Terry Funk

[Grimmas]

1 hour ago, Shrike02 said:

How many female wrestlers do you have on your working list ahead of Funk, out of curiosity?

1 Akira Hokuto

2 Bull Nakano

[Boss Rock]

Terry has been flirting with top 10 status for me for years, perhaps the next 5 years are what finally put him over the top, ha. There are gaps in his career I haven't seen, but his 80's work with Hansen, Lawler, and Flair, his 90's indie work against Foley and Gilbert, and his batshit insane FMW tags is a pretty insane amount of variety.

[KB8]

Terry was my number 11 in 2016 and, to quote our good friend elliot, I fucking blew it with that one. In fairness, any wrestler I have at number 11 is someone I think ridiculously high of, but in 2016 Terry probably suffered a little from a case of out of sight, out of mind. I've watched and re-watched a decent amount of Funk since the last deadline and he is neither out of sight nor out of mind at this stage in the 2026 project, and right now he feels top 5 with a bullet. People have covered the points about him as an all-time level babyface and an all-time level heel, and of course I agree with those people. Versatility out the wazoo - great in singles, tags, basically every style of match he was ever involved in and he was involved in plenty, from long, technical title matches for the NWA title to propfest brawls where he gets powerbombed into a literal dumpster. Wrestled everywhere and seemingly everyWHEN. Probably my favourite maniac in the history of wrestling and if he wrestled his whole career in Puerto Rico he would've been my number 1 (assuming he never had to leave for his own safety, anyway). I honestly get why some folk wouldn't dig the jelly-leg bit, but I love it and thought he walked that cartoonish line perfectly. Plus his shtick is unmatched and nobody could go from stooging to wreaking havoc more seamlessly than Funk. I suppose the counterpoint to him as a number 1 contender is a relative lack of seven star superclassic matches. Or just, like, "great matches" or whatever terminology we're using. It's kind of hard for me to actually articulate this, but I completely understand that point and it's one I probably would've agreed with once. Like, I think Terry has lots of great matches, but they're not necessarily the sort of matches I could see other people thinking are great. They don't feel "conventionally great" or whatever. That's not me trying to sound galaxy brain or smarter than your average fan, because in reality I'm pretty much a dipshit and I have awful taste in everything and nobody should listen to me anyway, but, for example, I could see someone thinking something like Terry/Hansen (pick one) doesn't qualify for classic status because it's only about 13 minutes long and doesn't really have a finishing stretch and ends in a riot. In comparison, Flair has tonnes of matches that have all the hallmarks of what would typically qualify as a great match. I'm not even explaining this very well but basically I understand why people would think Terry doesn't have as many great matches as, say, Flair. Especially not guys like Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, even Jumbo or Tenryu or Hansen or a Daniel Bryan. Same goes for any of the modern New Japan folks. I've seen the argument that he doesn't have as many great matches as Samoa Joe, and even if I disagree I get where that argument is rooted and think it's perfectly valid. It's just that I have a very different idea of what a great match is now than I did 15 years ago and in keeping with that idea Terry Funk has lots of matches I'd happily call great. He has a fucking bazillion performances I'd call great, even in random throwaway house show matches against Lanny Poffo or Rick McGraw or fucking Sal Bellomo. He's pretty much the ultimate "input" candidate, but I'm one of those folk who thinks he does exceptionally well on the output end of things as well. So yeah. A pretty good wrestler. 

 

TERRY FUNK YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 6/11/76)

v Harley Race (Houston, 7/1/77)

w/Dory Funk v Billy Robinson & Horst Hoffman (All Japan, 12/6/77)

w/Dory Funk v Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (All Japan, 12/15/78)

v Mark Lewin (Houston, 4/27/79)

w/Dory Funk v Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik (All Japan, 7/15/79)

v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 3/23/81)

v Jerry Lawler (Memphis, 4/25/81)

w/Dory Funk v Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka (All Japan, 12/13/81)

v Stan Hansen (All Japan, 9/11/82)

v Stan Hansen (All Japan, 4/14/83)

v Bob Orton Jr. (Southwest, 5/26/83)

w/Dory Funk v Stan Hansen & Terry Gordy (All Japan, 8/31/83)

v Barry Windham (Puerto Rico, 9/19/86)

v Rick Martel (Puerto Rico, 9/20/86)

v Ric Flair (NWA Great American Bash, 7/23/89)

v Ric Flair (NWA Clash of the Champions IX, 11/15/89)

v Atsushi Onita (FMW, 5/5/93)

v Sabu (WWN, 2/28/94)

w/Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck & Col. Parker v Nasty Boys, Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes (WCW Fall Brawl, 9/18/94)

w/Mike Awesome v Hayabusa & Masato Tanaka (FMW, 9/24/96)

v Tommy Rich (ECW Crossing the Line Again, 2/1/97)

v Sabu (ECW Born to be Wired, 8/9/97)

v Mick Foley (WWF RAW, 5/4/98)

w/Tommy Dreamer & Beaulah McGillicutty v Edge, Mick Foley & Lita (WWE/ECW One Night Stand, 6/11/06)

[elliott]

At this point, I think Terry has more great matches on tape than anybody.

[EnviousStupid]

I expect to make a proper case for Funk when 2026 rolls around as I've had him pegged as my #1 for a few years now. But I think even just looking at his body of work in All Japan, Terry is probably hovering around top 25 all time for me. Easily the most over gaijin I've ever seen, and at worst the 2nd greatest gaijin ever after Stan Hansen. You have a fantastic mix of singles and tags, the latter almost always with him being the highlight. All-time rivalries against Abdullah and Hansen, as well as an underrated one with the Funks playing soft heel to Baba/Jumbo across multiple Tag Leagues. His NWA title defense with Jumbo is the only one we have in full, but also happens to be one of the best of its time and style. There's also great stuff with him as a title challenger against Flair in 81, and Bockwinkel in 83 (non-title match, but Bock was billed as AWA World champion at the time). Gave the likes of Tiger Jeet Singh and Bruiser Brody most of their best matches on footage. For my money, he had the best retirement match I've ever seen and could've stopped there, but he returned a year later and instead of keeping to what he was, he evolved overtime. Like a precursor to the middle-aged and crazy phase, acting as a sort of old guard to the likes of Choshu/Yatsu, Tenryu/Hara, Misawa/Kawada. 

 

[mmcoor]

Ive been thinking about this project a lot recently as 2026 nears closer, and the more that i think about Terry, the more I'm convinced that he's the best male wrestler of all time. I'll probobly write a more detailed post at some point.