Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler (3PW - 5/3/2003)

Jerry Lawler vs Terry Funk (3PW - 5/3/2003)

I love that this match actually happened, evidently it’s not the greatest match between these two but it’s still worth watching for any wrestling fan that likes old men going hard during the twilight of their careers so almost every wrestling fan on the face of the earth would like this and unsurprisingly I’m among those fanatics. They aren’t in their prime anymore, Jerry Lawler was 53 and Terry Funk was almost 60 when this match took place, in fact, Terry had his first ‘‘retirement’’ match around twenty years ago. The match itself is very slow but they make up for it with the masterful character work that they did throughout a surprisingly long match, it’s longer than the two matches that they had in Memphis in 1981 which is quite impressive putting their age into consideration. The crowd is also really into it, it’s what they had paid to see and it was money well spent as these two had one of the greatest showings of their careers in the most unexpected of places at an age in which you are supposed to be retired or you’re going to retire soon. This match made me appreciate even more the longevity of luchadores like El Satánico, Atlantis or Black Terry who’s still having great matches even though he’s 71 now. We can’t take them for granted but something all great wrestlers have in common is that age isn’t an impediment rather a feature, they all find a way to be great. Let’s think about other mediums and art forms for a second, Pablo Picasso was a great artist I can’t deny that but his last few years painting were awful and his medium wasn’t nearly as physically taxing as professional wrestling. 2024 is Bryan Danielson’s last year as a professional wrestler and he’s having a career year, this match reminded me of how greatness in wrestling can’t be lost.