JerryvonKramer

This requires a bit of mediation, it's not that "some things are natural" and "other things are cultural", it's always an interaction between the two. No. There are simple attitudes, body languages and postures that are shared among all humanity, without any bit of culture. Hell, some of it is even shared by the great monkeys with which we share 99% of our genetics. It's more complicated than that. I am currently writing my fifth book on exactly this topic (as in all five books are about this context / culture vs. universality / nature business). Believe it or not, I am broadly on the side of universality and seeing common human traits across culture and history, but it's really not as simple as making a statement like this. And the arguments and data on the other side are powerful. This is a very reductive post from you El-P. It's always an intereaction between the "nature" and the "culture". As described above. There's no point where one exists autonomous of the other.

This requires a bit of mediation, it's not that "some things are natural" and "other things are cultural", it's always an interaction between the two. Gary Marcus: the brain is like a book which at birth already has a rough draft written in outline, even though no chapters are complete: ‘Nature provides a first draft, which experience then revises … “Built-in” does not mean unmalleable; it means “organized in advance of experience”’. We have natural tendencies (some people prefer to use to word "capabilities"), but they only come into fruition in and through culture, which can push those tendencies one way or the other. The natural tendencies are more like limits or parameters.

One thing I know on this is that on the Mid-West shows in traditional AWA country, they'd use Jerry Valiant's ring, and as part of the deal Valiant would get a spot on the card. This is why Jerry Valiant is still around as a jobber in 1985. Some of you might recall him losing to Uncle Elmer in seconds on SNME.

What I want is for gotnw to go through 70s AJPW purely to explaining why the crowd laugh, every single time, cos I don't know. "Inferior perception", what a cheeky little oik eh.

I think there are different levels of understanding. Some of OJ's posts about Japanese culture in the past have been really interesting and in some of the tropes that we might understanding totally differently. A lot of people love peak AJPW stuff, but there are quite a few little things in there that I'm sure we're missing just through the cultural gap. Doesn't mean we can't get *some* of it. Japan isn't some weird alien world, it's a civilised country with many crossover points in history with a lot of parallel values, etc. etc., and AJPW wrestling in particular owes a lot to the NWA style, the influence of the Funks and so on. There are enough cross-over points of commonality for it not to be too much of a struggle. We get there's a clash of values between Jumbo and Tenryu, we get that Jumbo is establishment and Tenryu is rebel. We get that Misawa is the golden boy, Kawada the unchosen one, and Kobashi the fiery young underdog who doesn't know when to quit, etc. etc. We get a lot of it, but there are also "winks" we are surely missing. Sometimes those old AJ crowds start laughing. And surely everyone has had the experience at some point of wondering "what the fuck are they laughing at here?" I have loads of times. Maybe it might be completely obvious to a Japanese person, I dunno. I think the experience of a British person watching World of Sport stuff is going to be a bit different from the American experience of it. Just so many things in there that only a person who grew up here would recognise or even pick up on. Chad and I were watching Clash 22 the other day and talking about that pretty amazing 2 Cold Scorpio vid from early 1993. Well, y'know first it helps to have been around in 1993 to recognise some of the stuff that vid is drawing on. But Chad picked up on some local Georgia stuff that I wouldn't have known about. More and more context starts to enrich the experience. You can watch anything cold, and you can get *something* from that but the addition of knowing some contexts surely deepens understanding. I mean this sometimes happens in surprising ways. I went through a spell of listening to a huge amount of jazz standards, Tin Pan Alley stuff ... I kept coming across Gorilla Monsoon-isms, loads of his lines were lifted straight out of old songs, which older fans might have known. Now that additional bit of information doesn't add a whole lot, but it does make me understand Gorilla-isms in a slightly new way. A lot of this stuff would also apply if we were just talking strictly in-ring too. First at the most basic level. Fan of promotion X expects to see bombs while fan of promotion Y expects to see flips and fan of promotion Z expects to see grapplefuck. Even within areas that seem like they wouldn't have much variance like mainstream 80s wrestling, you start finding weird things in different places: uber-long shines in AWA for example, truncated heel sequences in late-80s WWF, "heel in peril" in WWF tags, double heat in AWA tags, the piledriver just being a transitional move in some places while being a wipeout KO type move in others, etc. etc. I think we saw some of it with Last Battle of Atlanta. An easier match to appreciate if you get some of the norms of early 80s territorial wrestling. And probably easier to get still if you happen to be from Georgia. Aliens and winks.

