you do for
fun? The guy told me, oh, we have beetle nuts and palm
wine. Very very crazy. But you chew the beetle nut too much and
your teeth get black. Well, I said, give me some of that
beetle nut and some of that palm wine. Let's try the shit out it's
terry. I went into my room, locked myself in and secured the windows
in case I got all goofy and decided to climb out or something. Before
the beetlenuts. Yeah, right, then I cheot the beetlenuts and drank the
palm wine. The next morning I woke up and to find I'd cheot a
hole in the mattress. The size of it orange a fucking idiot. The
Big Show had drawn something like ninety thousand people. Now Paul White never drew
that many people. That's impress or some ungodly number in a soccer. And
so we were looking forward to a good payday. Well, the naire I
had to be changing to pounds, and the pounds had to be changing to
dollars, but power Mike was going to handle all of that. Every damn
dollar managed to get lost in translation, though Power did. Power Mike did
nothing except live well. And when the tour was over, we had to
leave through the Lagos airport, trying to get out of that son of a
bitch sometime trying, oh you tried to get out of that son of a
bitch sometime. But all in all, I thought everything went well in Africa.
My second time, especially for Hogan. But when Owen got to Japan,
he did some interviews that really kind of pissed me off. He he
was telling the reporters that he'd beaten me in two straight falls. I thought
that son of a bitch. Keep in mind, he was working for a
nochi, so he was on the other side from me. Not long after,
he and I were in Japan at the same time, and I wasn't
looking for him in his hotel room. I ran through the door and nobody
was there. You can back. I'm kind of glad nobody no one was
there, because I might have been the one who went out the window thirty
something stories above the ground. It's funny how you can look back on stuff
like that and laugh. I was not happy at the time, but it's
just the kind of shit that takes place in this business. Yeah, you
get over that when you go to work with him in New York and make
more money out right than you ever have in your life. Right, it
tends to fix things. But I mean, Hogan, Hogan, Okay,
like, look, we got a chance to make this money in South Africa.
As long as we don't tell anybody, because it's going to be a
huge fucking deal in Japan if it gets out to the top guy in New
Japan. Hulk Hogan beat the top guy in all Japan, Terry Funk.
It just can't happen. But we want this money, so let's get together,
Let's do what it takes. I'll make sure you get your money.
If you can't collect, they go over there, they do the match,
Hogan apparently wins, and the first thing he does when he gets to Japan
is answer a reporter's question that he beat Terry Funk. I don't see the
problem. That's as hulk as it gets. It absolutely is just like him
on the day is after the you know, the nineteen ninety three show when
he was WWF champion talking about how this is the secondary belt. They claim
he didn't say it and he got called on it. The Funk obviously called
him on it in the book and stuff, and that book came out after
the Hulk Cogan book. We just read the excerpt from where he was,
of course very complimentary towards Terry Funk. And it's not like Hulk Hogan was
not complimentary towards Terry Funk. But now he's got to incorporate into his Terry
Funk mythos this story where he doesn't come off looking too good, and so
now the holster has to start volunteering this story on platforms like Oh I don't
know, the bubble of the Love Sponge radio show to cast things in a
way where this faux pa, this disclosure to the Japanese media that he defeated
Terry Funk in South Africa was an honest mistake. This is what an idiot
I was. Now, I've been strung out, scared to death. I
fly straight from Buddha Pittswana to Narita in Tokyo because I'm supposed to go right
in the ring of since Iland. I was so tired, such an idiot
that when I was sworn to secretly with Terry Funk, I wouldn't tell anybody
to finish because he was the main guy at Baba back then over there with
Bomble, with Brody and all these guys right island, all these reports from
Japan. You wrestled. I'm just getting on the plane. Who won the
match? I said, I did, dude. It was like the shot
heard around the world. Terry Funk called me, how gonna kill you?
You son of a bitch. I was, Oh, my god, because
he's nuts, so dude, I called him, called his wife vickiyo.
I'm gonna be apologize to Terry. Oh, he didn't want to talk to
you. He's gonna kill you. I'm gonna ship. Where do he live?
Texas? Right right? And dude, you gotta kill you. I'm
so afraid of him. Bro, I was scared of that. He's gonna
kill me because he's a bona fide nut. You better, God damn it.
He's knocking on the door. God damn, Terry, you son of
a bitch. What the fuck is going on on? You? Piece of
ship? We talked about this if you, brother, what the is going
on to No, pretend you're not in there. You we're not, bastard.
I'm gonna go ahead. And there's nobody in here, by the name
of all them, brother, there's nobody, brother, No, no,
no, it's just it's this is Ruth. It's like, oh, Terry
funk. This is a guy shot all right, we're the guys and we're
no no Hulk Hogan here. Brother. Oh, by the way, hulk,
what was the name of that airport you flew out of? To Narita.
This is what an idiot I was. Now, I've been strung out,
scared to death. I fly straight from Buddha Pittswana. Let's see Buddha
Swana. Uh yeah, no, no such thing. What exactly I mean?
Is that not the most hunk story you've ever heard? Boss? Oh?
Fuck yeah, that's that's classic, I mean, truly delicious, Hulk
Cogan, I'm strung out. He's got all that that preamble to explain why
you know I've been. I'll tell you, brother, I'll been. I've
been. I've been. You know, I've been on so many drugs,
dude, I've been drugged by other people. I've been robbed, I've been
on through so much shit on the road, Dude, I didn't you know,
Fuck bro, I don't know what the fuck was going on. And
then what really happened is he lands in Narita. He gets off the plane,
he looks around and there's no media there, and he takes a taxi
cab to the Tokyo Sports Office. Yes, and asks for the editor and
says, uh, I got a scoop for you, brother, brother who
I beat over? And yeah, Terry walks off the plane in Narita holding
a sign over his head that said, I just returned from defeating Terry Funk
in South Terry Funk brother clean one two three. It's got it hauled over
his head. But you know he was strung out. These reporters are in
his face. What do you expect him to do in the moment, He
just had a slip in judgment. Yeah, all right, of course,
it's you know, it's it's it's it's human. It's human. So yes,
the apter story. Just to tie up that loose end here a good
note. He had photos of Billy Graham and Hulk Cogan purse sliced to Loan's
interest, and he eventually gets through to Hogan's mother, who leaves a message
for Arnold Scullan and the WWF off as somebody that I guess after couldn't have
just straight up called, considering that they didn't have a working relationship at the
time. And uh. And eventually Arnold Scullan gets the word to hul Cogan
that sliced the Loans looking for him and looking for pictures of him. So
there you go. Mmmm. Funk says in his book, I actually was
the one who connected Hulkgan with Silvester stall Loan for the part of thunder Lips
and Rocky three. Stallone called me up and said he needed a huge wrestler
for the part of Well, a huge wrestler. I gave him a few
names, and it came down a slide, choosing Hogan. And here Funk
says, not Billy Graham, but Gorilla mon Soon. Ooh, so there's
something lost in translation between Funk suggesting Monsoon or Hogan and Apter looking around for
photos of Hogan or Graham, whom Vince mcmahonsr. Suggested. Funk wrote,
so Vince tren hook up, Uh, keep it in house. He tells
Terry Funk, you can't come back up. Pardon me. He tells Hull
Cogan, you can't come back and work for this territory if you take this
movie role. Meanwhile, according to Terry Funk, he's trying to angle to
get you know, the closest of the inner circle in Grilla mo on soon
the roles that's as McMahon as it gets right there, absolutely pretending the phone
call never came in and then giving it to John Cena the opportunity. Gorilla
was a tall mountain of a man Terry Funk writes, but Stallone wanted a
more muscular guy, and so he went with Hogan. I tried as well,
he says, Funk does in nineteen eighty five to get Kerry von Eriic
the part of the Russian boxer that Dolph Lungren eventually got at sah Rockey five
four of four sorry, yes that's right. Four Sly was in love with
the guy. But Kerrie, Funk writs, couldn't memorize any lines other relinds,
yeah, oh say. The only lines he could memorize were ones that
didn't have words on him, just little white lines on glass. Unbelievable.
So eventually Hogan, as we just talked about, parlays the Rocky three exposure
and a huge push in the Awa where Hulkamania is born. He becomes the
biggest baby face in the country, uh, selling out arenas all over the
a w A territory and really finding himself, really finding a babyface fire that
clearly the McMahons didn't see in him when they programmed him as as a heel
against you know, guys like Tony at Listen, Andre the Giant and so
many others and Bob Backland as well. And so when Vince McMahon Junr.
Launches the national expansion in late eighty three, Hulk Cogan makes the jump in
the middle of the night, as we've talked about over and over again,
and the business starts to change under the Hul Cogan WWF in eighty four,
and Terry starts to realize this Terry Funk, and you know, his version
of the narrative is that, you know, he's on the wild side said
as we heard, and starts hearing about all this and gives Vince McMahon a
call almost as if he was completely out of the wrestling business, almost as
if, you know, Terry Funk wasn't really stepping into the ring until he
went to the WWF. MMM. He had, of course returned to Japan,
as we talked about, and sort of went back on the retirement stipulation
very quickly in nineteen eighty four, according to Terry Funk, at the request
and the irresistible offer of Giant Baba. But further, he leaves this out
a little bit, does Terry Funk? Before he went to the WWF in
nineteen eighty five, Terry Funk went to Pro Wrestling USA. Do we remember
Pro Wrestling USA. Oh yeah, that was the that was the little the
little conglomerate that Vern made right, exactly right, Crockett, Crockett right,
anybody else in the country that was looking to cooperate Fritz. The idea was,
as Vince McMahon started taking everyone's television that he was forming common enemies all
over the country. And so what we can do is create a television show
that we can market and shop where it's the biggest stars and the biggest matches
for all the territories put together on a show called Pro Wrestling USA. And
in fact, we could even run some house shows with all these guys on
one show, like the super Bowl of Wrestling cards and call them not AWA
shows, although they were overwhelmingly in some cases AWA cards, but Pro Wrestling
USA cards. And that was a short lived experiment. Eighty forty five is
pretty much dead by eighty six. But Terry Funk was among those guys.
Makes a ton of sense to get that phone call to come in and try
to bolster this effort called Pro Wrestling USA. And I think when we go
back and we look more surgically and chronologically and more closely at the moves Vince
McMahon made in eighty four and eighty five, like we did in the Black
Saturday series we did last year, you realize that what Vince is really doing
is trying to hire people that are going to short circuit the other territories.
It's not necessarily hire people that he thinks the world of. It's hire people
that serve a strategic role. You think about some of the guys he plucked
from Atlanta, some of the guys he plucked from Saint Louis, some of
the guys he plucked from all over the place. He did it at times.
He tried to go after Harley before starr K eighty three famously. You
know, we know this story. Yep. He tries to do it with
the right guy at the right time to harm the other territory. And that's
how he competed. And I'm willing to say that the reason Terry Funk got
the job in nineteen eighty five is not just because he was this world renown
wrestler and a former champion of the NWA, but because he was going to
be a lynchpin of the Pro Wrestling USA company that was going to CounterPunch against
Vince McMahon and something Vincent man of clearly was obsessed with short circuiting. Yeah,
and so Terry worked a few matches there. He had a tag match
in February of eighty five, six man tag with him, Nick Bockminkel and
Steve Regl. Not that one the AW a Steve Regel against Greg Ganya,
Jim Brunzell and Kurt Hennig. So clearly an AWA bias there in terms of
the talent. And again the AWA really wasn't a circuit that Funk worked a
lot in. We talked about how very very very early in his career like
that was the first time he left Texas was to go take a shot up
there, and that was in concert with him trying to make a semi pro
football team based out of the area and doing a try out there. But
other than that, really very few runs through Minneapolis when he was NWA champion
didn't come through. No NWA champions really did. Because the AWA was pretty
much like WWF its own separate circuit. It wasn't like verne Gania was an
enemy of the NWA, and he clearly had a good enough working relationship to
get all those promoters in the wrestler, but Vern very much was running his
own operation with his own world champion and his own outlook on the industry dating
back to the distance with him and Fez and Muchnick when Vern was on the
Dumont network as kind of a the more nationally recognized wrestler in terms of television
than Luthez in the fifties. So all that carries forward and we have a
situation where you know, Funk is kind of approaching working with Gania again,
but there was never a whole lot of warmth between the Ganias and the Funks,
really not like you would expect. And so we all know how those
initiatives to try to get all these promoters who couldn't agree what to order for
lunch, put cards together and decide winners and losers, no fucking chance,
never had a chance. But it was the best idea that could come up
with at the time to counter what Vince McMahon was doing to them. And
so Terry came through Pro Wrestling USA, including cutting this promo where you can
sort of tell by the way they introduced him. This is from February of
nineteen eighty five, according to YouTube account that uploaded it, this is just
like a personality vignette on Terry Funk and just I don't know, it seems
like the kind of promo ear when you're going to build a territory around a
guy. It really does. And listen to just months before coming into the
World Wrestling Federation, the kind of things Terry Funk was saying on the Pro
Wrestling USA television show from the Double Cross Ranch Ride the Mighty Double Tough Carry.
Do you see that behind me? Do you see it? You know
what that is? That is a Funk country, absolutely right. That my
father owned his part. You can see before you. His father owned it
before him. And now if you live in this part of the country,
you know what you gotta be. You gotta be double tough, that's right.
And whenever you drive around on this country, what you need is a
double tough truck. And do you know I'm just like his truck. I'm
a double tough human being, that's right. I'm double tuck. And you
know what, I'm an individual and I'm an athlete, and nobody's gonna tell
me what to do. No promoter or no promotion throughout the United States,
not the NWA, not the AWA, not any conglomerateor promoters. What I
am is I am the world's toughest wrestler. I'm than a rattlesnake and tougher
than shoe leather. And I'll tell you one thing for sure, I'm not
gonna listen to any paid nosed airhead on MTV and let them tell me what
professional wrestling is about. I know, and I am the toughest man that
you've ever seen. And believe me, when I come to the East Coast,
I want you egg sucking dogs to take a look at me. And
all of you idiots with that blow dried hair, well, come on down.
After I get through wrestling and step in a ring two by two,
four by four, eight by eight. It doesn't matter to me because I
am a man. Terry funk. I'm ready to clear that up. I
wasn't sure if he was a man or not, but I'm glad hear him
talking about those air heads at MTV. Yes, just striking out hard against
the WWF so awesome months before coming in. That's the funker man. Yeah,
And you can just see him being positioned as the guy that's like anti
what's happening to wrestling? Right? Anti? What MTV is doing when it
got its hands on pro wrestling and the rest of you know, Hollywood and
New York City and Madison Avenue like no thanks, like Terry Funk the position
there in Pro Wrestling USA as the antithesis of all of that, and proudly
so. And one more thing of significance happens when Terry Funk is in this
Pro Wrestling USA short stint in their locker room, he runs into somebody that,
let's just say, will play a very pivotal role in the next stage
of his life and career because working backstage taking pictures for the wrestling magazines at
this Pro Wrestling USA show was none other than see I was a photographer.
