Terry Funk

Before I really began to watch wrestling outside of WWE, I only knew of Terry Funk's hardcore stuff. So seeing his 80's work was a pretty huge revelation. One of the greatest brawlers ever and one of the greatest performers. That being said, I've never been a huge fan of his more "sporting" matches. I couldn't get halfway through the Jumbo '76 match because I was so bored. And that might be more of a personal taste thing as I've never been the biggest fan of mat-heavy wrestling, but it is still something I've held against him. And as terrific a brawler as he was, I've always preferred Hansen's chaotic style. But when it comes to the pure performance art of wrestling, Terry is truly one of the best. His character work as a sadistic yet cowardly heel against Lawler and Flair is among my favorites. Hell, the GAB match with Flair made my top 10. And while I think his selling often veered into scenery-chewing that most wrestlers today would be mocked for, he had the charm to not only make it work, but even endearing at times.

So probably not someone who would make my top 10, but definitely a top 15 contender.

I know we typically discuss things from an in-ring standpoint, but I've been doing some thinking and Terry Funk might be my favorite promo ever. He's delivered probably my three favorite promos of all time:

The entire Empty Arena match
The challenge laid out to Lawler for the Empty Arena match: "Jerry Lawler...is the son...of a jackass. He's a lover of chickens."
The "Meanest Man in Professional Wrestling" promo

I lost my fucking mind the first time I saw that promo where he calls Steamboat's kid a pig-nose. My god he was incredible.

I had Funk #12 on my 2016 GWE ballot and when I looked back on it a few months later it instantly jumped out at me that 12 was probably 13 spots too low. At this point it's a toss up between him and Hansen for me as greatest American wrestler ever. I watched the Flair match from the '89 GAB a couple months back and was phenomenal in it. I still haven't watched the Race match that dropped through the Houston footage and I really don't know why.

I guess I'm quite a bit lower on Funk than most but I could never argue against anyone putting him at #1.

I fucking love Eddie Gilbert.

Watch this if you haven't yet
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s1olSYcNTM

Early in lockdown, I watched a Funk vs Sabu match from 1994 and a Funk vs Lawler match from 2003. They were both fucking awesome so I decided since I can't leave the house, I might as well watch all of the middle aged and crazy Terry Funk that I could. Between the internet and the old giant Terry Funk set, I watched everything I could from the 1990-on. There are a ton of great matches and feuds. There's some disappointing and bad stuff. 1998 WWF is disappointing overall given how awesome he was in 1997. But its more an opportunity situation. When he gets an opportunity, he fucking delivers. There's just a lot of 3minute matches that are just forgettable. In 2000 WCW he's mostly working backstage "Hardcore matches" and those are basically the worst types of matches possible. From 90-97 he is consistently awesome. Funk vs Eddie Gilbert was probably the best US Feud of 1993. Funk vs Sabu holds up as one of the great US rivalries of the 90s. I couldn't find much 2001 & 2002, but Terry comes back with a vengeance in 2003 with an amazing feud with Corino, genuine MOTYCs with Jerry Lawler great shit with indy superstars CM Punk & Homicide and other great legends matches. Watching the 2003 run make the WWF/WCW runs in 98 and 2000 that much more frustrating.

Anyway. Terry's post 1990 is awesome and I highly recommend quite a lot of it. Bolded matches are matches I recommend in general. They range in quality from fun & entertaining to all time classics.

Terry Funk vs Stan Hansen 6/23/90
Handheld at an outdoor show. They beat the crap out of each other. Hansen sells more for Terry than you might expect. I feel like this would look a little better with a real camera crew but it is still very good. The brawl around ringside and end up by a river, which leads to some classic spots like Hansen slamming Terry into the river. The ring announcer literally says “Stan Hansen has been disqualified for throwing Terry Funk into the river.” Peak pro-wrestling right here.

Terry Funk vs. Brickhouse Brown (USWA 10/8/90)
Short brawl all over the arena. Terry is doing the lions share of the work here. Fun violent Terry performance and he mixes some nice bumps in as well.


Terry Funk vs. Steve Keirn (USWA 10/8/90)
This one starts with some clean technical wrestling with nice heel/face schtick. Terry’s utilizing more comedy and stooging compared to the aggressive side he showed earlier in the night against Brown. Steve Keirn is aging in 2020 years. He looks about 30 years older from his run with Lane in the Fabulous Ones. This falls apart pretty quickly with Terry escalating the issue. Some absolutely amazing punches from Funk and great selling from Keirn. I would love a long match between these two. Keirn is one of the more underrated wrestlers of the last 40 years. Super 8 minute match with a lot of good work and character.

Terry Funk vs. Dick Murdoch (USWA 10/8/90)
Talk about a match I want a longer version of. Jeez. Funk is selling a knee injury from the Keirn match. This is all punching, headbutts and wobbly selling. If you hate the spaghetti leg selling, this is not the match for you. They both go way over the top with the wobbly selling with the crowd audibly laughing. I love it and its not every match. Good fun.

Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (USWA 10/8/90)
Another short match. This one about 5 minutes. Funk is still selling the leg but is back in super violent Terry mode. He genuinely throws some of the very best punches you’ll ever see in this match. Lawler is awesome selling here; he lets Funk absolutely potato him and he spends the entire match outside the ring selling. Just a total squash before Jerry gets the DQ win.

Terry Funk & Cactus Jack vs. Stan Lane & Eddie Gilbert (WWA 11/9/90)
One of my all time favorite forgotten matches. I love all 4 of these guys. I mentioned Keirn as being one of the most underrated guys of the last 40 years. Stan Lane is probably on that list too. I mean…Fabulous Ones, Midnight Express & Heavenly Bodies? Anyway. This match has crazy heat. Jim Cornette does the Fargo Strut and the crowd goes bonkers. You see these names and expect a wild all over the arena brawl. But this is an old school tag with a lot of bullshit and schtick with the babyfaces outsmarting and outworking the heels. They’re not Verne Gagne vs Billy Robinson out there. They’re punching each other in the face, Cactus is doing insane Cactus stuff. But there’s the beautiful Memphis bullshit feel…and then the top rope just explodes and Terry Funk is like fuck this stooging comedy shit and starts going crazy. Enough of the beautiful Memphis bullshit, its time for piledrivers on the, punches to the face and mad shit talk. They don’t even try to put the top rope back on and Gilbert & Lane are using it within minutes. Lane ends up getting isolated and we get a nice long face in peril section with multiple hope spots & cut offs, a crazy invested crowd, awesome outside the ring manager bullshit with Corny & Bobby in the face role. I assume that’s Hildebrand out there with Cactus & Terry? This is loads and loads of fun and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Truly great match with a memorable hook. I can’t believe its not better remembered. 1990 US MOTYC.

Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (WWA 11/10/90)
Really good match. Old school slow building with lots of bullshit and stalling but when they turn it on they really turn it on. Its Lawler vs Funk so you get some of the best punches ever. Funk is really aggressive offensively in some of these 1990 matches, which is great because he’s always going to go all out to also put over his opponent. This isn’t on the level of their 1981 No DQ match by any means. But it’s a great match and another 1990 US MOTYC for Terry Funk.

Terry Funk vs. Otto Wanz (Germany 12/22/90)
Announcers put this over as Wanz’s final match. Funk doesn’t come to play. He just fucking destroys Wanz with punches and stomps the entire first round. Wanz gets a few fat man splat spots in this is almost entirely Terry Funk trying to maim Wanz with punches. Wanz makes a simple comeback in round 2 and the crowd goes batshit insane & suddenly its stumbling around bumping like a madman Terry. He’s saved by the bell finally but Round 3 is more of the same. Terry is taking bumps over the top rope off of kicks to the chest and shit like that. Funk tries to make a comeback by headbutting Wanz into oblivion. Funk probably headbutts him 15 consecutive times. 3rd round felt a little short to me. Round 4 they quickly go to the finish. This was a terrific spectacle. Terry worked his ass off here.


Stan Hansen & Dan Spivey vs. Dory & Terry Funk (JIP) (AJPW 11/15/90)
This is JIP with Terry isolated and getting just destroyed. Video starts and Spivey immediately body slams Terry from the ring to the floor. Well ok then. Back in the ring, Spivey whips Terry into the corner and he bumps over the top to the floor. Hahaa. Geez Terry. Back in the ring Terry eats a powerslam. He’s just getting killed out there. Hansen comes in for a few quick shots. Finally gets a hot tag to Dory who gets some nice spots in the crowd loves before getting cut off. Luckily he manages to tag out to Terry and it immediately gets awesome again, There are some really great nearfalls down the stretch where you actually think Dory might get the pin on Hansen. Of course he doesn’t. Really fun little match.


Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (USWA 1991)
Not sure on the date but it’s a TV match and worked at much faster pace than their match from 11/10. Less early stalling and they just go right to taking turns blasting each other. Typically excellent violent match between these two. We always talk about the Dundee feud, but Lawler and Funk had awesome matches in the 80s, 90s & 00s at a minimum. Surely they had a match in the 70s that ruled we just don’t have it on tape.


Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (Audience Lumberjack Match Philly 3/2/91)
This is a lumberjack match where the lumberjacks are apparently members of the audience. Leave it to these two. Some of the lumberjacks are not small men. Terry gets thrown out of the ring and immediately starts trying to fight the lumberjacks. Hat guy from ECW is at ringside (not as a lumberjack and without his hat) and Terry gets in his face. This is a really fucking insane spectacle. They spend a lot of time throwing each other out of the ring and amongst the lumberjacks which is to be expected in this type of match…but my god its just random dudes out there. There are some obvious plants & managers, but definitely not all of them. Really cool match.