Please do report back on if you watch that Bellomo match, not usual that I be recommending a Sal match to anyone and need to check I'm not going mad.

It comes to something when a list that contains Leo Reisman, The Mississippi Sheiks, George Formby, Sparks and The Lilac Time -- probably the only top 100 list ever to include all five of those names in the same place -- is derided for "not being eclectic enough". As Cole Porter might say, "timmmmmmes have changed".

Really fantastic info!! I think it maybe says something about the booking and presentation of these shows that some of these stories have been so difficult to follow.

Dude, you made this post: All I've got to go on is what you write, as you've pointed out I can't mind read. That post suggested to me that you didn't connect the dots and it also strongly suggested that you weren't entirely aware how influential that idea of the aliens and the winks has been. If you were aware of it, fine, you made it seem like you were not. I still think it is super relevant to the thread. Also, the fact that you see me bringing up thinkers and concepts as "name dropping" suggests to me that you aren't taking these posts in good faith. The names are less important than the ideas. I include the names in case people want to look them up. I imagine some might want to, just as you imagine some might want to look up Serif. Also, I'm not uber-serious as anyone that even knows me a tiny bit knows. Just not in any way. As for women on the list, I can reveal the top 25 contains three solo women and at least two bands with prominent female members. I see that fact as being neither here nor there.

I don't recall saying a single thing about any of those things. You said what you hold to and why, I said without even any even explicit reference to your post, what I hold to and why. I never said anything or cast any aspersions about your reading, experiences or anything else, that appears to have come entirely from you. If you saw me making the point about needing to understand the wink (or else you're just seeing your own values reflected back at you) and saw that as some sort of challenge to you personally, it's on you. I never said anyone has or hasn't read Geertz, or anyone else, I just thought he was super relevant. If you feel patronized by me mentioning it and telling you to connect the dots after you express that you don't see why it's relevant (or that you did connect the dots straight away, which is it?), that's again on you. I maintain that the post I made was entirely relevant to this thread and made in a way that was clear and informative rather than patronizing. I'm not the one jumping up and down to write off Bob Dylan, or prove that I've read Spinoza. Just saying.

It's entirely relevant to this whole discussion, entirely. I'll leave you to connect the dots.

Since you seem so shocked, you'd also probably be surprised to learn how influential that idea has been in reading literature over the past 35 years. We're not talking about Turkish writers here, either, but Shakespeare and even more recent writers. I guess it depends on whether you want something really to speak across history and culture from the specifics of its time and place, or if you just want to see your own values reflected back at you in mediated form.

There's an anthropologist called Clifford Geertz who used to go and visit remote tribes who hadn't had a lot of contact with the west. He makes an analogy of what he saw his task as being. Imagine an alien, he said, who saw a cheeky schoolboy winking. What would it take for that alien to understand that it's not just an eye twitch or a muscle spasm but an indication that the boy is about to get up to mischief? He thought that the only real way to understand a culture is if you can get to the point of understanding the wink as a wink. Although I disagree with many aspects of his theory and practice, on that broad point, I think he's right. If you don't understand the wink as a wink, I'm not sure you have a hope of understanding the other culture. Without it, all you are seeing is your own values read into that culture and reflected back at you. So in a sense you must start as the alien trying to understand the wink. I'll hold to that.