I covered a vern Gun You show in the Mineapolis, a Pro Wrestling USA
show. One of the people that was there in nineteen eighty five was Terry
Funk, who did not like photographers. I knew Paul Howering and I knew
the Road Warriors, and said, you think maybe I can get a couple
of pictures of Terry Funk and Hanks. Yeah, she's doing right up to
him. He's a real freaky guy and mean, kind of heading over his
way and Jimmy Garban, who I had known from the New York City Nicols.
And he goes we co and I said, well, I'm gonna get
a picture Terry funkin and Hawk said was okay, and he goes, don't
fucking do we even don't fucking duddy, He's gonna chase you around his rest
room and he's gonna have a good time doing it. Got in if he
catches you. And I went up to be cat hair I here you shun
him about pH and he's chased my. I'm going guess what the performer you
know that was right? That was Paul Hammer's Paul Hayman. That was at
a banquet that they had for Terry Funk before Barely Legal in nineteen ninety seven.
Some footage of that is featured in Beyond the Mat, and he's reflecting
on the first time he met Terry Funk. Now it would be years before
he saw him again, but needless to say, the Funker making an impression
on someone who would make an impression on him years later. In Extreme Championship
Wrestling here right before going to the WWF in nineteen and eighty five, and
there's this thing happening with the photographers. The same thing with Jim Cornett and
the Jerry Lawler Show. Last week. We talked a lot about how Cornette
shooting pictures at ringside at the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis for these classics between
Funk and Lawler and spreading word to Dave Meltzer and others about how incredible these
matches are and helping build up that initial aura around how incredible Funk Lawler was.
Of course that we mentioned and watched the first five Star match for example,
as took place between the two and so Funk knew how to ye.
We talked about this in THEOL Japan shows as well, how he ingratiated himself
to the Japanese media and how even though he was a heel in the very
beginning, he would be very kind to the Japanese public and the Japanese media
as well and make himself available and sort of saw a role in befriending the
media Bill after longtime friendship with him, and so yeah, it's kind of
funny how Funk is like chasing these photographers around like a heel, like a
crazy maniac heel who end up turning around and promoting smoking mountain wrestling, promoting
ECW, promoting all manner of different wrestling conventions and things and get them paid
on the other side. Mmm. And so that's that's Pro Wrestling USA for
the Funker here right before making it over to Vince McMahon. We heard that
one piece of sound where he talked about being on the set of wild Side
and everything. Here's a little bit more color from a shooting interview he did
about finally making the jump to the WWF. I'd wind up for the because
the team at the time they were they were going in the in the direction
of all the all the big guys, all the big muscle heads and feeding
all the monsters to Hogan and here comes Terry Funk, you know, and
gosh, I watched, I watched the business change again. You have to
be on top of the changes again. And the changes at that time was
satellite TV. Bench McMahon h took the TV which we all know was taken
from uh San Antonio and Joe Blanchard and totally. Blanchard had USh Yeah Southwest
Southwest Championship Wrestling, and Ben saw that to some of a gun was getting
over YEA. So he decided that he better get ahold of it, and
he got ahold of that one. Well, then Atlanta was just by the
process of the location, geographic location that Atlanta emerged and Turner emerged, and
uh, whoever would have been in there at that time would have picked up
that one. Yeah, and and they picked up that one and all.
And then you got those birds out there, you know, and and you
look around and you you know, it's just like, uh, we used
to have h Moses five and Diamond Canyon, you know, Moses five and
dime foldus. And as Walmart came into town, you know. Yeah,
and oh, mister Ainsley or whatever his name was there was eighty years old,
was without a job, and nobody gave a shit. And although they
loved him because they could buy stuff and get a better product down there at
the other place, well not necessarily a better product, but the people were
into the cable visions now, they were into the national picture, and they
became the circus coming to town. And I realized before a lot of a
lot of the territories hung on and hu and kept on putting their money back
into the business and it just never turned around. But I realized it early
and got out of there. And got out of there and looked around and
thought, God, this is the place to be. God, this is
the place to be. That's right, those words escaping the lips of Terry
Funk. What a changed world it was. And Funk could appreciate the changing
times. You know he Funk was great about embracing changes that he hated or
you know what, would have argued against, right, but appreciating the practical
reality that disliking the state of affairs should not cost you an opportunity to make
money from the state of affairs. Yes, and Terry Funk stands this is
a great tribute to that as somebody that always chameleon like in terms of his
ability to ingratiate himself to the power regimes of the moment in the business.
Well at the same time maintaining that credibility of somebody who wasn't having to be
too ingratiating what didn't have to sort of sacrifice the heart of who he was
to take advantage of those opportunities, always stepping forward and then stepping back two
times. From being characterized as sort of like a commoditized pro wrestler or just
some frivolous entertainer, he wanted to always never stray too far from the context
of a wrestling presentation that allowed him to keep the myth alive, to keep
alive the idea that he was for real, that his matches and promos were
for real, and that you didn't fuck with the man, and that there
was the sense of danger. Because that's what you can import to any part
of this world and get booked, even during the national expansion. Take that
day territory in Japan, any territory in Puerto Rico, in Germany, any
territory in Europe, rit large in Mexico. You can take that in any
part of this country, even after Vince took over the business in the mid
eighties. And you can get an opponent, and you can get a month
of promos on television, like he did with Lawler, like he did with
Dustin Roads, like he did with Dusty Roads, like he did with so
many others over the course of his career, And you can set up shop
and you can scream into that camera and you can convince people that you know,
even if you're not into this wrestling circuit, even if this promotion isn't
for you, you can believe that Terry Funk is sort of like a an
enterprise unto himself within this organization, and there's oh yeah, you know yep,
And there's a certain representation he's making to the consumer that when you invest
in a Terry Funk match, no matter what else may be going on all
around him, you're going to get something that you feel like was effort.
You're going to get something that you feel like was someone who cared more than
you did, as opposed to less than you did, about allowing you to
believe in what you were seeing. And that starts to melt away like an
ice cube in the Sahara during the eighties, as Vince McMahon does all manner
of things to avoid taxes and other things to acknowledge that pro wrestling was not
on the up and up, and all of the you know, the opportune
and consequences of that, and another change that Terry Funk found a way to
embrace and still feel real in a business that was not even shy about publicly
saying it was just exhibition entertainment anymore. Even the bosses of the business,
we're being forced to acknowledge that. So it's time to do business. It's
time for the Funker to go to New York. Boss, I'm ready for
this shit, for this cowboy to mount up and you know, take take
this, take this here, steer right up ninety five and the debut comes
on a show we're about to watch. Here he wrestled a Aldo Marino on
this particular card. I just sent you the link, all right, and
if you can stand by, we'll get configured and watch this puppy. And
so here we go. It's the WWF debut of Terry Funk here on a
television taping with let's just make this clear, mel Phillips serving the ringside attendant
as well as I believe ring announcer on the show, and that would play
a role as the phone. This looks like, this looks like, uh,
that's the think in there. Okay, so he's just ring the ring
Yeah, and uh mel Phillips learns pretty quickly that you can handle the Funker's
gear, but you can't put his cowboy hat on your head. You can't
do it. Oh no, I don't know what you Yankees think this that
this hat is all about, but it's much more sacred than that to the
Funker. It's more kin to a Mexican wrestler's mask, and we're about to
see what happens when people didn't mind their p's and q's as far as a
Southern etiquette. Here in the in the w w F let's hit play and
its available on YouTube for anybody that wants to watch it. Three two one
play announced as being from the Double Cross ranch. That's right there. He
is Boss, Terry Funk and a w w F ring yep club. Yes,
I have chattered in Cambre. It's ready chattered in Wow. He interesting
to hear Nce McMahon's choices of words on commentary too. So if I'm taking
off the leather chaps to hide chaps, handing them to hel Phillips, this
guy has been everywhere and takes off the shawl he was wearing, Ye puts
the hell fins goes ha ha, look at that. Yes, yes,
as Terry Funk think it's funny. Boss, No, what are we seeing?
He's beating the ship out of me, fucking waffle them with fists and
then he stomped on him. Look at this, this ring attendant, this
occasional laborer, look at him, rip the jacket, I like it's with
flair or something. I mean, it's actually it's very cathartic to see him
beat the ship out of mel Phillips. I know, I know retrospect Brunos
and Martino. Goodness that it was the ring attendant. Oh, Phillips takes
a head first bump through the rope to the floor. It's done. Look
at that. Holy shit, he looks dead on the cold concrete. Is
Terry Funk bringing funkage to w W or what he's bringing the noise and bringing
the funk Security carry Pine carcass out of the arena as Funk pumps jabs against
this Jabron. Wouldn't be the first time that officials had to carry out Mel
Phillips from a from a place that's exactly right, fucking Finkles that Finkle given
some kind of a fucking add in the middle of this ship. Yeah,
this is clearly from a the television affiliate they had a new jersey. Look
at funk Man just black trunks, yep. But he's already carrying a different
aura. Yes, like who he's he's much more violent. He's a chaos
agent and a bit in a company that's much more of a cartoon. By
this point, Rin took no time at all. I'm i'm a of course
it's being Terry Funk. He's gonna give Aldo Marino a bit of offense and
make him shine. Who funk taking a hell of a bunch of the ropes
to the floor for the Gabbroni and they're going nuts. Drop yet by Marinos
to the floor. Aldo Marino any relation to Aldo Montoya, No, sir,
okay, he is, however, the cousin of Dan Marino. There
you go, hi back suplex as the Funker gets back in control, red,
white, and blue ropes. It's everything you need. It's everything you
need. It's fascinated to hear Vince McMahon present Terry Funk to his audience.
I do miss that so much, being able to listen to Vince's commentary to
take little hints as to yes, he likes high delayed twisting vertical suplex by
the Funker. And now it's time for the spinning toe hold. In the
World Wrestling Federation, Raino signals for submission and Terry Funk gets the duke wow
and they rain the booze down there. He goes front row ready to fight.
He's now finally collecting that cash, ok, and I'm climbing up on
the rail. They don't what to do, Kerry Fuck something else again.
I'm sure we'll be doing a great deal more Terry Funk something else again?
Up? Oh wat? Come on? What't a word old ladies in his
face? Or do a little bit more? So there you have. That's
wild. That is wild, that stuff. Terry Funk making his debut and
making an impactful one as he h attacks ring attendant Mel Phillips and tears his
gear up. Funk said in his book, most of my early matches in
the WWF were part of my feud with Sylvester Ritter the Junkyard Dog. We
talked about the Funk Jyd Fud, didn't we Boss in the Colisseum collection.
Yeah, as there's a we're reaching the point in the chronology where there's a
heavy emphasis on the Jyd Terry Funk program, which, with the exception of
the Hull Cogan matches we're going to get into here on the lapsed Funk was
really Terry Funk sign program, and in many ways Junkyard Dog was cast as
the number two baby face to Hulk Cogan in the very beginning of the rock
and Wrestling era. Yeah, I remember, I remember that had the big
song on the album, had a pretty prominent role on the cartoon. Yeah,
you know, of course he had his drug issues and so there was
only so far you could go with jyd in eighty five and eighty six.
But that was a huge get. We mentioned Vince, you know, making
acquisitions that would rip the heart out of other territories, and he took care
of Mid South and one stroke of the pen by getting a Junkyard Dog to
come up, and others, you know, Debase, Jake the Snake,
Roberts, Hacksaw, Jim Duggan, so many others that made Mid South tick
in that time period. But he recalls Silvester Rider of the Junkyard Dog.
On my debut, Funk says, they had me attack black ring announcer Mel
Phillips to set up my feud with the junk Yard Dog, a black superhero
of sorts. The Phillip Steel and the ensuing feud had some racial overtones.
Funk says, I've never been a prejudice person, but I didn't have any
qualms about the racial angle. Believe me, I've been on the receiving end
of prejudice. I know what it's like not to get the fair shake.
The biggest misconception of the AE the American wrestlers when I wrestled in Japan was
that we were on equal footing with the Japanese from a business perspective. I
have a lot of friends over there, but not everyone was equal in Japan.
They felt like it was their country and they were going to take the
lion's share of the money and the lion's share of the matches. And they
did. And I'm not talking about the public on because the general public there
was wonderful, but in business that was the way it was. So I
have experienced prejudice, and I know it's an awful thing. So I don't
know. I mean, I guess in that beat down there, I don't
know if there's racial overtones to that. I haven't listened to every single promo
that Terry Funk cut against JYD. Maybe he said some things that put it
in that category. It's so weird, like you get Terry Funk like feeling
regretful about the racial components of some of the things he did, but none
of it. I've never seen like an objectionable Terry Funk promo. You know,
it's like, oh, that's what he regrets saying, right right.
It seems like the things he said about Chavo Guerrero wouldn't have been on tape
anyway, because it would have been sort of like film Camera Days seventy five
at the Olympic Auditorium. But there still would have been a television show that
he was cutting promos on. But of course, not a whole hell of
a lot of tape survives from Champish wrestling from Hollywood or whatever you want to
call that area, the Michael Bell territory, so that might be why.
But yeah, so the Jy feud if you want more on the Jyd feud
and WWF if you want more on that. Of course it carried over in
Saturday N's main event. There was a tag match where Jyd teamed up with
Hogan against Terry Funk and Dory Funk on NBC Saturday Night's main event. That
was a big one, so wild yep, So a lot more about that
in the in the Colisseum Collection archives as we get to the points on the
tape where they're featuring that feud quite a bit, and and Funk was always
thankful to Junkyard dog saying wouldn't have made the amount of money he did in
the WWF if it wasn't for Jyd because he basically runs right through the Hulkugan
program right away. It's kind of like when they brought Brock back and made
Johnsena beat him right away. Remember that. Yes, now, it's like,
yep, all about this guy. This guy's kind of a live wire.
Let's make sure we get what we want out of him before we try
anything else. They're so fucking funny about that where he gets too comfortable.