Terry Funk vs. Bob Backlund (WWA 8/17/91)
Chris Cruise is on play by play! That’s pretty cool. Terry is worked up shoving the dweeby ring announcer out of the ring and just being a big jerk all around. There’s a little kid wearing what looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-Shirt trying to throw punches at Terry. Terry chases a Japanese photographer around. This is so much fun already. “I think we’re gonna get a Match of the Year Candidate tonight” says the announcer. SON OF A BITCH! Its only 1991 goddamnit! Terry is in major fucking with the crowd & stalling mode early and it rules. Terry throws punches at the camera man. Every time early on Backlund hits a little move, Terry bumps over the top rope. They eventually get to the match working out of a Backlund headlock and then a test of strength. This…ends up disappointing. Terry’s opening bullshit is awesome but when they get to the headlock and then test of strength parts it really just drags. Terry shoving his knees into Backlund’s face during the test of strength is an awesome spot. So there’s that. This is probably the most boring Funk match I’ve seen and it is entirely due to Backlund laying a fucking dud


Terry Funk vs. Kevin Sullivan (Philly 9/21/91)
Fun crazy brawl. Sullivan goes after him with a hammer and actually hits Terry a few times with it! Sullivan follows that up by kicking Terry in the balls and then tying him to the ringpost and trying to hit him with a chair (Terry moved) before another kick to the balls. A nearfall and ANOTHER kick to the balls. Jesus. Sullivan is fucking amazing here. Finally Terry snaps. They both end up getting DQ’d and end up brawling all over the building. This was the best Sullivan match I’ve seen other than the famous tag w/ Cactus vs Nasty Boys.


Terry Funk vs. Eddie Gilbert (Texas Death Match) (WWA 11/14/92)
These two only had great matches together. Exactly what you expect. Wild, violent, extremely bloody brawl. Another one of these early 90s indy matches taped on a camcorder that would come across better with professional camerapeople. However, this still looks spectacular. I don’t really like Texas Death/Last Man Standing matches, so this isn’t my favorite match they had together, but this is another great one from one of the best US rivalries of the early 90s.


Terry Funk vs. Eddie Gilbert (I Quit Match – ECW Battle of the Belts 1/23/93)
I don’t know what happened with my review here. It was just gone. Anyway. Fucking awesome match.


Terry Funk vs Road Warrior Hawk 4/17/93 NWA
This starts with Terry Funk chasing after Wade Keller in the bleachers. Terry attacks Hawk before the bell and is hitting him with chairs, posting him etc. Terry is actually forcing Hawk to sell early on kinda. Ref calls for the bell before this ever even really gets started. Booooo. I was enjoying the little bit they were able to do.

Terry Funk vs Dark Patriot 6/15/93 ECW
Heyman is at ringside for Dark Patriot. Basic TV match. Patriot uses as coat-hanger as a foreign object which is something. Story of this is really Terry wanting to get his hands on Heyman which allows Patriot to stay on the offensive. Funk’s comeback is all headbutts, punches and DDT. Pretty basic match.


Terry Funk vs Eddie Gilbert Chain Match 6/19/93 ECW
Awesome match. 1993 US MOTYC and one of the first really great ECW matches. Pretty standard operating procedure for a chain match (this wouldn’t look out of place in 1975), but one of the better examples of it because Funk & Gilbert are so good at this style.


Terry Funk vs Jimmy Snuka 7/20/93 ECW
There’s like a 2 or 3 year stretch I like Snuka from. This is about a decade after that. The only enjoyable Snuka match I can remember post early 80s.


Terry Funk & Tarzan Goto vs The Sheik & Sabu 8/22/93 FMW
Not gonna lie, I dug the hell out of this. Crazy spectacle with Goto & Sabu killing each other in the ring with tables, lariats, big bombs while Funk & Sheik brawl around the outside. It eventually settles into an actual tag match with Funk & Sheik waiting in the corners and Sabu in peril. Sabu tries to moonsault Goto through a table but Goto moves and the table tips over & Sabu just lands on the side of it. It is nasty. Sheik stabs Goto in the face obscenely close to Goto’s eye and throws a fireball that hits Funk & Sabu. This is like 10 minutes with the pre and post match combined but they pack more into it than you would think and it doesn’t outstay its welcome at all. Total blast.


Terry Funk & Stan Hansen vs Abdullah the Butcher & Kevin Sullivan Bunkhouse Match 9/18/93 ECW
Is there a dreamier dream team in history thank Funk & Hansen? Imagine if they had like a 6month run together? Anywhere at any point. This is exactly what you expect. Crazy wild brawl all around the building. Sullivan & Funk decide to climb a goddamn scaffold because why not? Abdullah actually shakes the goddamn thing while they’re climbing. Kevin Sullivan is distractingly short going up against Hansen.


Terry Funk vs. Jimmy Snuka (Cage Match – ECW TV 10/5/93)
The title card says “NWA Eastern Championship Wrestling: This Is No Cartoon!” Joey Styles references Yukon Eric vs Killer Kowalski. Terry does what he can here to make this interesting but Snuka sucks. This is really just a standard escape the cage match with no urgency or intensity from Snuka whatsoever. These matches in ECW against Snuka might be my least favorite Terry Funk matches ever.



Terry Funk vs. Kevin Sullivan (New York 10/22/93)
Sullivan comes out with Woman and Terry responds by bringing motherfucking Sensational Sherri with him. Terry & Sherri in ECW together would have been an amazing act. This is filmed at ringside with an extreme close-up. It reminds me of the Satanico/Chicana 1983 match. Starts with them trading stiff chops. Sullivan goes after Sherri with the time-keeper’s little hammer to ring the bell! Jeez. They end up brawling around ringside as the early mutants chant for blood and juice. The handheld camera really helps add to the chaos and this looks a lot better after watching the Snuka matches. If this was pro-shot, it would probably come off worse than it does. Its not exactly good though. Sullivan’s someone I’ve mostly liked in theory more than practice. Not sure what happened but at one point the camera guy looks over and Sherri has Woman on the ground in a head scissors and that was pretty awesome. Sheik & Sabu come out and this ends up with a DQ.


Terry Funk vs. Ted Dibiase (NWA 10/30/93)
Dibiase dressed up as Million Dollar Man at an indy show is great shit. Crowd chants Razor, 123 and Virgil at Dibiase. A lot of stalling & posturing to start which these guys are both good at and it leads to a good reaction when Dibiase finally lands a first punch. 2nd punch and Terry bumps to the outside. This is just a fun old school match. Ted can’t do much but he throws a hell of a punch & stomp and knows how to work a match. That’s more than enough for Terry who will always work hard. Intensity builds up as the match progresses. Really good piece of business. If the Snuka & Sullivan matches were on the disappointing side, this was a huge surprise knowing Ted was at the end as an in ring performer. This would probably be a top 10 post-Mid South Dibiase match.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (ACW 11/6/93)
Sabu in this era is such a compelling character & worker. He really does standout. This is a truly great match, a 1993 US MOTYC. They don’t go straight to the crazy brawling. They build it up having what feels like an actual match before getting to the nutty stuff; Which they do get too, don’t worry. These two had really special chemistry.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (ECW Holiday Hell 12/28/93)
For some reason the copy I have is clipped. Does the full version exist? The 10 or so minutes look fucking awesome.


Terry Funk vs. Tony St. Clair (Germany 12/28/93)
“Texas Rodeo Style Match” whatever the fuck that means. Handheld footage. I think with a real camera crew this would come across looking like a classic. It’s definitely great. Its just a little blurry and far away. I would still strongly encourage people to watch this.


Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas (TV 1/18/94)
Terry Funk vs. Sabu vs. Shane Douglas (ECW 2/5/94)
Didn’t watch these two because I don’t want to.

Terry Funk vs. Pat Tanaka (TV 1/25/94)
Short match. Mostly a squash with Terry dominating with his great punches and headbutts. Tanaka gets a few hope spots and looks really good. You wish these two could have gotten a real match together.


Terry Funk vs. The Bullet (Texas Death Match) (SMW 2/13/94)
Man, I loved this, but I honestly could have gone for like 7 more minutes. Old school paced brawl early that ends with Terry throwing a million chairs in the ring and doing the moonsault to remind us all that it is in fact that 90s. Cornette is at ringside with Funk & at one point when Funk is doing his crazy out of control selling he ends up attacking Cornette by mistake. Great spot. This is a ton of fun. Wild post match.

Terry Funk vs. Sabu (WWN 2/28/94)
I watched this last year and had this to say: The barbed wire match from 1997 is their most famous match, but I think this is the best Terry Funk vs Sabu match. Funk is semi-PR Funk mode at times stumbling around like a maniac, but he also brings quite a bit of really good looking & brutal offense so this kind of has the perfect balance of goofy and violent Funk. Sabu is awesome. He’s using chairs and bumping through tables, but he’s not in full on Bob the Builder mode where he’s spending way too much time setting up spots and felt the need to use a chair or table with every spot. This still feels like a pro wrestling brawl. Anyway, this is a legitimately great match and if a Sabu match were to make my list it would probably be this or their Barbed wire match. This is certainly the one I’d prefer to watch. (Update from the rewatch; Funk atomic dropping Sabu on a chair is a fucking awesome spot. I love the camera angle. Crowd chants for Terry’s moonsault, and then chants “TERRY TERRY” instead of for blood or for the promotion or tables. Funk slams Sabu into one of those big rolling clothes hampers and then runs it into the ring post, right around here the camera guy starts saying “Phenomenal match” fuckin’ right, dude. I haven’t said enough about Funk’s headbutts. Greatest headbutts in wrestling history? Him or Fujiwara right? One of Terry’s best matches of the 90s. Probably Sabu’s best match. 1994 US MOTYC.)