El-P, saw you added more, might as well address this and not leave it dangle: I'll read it, sure, but when it comes to writing about it I leave it to the experts, especially once we are beyond European / Russian / Middle-Eastern / post-colonial Indian literature when the historical, cultural and philosophical points of crossover start being further and further removed. Thomas Aquinas read Avicenna, but he didn't read Lao Tze. So I feel it's pretty much a different ball game once you get to China, which has its own separate, rich and deep history and philosophies. Eurasian thinking is broadly all connected, they read Plato and Aristotle in the Middle East and in India, and thinking came back down the Silk Road the other way. The Byzantines and Ottomans were both powerful in different periods of history. You could read Petrarch and Hafez side by side and they'd speak to each other in interesting ways, they are kinda connected. I wouldn't really know where to start looking in 14th century China. Just as an aside, I feel like I learned a huge amount about Chinese history from this book. If anything really really needs to be understood from within its own history, philosophy and mantras, it's China. I always say don't try to run before you can walk, and even just in terms of understanding Western culture I'm barely crawling. So I have real hesitancy about diving in two-footed and making assessments on things from other cultures. I kinda want to understand where I come from first, and it will likely take a lifetime to do so.

I think there could be a whole thread just covering this. I'm not sure I'm completely sold on the current trend for "deep dives". I can see how it serves a purpose with a GWE-type project, and satisfies the itch for the obscure in an age where very little is obscure. However, when it leads to a narrow worldview, then there is a lack of understanding of the wider context that "deep dive" falls within. Plus, it makes music/wrestling whatever sound like hard work, rather than something that makes life better. It also goes back to the OP of this thread though, which is that in order to get anything you need some context. There's no universal standard remember, so in order to really appreciate something you can't hopscotch until you've understood the style on its own terms. People have talked about having different "heads" for different things, you actually actually have to acquire the head first. OR I can see an argument for a much more care-free "whatever" attitude where you're watching random YouTube vids or MTV vids or whatever not quite knowing what you are watching and getting kicks from it even though you have little to no idea what's going on. There's that too.

I don't understand that way of thinking *at all*. I find it pretty self-centered around a culturally dominating culture. Plus, there's so much music "without words", to begin with. And then again, with not understanding the words, surely something is lost in translation (although not always, really, it's much better to not understand words with tons of english speaking stuff too, really), but there's so much more than just the meaning of said words. Listening to Turkish folk, I can get shivers just because of the expressivity, not to mention the amazing baglama music. A lot of the french singers I like the most are the ones who are a bit cryptic and not too litteral. The sound of the words meaning more than the words themselves. And like I said, the amazing amount of actual instrumental music makes it easy to listen to something other than the good ol' US & UK rock & pop stuff. As Björk would have put out "There's more to life than this." This isn't an argument I'm going to expand on beyond this. I like lyrics, there are very few intrstrumental-only artists on my list; I also want to understand things inside out and not "dabble". Rather than attack my list -- which most readers have said has led them to explore artists they've never heard of before -- it would be better to make your own somewhere. I'm not at all comfortable trying to make assessments on Turkish music, or even the Iranian music my dad listens to, and I can speak Farsi and grew up hearing it. Not comfortable at all, and I don't see that changing over this exchange. I repeat that it's an unreasonable demand. World cinema is a different kettle of fish cos of the subtitles and it being a visual medium. I feel I can get into Iranian cinema far more readily than I can into Iranian music. World cinema is also a lot more part of "the fandom" so it's easier to get good recommendations and guides. Some things travel easier than others. I will not engage you more on this topic.