But yeah, it was that program that kept him on television, kept a
mic in front of his face, helped obviously allow him to be around to
partake in that huge windfall of royalties that we've always talked about. We talked
about on the Colosseum collection of those guys that were in that first line of
LJN. Before they figured out a more I guess you could say, a
skin flint way of distributing your royalties. These guys were getting these six figure
checks out of absolutely nowhere in the eighties, in fucking nineteen eighty five and
six for these figures they didn't even know were on the shelves in most cases
because they were on the road thirty five days a month. If you can
believe that high is a kite half the time. And yeah, here's fucking
here's an extra two hundred grand that he didn't know you had come in to
you in a revenue line that's never existed in the US pro wrestling business before.
So you can see how that may have compounded as many problems as it
solved. But yeah, the Funker at the Trough for that one, thanks
in no small part to the JYD program. But he wrestles for the first
time of the Run I Believe in Madison Square Garden against Landy Poffo on July
thirteenth of nineteen eighty five. And he wrestles the Junkyard Dog on November second,
nineteen on Saturday Night's main event. And now we're going to get into
the Hogan stuff. We're going to get into the matches that Here we go
run and a couple of sound bites to get us acquainted here before we jump
in, as Terry Funkn has shooting interview with our video talks about working Hulk
Cogan Miami. Yeah, the reason why nobody else wanted to wrestling on TV.
Really, none of the guys that were superstars were afraid that Hogan might
beat him, you know. Really that's why they always seemed I didn't seem
to be too afraid of that. Was it? Like I said, was
it was it special to you Manu ending on network TV? Or is it
just another you know, another match, another date in the road. It
never you know, I mean, I have the same feelings if I'm going
into an audience with one hundred people as I do five thousand. You're ten
thousand or twenty thousand, or television or whatever. That's not the thing.
I mean the excitement of breast like even going on there before the people,
and it never changes. It never changes, no matter if I'm on TV.
I mean that I have the same, no more or no less.
Yeah, I mean no to that answer, you know what I mean.
It didn't excite me and me anymore, although I feel that my you know,
I try to have my drenline flowing before I go and ring anytime,
you know, try to do the best. It wouldn't matter if there was
one hundred people that are five hundred, it's all the same. I try
to get the same I do give the same performance. You know, so
there it is once again Terry Funk, his most high profile stuff that everybody
remembers for years and years. He talks down is like, you know,
no more important than the stuff nobody saw. Mm endlessly frustrating to me.
These guys from the seventies, who you know, they they did a lot
of their best work before there was you know, guaranteed broadcasting of their matches.
You know, they worked just as hard on what we would or today
a house show as they would a television television tapings. In fact, back
then we're just opportunities to cut brumos and have short matches to sell the house
shows. It wasn't even really a place right that you thought about showcasing your
best work. I mean, fortunately, in the Mid South Coliseum in Memphis,
they would record all the Monday night matches and preserve them, and that
proved to be a great boon to the territory as the years went by and
Jerry Jarrett was able to find all kinds of ways to market videotapes and syndicated
television shows based around that classic footage of video streaming service at one point,
because they actually filmed everything even though you know, with the intention of airing
highlight forms of it on the television show on the weekend, but not releasing
it as entire you know, events, and so so for these guys,
you know, Flare would steamboat. It's the same thing. It's like,
yeah, we can talk about eighty and nine all day, but you should
have seen this in seventy six in Charlotte when we were both like, you
know, in our twenties. It's like, yeah, no, fucking shit,
I would love to see it, but I can't, So stop making
me aggravated. Let me believe I saw your best matches. You know what
I'm saying. Nope, they don't want to do it. So so that
was That was as far as Terry Funk could tell. The reason he got
the nod right away, right upon coming into the territory to work with the
Holster was because nobody else wanted to lose to him. We know the saga
with Roddy Piper on that front. We've talked a lot about that in nineteen
eighty five, and and Funk here makes an observation that I think is important
to note. We noticed this in the Colisseum collection early Hogan eighty four.
Hogan eighty five Hogan, He's not happy is he bossed to be considered a
champion that isn't a very hard worker, but has the charisma to hold the
belt. He wants to go out there and have matches that feel good.
He wants to oh yeah, oh for sure, yeap. He wants to
go hard. Yes. Yeah. It's such a misnomer to suggest that from
the very beginning the Hogan flair, you know, Hogan WWF Flare and wa
dichotomy of the eighties was such that, you know, nobody thought of Hulk
Hogan as ever trying to have a great match, but rather just being this
this superhero that squashed everybody and just did the whole charisma routine. No,
he's out there having like you know, back and forth, drag out battles
with all manner of different opponents, cutting himself, yeah, supplexing all over
the place, taking more bumps than you ever remember him taking. I'm not
saying he was a fantastic worker, but the late eighties early nineties Hogan,
who had just sort of given up on ever being respected for his entring work,
was not that guy. When he first got the WWF crown, he
was still seeing himself as a as someone that needed to fit the mold of
what a traditional pro wrestling world champion had been and that territory in others up
to that point in time. And so for the Funker, he remembers facing
the Hulk Hogan that cared about his matches in eighty five. He doesn't remember
the Hogan that the interviewers are trying to ask him about. Who didn't care
as much about that. Who funk, you know, kind of acknowledges he
became more a Hogan he became more familiar with later on. Terry's got a
tremendous amount of talent. If he didn't have talent, if he didn't have
something, he would have reached the position that he has in his business.
He also has a tremendous amount of arrange. Terry Belay is a very very
smart individual. I think that he was much more concerned about his his quality
of his matches than he is, uh more so than the content. Now.
I think that he is concerned about the content of his matches. Does
that make sense maybe to me, but maybe not to somebody h maybe maybe
to half the people watching, maybe some of everything not. But what do
you what do what what would you say is the difference between content and between
you know, between the two content is uh uh, well, if you
got a if you got a uh band with bugles and whistles and drums and
snares and and uh piccolos, and that's content. And if you got some
poor badchere shitting not the harmonica, that's there. It comes to quality,
Okay, I mean it's much more evident. Quality is at that first point.
So no piccolo's there. It's funny what the word content came to mean
after he did that interview and what's meant by content? But what he's trying
to I don't know, what do you think he's trying to say? There?
Uh I to listen to it again to really interesting. Yeah, he's
kind of saying that. Like you know, in the beginning, it was
like, you know, he was more. He was more, he was
closer to a harmonica player, somebody who wanted to be respected for doing something
that was kind of like a no frills expression of the art, whereas later
he was someone Hogan who is more the content to just have all of the
surrounding instrumentalists just completely like overwhelm him in terms of like allowing to basically hide
in plain sight. It's not working terribly hard or or not not exposing a
self as much to criticism for trying to work. You know, a style
that tries to win your approval. It's almost like you know, you give
up, you like you just say, all right, fine, Like if
the people want to hear all of the all the bells and whistles, I'll
give them the bells and whistles instead of trying to convince them that I can
play the harmonica, like, I'll just yeah, yeah, yeah, I
can see that. So it's time to dig our teeth in. Let's jump
to a disc thirteen, Boss, if you can, ready to third team.
We're gonna watch straight through. We're going to watch through the Key Hulk
Cogan Terry Funk matches. There's a pair of them. Okay, there's actually
three of them. I should say there's some. The one that's most celebrated
is not the one that aired in January of nineteen eighty six on NBC in
Miami, as they were just discussing. The one that's most celebrated is the
match he had in Philadelphia, his first run with the Hulkster in December of
nineteen and eighty five, So literally just months after debuting with the company,
he's in there with Hulk Coogan and and we're gonna get a promo for that.
We're gonna get the match in Philly from December seventh, eighty five.
Then we're going to get a return match they did in Toronto on December fifteenth
of nineteen eighty five. And then of course the Saturda Night's main event show.
That was the New Year's edition that rang in just like we're ringing in
twenty twenty four here in a little while. Wow, Funk vers Hogan rang
in nineteen eighty six in the World Wrestling Federation, And what a year that
was for the organization. It was January fourth, nineteen eighty six. What
a time to be alive to catch that all the last Saturday after holiday break,
That's wild. Imagine that last Sunday before you go about the school you
get to watch Hogan funk in the middle of the night. I mean,
it's one of those It's one of those ones where you kind of like,
you know, you know, I it was to me that would that would
be the equivalent of like, you know, being excited for like a Summer
Slam or something like that, because you're you're you're torn because you really really
really want to watch the match, and you want to see the event,
but at the same time, you know that that event is right before school
goes back and you and I mean vacation's over. So rough set such mixed
emotions, Oh, for sure, just for that time, for that little
bit of time, Even though you know what's coming to an end and the
sands and the hour glass are expiring, you know that you still have some
time. You still have just that little night that can still be yours a
couple hours. And man, those were heavy eyelid nights. Man, those
early Saturday night's main events. Oh, it was very hard to stay up
for those at the age we were, I mean the they even were,
I mean in ninety two, the only ones I ever saw, like It's
like they were hard to even I mean again, hard to find for fuck's
sake, let alone. One of my earliest wrestling memories and I don't God,
don't ask me what snm E it was, but I I remember being
the living room floor fighting sleep fighting it. I mean, we're eleven thirty
at night, folks. Yeah, Well, I guess, yeah, the
Fox ones weren't that late, but that's true. This is definitely an NBC
remember it, Yeah, and I'm just like, oh my god, wrestlings
on. I can't wrestlings on? Yeah, oh my gowk out. And
that's still a warm memory. I don't even remember seeing matches are being taken
on a thrill ride, but I still remember course how magical it was that
that box in my living room was going to have wrestling in this window.
If I was, if I had the guts to be where I to have
my ass on the couch where it needed to be to see it, because
there was no I don't think out a VCR. We certainly didn't helping it.
I knew how to program and run, so fucking amazing to think about
the Funker being impressing upon that early rock and wrestling crowd what he could do,
just the last person you'd expect to have a seat at this table in
some ways, but it makes all the sense in the world once you see
it. So if you can navigate on disc thirteen to one two thirty one,
one O two, we'll be in business thirty one. Pretty sure we're
seeing cal Rudman, who would do the backstage interviews for the you know,
the regional WWF shows in Philly on PRISM, which was the yeah, the
local television station that would air the Philly Spectrum wrestling matches. You know,
like you had the MSG Network in New York airing MSG and Nessen and Boston
airing the Boston Garden shows. That's why these things exist and so true survives
as a complete events. All Right, I'm good when you're ready. Okay,
here we go. Time for Funk Hogan three two one play. It's
not on my life, baby. You know, Jimmy Hard ha been paired
with Terry Funk as a manager and Terrible Terry Funk. You know, we
got a brand new MTV Terrible Terry Funk in four times today, our brand
new epic record album with with your Truly sung on there. Eat your heart
out right, Rick spring I can't even say them. Springs Field, Baby,
and the night the biggest night of my life because Terrible Cherry Funk.
It's gonna be the next world heavyweight champion, Baby sitting on top of the
world. Addy, Okay, maybe you are and maybe you're not. Well,
I am gonna be an Idiotry comes there he is up for just one
second. This man has vague, He has pleaded, he has cried,
he has fought for this opportunity. And what have I done? Is that
clown wearing a fucking leather blazer, the guy in the middle there this opportunity
like a leather blazer. I am not going to let you shut ins.
Are you wrestling fans down tonight? You'll see shut His age treachery will overcome
middle aged treachery ignorance any day of the week. Sure, wow, it's
the talk. And he wants to tell everybody how he's got these pythonic arms
or whatever he calls pysonic pythonic arms. Sure he is strong, But what
price has this man paid? What is he now? Is he a card?
Does he belong with Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and all the other ignorant
people in this world? We're talking about athletes, We're talking about professionals,
and that's what I am as a professional wrestler. And Jimmy Hart will tell
you that I have paid the price. How do you plan to do it?
How you gonna beat that? How do I the man? The man
is indancible? How can you say he's invincible? How many years has that
man been wrestling professional compared to myself? What family does he come from?
Who did where did he come from in the wrestling world? From some rock
band or something? Do you realize that I started wrestling when I was five
years old? I wrestled amateur all the way through high school. I wrestle
amateur all the way through God my father is a professional wrestler, My brother
was a professional. Random with them, and I am going to keep the
family name going. Am I gonna brand? Okay? Okay, all right?
Are you okay? You're telling me I don't intimidate you. How would
you like for us to turn you around? Hands you right here and pants
you here? Do you realize that that I want to be treated with ring?
I want to be you are talking to the next what that man dies
in the ring? There's a promo for you. Awesome. He was not
gonna let this fucking schmuck local TV guy, No way, that guy fucking
ruining everything that phillips in the fully frilled tuxedo ring, announcing that guy that
that guy was a fucking curse on his family for God's sake. Eighty five?
Yeah, it's a hori And still haven't been kicked out. Wow,
I thought they had shifted the television tapings to the midut Cent Civic Center,
Poughkeepsie, so he didn't have his you know, every three weeks guaranteed consultation
with the locker room, and Dusty Stealth Bomber was the commissioner's move. So
this is the match, This is the Philly match where people say Terry,
you know, got the most out of the Hulkster. So I hope you're
prepared to once again expand your mind as far as what the early Hull cogin
w t BF title run was. They're saying this is the best match ever.
Well, they're saying of the Hogan Funk matches it was. It's kind
of like, you know, the mt RNDA match with Lawler. It's like
everybody knows about it, everybody talks about it as a classic, and so
the next thing you say to signal your knowledge is actually, the best match
they did was before that in the Mid South Colisea in eighty one. It
was and everyone goes, Okay, the eighty one Everyone's like, oh,
this guy knows what he's talking about. Same thing here, you know,
everyone knows you wrestled hul Cogin in NBC, but only certain one to know
that the Philly one was the best one. I think it was a dry
run for the NBC match and a lot of boys. So the Funkers enter
the ring full regalia. Yeah, it's like a blue coverall with the cowboy
hat and his reference in that promo. He's now carrying around the branding iron.
Ah, it's the whole Cogan. Oh my god, it's that.
It's that in between theme burn boom damn can tell his Christmas time? Is
he sand on the hard camera? Ye, someone had the whole Cogan Halloween
mask too on that had come out that year. Harry fucking comes. Look
at that. Look at that monster blue trunks, Hogan blue trunks. I
can't. I mean red pads, red blue boots. To me, I
know it sounds sarily accurate, but to me, I also like the red
the red Hull Camania shirt with the yellow letters. I'm a fan of that,
support that, but I like, you know, I think of to
me, to me like the all red and yellow all the time. Only
is happens when he gets real American as his theme. Yeah, totally.
Yeah, that's kind of like a clash now. But I'll say, when
I hear that theme, I do think like white trunks, blue trunks,
yeah, spectrum local rainbow colors. Hulgan goes right for the fist. There,
the right hand rips the cowboy hat off, funkers bumping, He's gonna
step. He drops an alcohol cowboy hat. Brother, what a time to
be alive. Foaming at the crotch. Is that Joey Morella? What's that?