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (MTW 4/9/94)
Good match that is hurt at times by the camera view and by watching it directly after their February classic. Worth watching but it feels more run of the mill compared to some of their other matches.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (Texas Death Match) (MTW 4/15/94)
I like this more than their match the previous week. They’re bringing more energy to everything. Funk hits Sabu with a piledriver on a standing chair. This suffers from the same thing every Texas Death match suffers: Too many falls. It would be better if it was just a falls count anywhere or No DQ Match. But they do a good job working with the stipulation and this is a lot of fun.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (ECW TV 4/19/94)
Paul Heyman cracks Terry in the back of the head with his phone, but Sabu hasn’t come out yet. Funk recovers and plastic bags Paul. Yesss. But Sabu runs out and they start brawling around. Shorter match for them and they work it at a quicker pace than usual. Funk’s neckbreaker is awesome and Sabu consistently takes is really well. Funk attempting the 2nd rope piledriver onto a standing chair spot in this era might be the most insane thing he regularly did at any point. Seriously. What a batshit insane spot. They do a lot of stuff we’ve seen from them before at this point, but this is for TV and it’s all donewell with real camerawork (well for ECW). This doesn’t hit the level of their February match or some of their later matches, but it is a worth addition to their awesome rivalry.


Terry Funk vs. Chris Benoit (NWA 4/23/94)
Crowd is chanting for Sabu. Amen. This is hurt by the handheld camera work. There’s brawling in the crowd that we miss because the camera guy just stands there and doesn’t try and follow them. So it’s a lot of backs of heads. What we can see looks excellent. With more time and a better camera, these two could have had a MOTYC together. Better chemistry than I expected. Funk was taking stuff like the snap suplex well & lets Benoit work as stiff as he wants etc. Terry brings some actual character work. I was kinda dreading this for reasons not related to wrestling but ended up liking it quite a bit.


Terry Funk vs. The Sheik (FMW 5/5/94)
I have never seen this before and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I loved it. After watching a bunch of early 90s indy matches with shitty camera work, the professional work, outdoor stadium, massive crowd and legendary wrestlers gave this a real cinematic feel. Sheik bleeds basically immediately. Terry gushes blood. Sheik knows about Terry’s famously bad knees so he does some limbwork by SETTING TERRY’S KNEE ON FIRE! The entire segment is like 9 minutes and it just rules.


Terry Funk & Arn Anderson vs. Sabu & Bobby Eaton (ECW 5/14/94)
Imagine a world where these were regular tag teams in the mid 90s. I mean Terry & Arn would obviously be an amazing full time team. But imagine if Cornette stayed in WCW’s good graces and he brought in Sabu as Eaton’s new MX partner. Or Sabu in the Big Bubba role? Sabu & Arn actually have good chemistry and I liked this a lot more than the folks in the PWO match thread. I think this was well on its way to being an awesome match until Public Enemy came out. Arn turning on Terry made no sense after he saved Terry from PE. But whatever, its ECW. Terry follows up the knee on fire in the Sheik match by blading his knee this one. What a guy. Oh, wanted to point out that Joey Styles was not the most annoying announcer in history yet. I enjoyed him here.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (Texas Death Match) (5/15/94)
Terrific match from these two. Back to a handheld camera but it’s more Black Terry Jr than doofus standing in the back of the crowd missing everything. They brawl all over the building. Sabu submits to the spinning toe hold for one fall. This is pretty much exactly what you’d hope for from these two with this gimmick. Terry goes crazy and attacks the ref after the match.


Terry Funk vs. Tully Blanchard (Slamboree 5/22/94)
Gotta hand it to the WCW production crew for finding a sign and zooming in on it that says “The Funker Rules Philly – ECW Style” lol. Terry is crazy over and this match fucking rules. Funk is on fire and Tully looks like he’s at the top of his game. These two just destroy each other in a super stiff match. I love that in a legends match these two just stiff the fuck out of each other and have an intense brawl.


Terry & Dory Funk vs. Public Enemy (ECW 6/24/94)
You know, for a match with Public Enemy that is built around Dory Funk Jr, this is better than I expected. Its still a match with Public Enemy based around Dory Funk Jr.


Terry & Dory Funk vs. Scott & Steve Armstrong (SMW 7/1/94)
God I’m not in love with the return of Dory Funk Jr. The difference between the two was stark in the 70s, but at this point it is just unbelievable. Get a haircut, Dory!


Terry & Dory Funk vs. Scott & Steve Armstrong (SMW 7/3/94)
This is really a similar but much better of the match they had 2 days earlier.


Terry Funk vs. Brian Pillman (Pro 7/16/94)
Is this their only singles match? Real tease. Too short to be memorable but they have good chemistry and they could have had an awesome match with each other.


Terry & Dory Funk vs. Public Enemy (No Rope Barbed Wire Match) (ECW 7/16/94)
There’s a little kid in the front row. That’s inappropriate. He probably got eaten. Fans are chanting “We Want Blood” within the first 2 minutes. Ugh. This isn’t particularly good but the chair throwing moment is actually really fun and the finish with Terry getting wrapped up in the wire is gnarly. Worth watching.


Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck vs. Arn Anderson & Dustin Rhodes (BATB 7/17/94)
This is just immediately better than the Dory tags. Really awesome old school match continuing the Dustin vs Studd Stable feud. Great crowd. Hot opening before Dustin takes a nasty bump on the missed crossed body & Terry & Buck work him over. Dustin makes a hot comeback before Arn turns on him. Great match and angle.


Terry Funk, Dory Funk & Bruiser Bedlam vs. Bob Armstrong, Tracy Smothers, & Road Warrior Hawk (Coward waves the Flag) (SMW 8/5/94)
Starts as a real wild out of control brawl before Smothers gets busted open. Things settle down and the heels isolate & work over Tracy. This is just really simple well done pro-wrestling. Easily could have been 5 minutes longer.


Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack (ECW 8/13/94)
Joey Styles makes a senior citizens joke about Flair when the crowd woos. Ummm, maybe not the best choice when Terry Funk is in the main event you’re currently calling. These two have a high standard for me and this was failing to live up to it before Public Enemy ran out and got involved. Some fun spots but it felt like they were going half speed. The chair throwing spot feels less organic than when they did it before.

Terry Funk, Bunkhouse Buck & Arn Anderson vs. Brad, Brian & Scott Armstrong (WCWSN 8/20/94)
Really good super solid fast paced TV match. Terry hits an awesome lariat. Not a particularly memorable match, but definitely worth your time while watching it. Would’ve liked to see them go longer. Heenan being an AWA guy not knowing the lineage of the NWA title in the 70s is oddly appropriate. I liked this a lot.


Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck vs. Dusty & Dustin Rhodes (Clash 8/28/94)
I love this match. Less than 10 minutes. Great punching. Good psychology. Hyped crowd. This is awesome. Meng no selling the wooden chair shot was something else. Good lord.


Terry Funk, Arn Anderson & Bunkhouse Buck vs. Ricky Steamboat, Dustin Rhodes & Sting (Main Event 9/11/94)
I’m disappointed before watching because this is only about 7 minutes instead of 20 minutes. I’m also distracted early on by Larry advocating for genocide by WarGames early on. That was weird. Highlight of this is Terry’s interactions with a fan calling him a punk over & over.


Terry Funk vs Dustin Rhodes (WCW Pro 9/17/94)
Really about as good of a 6 minute TV match with no finish as you’re gonna get in this era. Awesome little match. Really wish they could’ve gotten a chance to go 15 at some point.

Wargames (Fall Brawl 9/18/94)
Famously great match. Dusty’s promo recruiting the Nasty Boys is outstanding.

Terry Funk vs. Tito Santana (NWC 10/8/94)
I was a little worried about this going in because Tito really just disappeared. But this is a really good match. Slow old school pacing but everything they do looks really good. The match builds well and turns into a very good match. Poor Tito. He was only 41 at this point and still looks to be in great shape.


Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck vs. Nasty Boys & Dustin Rhodes (Handheld 10/16/94)
Super solid house show match. Terry & Dustin are the stars of the match. Really great spot where Buck is leaned up against the ropes selling and Terry runs over and pushes him out of the way right as Dustin tries to hit Buck with a cross body block. Dustin takes a huge bump over the top rope for the Dustin in peril section. Nothing mind-blowing, just good logical pro-wrestling.


Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck vs. Nasty Boys & Dustin Rhodes (Main Event 10/23/94)
Mean Gene is looking sharp in his sunglasses. Shorter than the house show match I just watched, and worked with a quicker pace. The professional camera work really enhances the nuts & bolts aspects of the match. You can hear the strikes better and Terry/Arn are two of the best facial expression workers ever. The look on Terry’s face after he takes the armpit spot is pretty great. For some reason Jerry Sags works the face in peril section instead of Dustin?? Weird choice. Quick work to the finish after the hot tag. This was good but still could have been better. Terry’s not in as much as you’d like but still enjoyable.


Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck vs. Nasty Boys (Havoc 10/23/94)
We get another clip of Dusty recruiting the Nasty Boys for WarGames. Thank you. This starts as a wild brawl before settling into a casual brawl, I guess. Terry has to eat the armpit spot and Sags literally sits and grinds on his face. That’s upsetting all around. Terry is fucking pissed. This is just all big dudes throwing big strikes at each other, but a little bit on the disappointing side to be honest. It needed to either be more structured or more chaotic. It was more in the middle ground between the two but not in a particularly good way. Oh. You know what. Knobbs piledrives Terry on a pumpkin. 1000 stars.


Terry Funk & Hiroshi Ono vs. Shoji Nakamaki & Nobutaka Araya (Fire Match IWA Japan 11/13/94)
I was going to complain about how there wasn’t enough fire surrounding the ring. Its only on two sides. And then Nakamaki did a tope over one of those sides and I have no complaints. Sparklers are also shot down towards the ring. Terry is literally taking head-first slams into the fire. This is a wild scene. Terry literally picks up a flaming rag and tries to throw it at Araya. He runs around the ring with it in his hands. It’s on goddamn fire. This is outrageous. Just a completely insane spectacle. My big takeaway is that all matches should either be the Boneyard match or Fire matches. This really lacks any sort of coherent structure or narrative that I can see. On the other hand, Terry Funk is running around with on fire shit and throwing it at people. Funk piledrives Nakamaki onto some fire and not like oh he tries but doesn’t get really close. He fucking piledrives Nakamaki right into the goddamn fire. And then his AJPW music kicks in. Lets just say all of the stars.

Terry Funk vs Leatherface (Cage Match IWA Japan 11/17/94)
Pretty fun spectacle for the simple fact that it’s the time Terry Funk fought Leatherface in a cage. But not particularly memorable. Ok while you’re watching it but you’ll forget about it 5 minutes after its over. Cage match is a real night off in IWA Japan.

Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack (Barbed Wire Death Match IWA Japan 1/8/95)
Everyone knows about the King of the Death Match final between these two, but this is their classic death match. It’s the one Foley talked about in his first book about how he knew his performances on commercial videotape would live on forever so he wanted to try and have the best match he could. And this is an excellent death match. Brutal and exciting. They brawl all over the building, there’s barbed wire, flying chairs, fire and everything you could want from a death match. Among the best pre WWF Foley matches and non-Onita or Kudo Japanese death matches.



Terry Funk & Rage vs. Doug Gibson & Lady Killer (Cage Match VA 3/10/95)
These short cages are so charming. This is really good. It reminds me of Final Conflict where they’re working a nicely paced traditional tag match in a cage until the cage comes more into play as the match progresses. This isn’t just a tornado tag where they’re grinding each other’s faces into the cage bleeding all over the place. They work a nice old school southern tag with geat traditional tag psychology until it descends into a wild brawl. I’m not saying its on the level of Final Conflict at all. Just that’s what it reminded me of stylistically for much of the match. The ending is totally out of control leaving the cage brawling all over the building. This is Terry working as a more serious heel. He’s not running around stooging. He’s an asskicker. And when its time for the hot tag, he sells but its not for comedy. Fortunately he works most of the match too as Rage doesn’t look particularly interesting. I really dug the hell out of this.


Terry Funk vs. Doug Gibson (VA 3/11/95)
Terry is just a vicious dominant heel to start this off. Beating the shit out of Gibson and bloodying him. He’s not in goofy around mode but in scary dangerous man mode. Gibson is finally able to make a comeback and busts Terry open. Terry does a few comedy spots during Gibson’s comeback but nothing so over the top that it detracts from the match. Nice back and forth run to the finish before a run-in and DQ. This was a really nice old school match.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (Texas Chain Match NWC 3/15/95)
The guy with the handheld camera has to be talked into standing the fuck up by his buddy. So needless to say, he’s not gonna follow these guys around. There’s a professional camera crew there. How do I watch that version? I was a little worried about the idea of Sabu in a chain match. Putting a leash on Sabu seems counter intuitive. But if you’re gonna attach him to someone, Terry Funk is the best person for the job. Of course they both end up just taking the chain off when it suits them. Which is fine. Touch the corners is like the escape the cage version of this gimmick. But it didn’t bother me here because they didn’t spend much time doing extended tug of wars reaching for the turnbuckles. Instead they just had a fucking awesome Terry Funk vs Sabu match that included a chain they used to beat the shit out of each other with. Sabu uses the chain to tie Funk to a table and then moonsaults him. This is amazing and one of their best matches together. How the fuck have I not seen this before? 1995 US MOTYC.


Terry Funk & Sandman vs. Cactus Jack and Shane Douglas (ECW 3/18/95)
This is the match with the Cane Dewey sign. Between that and the match quality, this is peak ECW. This is a crazy brawl but feels organic, natural and hate filled instead of overproduced (Sabu vs Sandman matches) or smoke & mirrors (grab you by the hair & walk through the crowd). Super stiff and brutal match. Cactus is really the star of this I would say but everyone looks really good, even Douglas & Sandman. This has the classic spot where Funk attempts to use a toolbox as a weapon but it was open and all the tools poured out on his head and he sold it. The man is a genius.


Terry Funk, Shoji Nakamaki & Leatherface vs Cactus Jack & The Head Hunters (Weekly Pro at the Tokyo Dome 4/2/95)
Truly a ridiculous clusterfuck. Even before the failed fire board, this was insane. Guys bleeding all over the place, Leatherface busting out the chainsaw, Terry Funk throwing chairs. This is all great fun. Then once the board fails to light and then start busting out 400lb tope con hilos. Bat shit crazy. A Pancrase match had to follow this. Lol


Terry Funk & Hiroshi Ono vs. The Headhunters (IWA Japan 4/3/95)
I haven’t watched nearly enough Headhunters in my life. I liked this a lot. It went from a wild brawl all over the place to settling down in the ring back to brawling all over the place back to settling down in the ring for the finishing stretch. Headhunters are tamer than the picture I have in my head (they aren’t slamming each other into glass) and are just gasping for air at times, but they are such a compelling team. I would totally get down with a 2-5 disc Headhunters set. They seemed to love working with Terry and took some insane bumps.


Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack (ECW 4/15/95)
Pretty disappointing for what we’ve seen out of them before. There are some good things here and there but overall its pretty aimless. Funk trying & failing to break the bottle on Cactus’ head was nuts. As was carving him up. Yikes. They had better stuff elsewhere. It is interesting to see that Funk vs Sabu was a much more consistent match up than Terry vs Cactus up to mid-95. I would rate Funk vs Cactus well behind Funk vs Gilbert, Funk vs Sabu & Funk vs Lawler.


Terry Funk & Shiro Koshinaka vs. Masahiro Chono & Kodo Fuyuki (NJ 5/3/95)
Super weird to see Terry in NJPW. He comes out to his AJPW music. Crowd is into it. This is a fun match. Fast paced, great crowd, charismatic workers doing fun stuff. I tend to really like Chono in tag matches. Fuyuki has long been underrated and Koshinaka has probably gone from overrated to underrated as much as anybody. I love the spot where Terry gets the hot tag, comes in and Chono just rakes his eyes with his fingers & then again with his boots. This is more about Chono vs Kosh with Funk as more of a valuable background player. Another cool chapter in Terry’s 1995.


Terry Funk & Bob Armstrong vs. The Gangstas (Texas Death Match) (SMW 5/19/95)
This is one where the Texas Death Match gimmick really hurts a match I would otherwise have been pretty stoked about. If these 4 just had a crazy No DQ brawl or something that’d be great. Unfortunately…TDM. Terry is awesome here. The structure of this is a little weird, but the match is good when Funk is in there. Just too many fucking falls.

Terry Funk vs Leatherface (Barbed Wire Board Chain Death Match IWA-Japan King of the Death Match Quarter Finals 8/20/95)
Leatherface starts the match by jumping Terry at the bell and then hitting a moonsault and knocking him into a barbed wire board and then pulling out the chainsaw! Ok! Terry makes a huge comeback including trying to hang Leatherface over a giant fence. Fun finish with Leatherface taking a huge bump from the top rope to the floor and then getting pinned after Terry’s famous punch combo. This was a shockingly fun crazy spectacle of a match. Much better than their earlier cage match and probably a better match than the finals if we’re being hones (certainly not more memorable).


Terry Funk vs Tiger Jeet Singh (Barbed Wire Board and Glass Match IWA-Japan King of the Death Match Semi-Finals 8/20/95
Terry’s still covered in blood from the Leatherface match. Tiger Jeet Singh is in the running with Tommy Dreamer for worst of all time. At least Tommy bumps. Yuck. Terrible, completely due to Tiger being a selfish shit worker.


Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack (King of the Death Match Finals IWA-Japan 8/20/95)
Probably my favorite off the rails trainwreck falling apart match ever.


Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven & Cactus Jack (N2R 11/18/95)
Now one of the mutants is chanting “We want fire.” Joey Styles has also gotten much worse over the years. This is the one where Cactus is wearing the WCW shirt. Pretty entertaining match considering it has Raven & Tommy Dreamer in it. Literally all Dreamer can do is pick up different objects and hit people in the head with them. Fans chant “EC Fucking W” and I’m embarrassed for all of us 25 years later. Something that folks should watch once but not as good as you want it to be after reading Foley’s first book.