In general I do agree that everyone is a bit more eclectic and partly because they can afford to be. Watching a YouTube clip only costs time. And there may be something interesting to be written on how money restraints may have played a role in badge-of-pride sub-cultures. But it still goes on to some extent. I was writing to a 76-year old professor the other day. We were going back and forth on something I'd written and he seemed to think at one point that I had a (political) anti-Western (as in anti-capitalist) agenda, which is completely untrue. I think I said something in my reply which could be of some relevance here: I'll just leave that in there. I think some people might get something out of it. I've made iterations of that same argument for a long time because I believe it to be true. You've been reading my music list so far, is that true? I wouldn't say your list is that eclectic. It covers a wide variety of eras but it's mostly artists from the same genres. Reading the list, a person gets a clear idea of what you value in music. Judging by what you've written in this thread, it seems you'd be suspicious of a list that is wildly eclectic. Well in fairness I did say it was a favourites list and so there was zero demand to pay any lip service. And I suppose it doesn't reflect the many hours, days, weeks, months even I've spent on entire styles and genres that just didn't make it. I spent months listening to nothing but power pop, before figuring out it probably wasn't for me. I assume any serious music fan has gone down similar exploratory roads. Some lead you somewhere, other times you figure that once the expedition ends there won't be a lot making you go back. I wanted to make something entirely honest with zero posing. I genuinely don't find myself reaching for Slint or Suicide albums very much, so I'm not going to list or even mention them to look cool or whatever. I also don't feel a single iota of pressure not to be "Anglo-centric", it would just be a lie. I predominantly listen to British and American records. It's pretty much entirely unreasonable to expect my favourite artists to be Indian or Chinese or whatever else. When Anglo-American music is as vast as it is, so that one will never have explored everything in a lifetime, I'm not sure that there is world enough and time to get to the point where I really *get* let's say Middle Eastern music. I probably draw the line at learning Arabic to appreciate an album. Breadth is a noble aim, but never at the expense of depth. And depth takes a lot of time and effort. Incidentally before anyone makes the point, Pro-wrestling is indefinitely smaller than music, and so its limits are more within reach. Puro and lucha have also made big inroads into the fandom than various world musics have into Anglo-American music culture, partly precisely because the limits of pro wrestling are so small.

I'd be hesitant to use PWO as a synecdoche for "everyone". When I survey the wrestling scene, I still see WWE fanboys, guys into indie stuff, guys into shooty stuff, guys into puro, guys like Jim Cornette and so on. How many people try to be into "everything"? Less than one percent? Which is to say, I still think people define themselves by what they do and don't like. And if anything increased accessibility, YouTube and social media has exacerbated that. Just take a little surf around Facebook and Twitter profiles. Are fans *really* not defining themselves by their tastes? Genuine question. In a world of endless choice in which you are encouraged to go your own way, people don't define themselves by their taste? I wonder about that. Not being argumentative, I just think that overbooked may have overstated the point. It doesn't quite tally with my experience of the 2010s so far.

Hoss and Jimmy Jack Funk vs. Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff (7/26/86) Philly. Uber rare heel vs. heel match here. Volkoff songs the anthem. No manager present for Sheik and Volkoff. Hart is there with Funks. Wonder where the Slickster was. Iron Sheik puts in a special request for the crowd not to say "USA" during this match. Monsoon and Dick Graham on commentary. Funks are de facto faces. Nonetheless Jimmy Jack chokes Sheik with the tag rope. Comes in with a bodyslam. Atomic drop. Dory in. It's pretty weird seeing him in there against Sheik and Volkoff. Dumps Volkoff. Funks have not in any way tried to work as faces, proper heel vs. heel match. Holy shit! Dory ate the pin for Sheik! Hell froze over in July 1986. I think that's maybe only the third time I've seen Dory pinned in all these matches. **1/2