That Joey Morella is the ref It looks like I can't see it would
appear. Here goes Funk, throwing things. You can't throw chairs in yet
though, funking all red. There you looking at him, he says.
Gorilla says, I think function take a take a take a walk back to
the dressing room. I'm pretty sure Terry Funk just got in the ring and
threw a looping left hand at the cameraman on the apron. Yes he did.
Look at the funker bouncing on toes. Here taped fists. There comes
the lock up. This is what he came here to do, This is
what he got hired for. Ye brother Hogan spit at him. Yep,
And look at these people. They're standing up it's about to go down.
About watching Hulk fuck somebody up. Guys, Yeah, right, of course,
it's you know, that's what no one under stands. Like, actually,
look at that. I fetch chops Funk Teeter Totter's back over the ropes
under the apron comes up like like a drunkard re enters the freight Hulk ready
with fist. Drunk people did want to see Hogan fuck people up and for
the job. Wrestling is all about seeing somebody fucking up in the top baby
face do it exactly right, all or elbowed out of the corner, they
go Hogan backed up raf calling for the clean break. We'll see if Funk
granted. He goes for the whip reverse out of the corner. The Funker
hits the buckling and hulks her in command here other corner with a whip clothesline
in the corner holding Terry Funk slouches in the corner. Just so, this
is the w w F and this is Terry Funk, Yeah doing this thing.
Look at the wide legs. Cell. Yes, they're going fucking insane.
Oh wow, drops him hard Funk with his hands on the top rope,
Hope grabbing him by the ankles, lifted him up, then dumped him
unceremoniously, just like even Funk's upper body so like ill fitted to the era,
you know, but here he is he's still the man for the job
because before he discovered whatever he discovered to get really lean in WCW in late
eighties. Yeah, oh Jesus Christ, look at him, fucking look at
him. He's such a such a goof. I love it. Hogan did
the drop down. Funk jumped over Hogan's back and then sailed over the ropes
like he was had no control. Then he turns around and eats a monster
lariat. It goes head over heels to the concrete. Should be hard over
to console the Funker. He's doing the job. He's doing what people paid
tickets in eighty five to watch. Happened at an AWF show, right,
I mean it's like, yeah, it's it's a very it's a very simple,
but it was such an effective formula. You know, the match starts,
Hogan beats the ship out of the guy and and tosses him around like
a rag doll, and then you know, he makes a mistake, and
then they have the heat segment for a while you know, hulk up,
boot leg drop go home happy. We stepped on his back. He said
that before. That's a brilliant idea. Never saw that before. I've never
seen that before. Look at that innovation. Innovation in hulcovid and Terry Funk.
Funk grabs the branding, takes off the heip butt suits up. You
want to go on? Soon peeled off his sunglasses and everything. Funk's raising
hell at rings side of the spectacle. Can't believe this. Gorilla is ready
to go Look at him. Cabrilla's not here to play. He's not here.
Made a fool love Uh huh? That was great. Only the Funker
man would go for ship like that. What a phone of misinformation? Take
your act on the road. I lost my cool there, Grilla says.
I thought told me the Funker would do this in the w W A.
Yes, yes, who goes after Gorilla Monsoon? Not? I mean,
who goes after any announcer in this day and age? You know, Oh,
criss cross. I don't what is the point of this? Look at
there. I have never understood what the point of a criss cross was,
Like, it makes no sense. It's apparently in this case to crack up
cal Rudman. They're laughing their ass off in the booth. Even Gorilla is
laughing. Minutes after Yeah, Funk was jostling him. They're cracking up.
He's fucking out of it and love it. The innovation from before, because
you can't see it is a headlock pushover and that push off. Hogan's hitting
the ropes, Funks dropping down and instead of jumping over Funks back, he
steps on it, steps on the Funk's back every time he comes over.
How brilliant he does, like four times the funk has to roll out of
the ring. Funk. Here we umped up to the ropes. Now hooks
tied up between the top and bottom strands Andre style and left to the forehead.
Terry Funk's going to work. You know, it's really it's so fascinating
to me that I don't think I ever maybe on maybe on the regular television
show there was a slip up or something, but that I have never heard
Gorilla monsoon slip up and call like Joey Marilla Son or something No. Number
once. Now, after Hogan gets free from the ropes, he's thrown on
the floor. Now look at this Terry's standing on a table. Yep,
I mean ALM's table right in front of Gorilla. He was right on top
of Gorilla and the other guy, this guy, you know, this guy
refuses to not leave an impression. You know. Oh yeah, No,
I mean he's because you know, you know what, What's because he knows,
he knows how to make himself memorable, and he knows how to to
kind of wet the appetite of the fans. It's just enough that they want
him back and that he doesn't have to like start from scratch if he ever,
if he ever did come back, you know, yep, you got
it right. And now he's choking Hogan in the ring with a rope.
Well, Jimmy Hart distracts the ref That's one thing about his national runs,
you know. And here in WWF and then in NWA and eighty nine with
Gary Hart. They just they wanted to pair him with the manager, like
he can't talk. Yeah, I mean he talks anyway, but it sounds
like he doesn't talk in those runs. But so curious to pair him with
the manager. I mean, the only reason why if you really wanted to
get a certain kind of heat depending that's true, the manager was. I
don't know, yeah, you know, Yeah, Jimmy Hart was back in
eighty five. By the way, Terry Funk just drilled Hulk Hogan with a
pile driver. It's funny. I don't I don't see how he did.
I don't. I don't see Terry Funk being a Jimmy Hart guy. You
know. And Heart was new to the company too, he just come in
a few months. Yeah, I'm sure it was the common Memphis DNA.
Don't forget he was ringside. Yeah, the hitting lawler with the cane when
they were having their matches. I just never see him as like he doesn't
if anything. He seems more like a heating guy. Yeah he was,
Yeah, for sure. Now Funk grabbing the sleeper hole. He's kind of
shorter than Hogan, so Hogan has to bend a knwkward angled it. Yeah,
kind of fit under the sleeper. Ogan reaching desperately. He's fading,
Boss, he is, Ogan's going out. It's over champion. This is
the phantom Terry Funk title reign. That would have been something. Can you
imagine how come this one didn't make it into the fucking Hidden Gems? I
know, Christmas eighty five this how fucking perfect or the uh you know the
house show shows, howse show what the house show videos they have? Oh
yeah on Peacock. Well the fact that you know, I didn't mention this,
but you know they've got that old school section of the old MSG.
So that's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, they don't have the the
ones in seventy one, two and three the Terry Funk was on, unfortunately,
but they don't even have this. Did they have this one? I
know they don't have this one either. No, yeah, that's what I
mean. They get a bunch of they get a bunch of Philly spectrum.
Yeah, they do shows. Hogan just ran into the corner to break the
sleeper, smashing Funk's face into the buckle. Funk lifts an arm and walks
to him like a ghost. Wow it's still out of you know, it's
still out of sorts. Now Hogan to the head butt. Here comes the
comeback. It's like while they're dropping the strap, something hul Cogan would never
do. Of course, of course, here's the whip backsually boomba. Wow,
there it is, and Hogan fires out the corner with the nope nothing,
flopping around like a fish boom Boot with big boot Funk up through the
ropes, though builds with the ropes is only he can't out to the apron
bit of self preservation there from the Funker. It's a house show. It's
not you know, I remember that, it's not a you know Hogan.
Hogan was very different on a house shows in terms of oh of look at
that, Oh is he gonna hold it there? Fallow Funk one, So
Hogan tried a suplex funk from the outside end. Funk came down with a
cross body dead waiting him, came down on top of Hulk one two Holk
gets his foot on the bottom rope and now Funk thought he won, is
getting the ref's face. Oh meanwhile, Jimmy Hart jumps up tries to hit
Hogan with a megaphone. Hogan drops Jimmy megaphone in his hand or is that
the title Hogan? I don't know. But Hogan with one, two three,
Hogan like, yeah, Hogan, you know, hey, there's your
hero Monsoon using weapons exactly right. For what do you think about that?
You know here he is not so honorable, is he? He's not about
taking an advantage from behind? Look with what is that the ring bell Terry
Funk. It was like Hogan had his clutches on Jimmy Hart the funk,
the funk or blind sides of the bell, and Hulk Hogan is laid out.
Oh yeah, they're gonna brand him. The Vince had and branded him
enough by then, well I believe he was already branded. He puts the
branding iron to the chest, to the hawlkst. That makes no sense.
It makes no sense to do that. If there's if it's not hot,
then I'm not going to leave a permanent fucking thing in his chest. Idiot
Halk moved out of the way in the second attempt, and now Hulk Ogan's
grabbed the chair and it's steel chair versus branding iron and the spectrum. Oh
and I went ahead. I gave that branding iron to Vince McMahon after them
after the match. And you know he's been he's been branding things ever since
exactly. I gave him the idea to brand, just like we gave e
c W the idea to Hardcore with the table when idro Core brand what's on
his chest there, that's from the branding iron. You must have put ashes
on it or something something. What are they like saying? I mean,
are they trying to say that that it pierced its flesh? I don't know.
Yeah, we never had a fucking you know Mark there ever again,
Hm, these people look satisfied. Merry Christmas, Philly. You got it,
you got the pinfall? Yeah yeah, these people go nuts it Hogan
covers two three. Was it the belt he used? What do he used?
What's in his hand? I don't know what that is? A shoe?
S could be a shoe mm hmmm bam boom booming bee boom deane dean
bem beam, bem beam. Like all these people holding up as much hulk
merch as they can fit into fists. Look at these people go nuts.
They are insane. And these guy's posing for them. Yep, a real
He actually fucking came to Philadelphia. Aunk cameras. Oh my god, one
of those old flip cameras there, Oh my god, oh my god.
Of course the Gorilla's color guy laughing at hul Cochin's posing routine as well.
A little kid gets how would I would give to have any to him?
For? Had to have Hogan pin him right there? Kid? I know,
don't get behind me brother, I see him, old brother, I'm
gonna take that belt. Do you can't really take it with your brother?
Get lost, dude, Now get out of here, dude, before we
start stealing thunder Eagle title. By the way, pointed the big man upstairs.
That's right, Gorilla King be King King, Mmmm King King. Hul
Cogan exits another successful piece of business in his revolutionary first WWF title reign.
That was a wonderful match. What do you like about it? I I
you know, I do. I love. I love early eighties sh I
pause. Oh, we're gonna keep going, all right. I just I
love early eighties Hogan when he was just you know, violent and a fighter.
Right. So now we've transitioned to December fifteenth, nineteen eighty five,
and the Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Oop funk of Mania. While at
the ramp, of course it's being Maple Leaf Gardens. There's funk, this
time with a tan cowboy hat still with the blue cover all there and the
stirrups with Jimmy Hart the moth of this over the mouth of this Opra in
Canada. Yeah, the Challengers Ranch in Amarillo, Texas playing two pounds Terry
fuck Terry Funk Oh real American. Wow? Now this is the this is
the w W twenty four to seven version. Yeah, so they dubbed over
real American because they they dubbed over real American for every match in their archives.
Oh right, right, the old one here. It comes from Nole's
Bard. Yeah, seriously, blue trunks. He's got the yellow head band
across one eye. Used to love that. How he put it over his
He looks like such a maniac, like a complete lunatic. Well, they're
gonna face off on the ramp. Hulk's ripping the shirt, Terry's out of
the ring. Oh no, I was gonna get back in. What a
shot that was behind the Hulk store on the rampway while Funk like retreats back
into the ring. And when did you say this was from? This is
from just a couple of weeks after the match. We just saw one week
after. So that's just eighty six, December fifteen eighty five. Oh eighty
five, December fifteen eighty five. Yeah, he wasn't Blue Trunks in eighty
six. Any mortal think Ah Hogan just did the fault, Paul, he
just put the cowboy hat on. Wow. P Funker with the right hand.
Yet we gotta go through the routine, right brother, same thing we
saw on Philly's dropping the elbow in that hat. That's another great, such
charming thing about having access to tapes back then. As you could see the
spots they would repeat. Oh yeah, you could appreciate like the routine they
put together. You know, don't fall for a display like that. Gorilla
mon shoon, you piece of shit. Jesse in the chair along with Gorilla
Funks throwing some parts of his ring attire toward the ring the flashbulbs. God,
what a building. It looks so so like, you know, hot
Saturday night, you know, like the place to be ms. Think Gorilla
mon Soon. Yes, look at Gorilla grab Terry Funk. Look at that.
Oh my god, he's taking the thing off Garrella even grabbing a chimmy
heart. Charlie fun doing everything you're supposed to do it. Russell's a champion.
He goes funk over the rail was on your side. Sorry, yeah,
so, I guess they would work a spot into every Hogan Terry Funk
match for funking jostle with Gorilla Gorilla initiated At that time, it looked like
so after a quick sojourn into the front row with the maple leaf Gardens the
Funkers and sent a ring locking it up with the whole brother Peppy reverse double
reverse, triple reverse double. Who we're reversing all over the place, and
take him to the farther corner. We're gonna close line. Flashbulbs explode,
the people on their feet. Terry collapses, Terry Funk, that is,
and look at the hole like he's right, He's fucking doing Jesus Chris,
a little kiss my ass thing. A force of nature. This guy was.
I mean, seriously, look at the size of them too. I
mean, my god, he was just massive. I never really you know,
because he wasn't like ripped like warrior or rude. I never really appreciated
how fucking massive massive Hogan was. Herry Funk is not a small man,
no talking to straight up like bruising West Texas football player. We've seen him
in the ring with so many guys that he's bigger than up on the apron.
Now Funk is hiding the megaphone behind his back, Jesse Ventura defending Funk,
giving the megaphone back to Jimmy Hart. So I didn't see you didn't
have any ill intent with it? What's your problem? Listen to the Hogan
chance, Yeah, gotta be prepared, and they cut to the far far
away angle. It looks like a Highlander, it does. It does look
like the Highlander footage to the ropes. Now Funk off the lock, throwing
big chops in the hulks to reversed whip by the champ dropped down. Funk
over the top and there he goes. He goes again, same thing,
hanging upside down on the ropes like he lost control of his footing. And
then Hulk bang close line. Fun fails to go over there and go over
this time he's gonna do the upside down so with his head on the ring
announced table, look at him, look at it right in the lap of
girl. Oh my god, he's flocking the fucking camp the monitor. H
I have to think Funk can never blow a spot, because if he does,
he'll just like flow, just like flail his body around and make it
seem like right of course, it wasn't supposed to look pretty. This is
a fight. And look at him just the way, you fucking what a
brilliant man like seated on them brilliant. Look at him, look at him
throwing at ghosts ah coming up just empty. So he was seated on the
middle rope with his chest across the top rope. Hogan would punch him and
go back teeter totter. He's swinging at nothing. He's fun is losing it.