Terry & Dory Funk vs. Bruce Hart & Brian Pillman (Canada 12/15/95)
“Terry Funk is a wing a ding dong.” “Here comes Bruce, Mr Explosion. Honestly that’s not as embarrassing as some of the shit Joey Styles says that we probably all thought was cool back in the day. This is a short but fun match. Terry works harder than he has too and ends up blading in an 8 minute match at a tribute show. He’s just the fucking greatest.


Terry Funk & Mr. Pogo vs. Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka (FMW 5/5/96)
One of the craziest matches ever. There’s barbed wire, a sickle, a giant knife, fireballs, explosions etc. I mean totally fucking nuts. Just an insane spectacle. I love outdoor matches at night and that’s such a great setting for this. Just insane.




Terry Funk vs. Mr. Pogo (FMW 8/1/96)
This is the match where Pogo blows himself up and Terry spits fire at him and pokes at him with the flaming branding iron. Not a great look for my dude. Don’t watch this one.


Terry Funk, The Gladiator & Horace Boulder vs. Masato Tanaka, Koji Nakagawa & Tetsuhiro Kuroda (FMW 9/20/96)
Watch this one! This is basically what you hope for with an FMW 6 man. Crazy brawl all over the place with lots of stiff shots, plunder and dives. Awesome it just powerbombing people all over the place. Tanaka is flying around. Terry is punching dudes in the forehead. I will never understand people complaining about the spinning toe-hold in the middle of matches like this. Do you hate kittens and puppies too? A few too many nearfalls, saves, and close calls for my general preference. But everything is well executed and worked to the style/time/setting so I can’t really fault it for that. Good fun all around.


Terry Funk & The Gladiator vs. Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka (Street Fight) (FMW 9/24/96)
Awesome wild tag match. They brawl all over the building and in a match full of huge bombs, the finish was spectacular and decisive. Terrific match and great post match.


Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer vs. Shane Douglas & Brian Lee (N2R 11/16/96)
The “Welcome Back” reaction to Terry is great. Sometimes the ECW fans aren’t the worst. This starts with Funk & Douglas. But Douglas tags out to Lee before they can do anything. So Dreamer comes in like let me at him. Ugggghhhhh. Dreamer’s only moves are a Russian leg sweep, a bulldog and a ddt which are just Tommy taking bumps. This is an interesting match. I really like the intensity Funk & Douglas have with each other. The brawling in the crowd doesn’t bother me because we get some great shots of Terry & Douglas. I think Dreamer is a trash worker. Basically a precursor to Edge only where lowblows play a much bigger role. But its interesting to watch Terry throwing these awesome punches and being crazy while Dreamer is setting up these convoluted spots with the guardrail and chairs and it all looks like shit. Focus switches from Terry vs Douglas to Dreamer getting his knee worked over by Douglas. Dreamer will get his ass kicked and sold well so this was better than you’d think. Eventually they murder Dreamer by throwing him through a table and this turns into an AJPW RWTL style match with one guy having to go it alone. Douglas & Lee work over a bloody Terry’s neck, trying to cripple him. Douglas piledrives Terry from the apron through a table on the floor in a fucking crazy spot. Tommy eventually is able to recover and make a comeback with Funk now dead on the floor. But he gets cut off too. ECW bullshit finish with Beluah & Francine going at it. Violence against women. Terry comes back to life and does a moonsault from the top rope to the floor. He goes after Douglas’ knee with a chair Terry eventually gets the win. There’s a whole lot I liked about this and some I didn’t. It was way too long and messy but they still did an awful lot of good shit. In some ways Dreamer was utter trash at times and in other ways this was one of his best performances. Terry & Douglas were great, especially against each other. Overall I liked this a lot more than I didn’t. I’ll also give a shoutout to the ECW Arena crowd who I’ve dumped on a lot. They were great here and helped make the match feel better than it probably was. No chanting for blood or showing your tits. This was like best possible scenario ECW fans respectful and just totally into the match and not making themselves part of it all.



Terry Funk vs. Franz Schumann (Germany 11/29/96)
Starts off slow and sporting for the first 2 rounds until Funk hits a DDT after the end of the 2nd round. 3rd round he starts to go after Franz’s neck. He hits a neckbreaker and then a straight up Ganso bomb and then a traditional powerbomb for nearfalls. He goes for another powerbomb but Franz reserves with a Rana and starts going after Funk with punches. This turns into a fight with these two throwing punches at each other until the round ends. Franz continues to dominate the next round pretty convincingly until Funk hits him in the knee with the branding iron and he takes the rest of the round and past the end a little bit. Funk starts out in control of the next fall. He even pulls out the classic lucha spot trying to convince the ref Franz hit him low. At some point Franz gets bloodied but he does get to start making his comeback. Its not particularly inspired to be honest, but the crowd is happy. Terry’s going crazy at the start of te next fall throwing chairs. Franz is still selling his earlier ass kicking and Terry starts to just punch Franz in the face repeatedly. Terry gets himself DQ’d by attacking the ref and continues to attack Franz post match. This was all very good. Franz isn’t great, and everything is a little slower than you’d like. But it is well structured and Terry looks great.


Terry Funk vs. Fit Finlay (Germany 12/21/96)
First fall is just them trying to bait each other and teasing that they’re going to go in the crowd. 2nd Fall is more intensity and they do brawl around ringside. Great looking punches from Finlay. Really fun spot where Funk is giving Finlay the repeating headbutts but Funk knocks himself silly and Finlay is able to take him down with a hard right. Finlay continues to dominate into the 3rd round. Everything looks real sharp and stiff. Terry’s able to make a comeback by kicking him low. Funk’s able to whack Finlay’s knee with the branding iron to give himself a real advantage. Funk does not give a shit about the rounds and just keeps attacking Finlay. Next round has Funk dropping some bombs; his ddt and piledriver. Funk makes the mistake though of trying to punch Finlay’s boulder of a skull, which opens up a Finlay comeback. Finlay beats Terry’s ass the rest of the fall. They spend the next fall brawling around ringside and Finlay gets busted open. Finally Terry’s punches are getting through. Terry airballs a dive at the end of the fall and gets caught up in the ropes giving the momentum back to Finlay. “Final Countdown” plays before the final fall because, Germany. They’re just trading big shots at the start of the last fall. It goes back and forth and Finlay ends up with a well earned countout win. This was really good. I’m not usually a Finlay fan, but he was great here as a super over babyface. Funk is his usual awesome self. I like Terry in this setting. Good stuff.

Terry Funk vs Marshall Duke (Hanover 1997)
This is good match. Really good performance from Terry Funk but Marshall Duke is not a good or interesting wrestler based on this one match and they go 20+ minutes. He’s just very basic. This follows the usual Terry in Europe route. It starts off clean and builds in intensity after the first few rounds. Really a different opponent and this could have been outstanding based on the strength of Terry’s performance. Terry’s like falling into school boy pin attempts to give Duke something to do. I’m bolding this on the strength of Terry’s performance and as a great example of Terry making something out of nothing in a less than ideal situation.


Terry Funk vs. Tommy Rich (Crossing the Line 2/1/97)
Best dream match ever that took place 15 years too late? These two having a 12 minute bloody brawl in 1982 is a potential greatest match ever contender. In 1997, it is still a fucking awesome match. Starts in the crowd with Funk bloodying Rich basically right away. Rich missed a jumping knee on the outside and hit the guardrail, so Funk did some limb work on Rich’s knee by bashing it with a chair repeatedly. Eventually Rich takes over and busts Terry Funk open. I mean this is just 100% exactly the match you’re hoping for from these two. Rich DDT’s the ref just for the hell of it. Rich gets revenge by bashing Terry’s knee with the chair. This is just all headbutts, punches, chairshots, DDTs, spinning toe holds and it fucking rules.


Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven & Brian Lee (ECW 2/21/97)
Tommy Dreamer is sincerely the worst pro-wrestler of all time. I find him completely embarrassing. He’s the all time “Its still real to me damnit” wrestler. Watching him I think he believed this was all real until he was like 23 and then he tried to get into the business, everyone smartened him up and he just looked around and said “I don’t care, bro. Bro kick me in the nuts as hard as you fuckin’ can bro” and everyone just shrugged and kicked him in the nuts. I can’t imagine how terrible this would’ve been without Terry. It was still not good, but it would be like Edge vs Orton level if you replaced Terry with like Justin Credible or Booker T in this match.


Terry Funk vs. Doug Gilbert (Chain Match) (IWA-MS 3/13/97)
Terry before the match, “I loved your pop…and I loved your brother but you’re an asshole and I don’t love you.” The man is a fucking genius. This was solid. An old school bloody violent chain match is exactly what I needed after that Raven & Brian Lee tag match. We miss a chunk because they brawl around through the fans, but this still comes across as a good match.


Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven & Shane Douglas (TV 4/5/97)
I was worried about this one after the February tag with Brian Lee. This is exponentially better from the start because Douglas is better than Lee & they’re not going nearly as long. Funk and Douglas work most of the 1st half of this and they’re working really hard and it’s going well. Whenever Dreamer comes in it dies. Seriously Dreamer blows a bulldog. A fucking bulldog. I can’t believe it. Fortunately for everyone, Funk is the main focus of this. Mosty when we see Dreamer he’s tossing Raven around and Raven is bumping like a lunatic here. Douglas & Dreamer eventually brawl through the crowd and Brian Lee runs out to attack Dreamer. Fortunately Funk comes to the rescue and they get back to the ring pretty quickly. ECW bullshit finish with people running in and attacking everyone and then the match resetting for the finish. Kind of a mess at times and kind of really fucking awesome at other times. Have I mentioned Tommy Dreamer is terrible?