Hoss and Terry Funk vs. JYD and Tito Santana (3/28/85) Elvira is of course brutal on commentary. Lord Al and Jesse is an interesting and rare pairing though. "Yeah but he was kicking that guy" - Elvira This is exactly what you'd hope for which is Tito as FIP as the Funks work him over and with various suplexes, leg drops and the like. Hot tag to JYD and he seems a lot more switched on here than he was in that Andre tag. Decent match but "just a typical Funks match" in many ways. ***1/2 Promo (4/28/86) Jimmy Hart has underwear with hearts on it thrown at him by fans. Andrian Adonis likes the underpants. Dory gets on the mic. "You take someone like me, and you take Adrian Adonis here, and what do you see?" *Okerlund double take* "Well, I wouldn't like to say" Ha ha. Classic. While Dory continues Adrian puts the underpants on the mic. Dory is not amused and picks them off onto the floor. Dory also throws shade at "that little bitty midget the Haiti kid". Jimmy says "never trust a midget". Adrian camps it up. Dory also mentions he's seen Ricky Steamboat on TV with his "martial arts exhibitions ... Well karate don't scare us" If I had to hand out awards for the most out of place person in a segment ever Dory here might be it. He is completely out of step with weird and whacky Vince World. Just a duck out of water here. Okerlund seems happy to wrap it up. Hoss and Terry Funk vs. Chuck Simpson and George Wells (2/10/86) My playlist a bit out of order here since we're back in February. Dory is announced as "Dory". Not a lot of consistency on this "Hoss" deal. Gorilla and Jesse on commentary. This is All Star and the Ontario tapings again. Gorilla calls Dory "Dory Jr" and really puts over his credentials and background. Jesse does too. Can tell he had a lot of backstage respect just because of how they talk about him. This was actually his in-ring debut. Wells actually gets a hot tag here and several body slams. Texas Cloverleaf!! Wow, don't see Dory pull that one out often. Worth seeing just for that. *1/2 Hoss and Terry Funk vs. Jeff Gripley and Ivan McDonald (5/5/86 on YouTube, actually 2/18/86 and shown 3/2/86 on All Star, guessing 5/5 was a replay on Prime Time) Gripley is a proper jobber's jobber, a true wimpy. McDonald seems a bit more stacked like he might have been pushed in a small territory once somewhere. Finkel announces Dory as "Dory", the caption says "Dory Funk", Gorilla calls him "Dory". This is May and after Wrestlemania, there is zero consistency on the name. This has given me reason to doubt the date on the clip ... And sure enough it's from February. Seems to me the "Hoss" thing started sometime in March. Monsoon puts over Dory Sr a good bit. Seemingly he's flying solo here. He calls Terry, "Terrible Terry" a lot. Oh there it is ... "Apparently Dory wants to be referred to as 'Horse', he doesn't look much like a horse" - Gorilla Monsoon. I think he probably misheard the memo. Funks unload pretty much their entire arsenal of offense on Gripley, vertical suplex, butterfly suplex, piledriver, swinging neckbreaker, snapmare. They have done a real number on him. Texas Cloverleaf! Maybe that was a Vince order? We've only seen the spinning toehold once so far. Great squash! **1/2 Hoss and Terry Funk vs. Hulk Hogan and JYD (1/5/86) This is from SNME, Vince and Heenan on commentary. Hogan with slam and elbow drop on Dory. JYD and Dory lock up. Clothesline. "His father had nine months and the best name they could come up with was Junk Yard" - Bobby Heenan "Come on Hoss, slow it down, keep it to your pace" - Bobby Heenan "Midget sheesh kebab my favourite" - Bobby Heenan Basically all the Funks have done so far is pinball for the faces. But Jimmy Hart skewered Haiti Kid. JYD carries him back to the locker room. "Looks like Junkyard Dog is on his way to rent a midget" - Bobby Heenan Dory takes over on Hogan with uppercuts but Hulk reverses the suplex. Dory dumps