Hi back suplex by the champion is Hulk with his hands on his hips.
Brother brother oppressed by Hulk gets too. Didn't used to be better so
far, so far, but i'll ah funk cotton corners low blow brings oo's
it? What happened, Gorilla? I missed it. I kicked him in
the balls, Jess, I didn't see any kicking in the ball. Are
you saying Terry Funk cheated, that he broke the rules? That's what I'm
saying. I don't know if I I don't know if I believe that is
that that's a biased call on your part. That's a biased call on your
part, Gorilla. Are you telling me you're one that you prefer one guy
over the other? How am I supposed to take you at your word?
That's exactly right. So now Funk is thrown a Funk has thrown Hogan out
of the ring and reins down an axe handle. See how violent Terry Funk
was allowed to get at ringside In the WWF you can see the nw A
apron that they had to cover up. Yes, because Maple Leaf Gardens had
just shifted allegiances from Jim Crockett Promotions to WWF at this point in time,
as Vince cut the deal with the jack, you guys still part of n
w A. Uh no, no, regret regrettably not part of the nw
A. Oh well, we got these ring aprons, n w A,
can we use those? Still? No? Really focused on the small funk
from behind rope around Hogan's throat, choking on to death. Well, Jimmy
Hart provides the distraction to the referee. I like that funk covers the rope
of the sleeper. This referee looks like the fucking waiter at a at an
old school stage. Musso Frank's grill over here, Yeah right, right,
realized who makes the caesar salad at the table side at the Golden Steer.
There it is big pile driver by the funker, convulsing again in the canvas.
Hogan's selling like he'd fucking get killed, but that no, he's he's
bear hugging him. What that's about? This very bizarre hogan is covered.
He's bear hot. Brother. I'm not having another Terry put. I'm not
having my shoulders down, Terry Brother. It's got to be some secret technique.
He's got the guys got the he's got the uh. His shoulders are
not done, but I got to count them anyway. Yo yo yo,
Funker, you've been talking to Verne about maybe double crossing me tonight. Dude.
I'm just saying, brother, you know you do? You come from
the double cross ranch, right, and so I'm within my rights to wonder
should I be bear hugging you off my back all night? I mean,
should my shoulders be down? Brother? Did you put like crazy glue on
my shoulders to stick me to the mat? Brother? Do you take a
payoff to turn on me to night? Dude? Nay? You off exactly
through the ropes out to the the ramp, a unique feature of course to
make leaf gardens back then. Wait, did Baba not? Did Baba tell
you to know? Tell me, bro, that's another key thing that I
forgot to mention. It's not only did Vince sign Terry Funk, but he
allowed him to continue working for all Japan the enemy of his Japanese associate.
That was a huge deal. Hulk now out on the ramp with right hands,
whips funk in and we're gonna use the ramp for a scoop. Oh
and Hogan slams funk from the ramp back end of the ring. Here goes
Terry, here he goes. Look at him. Ye what do you see?
What do you see? He's just he sees doing like there we go.
Actually, boom Bags was lining up when Terry wopped around in Philly.
But Hogan with his roundhouse rights and Terry just doing full spins and and there
we go. Yep, big booty collapses by collapses, just like in Philly.
He's gonna go for the suplex and he's gonna fall on top of him.
Yep. Oh, this time Jimmy Hart pulled the feet in the row.
God, it's the same exact thing. A week later, yea,
and Terry gets up pumping the fist like he won. I never want to
hear Terry funk. I never had the same match two nights in a row,
all that bullshit. Yeah right, I'll never have the same match two
nights in a row. I mean you got a boot or something. Referee
does not care, can Clapber's funk with it and playing here the ref and
covers them for three the same exactly necessary. You've gotta be kidding me,
Monsoon hard just like you said, look at that. Yeah, it's really
funny. Terrible Terry, what do you have to say about your hero?
Now? Look for something? Post match? Terry Funk assaulting Hogan with the
boot, calling for something. He's got the fucking branding iron and he's got
marshmallow on the tip of it, only dodges it trying to get the chapion,
but the chap was too quick for the chair as a chair. He
comes up with a steel chair, I'll say. Funker with his branding iron
hoisted high in a state of disillusionment, fo the crotch as a chap throws
the gaunt Hogan in the center of the ring, even sits the referee on
the top roplok. We don't need you in the white brother. It's a
real fight now, dude. Is he just pushed his manager down? One?
Two, three? You my very defense of his title, very shaded
defense of his title. Holgan beats up Jimmy Hart and uses a four and
out of get to defeat Terry Funk. That's how it goes down in my
book, pot So well, let's look at it from another perspective. Jess
the Mouth of the South, Jimmy Hart, h Well, let's get your
heart in the ring, winner of the match and still world. That's like
an Everyone comes crashing down and it hunts inside. I guess he the Funker
did what he came to do here in Toronto. Yep, Hart, Hart
and Hulk will pose here in Toronto. Is the Funker gets him on their
feet as it looks like the like Michael Chapman, the the cinematographer of uh
Fugitive Never Know Never Never Never Know. King King, King, King,
King, King, King King, Well, I feel strong about right and
wrong. I don't take control for very long. Oh take trouble, trouble,
don't take trouble for very long. Get a hugster making his way in
the rank the greatest professional way in the world today. In your opinion,
I was a shaded title defense in my opinion, Monsoon, Oh yes,
before the Saturday Nights made event match between Hotoven and Terry Funk. We gotta
get genove in location at a fucking water slide during a flashback to November eighty
five where Junkyard Dog got his hands on Terry Funk's branding iron, stripped Jimmy
Hart my god song and put the branding iron to Jimmy Hart's butt cheeks.
And now Gene Okerland with Jimmy Hart and Junkyard Dog at the water park.
What the everybody saw it? Now came out wrestle the junk Yard Dog.
But hey, what what is I know? I can beat him at and
the Junkyard Dogs agreed to this contest. And when it's over with, I'm
gonna prove to everybody that I'm a better man than the Junkyard Dogs. What
is going on here? You had one requirement? Well mean you know how
those cute little liners that the hot water I'd had one stipulation, baby be
wet olds rare idea, those cute little red on this and I agree to
do this red Let's I thought he said red onions. I know, I
thought, I mean that's what he meant to say. Just a minute,
something happened up there. Got a start, he's got an advantage he's used
to be and turn of things, Jay Whitey cheated in the fucking water slide,
of course he did. These are the kind of things they would do
to build matches back then, to create what never saw approved entertainment. Here's
the funk right there at poolside with Jesse Ventura. Look at look at what
is he? What is what is Jesse? Got there from your dog a
two second head start. Well, Terry, you don't really look like the
beach type to me, what do you really look? Tonight? After I
beat the heavyweight champion Hull Cogan, all the national press will be taking my
picture and I want a great tan for the cover of Sports Illustrated. Well,
I don't know if Sports illustrateds here, Terry. They better be They
put that over right, a blonde blow hard on a cover, They better
putting me on it went on through? Are all prime, both of them?
I'll fry them with my iron. That's a promise. Do you understand
that, ju Yes, well, Sports Illustrated you've been warned. And if
you don't believe me, believe me. And if you don't believe me.
So they're showing part of that loop where Hogan wrestled Terry Funking Denver dropped the
leg in white trunks and grabs them. Is a w a country right here?
Baby, Yeah, you know, you know it's funny to I mean,
I don't I don't know if in terms of a draw, in terms
of having the the uh, maintaining the credibility. You know, we we've
always celebrated Roddy Piper as being the guy as being smart to not ever do
the job on Hogan, right. I don't know if he but yeah,
well we've well when we talked about that, that's that's the reason why he
never I mean sure, like as a fan, I want him to have
lost at some point, but you can't deny the fact that it was smart
for him for his own career. Yet here's Terry Funk, who lost to
him every fucking time he wrestled them, exactly, and he's got the same
you know. And I'm not saying that this is a common thing. Terry
Funk is maybe the exception to the rule, but it is something to take
note of, because you know what, what did Terry Funk do differently?
We'll get to that ass hoaks wing in an NB just to make sure that
doesn't happen. Saturday Nights made a bent I got a special surprise for you.
You know, if you can digging man, dunk Yard Dog is gonna
be in my corner to make sure that nothing like that happened. Did he
snort to establish that Junkyard Dog is a pig will do his bank? And
I almost saying I don't want not to see real will that we're gonna be
keeping an eye on Jimmy bout that I'm gonna keep out a real ill be
close and the good God hold you up. I think Jerry Funkers, where
were they ever gonna turn j Y d heal on now Hogan? No ever
heard that. That's how they used to do an NBC. They do the
promo and then march to the ring. Yep, yep, yeah, I
mean what you know, Terry Funk jostle the ring announcer, jostle anybody who
can get the fuck out of Dodge. So they replaced that the clip in
Denver. The key was that Terry Funk unlike the other matches we saw,
and Philly and Toronto attacked Hogan with the branding iron over the head after the
match. So they were using the clip from the arena to build up you
know the danger of this one here on s n M as Look at this
Jyd doing his part to keep Jimmy Hart seated at ringside and out of the
equation. This is again the one B of Jyd to Hogan's one A.
You know this was yep. J y D was like the headliner on the
the B Towns and stuff. And this is what we saw in NBC yep,
January fourth, eighty six, lock up to the corner Irish whip reverse
the Funker Did they do the triple reverse again? Here? I like that
spot and they're doing the same thing. Uh on fucking fashion television. Yep.
Funk spills out of the ring as to doing the fake rabbaball. Yeah,
I think what Funk had You know, the Piper didn't was he didn't
have a persona built around the idea that he was, you know, a
tough boxer who never lost a street fight in his life and all this bullshit.
Now, Funk was a guy who who knew you didn't want to see
him because of his ability to take punishment not dish it out. And here's
the Funker back in the square circle. This is Saturn and this is NBC
boss yep, and they just launched it too. This is like the third
or fourth one that's wild Funk going off with chops. The whip is reversed
by the Hulkster, who's in blue and red on NBC. By the way,
they did the drop down. They were working on this match all over
the the horn Jesus Christ, what are they? Fucking Ricky Steamboat and Randy
sound totally they did the same thing where Hogan drops down, Funk loses his
footing, almost spills over the ropes, turns around and gets clothes lined out.
Interesting, the blue rope on top, the red rope in the middle,
of the white rope on the bottom. Yeah, that's a that's somebody
got fired. I'm not sure that was on purpose. Yeah, Dave Hebner
the referee for this one. Earl still working for Crockett, so we think
maybe Dave was working for Crockett and Earl was here. Got Fince on the
call talk about the scientific knowledge of the Holkster push off. Oh he's doing
the back Then there we go, yep back thing where he jumps over to
Terry's back but steps on it on the way over. Yeah, the fucking
fun kicks him on the ass. Funk fu up side. He's hanging out
of the ring. Such an idiot. I love it like he's such a
Oh he went over to any and he any and he fucking knocked the table
over. Yeah, they would do the announcing and post back then this.
They would tape set our innate's main event. So that's not the actual that's
not where Vince is. He threw the chair in. That's one of those
plastic ones, and Hogan sits in it says, bring these people love it,
look at it, eat it up. Whole country watching man. You
pictured this being on NBC and instead of SNL a Funker like six times a
year or two. You know, that's the wild part. Funker's back back
in and the collar and elbow. It's brought to you from the Buffalo affiliate
of NBC. According to this copy, we have open hand chops to the
chest now by Terry Funk ling a whole cocain in the corner who shifts him
around and starts throwing those piston right hands. Oh ye, right corner and
the corner they knows the funk are inside the house. Flare it this guy
who uses the ropes like Terry funk Seriously, Oh, nobody does. I
mean he's he's such like he makes it just works. It looks so clumsy.
It's like a plastic bag that blows into power lines. You know,
yes, yes, big back suplex by the champ cover gets too. There's
Terry Funk going into the eyes head button. Now Hogan happy as a clam
to be working with very Funk. You know. Funk tucks a low blow
in with the ref distracted. There's j y D. He's supposed to be
over there, he's there. I think he ordered a pizza, anything for
to be delivered, and then he's gonna go. Terry climbing the ropes this
time. That's something he didn't do in the other matches, not at all.
Jumps into a crouching himself on the top rope as the funker the navy
blue canvas center of the ring. Back then style tomy dropped by the hulkster.
Look at Terry, look at hulk headbutt and the Irish whip. Here
we go actual Boma on order flies corner corner brother. That Hulk fires him
up. He's gonna pick him up. Yep, that's right, he'll cogant
all kinds of momentum. You got that right, that's right, back upside
headlocked by Hulk. He gets pushed off by the phone. No, this
is different, mixing it up. Jimmy harp Hel goes out after him.
S Vince mcmhon calls Jimmy Hart a low life on commentary. Jimmy runs right
into j Why do interesting to climbing and we got oh, that's from under
the ring on the other side, that's hilarious and had a cutaway showed Jimmy
under the ring. Oh, Terry's grabbing that. Oh the tape yep,
choking Hogan with the tape. Referee distracted. It's not Dave Habner. I
thought it was. It wasn't. Nothing like it from that angle. Maybe
it is. Yeah, that is that's him. That's Habner, all right,
I take it back. Dave looked. Dave's weird looking too, don't
forget like Dave Thomas. Yeah right, Jesse, even to a crediting Terry
Funk is a genius for hiding the choking tape with what a genius sleep Terry
Funk is bunk throwing the tape away and as a result, we have no
footage from the Amarilla territory. Back up now, Terry lining up the pile
driver up goes to altst spikes him on NBC. Also, he spikes a
rating exactly cover to Haulk barely kicks out Wow Jesse event besides himself with the
cadence of the count. Oh Wow, Vince declaring that the closest toul Cogan
is losing w W Championship. Funker stumping away the head of Hulk and his
gear comes to come back. Listen to the people. Yep, I think
it's that on his knees, Funk pumping the jab. Hulk. No,
Sally's doing the hoof. Here we go, big come back. I think
I think Hogan and Terry Funk are working. I'll say, Funk, jab
after jab, none of it working. The big left hook and Hulk fires
back. Those are the people. God Oh an elbow not a boot like
elbow puts Funk on dream Street Holts Sir Oh snatches him up with the whip.
Here we go, big boot scorers. Funk stumbles through the ropes.
