The Funks and Fritz von Erich

[JerryvonKramer]

When we did the Amarillo show on Titans, I wondered about why the Funks never seemed to work WCCW -- and not only them but most of their West Texas crew as well, with the exception of Brody.

 

In his book, apparently, Gary Hart claims that The Funks hated Fritz for the way he took over Texas.

 

This contradicts what Funk says in his own book, in which there is no hint of animosity towards Fritz and a good deal of respect and gratitude because Fritz had the deciding vote that made Terry NWA world champ. He also talks about how Fritz and Dory Sr were good friends. Something seems strange.

 

Terry goes out of his way to put over Fritz, and if the story about the NWA title vote is true, why would he hate him? There doesn't seem to be any time when the Funks went against their dad's wishes and Dory Sr and Fritz were running buddies. They also had an ongoing talent trade deal when Amarillo was still running, so you can see guys working shots for the Funks then going to Dallas.

 

Fritz wrestled Dory Jr in 1972 in front of 26,000.

 

 

If I ever track down that seemingly-never-watched-by-anyone Dory Jr shoot, which is 3 hours, maybe they'll ask him about Fritz

 

Here's a bit of Dory talking about Fritz and especially that match in 72:

 

 

Again, not much hint of any animosity.

 

Here's some on this on Classics: http://wrestlingclassics.com/cgi-bin/.ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=18;t=027068;p=1

 

I haven't seen it either, but Kevin von Erich says this in a shoot interview: "The Funks- They loved wrestling Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. but it didn’t draw well because the older crowd had quit coming to the matches and the younger crowd who had started coming wanted to see him and his brothers wrestle someone else young instead of the Funks. Kevin feels that someone should write a book about the whole Funk family or Terry in particular because he’s so colorful." Since Dory did the shot in Florida with David in 81, I'm not sure if there was real heat there. Maybe they had some good reasons for the Funks not running in Dallas.

 

Any additional info or insight from anyone? Does anyone else other than Gary Hart ever mention this or go into it? I just tweeted both Kevin and Dory to ask about it.

[thebrainfollower]

I can't give you an answer Parv, but I will say this having listened to a bunch of Gary Hart interviews.

 

Gary seems to be one of those guys, like Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette, whose word is taken as absolute Gospel by the IWC. I myself found a number of errors (which are just factual and could be memory) in his interviews and would doubt anything he, or anyone for that matter as a good historian, says that can't be backed up.

 

Having said that Dory might just have too much class to go after a family that has seen the tragedy of the Von Erichs.

[JerryvonKramer]

Having said that Dory might just have too much class to go after a family that has seen the tragedy of the Von Erichs.

Same for Terry in his book too.

 

My idea was that it might have been something like:

 

Pre-79: they were on good terms because their dad was tight with Fritz and he voted for Terry for the title. They didn't work in Dallas because they were busy in Amarillo, Japan and elsewhere.

 

81-84 or so: they might have been pissed at Fritz for moving into West Texas after Murdoch and Mulligan went under. And perhaps Gary Hart is remembering something of that. (Although they weren't pissed enough for Dory not to tag with David for that tag run in Florida)

 

Post-84: as tragedies rack up, out of a combination of repsect for their old man, personally knowing Fritz, loving the business, and as stalwart NWA guys, they put it down to water under the bridge and let by-gones be by-gones.

 

There's also one question that we might be able to find the answer to:

 

- What matches between the Von Erichs and the Funks is Kevin talking about in that shoot? If he takes time out to talk about it, surely it must have happened, but when and where? Aside from Dory tagging with David in Florida, I've not come across any interaction between The Funks and the von Erich boys.

[ohtani's jacket]

- What matches between the Von Erichs and the Funks is Kevin talking about in that shoot? If he takes time out to talk about it, surely it must have happened, but when and where? Aside from Dory tagging with David in Florida, I've not come across any interaction between The Funks and the von Erich boys.

 

 

http://www.infinitecore.ca/superstar/index.php?threadid=563

[JerryvonKramer]

I got an answer from Kevin: "Dory and Terry are some of our best friends, The 1st Tex Stadium Show, Dad and Dory Jr. Both are great"

 

Dory just retweeted my discovery of tape of a match of his against Red Bastien from Amarillo in 1975 buried on a random episode of TNT, and seems to have ignored my question. I also wonder if it's really Dory on there though, because Marty runs a lot of his online stuff right?

[goc]

I'm more inclined to think that The Funks never worked Dallas due to timing issues/ability to make more money elsewhere than anything else. I know the story on the Von Erichs working heel in Amarillo was that Fritz put a stop to it pretty quickly because he didn't want them working heel so close to Dallas.

[ohtani's jacket]

They did work in Dallas. There's just no record of them doing so after they sold the Amarillo territory. Terry wrestled Fritz at Texas Stadium in 1976, for example.

[goc]

That's what I meant. I know that Dory wrestled Fritz in Dallas also but I was mostly talking about during the time period where they could have come in to work the Von Erich boys.

[sek69]

I just assumed it was a combination of not having much time, and not really being a stylistic fit for World Class at the time. They were going all MTV with music videos and whatnot, what were the Funks going to do in that environment? They already had Harley coming in to play the "grizzled NWA champion making the Von Erich boys look good" role at that time.

[KrisZ]

One of the main things I think though is wherever Dory was working he was booking the territory.....and he wasn't going to do that in Dallas

[Johnny Sorrow]

I just assumed it was a combination of not having much time, and not really being a stylistic fit for World Class at the time. They were going all MTV with music videos and whatnot, what were the Funks going to do in that environment?.

Well, the Funks went to the WWF when it was going all MTV and shit. 😀