him. Terry sneaks over and attacks the injures ribs with the branding iron. Jimmy Hart lays in wimp shots too. JYD slams Terry on the concrete. Back body drop on concrete. Hulk had Dory in ring. Tags JYD in. Irish whip to corner. JYD charges. BAM. Sock to the throat. That's one of the coolest cuts off I've ever seen! Smashed him dead. European uppercut. Terry in. Haiti Kid is back out with a bandage on. Double collision spot. Slam by Terry. Misses splash from top and by a country mile. Hot tag to Hogan drops the leg on Terry and that's three. I knew Terry would drop the fall and not Dory. And now ... The Funks have Haiti Kid. Branding iron! This is a sick ambush on a midget! But Hulk saves him and grabs Jimmy Hart. "This is disgusting, a 300lb man grabs poor Jimmy Hart and Haiti Kid takes advantage!" - Bobby Heenan Heenan was on absolute fire here. A lot of midget business here, I'd actually like to see a regular tag involving Hogan and Funks, maybe with a more workrate-y partner than JYD. ** Hoss and Jimmy Jack Funk vs. Jim Power and SD Jones (5/5/86) A lot of JTTS in that ring, including JTTS megateam Powers and Jones, poor Dory, a former NWA champ slumming it with these chumps. "What's become of Terrible Terry?" - Gorilla Monsoon They are wondering if he's back on the ranch, Heenan on commentary also. They ask Jimmy Hart and he says "that's out business, he might be here, he might be in any arena, he could be here tonight!" Well that's one way of dealing with it. SD a house of fire and Dory and Jimmy Jack both sell big for him. Cut off with boot in face. Dory hits a number of really nice vertical suplexes in this match. Standing scoop powerslam by Jimmy Jack, Texas cloverleaf finishes it. *1/2 Interview (5/24/86) Ken Resnick with the interview. Jimmy Hart talks. Dory throws a JYD action figure on the floor. Dory on mic now: explains he's here because he can't stand successful people and the most successful is Hulk Hogan. He's also here for "the Junkyard Jackass". He introduces now his cousin Jimmy Jack. He's a crazed wild brawler. He's a loon. Probably the best Dory promo I can recall seeing. Interview (6/2/86) Resnick again with Jimmy Hart. Dory has ... A MUSTACHE. Legit marking for Dory with a tache. Jimmy Jack comes in again. This is basically a re-run of the previous promo, almost like they did it a few times. Weird. Hoss Funk vs. George Wells (6/23/86) This is from MSG, Monsoon and Lord Al on commentary. Wells does a kip up here. Hayes and Monsoon do a good job of talking up Dory here, his character and his "credentials". "What is Jimmy Hart saying to Hoss Funk? What wisdom could he possibly have for him?" - Lord Alfred Hayes You can tell Lord Al loves Dory here. Uppercuts. Dumps him. Suplex back in. Grapevine. Wells reverses a suplex. "You're right about Wells, he's put on a bit of weight recently" Lord Alfred Hayes You know your career is in trouble if you ever get that call from Lord Al, a favourite of his to indicate a guy is on the slide. Scoop slam by Wells. Knee lift. "Nice knee lift, yes, but he's moving slowly. Not moving with any quality- Lord Alfred Hayes Lord Al really knew how to bury guys when he wanted to. "His matches are following a pattern: start slow and get slower" - Gorilla Monsoon They are really laying into Wells here, even while he's on top! They seem to be playing up an angle that he's not quite himself but it's coming across like a burial. Dory goes up to the top. Caught! Backbreaker by Wells. Dory does not belong on the top rope. Flying cross body by Wells. Headbutt. Splash from top but Dory gets both knees up and that's enough for three. "Moving like a tortoise. I'm afraid, he's simply carrying too much weight, the conditioning is not there." - Lord Alfred Hayes. The thing is Wells wasn't even that big here, especially not compared to JYD. Lord Al and Monsoon were borderline cruel about Wells on commentary throughout this match. **1/2