Terry Funk vs. Sandman vs. Stevie Richards and Terry Funk vs Raven (Barely Legal 4/13/97)
I didn’t feel like watching this. Honestly. Remember it as a great moment but a mess of a match.



Terry Funk, The Gladiator & Cactus Jack vs. Atsushi Onita, Masato Tanaka & W*ING Kanemura (FMW 4/29/97)
Wild, awesome match. Pretty much what you’re hoping for with these 6. Tornado tag with Awesome & Tanaka mostly working their match while the other 4 guys brawl around and periodically make their way in the ring. Powerbombs, tables, chairs, fire, stiff shots, etc. Great fun.


Terry Funk vs. Raven (Handheld ECW 5/16/97)
Fans chanting Nitro Sucks and calling Raven a “fucking sellout f-word” is just the worst. Later we get a show your tits chant. Raven dives through Funk on a table and fans chant “ECW” while some asshole keeps saying to Terry “You’re like 60 why are you still doing this?” Later they chant for blood. That they worked as hard as they did for these assholes is admirable and a credit to their professionalism. This isn’t great or even good. Its mostly half speed. But its more than these assholes deserved.


Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer vs Raven & Stevie Richards (ECW 5/17/97)
This is all about Raven doing Raven in ECW storyline stuff and it makes me want to die. “Are you gonna fight like a man or a piece of shit? I didn’t raise you do be a pussy Stevie Richards.” Yuck. No complaints for Terry here. But this is just all about masterbatory Raven bullshit.


Terry Funk vs. Chris Candido (ECW 6/7/97)
Sort of like a condensed NWA title match. Starts off slow and technical then it picks up in intensity with the challenger coming really really close to winning the title, but not being able to finish the job. Very good selling performance from Terry. Candido is so so early on but really picks it up in the 2nd half of the match. The mutants are mutant-y. Really good finishing stretch with lots of counters and nearfalls. Honestly wasn’t digging this at first but they pulled me in by the finish.


Terry Funk vs Shane Douglas (ECW 8/2/97)
They’re near Pittsburgh so Terry is working heel in the midst of his great old man babyface run. Crowd actually chants “fuck you Terry” which is something else. Shane just eats Terry alive for forever in this. Its fine, but not particularly memorable and compared to a lot of other stuff Terry was doing during this run. Highlight is Terry losing a tug of war for a Franchise Flag with an old lady. Great shit, fine match.


Terry Funk vs Sabu (ECW 8/8/97)
This is a terrific house show main event the night before their famous barbed wire match. This wasn’t taped for TV but we have a ringside Black Terry Jr style version and so we get a lot of great up close shots of all the action and the little things. I was really struck by how hard they work when they have every reason to take the night off. It is also kind of amazing to see Terry Funk win a match decisively using a powerbomb. I have watched more Terry Funk than probably any other wrestler and I can’t think of another time where he beat a guy via pinfall with a powerbomb. Especially a name like Sabu. Pretty cool. Anyway, this was a lot of fun. Funk has got to be Sabu’s best opponent.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (Barbed Wire Match ECW 8/9/97)
Still probably the most harrowing match I’ve ever seen.


Terry Funk vs. Shane Douglas vs. Sabu (ECW 8/17/97)
Another one I couldn’t bring myself to watch. That’s too long with Fonzie’s whistle. I can’t believe they let that guy work that gimmick for so fucking long. Talk about making everything unbearable.


Terry Funk vs. Bret Hart (Wrestlefest 9/11/97)
Great match and terrific emotional scene overall. This is tribute to old school NWA title matches with a clean start before falling apart into a bloody brawl. Great throwback style.


Chainsaw Charlie & Cactus Jack vs. New Age Outlaws (RAW 1/26/98)
Starts off as a wild brawl before settling down. Funk gets isolated. He’s in floppy fish out of water mode. Outlaws are all bunches and stomps. But they’re heels so they shoudn’t really be doing flashy shit. Road Dogg throws some good looking boots to the face. Funk spaghetti legs into the hot tag. Funk starts throwing chairs in the ring. Jack reaches down Dogg’s pants and removes his protective cup and hits him in the nuts. YES. Jack with a cactus elbow with chair onto Gunn. Ref throws this out. They cover Road Dogg in chairs and Funk hits the moonsault. Great fun. Only like 8 minutes but a total blast. Crowd was super into this.


Chainsaw Charlie vs. Cactus Jack (RAW 2/2/98)
Funk doing an inside cradle on the ramp and them just rolling down it is hilarious. They do the spot where Cactus doesn’t want to hit Terry in the head again so he hands a trashcan to Terry. So instead of just hitting him right away, Terry waits for Cactus to turn his back. Hahahhaa. Cactus tries to give Terry a piledriver while Terry is stuffed inside a trashcan. It doesn’t work but good for them for trying such an insane spot. Cactus does the big spot jumping off the titan tron into Terry in a dumpster and the Outlawz run out and shove them off the stage. Super famous angle. Fun match. Better than some of their matches, not as good as their best.


Chainsaw Charlie, Cactus Jack, Steve Austin & Owen Hart vs. HHH, Savio Vega and New Age Outlaws (WWF No Way Out 2/15/98)
This starts as just an out of control brawl with guys fighting all over the place using all sorts of weapons before it settles down into a traditional tag match with Funk getting isolated after taking a powerbomb onto some chairs. Phenomenal spot where Billy Gunn tries to run in and Austin just chucks a trash can across the ring at him & takes him out. Beautiful. Terry in peril is pretty damn good. He makes a hot tag to Cactus but Cactus gets cut off. Cactus in peril isn’t as fun until he gets wrapped up in barbed wire. Crowd is getting pretty restless for Austin. Foley finally makes the hot tag and Austin runs in and they really go straight to the finish. Good match. Pretty great in the early going when they were brawling all over the pace. It sort of petered out with the crowd waiting for Austin. Owen never he got tagged in. I feel like there’s an alternate universe where Terry got a better run here. He’s over and still awesome. They should have found a way to turn him heel and send him after Austin as a McMahon henchman.


Chainsaw Charlie & Cactus Jack vs The Quebecers (WWF RAW 3/9/98)
Fine, short TV tag. Too short to be anything, but everyone looks good so you wish it went longer.

Chainsaw Charlie vs Billy Gunn (WWF RAW 3/17/98)
Nothing match. Billy dominates early, Terry comes back and Road Dogg runs in as soon as he takes over. Fine. Forgettable.


Chainsaw Charlie & Cactus Jack vs. New Age Outlaws (Dumpster Match WM 3/29/98)
Lawler: “Ordinarily people live and learn. Funk just lives.” Ha! That’s a good one! Pretty fun match. Unique for the time but this sort of thing would become overdone in the years to come. Enjoyable enough though.

Chainsaw Charlie & Cactus Jack vs. New Age Outlaws (Cage Match RAW 3/30/98)
More of an angle than a match. But a good angle and one of the most memorable non-Austin angles of the era.

Terry Funk & Flash Funk vs. New Midnight Express (RAW 4/20/98)
Funk & Scorpio are just team underutilized. They both look good. New Midnights are what they are. This is a fine 8 minute tag.Good psychology. Everyone looks fine-good, but its pretty forgettable. You you can’t help but wish Funk & Scorpio were doing something better because they both look capable of a lot more than working with Bob Holly and Bart Gunn.


Terry Funk vs. Mick Foley (WWF RAW 5/4/98)
The prematch video is fucking amazing. Stone Cold is hilarious on commentary. After the great prematch video and the awesome match Funk & Foley are having, its pretty depressing that the focus on this match early on is the fake technical difficulties with Austin’s microphone. Fortunately they move past that and these guys are given plenty of time. This is an awesome match. The best they’ve had together in the US. Super violent, heated, and this sort of attitude era brawling through the building was still fresh at this point and who would you rather have brawl through a building than these two? Foley’s offense usually leaves something to be desired, but he whips out everything in his arsenal and does a really great job just beating the shit out of Terry. I always go out of my way to take cheap shots at Jim Ross because I hate him. But I also like to mention when I think he’s really good and I think this is peak Jim Ross. He’s great here. Post match with Austin coming in and Vince coming out dancing to Dude Love is fantastic.



Terry & Dory Funk vs. Yoshinori Sasaki & Naohiro Yamazaki (FMW 11/23/99)
This is pretty fun. There are a couple of clips and its short anyway. This is basically a legends comedy match. Funks do all their signature spots and the crowd loves it.


Terry Funk vs. Bret Hart (Hardcore Match) (Thunder 1/6/00)
Pretty good all things considered, but just not what you want out of Bret Hart. Terry takes the big powerbomb off the stage from Nash.



Terry Funk & Dustin Rhodes vs. Ric Flair & Lex Luger (Thunder 2/16/00)
Funk works pretty much the entire way. Its basically just babyface shine, Terry in peril, hot tag to Dustin, finish. All in about 7 minutes. Everyone works hard and this is fun for what it is.


Terry Funk vs. Ric Flair (Texas Death Match) (SB 2/20/00)
“Flair, you wouldn’t make a decent sized pimple on Terry Funk’s ass!” Just great. I forgot all about Mark Madden - that was devastating. I was kinda dumbfounded by how good this was. Its not great but really good. I just assumed it was going to be a 5 minute 2000 WCW bullshit-fest. But they got plenty of time to go out and work a match. With the prematch video, Flair interview & entrances this is 25+ minutes. It is depressing for how not over Terry is here, but they come around a little by the end. This would look a lot better with an invested crowd. But its 2000 WCW. Why would anyone care? Anyway. Worth your time for sure. Better than you’d think.