Yep, so here we go. We're not going to get the Funk with
the superlex yep. Oh this Joe Jimmy waffles him with the with the handing
iron yep, no instead of Jimmy Hart one yep, Terry thinks he won
with Joey d Over to drop Jimmy Hart. Terry Funk jostling the official in
the corner, Hogan, what is what I'm gonna do? He's got no
weapons, bomba bomba some covers Terry to Hogan, wins with actually boomba.
Wow. Yeah, he's got to win clean on NBC. And did he
ever? They're on their feet, Happy New Year nineteen eighty six. I'll
say Terry Funk. Literally he grabs by the collar and pushes him out through
the ropes, onto the table, onto the floor, and he's falling to
the referee around It was a man saying the w is gonna take action against
Terry Funk. Funk. He loses the match and he grabs the raft and
throws him out of the ring. Oh my god, Funks loading the ring
up with chairs, fulk swatting him away, casually gripping the w WF Championship
belt, referee and a raised the holster's hands here on Saturday Night's main event.
It doesn't get any bigger than this, Ah, Terry Funk doing what
he was hired to do. Ah. After the break, Terry Funk is
dragging oh my god, Jumi Hart's lifeless corpse across the cold concrete floor as
they replay the finish on the bottom up. Terry Funk getting the opportunity here
to make an impression on an entirely new and expanded universe of pro wrestling fans.
I've never seen Hogan win a televised WWF match with the Axie Boomba.
Yeah no, neither me, neither specific Man. Post match Hogan in the
ring with Jean Hult, Cogan, I did not anticipate that. You know,
Terry Funks, why don't you drug off that dead manager of yours at
all? But you know what, boy, I had enough. Come on
back, Falk, Come all right, haul Cogan took our dog. Come
on in j y d You did a nice job of keeping an eye on
the Jimmy Mount for the South Mark. They don't call me dimit doll,
all right, call him deputy dog Dog. Pause there, Deputy dog.
What do you think, boss? I think it's great. I think I
think it's wonderful. I love seeing Terry Funk pull out his Shenanigans on a
really unbeknownst and unprepared. WW crowd is so great. Yeah, they are.
They're they're unprepared, aren't they. That's an interesting choice of words.
Yeah, So I don't care how much. I don't care if you've seen
Terry Funk and or whatever you're not ready for that. It's a different it's
different world. Yeah, yeah, it absolutely is. And so we're going
to We're going to complete the Terry Funk Hulk Cogan Saturday Night's Man event business.
Of course at wrestleming you two Funk and Dorry faced j I D and
Tito Santana. Wasn't it Uh? It might have been, and using the
megaphone, Terry Funk was able to crown JYD. I think it was from
the l A portion of things and get the one two three and Terry Funk's
was it l A or was he in? Were they in? Sure?
Well, let's go to a disc fourteen if we could well take in the
aforementioned Terry and Dory or has Funk has Fince renamed him? We'll get to
that, taking on j I D and Hulk Cogan in many ways a match
set up by what we just went at the top of the year. This
one from the May third, nineteen eighty six edition of Saturday Night's Man Event.
The very next one. Once you have fourteen open, toggle over to
sixteen ten and we'll finish out this Terry Funk w w F party. Okay,
and here we go in three two one and play. So there's Dory
on the w w F. Take a look at Uh. You know,
I went ahead and got my brother a job. Come promo and coming Funk
promo in coming on NBC. Are you're practicing another illegal move, Jimmy Hart.
Oh man, we're working on repleases. You know. It's hand eye
orter nations. The Funk Brothers are always in Terry. Yeah, you don't
watch it. We're gonna train your ears to touch the long way. Well
perhaps, gentlemen, Okay, Dorry. The following incident occurred to the course
of WrestleMania to oh, we're gonna we're gonna see the finish right here.
Yeah, there it is. Yeah, Terry Funk and a bad Wheel Crowns.
J y D didn't cover the match because it's you know, available on
the archives on the Journey, the WrestleMania Journey. We did, of course
the dog. So for people who sort of signpost their w w F memories
based on what happened at the WrestleMania's that's the only recollection of Terry Funk not
realizing that he cross passed with Hull Cogan as much as he did Jyd and
the w w FER. What are you gonna do about that? Well,
I'll tell you what. Maybe the Funk brothers are gonna take care of Haul
Colgan and the Yank yard Dog. And I got a special surprise for the
hat Kid because I'm gonna take care of him. The Hated Kid was in
the corner too, that's right. And there's Jimmy Jack Unk Jesse Barr.
Oh my god, they brought into the territory as the long lost Funk brother
the lance of the Lance. You got it right now? Look at that
hat on Dory yep? Is he wearing a thimble on his head? Oh
my god, Hogan Now with Gene Oakland j white Man right here, the
Haiti kids are answered Jimmy Hart, alright, what about it, Haiti.
I'll never worry about a man whos on the web as much larger I Dick
ever saw almost to love this ship, Oh yeah, larger. Put this
little dude right here, You've got a lot more heart, brother. Okay,
okay, tell them. I must have man that the fun seemed to
have. The Funks were practicing throwing Jimmy hooks megaphone back and forth in the
locker room like a football like practice. I got a left doll fall behind
me. But always take mob. He's a lap dog. Is everything,
not were he is man. He's one of the most popular references in the
world today. I'm sorry, did he say butt washers? I think he
said butt washers. He may have said buckwashers, which I don't know what
that means either. There it is Saturday Nights made event style, straight from
the promo to the entrance. I like it. So now he's a real
American by now in eighty six, I don't think. What a raucous crowd.
Oh this is Providence. Oh nice. At the Dunkin Donuts Center,
He's got a chain wrapped around his neck Junkyard dog style as Ulkster. There's
a Haiti kid doing the Hulk as well with the Hulkomandy head band, Jyd
wearing a red Hulkomenia shirt. And here we go a Junkyard dog right in
there. Slams Terry Funk and there goes Haas. Can you imagine the Funk
brother's boss doing this for w w uh? Oh, look at Hogan doing
the fucking jyd oh look at Lawler. Okay, Hogan and Dory Funk Jr.
I mean, what the fuck on NBC WWF on NBC? What a
business Haiti kids snatching Jimmy Hart by the pant legs keeping him out of the
fray. It's Bobby Heenan, who's uncommon? Bobby Heenan. Huh. They
brought in Terry first, and they brought in Dorry a couple of months later,
renamed him Hoss Funk has undoubtedly because Vince couldn't stand the fact that Dory
was a junior, right. Oh, you know the thing is, I'm
just not a big fan of juniors. I think juniors are are are are
just not just not worth it. Oh well, I could I could just
go by Dori Funk if you want me. Would that be okay? Well?
You know the thing is, I just don't I don't I think that
there would be some confusion. There's confusion with me. I don't know what
a Dory Funk is, but you are a hoss. You I'm gonna call
you hoss Funk. Sure. I mean, look, if that's if that's
the best thing you think. Uh, you know, I'm I won't argue
with you. You know you're the guy obviously, you know you're you're expanding
the nationally the presence of professional wrest. I'll do whatever you say. Just
please please hire me. Pretty much all went down, by the way,
Dory not booking in Florida anymore, that's for sure, right hands. Terry
Funk working over j byd. So we are going to get a bit of
a Terry versus Jyd here on the show Corner Corner whip Funk nobody home and
crash his shoulder first of the post and hits the floor with a thud.
Terry Funk's on NBC to work this after Jyd effortlessly absorbed one of the patented
Dori Funk Junior European uppercuts and slammed the former NW champion too the canvas with
at all cooke and and all white. Tonight, what could the w W
fans have made? Oh, beause Terry is charging like a fucking wild He's
gripping him by the ship. Yep, yep, nope, you don't give
Terry Funk an opportunity for heat like that and not expect him to take it.
Bobby Heenen says, you never know where he's been. That's the problem
with Haiti kid. I agree. Whipping a big lariat by the Jyd puts
down Funk, who is flopping around on the canvas. I mean it is
true, like Terry Funk is just thinking on a whole different level. Really
is these little pockets of like opportunity he takes advantage of to like do things
that nobody else in the business would do. I just I can't. I
can't describe it any other way than create like little moments of chaos where it's
like everybody else acts cool and collected, in moments where Funk just makes you
feel like anything could happen. He stumbles around in a way that's not it's
hilarious. Oh now, Dory and Terry are criss crossing Pasty Chubb, Oh
my god, a dose dough. But Hogan boots the dosey dough, shooting
Terry right a big boot Larryot's Dorry and here we get fucking one on one
Dorry Fun duncan hulk big whip Wow, cover on Hass gets to Ogan,
tags to j y D. Terry. Funk collects himself from Jimmy hard on
the floor to the collar and elbow j y D backing Funk into the corner.
Dory Funk Jr. That is, and a clothes line puts down Dory.
He's just a think back boss, Think back to Dory and Terry versus
Chikan, Abdullah versus Brody and Snooka versus Brody and Handsome. I can't and
here they are. He's on fire. Bunk locking it up with Jyd through
an elbows and punches, peppering him with shots, takes him to the the
corner. Now it's time to get heat on j y D. There comes
Dory kicking away, double teeming other Funkers. Comes Hogan looking even the odds
over the ref's back raft keeping him back. Double whip dog hits the ropes
and double forearm from the Funkers puts him down and now Funk going to work
with a boxing, peppering Jyd with jabs, left hook blot the Here comes
the dog turns Funk through hundred sixty degrees around with one shot. Crazy Terry
look at him. Jesus christ Jes. He wrestles like a drunk man.
He wrestles like somebody who doesn't have his feet under him. Yeah, but
he's still drunk enough to think he can kick your ass. Punch drunk corner
Tory in the corner of the kick, and now fun Terry goes inside that
out Rick Flair style. Jimmy Hart has a branding iron. It's up on
the apron as this the Haited kid. Oh, he just waffles the hat.
Jimmy Hart decked kid with the with the branding iron. Hogan after him.
Now he's running over. Mel Phillips, look at him. The chairs
are in the way. Ah, Bobby, he haden said that Jimmy Hart
harpooned that little specimen Haiti kidd. Of course they're selling this big like Haiti
kids dead mess with the big boys, you get hurt. I guess this
could be with a big boys play. Oh my god, I walked over
and absolutely stomped on Haiti kids head before junk Yard Dog carries him over his
shoulder up the aisle. Commercial break. We're back on NBC. Haida kids
know where to be found. Junkyard Dog is back there, tending to him
and Hulk. Hogan's all alone against Dory and Terry Funk here on Saturday night's
main event. Oh, here we go, and we realize that Hogan didn't
actually even need the JYD in his corner at all. Everyone's so frustrated that
Terry keeps landing on their table. Terry takes a right hand from Hulk and
just spills down under the ring bell and all the TV equipment down there.
J Wady's back, how funk with the European uppercuts on the Hulks during the
corner. I just can't deal with Dory versus Hulk in WWI cannot look at
I mean, look at this exactly two plexit blocked Hogan answers with the articles
who play Dory calling spots with Hulk. Do do take me over? Do
it? Supplex overhead, supplex machine, do a supplex machine or whatever?
Look out? Uh oh jabs Hulking Iron putting the boots to whole cocain on
the floor as the funker. One last flurry on Terry. Last time they
would work together in w W F right here. It's too bad they didn't
have a match in Ontario. They did. I just watched. It was
in Toronto. Oh yeah, duh, that's in Toronto. I don't know.
I was thinking it was in Quebec. No, so yeah, look
at the two Terrris were in Ontario. Oh I got it. Oh Action
spells to the Isleway. Jyd slams Terry Funk on the concrete and they go
insane. Aaron Providence Irish whip Funks sent into the waiting arms of the Hulkster,
who drops Terry concrete. Terry came to New York to bump concrete,
right, That's exactly what he's doing me. If you need me to bump
on the concrete, I'm fine to do it exactly right. You want to
make that clear on the get go back in the ring Irish whip Dory Funk
knocked out with the big boot to the Hulster. It could be curtains here
for the Funks. Dorry rammed into the head of the Junkyard dog Well,
Bobby, he didn't having an aneurysm by the way, Oh yeah, OUs
Funk sent corner to corner by the dog house, fired off a stiff right,
catching the charging Jyd. European uppercut, hopping down to a knee on
the impact. Was Dory Funk Junior going to work like it's the Keel Auditorium
in nineteen seventy one eighty kids back out here with a fucking bandage wrapped all
the way around his jaw. Huh. Bobby Eiden says he's got a headset
on wow out channing Jyd as Terry Funk gets in there and puts the bootstrom
interesting black and yellow boots on the Funk A very un Terry Funk the gear.
He's looking for a way home. So that's how you hail a cabin
Haiti what he's doing. Jhyde in the hot comeback? Oh, but they
collide in the middle of the ring. Do the dog and Terry Funk with
a double clothesline spot. This is hillacious, the sense of chaos. It's
all Terry. It's all Terry creating, just like this. Nuts feeling about
this match. Yep, yep. Terry kicked off, snatching dog before he
can make the tag with the Hulk. Ter body slammed by Terry Funk,
puts down jyd and hard Funker is gonna go up top here at NBC.
Yes he is, Terry. We need someone to climb the top rope on
NBC pal, he takes off a Funker. Oh wow, this missus a
splash from the Heavens military. Crawled to the corner by the dog and it's
the tag to the champ. Hul cogin Legal runs over Terry with a Larry
Atto high light drop stars cover. Hogan gets the three wow, and then
Dory funk in bush is Hogan from behind with the knee. Hulk Cogan and
Junkyard Dog may have won the battle. Will they win the war? Here
Funk? The Funk brothers now have the Haiti Kid. Yes, oh oh,
and they're holding him open for Jimmy Hard, who takes off his jacket
and slaps he that's heat. Jesus slap Sadie Kid down in his mummified state.
Now they got the damn branding iron. Wow, they're not gonna brand
the Haiti Kid. This is Terry Funk for you. He's lifted the branding
iron al but he's yanked out of harm's way by the Hulkster Funk swinging branding
iron to the floor. He's just going nuts. Huh uh oh. Yes,
Hogan holding open Jimmy Hart Haiti Kid getting some shots in on the mouth
of the South, Jimmy Jimmy Ark exactly what he deserves, landed on thick
Man while back in the ring. One last stand for the Funker here,
and he looks like he's a content to back off. Yeah, because hul
Cocain's got the ring bell in his hand. There's Jimmy Jack Funk out here
as well. Jeez Ogan's got the ring bell, Jyd has the branding iron,
and the Funks have their tails between their legs here on Saturday nights of
Main event business is done. If the role was to come in and give
Hulk some electricity for a couple of months, and he ends up with his
hand raised another one bites the dust back when Jyd was allowed to come out
to that. Don't do such good TV those, And so Hulk Ogan and
Jerkyard Dog do the pose routine. Knocking the knees is the dog here on
NBC unbelievable times. That's right to the path of the big boys saying Uncle
Elmer is going to wrestle another fat guy later. Yeah, Oh, Hogan
giving his try at the the dancing knees of the dog. They're pointing to
the man upstairs. They're barking at the man upstairs. What a combination hul
Cogan and the junk yard Dog. Oh for sure. All right, we
can pause right there, Boss. I think, uh, I think Terry
Funk did what he set out to do. I imagine that he did.