I mixed the matches up. I was trying to be friendly and point you towards something that might be of interest. I forgot that it had all been worked out in 1989, sorry. Next time I'll know better.

Enter Dory, or rather Hoss, as he saves Terry from JYD coming at him with the branding iron by nailing him on the back of the head with a cowboy boot. Even Jimmy Hart gets involved with the beatdown. Vince and Bruno call Dory "Dory Funk" throughout this. The Body Shop (2/22/86) Jesse says he's privileged to welcome such heritage and history to the Body Shop tonight. See, when it's Terry alone it's all Texas wildman, when it's the brothers together it's tradition and history. Just an interesting little wrinkle. Jimmy Hart talks first, and he's delighted at the JYD beatdown. Terry introduces Dory as "the John Wayne of professional wrestling ... The silent type" Dory gets on the mic now, he's pretty animated. He says that they are blood, there may be other wrestling brothers but none like the Funk brothers. Jesse cuts him off and Terry takes over. Seems like they went too long. Hey, they never once called him "Hoss" here. Hoss and Terry Funk and Jimmy Hart vs. JYD and Andre (3/23/86) Maple Lead Gardens again. Monsoon and Jesse. Andre is in a pair of yellow tights and is somehow both fatter than hold fuck here AND seemingly in pretty good shape, insomuch as his shoulders and arms look a bit more toned than normal. Terry was using the "middle aged and crazy" line here. Spot where JYD and Dory cross cross and Terry gets himself involved with the cross cross. Don't recall seeing that before. Quite funny. Dory goes over and taunts Andre now. Is that wise? He actually wants JYD to tag out. Doesn't happen. I actually think secretly Dory just wanted a better worker in there with him. European uppercuts on the corner on Dog. Terry jn with a piledriver. Jimmy Hart jn with token wimp offense. Immediate tag out. Terry dumps him. Dory with a backbreaker outside. Those red Maple Leaf guardrails don't look very secure. JYD has been generally awful in this match, everything he does looks rubbish including taking head shots to the turnbuckle and waving his arms during a sleeper. You can't wrestle. Andre in, double noggin knocker, but Dory cuts him off, and chokes him on middle rope. Terry grabs his leg. Two vs. One a lot here. Massive slap by Andre on Dory, you could hear that. Patentend elbow smash by Dory, patented "stuck in the ropes" from Andre. Funks double teaming. Terry attacking alone now, Andre starts no selling, comes back with a big slap. JYD back in with headbutts. Dory in. Jimmy Hart from the top with a megaphone and it's a DQ. JYD and Ansre get to have a little bit of fun with Jimmy now to pop the crowd. Andre gets the big chain and swings it to ward off the Funks. This match totally lost its way as it drifted into chaos by the end. No sort of structure or anything. It was at its best when Andre was in there with the Funks as one would expect. JYD is shockingly bad in this match. Both Funks looked kinda old and saggy here. Only Andre came out of it looking good. ** Promo (3/24/86) Jimmy Hart cuts a promo on JYD and Tito for Wrestlemania 2. Terry gets on mic too. Dory's contribution is so subdued and bland it's almost funny "There are going to be more people watching Wrestlemania 2 than any other event, and the Funks are going to be there." Maybe I'll watch that now.