Terry Funk vs. Dustin Rhodes (Bullrope Match) (Uncensored 3/19/00)
Terry punches Dustin in the face with a raw chicken. Fortunately this isn’t a touch 4 corners, its just pinfall. This was ok before the chicken bullshit. Ugh. This should’ve taken place in 1994.


Terry Funk vs. Norman Smiley (Spring Stampede 4/16/00)
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a blast watching this. Norman hanging from the ceiling and Terry sending him through a table. The counter to the big wiggle. Terry’s insane dancing after he wins. Good stuff.

Terry Funk vs. Chris Candido (Hardcore Match) (Thunder 5/31/00)
So stupid. Terry Funk almost gets killed by a horse and Tony Schiavone says “highspot.”


Terry Funk vs. Johnny the Bull (Hardcore Match) (Nitro 7/3/00)
I only vaguely remember Johnny the Bull. Terry’s fun beating the shit out of him. Johnny’s springboard legdrop to the floor spot is totally fucking nuts. Whoa. Not a good match at all but that was a hell of spot.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (XPW 7/22/00)
Pretty good, but not one of the 10 best matches they had together. These two were consistently awesome together from 93-97. Watch one of those matches instead.

Terry Funk vs. Crowbar (Starrcade 12/17/00)
“Terry Funk came out on Monday night dressed as…Santa.” – Schiavone. 2000 WCW sucks so much. I hate these backstage bloodless hardcore matches. Lots of unprotected head shots. They rip off the Rock/Foley handcuff spot. But he’s handcuffed in the front and so he’s able to keep working. Madden is horrifying. I am so ready for Terry to get back to the indies.


Terry Funk vs. Meng (Hardcore Match) (Nitro 12/18/00)
Terry going from begging off to immediately talking shit is great. Terry also does some great spaghetti leg selling & manages to get the crowd behind him when they finally get in the ring. Otherwise this is just more backstage bullshit. This time Terry gets handcuffed. Booooooooo. Boooo WCW Boooooo.


Terry Funk vs. Meng vs. Crowbar (Sin 1/14/01)
Terrry & Crowbar brawl into the women’s bathroom for several minutes before Meng shows up. I give up. I can’t watch these WCW backstage matches where they just trade headshots. Besides I’m excited for the next match on the list…


Terry Funk & Atsushi Onita vs. Abdullah the Butcher & Giant Kimala (1/28/01)
You guys…the entire video segment is 28 minutes. Holy fuck. Video starts with Onita lighting a cigarette. He really reaches Bull Nakano levels of coolness. Did anyone ever do a ring entrance better than Atsushi Onita? Terry gets on the mic and proclaims “I’M HOME! ALL JAPAN IS MY HOME! All Japan & Shoehi Baba is number 1!” Funk & Onita share a big hug. Terry attacks Abby before the bell and they brawl around ringside while Onita & Kimala are inside. Abby breaks a bottle and starts carving up Terry immediately. This isn’t particularly good, but is so much better than the WCW matches and better than I expected. Mercifully it is only about 8 minutes. The 28 minutes is intros, interviews post match etc. All punches, headbutts, forks and blood. This probably would’ve ruled 10 years earlier. Onita & Funk put Kimala in a double spinning toe hold and then share a bloody kiss on the lips. Abby looks stunned. Honestly this is all worth it for that.


Terry Funk vs. Fit Finlay vs. Tiger Steele (Hardcore Match) (EWF 5/18/01)
This is kind of an interesting experiment. Terry’s my dude. I don’t really like Fit Finlay. I don’t know who Tiger Steele is. 3 person matches tend to suck. Terry comes out to the ring to…Bruce Springsteen Born in the USA? That is fucking weird. Tiger Steele sucks. Mostly Fit & Terry teaming up on him. Finally, Fit goes for a pin and Terry attacks him. The building is poorly lit around ringside so we’re missing a decent amount here. This isn’t particularly enthralling but it’s still better than those WCW Hardcore matches. Highlight is when Terry & Fit shake hands & then Terry immediately kicks him in the balls.


Terry Funk vs. Christian Eckstein (EWF 5/19/01)
Pretty funny as Eckstein comes out dressed in German colors and Terry comes out to Springsteen & there’s an American flag. Yet this German crowd is chanting “Terry Terry.” Hahaha. They love him. That’s great. This match is unbelievable. I loved it. We’ve been on a run of bad/disappointing matches, so maybe that enhanced this. But this came across as a legit great match. It starts off clean but quickly devolves into a brawl. But its not like a shitty WCW Hardcore brawl. Its an actual wrestling brawl with great punches, lariats, piledrivers, swings of momentum, character work an invested crowd, a bloody Terry. I dunno Eckstein but he is super fucking solid here as the dominant heel beating the shit out of this old man. Great selling performance from Terry, but he also brings out the offense. Terry eventually punches the ref, Finlay runs into attack Terry. This is rounds system but they brawl through the breaks a couple of times. I want the fucking rematch of this. Awesome awesome match. Who the fuck is Christian Eckstein? He looks really good. Great to see Terry can still work a long compelling brawl without a bunch of gimmicky bullshit.


Terry Funk & Terry Boy vs. Mil Mascaras & Kung Fu Lee (Big Japan 12/2/01)
I’ve always really liked Mens Teoh. I can’t help but wish this was just Terry vs Terry Boy. Mil’s entrance gear is incredible though. Worth it for that alone. This isn’t particularly good. Mil is surprisingly fun coming in for his signature spots. Terry & Terry Boy are both good. But Lee works most of the way for his team and is awful. Really needed to be almost 10 minutes shorter.


Terry Funk vs. Chris Candido (MLW 9/26/02)
Like on the absolute border between decent and good. I like Funk here. It is well laid out and executed. There just something missing from it. A little too much ECW style non-sense at the end, but it wasn’t really grabbing me before that either. Candido has never really done anything for me to be honest. Terry, while covered in blood, bites Tammy on the ass which, if you’re gonna do a violence against women spot, Terry Funk biting Sunny on the ass is a lot better than Tommy Dreamer piledriving Francine over and over again.


Terry Funk & Abdullah the Butcher vs. Tarzan Goto & Tomoaki Honma (AJ 10/27/02)
Mannnnn. Imagine a Terry vs Honma Big Japan Death match or Terry vs Goto in 1991? This is from AJPW’s 30th anniversary show and it is actually pretty fucking fun. Terry bleeds and works most of the way. Enormous reaction to Abby using the fork. Really hot crowd. This was a lot more fun than I expected. Can we get a Terry vs Honma singles match please?


Terry Funk vs. Dusty Rhodes vs. Steve Corino (MLW 12/20/02)
This just isn’t what you want. I’d much prefer these guys to just have singles matches with each other.


Terry Funk vs. Sabu (3PW 2/15/03)
Funk says “Lets go ahead and give them an ECW style match” and starts throwing shit in the ring right away. This grabs me instantly, especially compared with their last match I saw from 2000 XPW. This is an out of control brawl pretty much immediately. But they aren’t going on a walk through the crowd. They are beating the absolute shit out of each other. Sabu is really busting his ass here and he looks great and Terry is typical fucking awesome Terry. One of the fans about halfway through this just screams out “I GOT MY MONEY’S WORTH!” Truth. This isn’t peak level Funk vs Sabu, but it is great match and a worthy addition to their great rivalry.


Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (JAPW 4/12/03)
This is another awesome match (I watched their 5/3/03 match before this one for reasons). Lawler has some amazing punch combos. Terry’s selling strikes the perfect balance between goofy and simply old man getting his ass kicked. Lawler is in ass kicking King mode. He bloodies Terry, works him over with his punches, chairs a big piledriver on the floor, stunner. Funk makes his comeback with a lowblow and stunner of his own before big punches, chairs and piledrivers of his own. Crowd chants for tables, too stupid to realize they’re seeing an outstanding match. Finishing stretch is them trading piledrivers for nearfalls. Terry can’t put him away so he goes for a table and DDTs the ref. Lawler hits him low and piledrives him through the table. Fucking great shit.


Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (3PW 5/3/03)
This was actually the match that I watched that made me want to go back and watch all of the post 90 Terry Funk. This is a goddamn amazing match. Old school brawl. Great selling. “Some of the best punches ever” almost undersells how great the punching is in this match. This does not hit the heights of their 81 matches, but it is an absolutely outstanding match and a top 100 GME type for sure. Both guys look incredible. Lawler seems to be having the time of his life by the end. I could absolutely see this making my list.


Terry Funk vs. Steve Corino (MLW 5/9/03)
“I know I’m way past my prime, but you’re a piece of shit, Corino.” The man is a fucking genius. “And I’m gonna wrestle you like the people in Florida know. Like they grew up on. None of this flip flopping bullshit, we’re gonna wrestle. Brother I ain’t entertainment and I don’t want you to fucking forget it.” Can I send Terry Funk money somehow? This is a great match. Bloody. Violent. Great punches of course from both guys. This is the sort of “hardcore” wrestling that can be awesome. So much wasted time in WCW and he’s doing stuff like this 3 years later. Such a shame. I hope he got paid really well at least.


Terry Funk vs. Steve Corino (Barbed Wire Match - MLW 6/20/03)
Another great match between these two. They do a good job getting over the brutality of the gimmick both before it comes into play and then of course after. These two are more than willing to bleed and kill each other. These guys have terrific chemistry and I want to see all of the matches they had together.