I mean, not the most incredible hul Cogan matches we've seen, but no,
I'll tell you that was exactly what Hulk needed back then. Yep,
yep, and he got a He got a nice fire out of out of
Hogan too, certainly did. And Terry Funk speaking with Bill after all these
years later, looking back on this time period in his life and his career
and what he was seeking to achieve, and if you felt like he achieved
it, it was now you were a staunch nw A guy, and a
lot of fans, you know, when people like Terry Funk went to uh
to w WF fans would be like, you've, uh, you're taking a
mark on your old traditionalism by going to sports entertainment here. How did you
do or with that? It really wasn't at that time. I don't think
it was sports entertainment well, I mean, but I mean it was.
It was entering into that absolutely, and it came through a process which it
had to do, which we all agree to that and uh, Vince,
you know, I mean I would have said, we're not going to be
a sports entertainment well, our profession involved in a sports entertainment. I think
it was a smart thing that Bence did. Oh absolutely, and in German
sports entertainment. And this was the broadcast on if I remember correctly, on
NBC, So this was now here you are, I mean, here we
are on Hulk Hogan Network TV. And what was it? Tell me about
Hulk Hogan? Why was that? Why was that? Why was Terry punk
on there with Hulk? That's a good question for you to answer. Yeah,
it really is because because I was a willing individual, a lot of
guys like that'd be a detriment to him, you know, some of the
stars down up there felt like that would be a detriment to go ahead and
lose on national TV. I didn't think it would be. No, I
thought it'd be a positive. You know. What made it a positive the
numbers that were watching you, right, so they got to see you.
Yes, you you were marketing you that right, sure, getting several minutes
on National TV. At the time, it was a big deal. That
was the first time I was on national TV, which of course would help
you anywhere else you went. For example, if you want to be in
a movie or something like this, people were now seeing it. It was
already in the movies. Well, if you want to be in other movies,
they were seeing you on TV people who might not have seen those movies.
You definite know it's quite a movie star. I know you were.
We will get to that note. That's really funning idiot after he'd already done
his biggest stuff by then. Yeah, for the most part. Fact,
like he said, he was on the set of wild Side when he realized
that the WWF was taking over. So we've done a lot of work here,
you know, establishing the Hulkog and Terry Funk series as we look to
the going national part of Terry Funk's wrestling career. But we didn't spend much
time and we will now talking about how Vince McMahon decided to package Terry Funk
to his audience, because it isn't just about the matches at the house shows
and the angles and the matches on Saturday Night's main event. It's about the
Tuesday Night Titans things where people sit down and explain who they are to the
audience. And this is where we really got to see Vince McMahon sort of
mind churning, right as he brings in wrestlers who had been successful in all
manner of territories across the country and sort of sits them down, picks their
brains, and tries to select little things, little peccadillos about them that stand
out, and then he'll shoot vignettes to characterize them to his audience. And
part of that packaging, as we've talked about on forums like the Coliseum Collection
series here at TLF, is the pages of the WWF magazine, right.
Oh, yes, that's where you really can set out and express black and
white what you want your audience to think about, what sets this character apart,
what characterizes this wrestler. And we may have done this before, I
don't remember if we actually have on the Coliseum Collection when we came across Terry
Funk match or two. But we're going to turn to the pages of the
October nineteen eighty five edition of the magazine. As far as I can tell,
is the first time they profiled Terry Funk in the in house publication as
a way to sort of provide a guideline for how Vince McMahon and his brain
trust we're thinking about selling Terry Funk to this new national audience that he was
cultivating. So Boss, I've shared it with you. If you can please
convey to the Solar System this article entitled Meaner than a Rattler, Terry Funk
tears him up. MMM. The most conspicuous thing Terry Funk and World Whistling
Entertainment champion Hull Cogan have in common is an association with Sylvester Stallone. Both
grapplers combine ruggedness and a sense of style in a way that trans sends wrestling.
Thus, movie company executives have cast each as a Stallone antagonist in fighting
films. Hogan, as most wrestling fans know, played Thunderlips, the crazed
wrestler who battles the Italian Stallion in Rocky three. Funk made his screen debut
as FRANKI Thumper, the sneering Maniaco MacMan, whom Stallone must defeat in Paradise
Alley. Aside from their involvement with the same movie star, there is little
similarity between Funk and Hogan. While the champion can be low key and gentle
after he leaves the arena, Funk's activities in and out of the ring have
often been described as psychopathic. Am I crazy? Funk angrily repeats the reporter's
question, am I just a little bit touched? Well, I'm not a
doctor. I can't answer that. You'll just have to watch me and figure
it out yourself. But don't get too close, because I like to get
violent. And Funk does insist, however, that he has a sensitive side.
When his hectic schedule permits, he enjoys relaxing and scribbling out a verse
or to a poetry. One untitled ditty reads as follows. When I travel
to that big ranch up in the sky where the grass grows tall green and
stirrup high, and the big man asked me if I paid my toll,
That's what I want to be remembered for beating hul coke and murdering rock and
roll. Jesus, why would anyone want to murder rock and roll? Because
it's responsible for decadence in our cities? Just like hull Comanias Funk rages self
righteously in his Texas draw, this so called phenomenon called hull Comania, isn't
really hull Comania, but Bulkamania. When asked to elaborate, he screams,
it's Bulkamania because Hogan's the champion. How the fed ugly slobs in every city
I travel too, I'm forced to look it up, these bulky broads at
Hulkamania t shirts. My stomach is pretty strong, but these creatures are enough
to turn it. America's used to looking at Hulk Hogan, a man I
call rock and roll champion. Well, I want everyone to be forewarned.
The next king of wrestling is gonna be a little bit older, a little
bit wilder, and smart as a fox. Terry developed a great deal of
his ring foxiness from traveling the wrestling circuit as a child and watching his brother,
his father, Dori Funk Senior, lockhorns with the sports stars of the
day. I learned what tough was all about sitting in those dingier dingierre arenas,
seeing my dad take enornom mis punished and then bounce back to dishmore out.
Funk recalls, I love the skill of the men I saw on the
ring, and I also love the viciousness and the excitement. I couldn't wait
to grow up and make wrestle in my life. That's precisely what Terry did
after attending West Texas State University, the alma mater ironically of Funk Foe Tito
Santana. Although he possesses a tremendous amount of scientific no knowhow, Funk has
always found himself gravitating toward rule breaking. I guess that's what comes natural to
me. I'm a tough guy, and I don't step into the ring to
dance around fancy and pretty. I come to the arena to win anyway.
I can generally considered one of the most wily men in the sport. Terry
has created pandemonium all over the world. I don't remember every city I've wrestled
in, but I can guarantee you that every city remembers made. It's a
good one, yeah it is. Prior to entering the WWE, Terry was
one of the co stars of the short lived ABC series wild Side, playing
Prometheus Jones, a rope twirling of veterinarian of the Wild West. We were
on up. We were on opposite The Cosby Show, and I was really
tempted to tie Bill Cosby up so we couldn't make it to the set rob
us of our ratings. But hey, what are we wasting our time talking
about all that Hollywood garbage. I'm a wrestler, not a movie star.
My place is in the squared circle, not on a damn chase. Lounge
asked why he chose to venture into the WWE bad Lands bad Lands, Funk
shoots a reporter an incredulous look at look. Yes, yes, fun,
Listen, listen. I've traveled all over the globe, and I know that
the WWE belt is the most coveted title. There is a quality person,
so I'm going for the best. That's why Hulk Cogan is losing sleep these
days. He knows that as soon as I catch up with him, a
new golden era of wrestling will begin. I'm in the best shape of my
life. I'm six foot three inches tall and two hundred and sixty solid pounds,
and I'm training hard for the day I take the championship at his Double
Cross Double Crass indeed Double Cross ranch outside of Amarillo, Texas. Terry,
a sometimes professional rodeo writer, sometimes professional practices for his matchups with the bulls
of the ring by wrestling steers and bringing them down by the horns. Stairs
are tough, and they give you a good workout. Of course, wrestlers
are a little different. They give you a mental workout as well as a
physical one. That's why I respect wrestlers more. Even though certain wrestlers make
up pretty hard, I make it pretty hard to respect them. Among those
wrestlers are Tito Santana. He's disgusting, the punk of the block that needs
no more explaining. Junkyard Dog. He's not really a junkyard dog, but
an egg sucking dog. Rick Steamboat He's nothing but a pumped up little kung
fu jerk from Chinese movies. I want ahad. I went ahead and saw
a Chinese movie and it was, you know, wonderful. It was absolutely
terrific. Jumping Jim Brenzel, Barry Wyndham and Microtundo. They got the General
Hospital. Look, I'm bring him back the image of John Wayne. People
need heroes like myself to look up too. I just want all the women
to know that I'm married. So keep your filthy hands off me, because
I don't fool around. Jimmy Superfly Snooker. I'll have to stop. Yes,
so many faults. I'd be here all day telling you about them again.
Yeah, Terry Funk's message to all these men is the same. Beware,
I'm meaner than a rattle snake and tougher than shoe leather, and I'm
not ashamed of shed mob blood. I know I'm not the greatest, the
biggest or the smartest man whoever stepped into the ring, but I have an
extra large heart and mas's what counts interesting piece, Yeah, for sure,
and a lot of different places there. They acknowledge the family history, They
kind of explain why you know Wildside wasn't successful with the Bill Cosby line,
and yeah, you know, he talks about his shortcomings as well as his
strengths, talks about being married. I mean, you know, it's not
like this is a serious probing interview, right, but it's a lot of
things that I'm really not accustomed to WWF profiles with the magazine pointing out about
a guy, Yeah right, he seems like a full, full body thread.
He has a real like targeted campaign as to why he's coming after Hull
Cogan and why he thinks he's gonna get him. I can see people reading
that magazine and definitely being invested when he took the ring in January against Hogan.
And so here's a bit of personality profile as well if we can click
through here. This is on Tuesday Night Titans, Vince McMahon, LRD Alfred
Hayes sitting down with the Funker at a Texas style saloon to get an idea
of what it's like back in the watering holes of the Funker. This is
classic Vince McMahon, you know, from his Yankee legs. Yeah, trying
to interpret and make caricature out of like the actual heritage of the wrestlers from
parts of the country he's not from. And and this is this is how
he thinks of Texas and Amarilla and West Texas and the Panhandle and all that
shit. Boy, we're about to see how he, you know, introduced
Terry Funk to the to the national television audience. You know, I never
met a Yankee that wasn't a big guy, big nose, awkward, I
say, exactly, convinced with the stick mic corded stick, Mike, I
mean, most importantly, like what fucking crazy like the saloon with the piano
player, Like, what is this fucking eighteen eighty four Jesus jazz? Amazing
to know each other, all right. He knows me. I know him
too, and he's always been the same. He don't have a change.
What's wrong with me? The whole family, the same family. Don't talk
about my family, don't ever mention my family. Apologize comes Tony. Is
Tony doing it his fucking dumb ass suit. It's puffed out hair earlier thence
what is it Tony here, hospitable and asking for beer, funk in a
jean shirt, jeans and cowboy boots and beer, calling for beer from the
waitress. It is a totally different environment. Well, I'm rather enjoying it.
It's unique around a stiff, this fucking guy before, I know,
being around a few nice ones, mister mister funk, nice environment, and
the environment is getting a lot. Donna, please bring your tits closer to
my house, totally. I need, I need to lick them for totally
Uh, Tony heating on the waitress. Yeah, I've never been to New
Zealand. Where New Zealand? Have you ever been to New Zealand? No?
No, Well that's a New Zealand rarely passed the Tony Krea is hitting
on this Texas waitress of the totally distracted as then trying to ask him questions.
Yeah, geography, geography, very well, then you will know a
little bit of something about New Zealand as compared to West Texas, won't.
It's fake, a little difficult to carrying on a conversation. Al Hayes is
gonna laugh with you. Yeah, oh, Tony is risen out of his
chair again. Let's talk a little bit. If you've toured the entire world,
have you know wrestling all over the entire world? And what mister,
that's the question. Take it a big swig. Oh, Terry's gonna go
fuck up Tony Karria. They used to love these kind of close set moments
of chaos, like yeah, the a Shan wedding. Huh oh oh,
Funk smashes a beer bottle over Tony his dumbass. He takes a chair.
We want a good saloon brawl out of your pal. That's my career got
involved. They need someone who could take these uh yeah, oh. Funk
throws him headfirst into the bar, slipping all over the place on the beer.
Hit all these cowboys with hats on, scream and hit him. Hit
him. Funk swinging a stool in his cowboy boots Jesus Garria doing all he
can overturned tables funkus too. This is like you know with their version of
the closed studio brawl that he do everywhere. Yeah, you pig, that's
that Jesus Christ. How they introduced him Terry Funk, ladies and gentlemen,
to the to the world and then sorry about that. Uh, And then
we have after Terry Funk had left, or at least he had taken a
hiatus after wrestlingmedia too. They weren't sure how long or a couple of weeks
after that, they weren't quite sure how long he was going to be gone,
if he was going to come back. They brought Jimmy jack Funk before
a message aforementioned Jesse barr uh to the foreground of the presentation, and Vince
continued to uh show his level of amusement with Texas by hosting a live on
site interview segment with Dory and or Haas and Jimmy jack Funk and Jimmy Hart
and you better believe boss, they're gathered around a spit roasted barbecue fucking brisket
fest of course, a big turning brisket and I just I can't wait for
you to hear Vince McMahon describe the meat and all that he's witnessing here.
This is an audio. We are here with the fun barbecue and looks like
you got yourself quite a what is that top it around? You better believe
this is Texas the top of the round. I don't think they have anything
quite like this in England? Do they all heard it? Suddenly? Not
not for an afternoon picnic? Weed have tea and lemonade or something, but
something I don't know, some nice little crumpets with cheese and maybe yeah,
something like that. Well, well joining us, how's come on in here,
halls fuck coming in and as you might suspect to real horse back.