Terry Debut vignette (6/23/85) Ha ha. Terry Funk vs. Aldo Marino (6/29/85) Funk completely destroys a random ring attendant to start. Thought it was Slick at first. Ring attendant does a stretcher job. Female referee for this one, don't tell Andy Gray. Marino throws Funk out of the ring and gets in a drop kick before tapping to the spinning toehold. Female ref eh? Unusual. Piper's Pit (7/6/85) Terry is jealous of Hogan and JYD because they make more money than him. He's been fined $5,000 for manhandling the ring attendant. He explains that he did it because they guy tried to put his cowboy hat on, which you don't do! Wild segment. The Body Shop (7/13/85) Jesse has a blue wig on, absolutely ridiculous. Talks about wrestling a black athlete with a lot of black people in the audience. JYD was there. Says he was basically Ambushed and had to go to hospital. Calls him an egg sucking dog. Terry Funk vs. Sal Bellomo (8/17/85) Let's see how Terry fares against the WWF JTTS brigade. Gorilla gets his "hanging off the rafters" line in early. Jesse also on commentary. Cap Centre. Terry abuses a random guy in the crowd. Bellomo looks absurdly wimpy here in his red slip on. Terry lands on the commentary table and has an altercation with Monsoon, who looks legit pissed. Jesse notes it. Bellomo getting a lot of joy here. Rams arm on railings. Full arm drag and twist. Bellomo has stated focused on the shoulder, head butts it. Funk has got the crowd riled up. Some hammerlock exchange stuff. "Salvatore a nice guy, sometimes nice guys finish last" - Gorilla Monsoon Terry dumps Sal onto the announce table again, trying to rile Gorilla. Gotta say, seeing action go to the floor so often is pretty weird in this setting. Bellomo gets his leg stuck in the ropes. Some pretty hot action now. Bellomo does some big bumps including landing belly first on Funk's knees. He mule kicks his way out of a sleeper, suplex back in. Flying cross body! OMG, I just popped for a near fall in a Sal Bellomo match. Funk then puts him out with a sleeper. Easily the best Bellomo match I've ever seen, and possibly his career match. If you were ever going to point to Funk the miracle worker, this might be a place to look. ***1/2 Piper's Pit (8/24/85) Terry's here to talk about dawgs. He later calls JYD a jackass which the noise he'll make when he's branded with the iron. Also calls him a "pig nose". And he goes on the camera lens. Interview with Vince (10/13/85) Says he's gonna make an example of Steve "Gatorbreath". Wants JYD to know that he's the most dangerous man in the world. The "ass" part of "jackass" is bleeped out. Taking conservatism to the extreme there. Terry Funk vs. Steve Gatorwolf (10/13/85) Monsoon and Jesse on commentary again. Think this is Maple Leaf Gardens. Wonder where Gene was for Vince to be interviewing. To give you an idea of where Gaterwolf was on the WWF roster, he was jobbing to Johnny V and Iron Mike Sharpe at house shows in December 85. As far as I can tell Gaterwolf was always a jobber but he had a Native American gimmick and sometimes tagged with Strongbow. The curious phenomenon of the pure jobber with a gimmick. Terry still gives him an awful lot of offense including tomahawk chops, a bump out to the ramp, and a body slam. Sleeper for Gaterwolf. Funk fading ... Goes outside. Funk tries to suplex Gaterwolf back into the ring but he falls on top. Wins with sleeper. Funk gave Gaterwolf, a pure jobber, an awful lot of this match. Is there such a thing as being too giving? *1/2 Terry Funk vs. SD Jones (2/15/86) Here we go. Jones is wearing pyjamas! He looks half asleep. This is from All-Star, an Ontario taping. Monsoon and Jesse on commentary. Funk gives Jones three body slams in a row. Big "SD" chant. He shucks and jives to the chanting. Jones gets caught with a kick going for a back drop. Texas jabs, Funk comes up short and takes a big headbutt to boot. Jones-mania running wild here. Two more headbutts sends Funk packing outside. Jones dominating. Hart does something to Jones and he gives chase and he chases him in the ring to the other side and Funk blindsides him with a clothesline for a cheap win. Jones was screwed. Still think Funk might be a bit too giving here. Jones was many years removed from being a top star here and had been losing on a frequent basis for a long time, so to have him basically dominate here made Funk look pretty weak to me. How's he possibly going to cope with Hogan or JYD when he made such hard work of Jones? *1/2 Bellomo match is worth watching.

Tonight I'm going to be watching as much of the Funk Brothers' run in WWF as possible. If you want to follow along / comment yourself I've made a playlist here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS1QYjCSmymjXg6hPIBeCumibbDLcJ1V5 With some additional bits that aren't on YT here: http://www.dailymotion.com/playlist/x4nmig