Terry Funk vs. Abdullah the Butcher (MLW 7/26/03)
Corino put a bounty on Terry Funk and brought in Abdullah to take him out. Abby busts Terry open immediately and later forks his arm. Terry’s comeback is despicable. He’s just stabbing Abby in the face with a fork. The crowd & Joey Styles are horrified (and this is Florida). Abby stabs Terry in the fucking nuts and Terry responds by giving Abby like 15 consecutive lowblows. To which Styles says, “it’s so violent, it’s just ludicrous at this point.” Terry puts on the spinning toe-hold and Abby reverses it by stabbing him in the arm. I won’t ruin the finish but needless to say it is the greatest thing in the history of humanity. This is exactly what I needed it to be. It’s like 7-8 minutes long and “so violent it’s just ludicrous.” If you hate Abdullah you won’t like this. I loved it.


Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (MLW 8/22/03)
What the fuck was MLW? Running this Corino vs Funk feud with Corino bringing in all these legends and Terry just has amazing matches? Is this heaven? What is happening? Someone explain this to me. In Jerry’s pre-match promo he calls out a fan with a “Funk You” sign. “Yeah real creative” its like watching Lisa tell Ralph she doesn’t like him on Krusty’s show. Lawler is working heel again, and he’s not stooging hide the chain Lawler. He’s super violent punching you directly in the face and piledriving you on the hardwood floor arrogant motherfucker Jerry Lawler. Terry is great selling, and it isn’t the OTT spaghetti legged selling people hate. Its great classic sympathetic babyface selling. His comeback is classic babyface Terry comeback. Awesome punches, a big retaliation piledriver on the floor. But then Jerry wraps his fist in barbed wire! And starts punching Terry right in the fucking face!! Holy shit! Suddenly Terry is bleeding all over the place and this has completely jumped up a level. Man they go to the finish too quickly. 5 more minutes and this would have been a lock to make my next top 100. But then post match is really amazing and they go from helping each other & working together to trying to choke each other out. Terry keeps saying “I’ll never forget about my eye.” To eventually working together again. This was classic shit all around.

Wargames (MLW 9/19/03)
CW Anderson and Sandman start against each other and its pretty meh. Corino comes out next for the heels with a fist wrapped in barbed wire. Ok then. Funk comes out second. Cool. He comes right in and is throwing chairs 15 feet across the cage at Anderson and trying to maim Corino. Funk gives Corino the most organic and naturally set up piledriver maybe of all time. Simon Diamond out next for the heels. They’re talking about him being a “purist” meanwhile Terry has barbed wire wrapped around a bloody Corino’s head. Dr Death comes out next. PJ Walker with a ladder out next for the heels. Terry does his ladder airplane spin. Sabu comes out as a surprise for the Funk’s army. Barry Windham out as the final Extreme Horsemen. Its 5 on 4 with no one left for the babyfaces. So Bill Alfonso jumps in. Terry blows a GIANT fireball at Corino and then puts a spinning toe-hold on him because pro-wrestling is great and Corino taps to that. Pretty lackluster Wargames here to be honest. The finish is great though. You really need a big heavily invested crowd for a WarGames so its just never going to be the same on an indy show.


Terry Funk vs. CM Punk (ROH 9/20/03)
Its really cool that this happened. And its really cool that this is an awesome match. This is more low-key than Terry’s other matches around this time period. I mean, its violent and they beat the shit out of each other, but it is closer to the Bret Hart match than Sabu matches. CM blows a figure 4 at one point, which isn’t so awesome. Other than that, this is really good. Really good back and forth match until Terry hits his knee on a missed moonsault. So CM goes after the leg. Usual great selling from Terry. Ref badly telegraphs the finish but I kinda don’t care because of how butt-hurt the ROH fans are about the DQ.


Terry Funk vs. Homicide (JAPW 9/27/03)
Homicide debuted in 1993? Holy shit. I really liked Homicide back around this time period so I’m excited for this one. I’m not let down early on. There’s a lot of early posturing and intensity. These guys have really good chemistry and I want more matches between these two. This starts off really intense but clean before devolving into a brawl. Homicide kicks one of the metal rods out of the barricade (OMG!) and uses it to bust Terry open. Homicide is just fucking vicious. Great transition has Terry headbutts Homicide into oblivion to start his comeback. Funk is an offensive dynamo. Busting out his neckbreaker, stunners, piledrivers & ddt’s on the floor. Missed moonsault gives Homicide the opening. Homicide sets Funk up in a chair and hits a tope con hilo on him, almost killing himself in the process. Nice exciting modern nearfall finishing stretch that doesn’t go too overboard before the finish. This was great. These Terry vs new generation of indy stars is fantastic. Post match angle is pretty awesome and makes me want to see a bunch of matches that aren’t on this set. Can I get a goddamn rematch with these two???


Terry Funk vs. Steve Corino (Barbed Wire) (MLW 1/9/04)
This is yet another awesome & insanely brutal Terry Funk on the indies match. At one point, COrino throws rubbing alcohol into Terry’s bloody face!!! JFC. The run in from Diamond & Anderson pissed me off because it’s a goddamn barbed wire match. Terry has been outstanding in this era. I really want to see all of the matches he had with this generation of indy stars. Is there a Terry Funk vs Low Ki match? Quick search doesn’t bring back any Funk vs Danielson matches (FUUUUUCK). But these matches with Corino, Punk & Homicide have been incredible.


Terry Funk, Ian Rotten and Danny Daniels vs. Chris Candido, Steve Stone and BJ Whitmer (IWA-MS 12/12/04)
Candido is aging worse than Terry Funk at this point. But they still have great chemistry together. Rotten is still recovering from a brown recluse spider bite!!! Holy shit! Terry & Candido brawl all over the building. They end up back in the ring & Terry ends up getting isolated & bloodied by the heels. Awesome! This becomes bloody Terry in peril. Basically the best kind of match. Hot tag to Ian Rotten who comes in a house of fire but he eventually gets isolated & bloodied as well. This is a really good southern style tag. Great psychology. Danny Daniels was annoying working 100mph with lots of counters, nearfalls & suplexes. He was like a one man Michinoku Pro 10 Man finishing stretch. This is awesome when Terry & Ian are in their bleeding and punching for their lives. They get a lot of time to develop this match and it eventually breaks down to everyone brawling all over the place. This was a hell of a match. Really blew away my expectations.


Terry Funk vs. Dusty Rhodes (Bunkhouse Match CCW 5/7/05)
Dusty looks insane. The pre match video is truly. Truly outstanding. Dusty IS a national treasure. He’s absolutely correct. Terry throws a chair at the ring announcer mid-introduction. So Dusty does his own. Hahahaha! This is all so charming. The commentator specifies there’s a difference between a cowboy and a redneck. Couldn’t recommend this, but as someone who grew up in WCW country, I had fun watching this.


Terry Funk vs. Dustin Rhodes (CCW 11/19/05)
Whoa, Mick Foley is the guest ref. “I have been in pro-wrestling for years, and I ain’t selling no goddamn sock tonight.” Terrrry! JIMMY HART ON COMMENTARY! Dustin takes it to Terry and just beats the crap out of him bloodying him. Terry starts to make his comeback after grabbing a chair, throwing it over his head backwards and it landing on Dustin. Better than any Kawada transition ever. Of course Funk ends up going after Foley, but Foley gets the advantage giving Dustin the advantage. Foley starts to count Funk out of the ring so Dustin attacks Foley. So Funk & Foley end up going after Foley before getting back to each other. This was disappointing.


Terry Funk vs. Dusty Rhodes (Cage Match) (SCW 12/3/05)
Dusty really doesn’t work for me on the indys. “Well its my understanding they had some sort of falling out at the Lord’s Last Supper and they have continued it on until now. And I’m gonna tell you this is gonna be an ugly match before its over with.” The worst Southern commentators are infinitely better to any northeast “smart” commentator ever. They compare these two to grizzly bears and mountain lions. This is exactly what you’d expect, but not as good as you’d hope. Dusty just doesn’t do it for me on the indies. So much of what makes Dusty work is his charisma carrying a big spectacle with massive crowd heat. That sort of thing just isn’t possible on a small indy show like this.


Terry Funk & Tommy Dreamer vs. Mick Foley & Edge (One Night Stand 6/11/06)
Watched this recently and had this to say: Insane and fucking awesome match. Edge and Dreamer are two of the worst “name” wrestlers of the past 25 years, And Lita & Beulah spend much of the match looking like idiots standing on the apron as the men all kill each other. But motherfucking Terry Funk is so great it is ridiculous. He’s unbelievable here. Legit great match. Total blast.

Terry Funk vs Jerry Lawler (IZW 9/16/06)
Another incredible match from these two. Lawler is just a vicious ass kicker here and Terry is amazing selling. Fans are yelling things like “You’re a dirty fighter!” and “Come on, lay off of him!” In this match from 2006. Eventually Terry makes his big comeback and it rules. “You want some of this ECW shit?” And then he throws a ladder at the referee. Lawler brings out a board wrapped in barbed wire. But Terry gets it and stomps it on Lawler’s nuts. + 100 stars right there. I could watch these two have 100 matches together.

I'm reminded of a funny Pogo-Funk story where backstage Terry drank the fluid Pogo used for his fireballs thinking it was water and said "This water tastes like shit!". Pogo tried to explain it wasn't water and Terry replied with "No I said it tastes like shit!"