Gots a nice looking horse, you got there, real nice looking? I
beg your pardon. This is Missy, it's Misty. I think he would
like to have some of this barbecue sauce. Missy's Missy doesn't drink barbecue sucking.
He doesn't drink barbecue sauce. My favorite sauce rates. So let me
ask you, Jimmy Jack, do you have a horse on the on the
double cross rancher? I got five horses, horses. I got a horse
for any day. I wanted seven, seven days in the week, but
he doesn't have one for a Saturday on Sunday. Finally I got one.
Oh my god, Jimmy Jack is old. You gotta fixed yourself for seven?
Yeah, what to cut one? I don't cut little slice of meat
off here? Look at this. This is great. I taught you how
to do this. I understand that Terry Funk had something as far as the
teaching of the finer skills of the barbecues. That correct. You better believe
you know Texas bar and Texas bread. Baby. When we die, we'll
be Texas dead. I'm telling you right now. But this is great.
This is this is real down home Texas barbecue. Baby, right horse baby?
What I don't wonder if if I mean you you handling this is talking
about Texas is a little bit out of school, isn't it. I mean,
you're not anymore of a Texan than I am. Well, let me
tell you what. We wanted to bring you, A little Texas hat for
you, some Texas shops and maybe big old Texas horse for you around here.
But you see, I'm I'm not a big meat eat or anything.
I'm a vegetarian. But I'm gonna load this up because I want what kind
of goodness? You're not a Texan because I don't know if there's any true
Texan that's a vegetarian, right, Hoss, No true Texan is a vegetarian.
I'd like to say this. This reminds me of a home. You
know that they're sitting around the barbecue. Everybody's having a good time, everybody's
eating. But there is one thing that's missing from this barbecue, and that's
my brother, Terry Funk. My brother Terry Funk is the biggest party man
in the state of Texas. Every week he sets up a barbecue just like
that. He's not here. You know why he's not here. You know
why he's not here, certainly, No, why he's not here's the junkyard
dog. That's why he's not exactly. And that seems to me that will
he return, by the way, I would assume that he did. Yes,
Terry Funk will be back. He never really was Jesus, Yeah,
that's that's Vince right. Well, I mean, Vince gets his whole gets
his his his mind around the idea of Texans in Texas, and he just
goes, of course, a literal brisket turning around him by Jimmy Hart.
He goes here in the beginning, he goes, what is that top of
the round? The top of the so what do we got to hear?
We get the top of the round or are we or as an a rounded
top? You know? What do we? What do we? What do
we? One of those be omens from Japan? What's one of the cuts
of the of the Cow's a barbecue? Right? What if we did a
barbe It's a barbecue. It's a barbecue skit? Are you impressed by Jimmy
Jeff Funk there, Jesse Barr No, just the fucking worst. Yeah,
miserable to pylon, the indignities, just like Dusty when they brought him in.
They had to pretend they didn't mind the makeover, in particularly the renaming
of of Dori Funk Junior to hass Funk. And here he's asked in to
shoot interview years ago about that. Who gave you the name Hass there?
And yes, did you like it? Certainly? I mean the middle name
certainly. Yeah. Everybody said Whitey change it. He really didn't change my
name. It's a nickname. My nickname is Dunk. When I was a
kid. My nickname was Roth What ma run? But uh, I have
a very good time up there. Marty was with me, Oh, you're
that guy, certainly, Torry please being a good time, beal a good
time, and yeah, that's that's all I can ask for. After that
run and bumping like crazy for the Hulkster and working, you know, twenty
twenty five dates a month, yeah, after being much more sort of measured
in his schedule. I mean, he dropped the NBA title for the reason
everybody else does, so that they could greatly slow down the amount of dates
they have to make and give their body time to heal and do things with
more impact than everything else. But Terry Funk, of course, sensing the
change in the environment the money to be made, jumps in with both feet
come eighty six. Though of course, you know, Dory came in several
months after that, so Funk had that much more time in WWF. He's
he's getting a little sick of the grind. And when Terry Funk gets he's
a uniquely positioned to be able to move on back to to another arrangement in
life and in the business. And after several twenty plus match months, it
bleeds over into nineteen eighty six and the aforementioned WrestleMania two appearance that he and
his brother made. And it's after that WrestleMania two match that he really slows
down and we start to see the cadence go from you know, twenty twenty
three twenty four matches a month to you know, two three, five matches
a month until what's listed is his final WWF match of the run August twenty
fourth, nineteen eighty six, at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, where the
British Bulldogs Dynamite and Davy Boy, two talents that Terry Funk would go on
to have great praise for. In particular, Dynamite Kid defeated Terry and Dorriy
Funk and a tag team championship match. And after that August shot, which
is the only one month for the Funker, he is gone. He scoots
town. It's time for the Funker Boss to you know, to saddle up
and ride on out of town. Yeah, all right, it seemed you
and Doria r Us and all the tag matches and then all of a sudden
he just kind of slipped through the cracks and there was you know, a
Jesse Barr and Terry was gone. Why did you leave at the time?
Basically because I was going so many days in a row, Yeah, going
so much gone from home. I had fancied talked to my brother about coming
in in New York. I had pretty much made up my mind that I
was going out before then. Really, yeah, because I just you know,
I mean I want to. I was tired. Yeah, I mean,
uh, that's that's really the honest truth of his I was ready to,
you know, head back home and saved my summer money. So again,
the Funkers dashes away a little bit of cash and is itching to call
himself and consider himself retired back on the ranch. But I thought I could
do. You know. I went ahead and made a little bit of money,
and I went ahead to the bank and deposited the cash. It did,
and then I said, you know what, I think it's time to
retire. Ye, I think I'll work on turkeys now. And Vince McMahon
and Terry Funk's paths wouldn't really cross again until Survivor series nineteen ninety three,
where they were up against it to oppose the bret Hart family. It was
supposed to be Jerry and his Nights. But then Jerry Lawler got slapped with
the charges on underage inappropriate underage conduct and he had to disappear, and so
it was Sean Michaels Knights. And it's pretty well understood by now that one
of the phones that rang trying to make good on that whole bit of chaos
was Terry Funks. And it seemed like Funk was even factored in before the
Jerry Lawler shake up to come into the WWF in nineteen ninety three at the
Survivor series, and not just come in, but according to the Funker actually
book the WWF as well, this is of course stearing down the barrel of
indictment and trying to prepare the company for an ability to run were he to
be put away in prison. Yeah, the history of course reflects that Jerry
Jarrett ultimately got that the nod for that position, but apparently it's part of
trying to find the successor. Of course, Pat Patterson had been through the
travails as well and had resigned over the whole Tom Cole thing, so it
wasn't like Pat Patterson was considered permanent in the spot. He was in either
Terry Funk's phone rings after that sort of abrupt nineteen eighty six exit, and
he writes in this book, I was actually supposed to work in the WWF
In late nineteen ninety three. They had called me about becoming a head booker.
They were doing their big survivorsory show in Boston, and they wanted me
to wear some silly outfit with a blue mask to be one of Jerry Lawler's
Knights taking on Brett Hart and three of his brothers in a big tag match.
Their plan was Brett was going to beat me, then take my mask
off and put his finishing hold, a sharpshooter on me and beat me again.
So they wanted Brett to unmasked Darry so everyone knew who he was,
and then beat him. After that, they said I would become the creative
and of the company, replacing Pat Patterson. My old friend Patterson had gone
from being Ray Stevens tag partner to being the WWF's booker, but Pat was
looking to step down and take it a little easier. I went to meet
with him about it, and going from my ranch with all the open space
to New York City with the cabs and people of the hustle and bustle was
culture shock. It was an after realize Erry Funk didn't know New York like
he wouldn't have much of a reason ever go there. It was an hour
to get there, an hour to get there where there was no place to
go that I was going to get to very quickly. Met with them and
then had dinner with Pat. It was great. We laughed a lot and
told a lot of stories. Then I went up to my hotel room and
went to bed. As I lay there, I got to thinking, I'm
not sure if I want to follow through with this deal. I don't know.
Well, you know, I don't know if I want to go ahead
and take a nap before I make any tough decisions. Terry's bedtime. You
can take more than a nap. Well, I don't know if I can
go ahead and do that. I might go ahead and maybe eat a eat
a pretzel. We'll see what happens if you want to get crazy. I
got what. I got up the next morning and left a note for Vince.
It ad my horse is sick. I think he's dying. I'll see
you later. A couple hours later, I was at the airport when I
heard. Unfortunately he misread it. Actually, I said, my hoss is
sick and I was talking about the doory. Okay, hell, what why
you know? For Vince it read okay. A couple hours later, I
was at the airport when I heard them call my name for a call on
the airport paging system. I was running by that. I was run by
that time, and I came home. I escaped again. As it turned
out, there was That was when Lawler was having his legal trouble, so
they were replaced in with Shawn Michaels. I would have been one of Shawn
Michael's knights. So Terry Funk once again flirts with a place in the WWF
mosaic, but at last minute he's just he's got to go. He's got
to go. He's feeling the walls closing in. He doesn't like the feeling.
He talked about how it took like three hours to get to Titan Towers
in the traffic when he got there and he's like, this is fucking bullshit.
It's not bad. Or a guy who's used to hop it in the
truck and traveling, you know, six hundred thousand acres and ten minutes or
whatever the fuck he does out there, and Kingyon in Greater Amarilla fucking hadn't
taken My horse is sick, he says. And I'm looking back talking to
Bill after it's Uh, it's a decision that Terry feels pretty comfortable with.
What about you dealing to bid? Shoot here? Uh when he started taking
I'm going to tell you something about him. I'll tell you the trup about
him, you know, as I liked Coy say this and that. But
one thing that I can I've got to tell you one thing is that he
is. Uh. He has paid me and paid me well, and I
respect him for that. And Uh, if I was in his position,
would I have done the same thing? Probably? Okay, probably? Absolutely?
Do I like what he did? Of course not, because I was
always kind of on the other side. Do I like that? Hell no,
I don't like it. And then listen to if you were in his
position, would you have done the same thing? Yeah? Probably? Yes,
Yes, I would have probably. Uh. Is he a smart man?
Damn right he is. He has done a wonderful job with the world
of wrestley. He is taking it to to heights that nobody, nobody ever
thought, nobody ever dreamed of seeing this and I had the uh, the
foresight of to why the profession should go. And it's it's it's all over
the world. He's all over the world. The world is his game,
and he's way ahead of his time. He's still ahead of his time.
Well, but you know is that this is very important. What I'm gonna
say right now, he's still ahead of his time and he will be ahead
of his time, and so will his son and his daughter and his in
laws and you know what I mean. I'm talking about triple lights and all
of them. They're really sharp and they're really doing doing the profession right.
But I myself, there's just something about me that it's different. And yes,
I've always been you know, my world. I don't want it to
be a big world like I don't want it to be that clutter. And
I think people make their wrong choices at time whenever they tried to expand their
world or they should try to be the little fish. Let me tell you
something. My world's a wonderful world. It's my family and that's it.
Yeah, at this time, why don't you shut up? Elle? After
it's what's gon continue to be? And Funk was inducted along with Dorianto,
the Hall of Fame in two thousand and nine. Of course they were given
like less than ten minutes collectively to say something. Yes, it was a
total joke. He also inducted Makon to the Hall of Fame in twenty thirteen
and made a cameo on a raw episode before Dean Ambrose wrestled Brock Lesner at
that Dallas WrestleMania. Really yeah, he was the one that showed Dean Ambrose
how to use the chainsaw that he whipped out during the course of the Lesner
match, and a desperate attempt to make people care about that one. No
recollection of that. It was a very short lived cameo, but it was
Terry Funk, and it's true Terry Funk's skin, no over the top,
you know, sort of a quintessential texasness coming through the screen. No chainsaw
Charlie, nonsense, none of that. Terry Funk being Terry Funk was enough
for the WWF cameras come twenty sixteen, and looking back on I would it.
I would have loved it better if he fucking came out as chainsaw Charlie.
Yeah, Well, you know that's the thing like Waller pointed that out
right, It's like, well it's chame saw Charlie. I gotta give you
credit in a way. You didn't try to live off that one, even
though there isn't much to live off of. Yeah, But in reflecting,
just looking here, in reflecting on what it all meant and where he came
down on Vince, Terry had the following to say, this is sitting down
actually with Rick Flair for an interview with our video that they did together,
and the subject of Vince came up, and this is post you know,
hall of Fame and everything. And while the Terry Funk we're about to get
into here on the lapsed Funk did all he could to strike out against what
Vince McMahon wrestling represented visa VI, what he had always represented, while he
always had that chip on his shoulder, Well he always had that instinct,
as we just heard in that sound with Bill Apter, to sort of shrink
his world, which is the opposite instinct you need to succeed and thrive in
Vince McMahon's Pro Wrestling Company and in Vince McMahon's world vision. Begrudgingly, after
all of a sudden done despite coming in and coming out and blowing away with
the wind in ways that may have left Vince McMahon a little rankled and may
have spoken more to those initial early seventies tensions with his father than anything else.
Terry Funk looks back and says, in the final math, it made
sense what Vince McMahon was doing. What things have been differently? Who knows?
You know? I think that they all worked out for the best certainly
goes their own. Now, Yeah, I think we asked the man owned.
I think the best man, and I don't mind saying this, is
that the best man won. I think that he has made and mean for
anybody else to have the control of the country and everything else, she will
make as many millionaires as he has. Don't you think of that? No
doubt nobody else would do that. I came to be a man at him.
Nobody had made. Jesus, what is your relationship with its junior today?
Either of you guys could answer, as fallows, I think mine's good
too. I think mine's good. Who else would go ahead and send me
checks whenever? I haven't you know, been in it, you know,
I mean, it's just that it's a wonderful deal. Who else would take
care of the boys like he does. Nobody. You know, it's amazing
how my my respect for him has changed through the years. I mean,
but you know what was really though, It was really uh it's just the
way it was. It was animosity towards organization. But there was gonna be
that one person that was gonna emerge the victor, you know what I mean.
It's gonna happen in the business. And uh, he was the one
day. I have it. He was and he is the best one.
I guess that's true because he wouldn't be there if it wasn't, you know
what I mean. And upon the passing of Terry Funk, Hulkogan took to
Twitter a man a few words so fitting to send the following at one thirteen
in the morning, God bless Terry Funk. Only love for you, my
brother, you know, good for nothing eggs second, dumb man. We
did it our way because we love it that way. We love it that
way. And I have this wonderful gun feeling, and I've had it all
my life. When it's time ago, I think, just now it's time. H