Carlos Colon vs. Terry Funk (9/21/86)

[El Boricua]

Carlos Colon vs. Terry Funk (9/21/86)

[elliott]

I’m really excited for this one. Funk is on an amazing roll in PR and the last several matches have been tremendous. Awesome promo before the match with Funk calling Puerto Rico full of pigs and going crazy in general. He’s already referring to himself as Middle Aged and Crazy and this is 29 years ago. Amazing. “I wanna talk to the Puerto Ricans. I know a foreign language. Oink Oink.” Holy fuck. Funks vows to win the title and never return to the island. Great stuff. Match starts on the slower side with Colon getting the early advantage and Funk getting tied up in the ropes yet again before spilling outside and charging into the stands. Cops are running around trying to keep people away from Funk, which makes for a great scene. Funk gets the worse end of another boxing exchange but manages to slow down Colon with some chops and elbows in the corner before tossing Colon outside. Funk hits another piledriver on the floor, which has been his go to move during this tournament it seems. He lays the boots to Colon on the outside. This run of Funk matches is just about the only thing that could have possibly followed Invader vs Starr. Funk is still working some fun Fuerza-lite spots into this, but as it is the tournament final he is a lot more serious than in the previous matches. Funk hits the reverse mule kick to the balls which is a Colon spot and we see Colon’s busted open already. Funk keeps on him with a sleeper and they do an awesome job selling it on both ends. Colon finally fights back with is own lowblow and we get some classic Funk selling. Colon’s firey comeback mixed with Terry’s all over the place selling really makes me wish we had about 10 Funk vs Colon matches because Colon on top has been delightful. Colon gets his receipt and piledrives Funk on the floor and continues his attack. Lots of outside of the ring brawling as Funk is just getting his ass kicked. He oversells a lowblow so the ref will turns his back and Funk can get some knucks out of his trunks but Colon cuts him off before he can use them, makes his comeback and works the knee to set up the figure 4. Funk is awesome as you’d expect putting it over as you’d imagine and great selling it after the fact unable to stand and collapsing on a suplex attempt. Funk’s selling of his knee is one of the best tropes in wrestling. Dory Jr comes in to blast Colon with a cowboy boot but Colon is too close to the ropes. Funk is AMAZING throwing headbutts while staggering around. This is yet another awesome match. It isn’t as good as the previous Funk matches but it really isn’t that far off and was a totally satisfying finish to what looks like one of the best tournaments in the history of wrestling. I wanna see all of these matches. I’m even more convinced that Funk is the Greatest of All Time. And by this point in the set Colon would have been a lock for my GWE top 100. This dude just churns out good-great match after good-great match.

[AJS]

Another Terry Funk match, another great one. What a run it's been for him on this disk. He cuts a funny promo before the match (oink oink) but once the bell rings it's down to serious business. A few things I liked:

 

1. Colon hit some great looking headbutts on Funk throughout the match.

2. Some more great selling from Funk after a kick to the crotch. I'm not sure i've seen anyone sell a shot to the nuts as well as Terry Funk.

3. The two guys take turns giving each other headbutts later in the match. They both sell these brilliantly and you can really see the toll they take on both men.

 

I'm becoming more and more impressed with Colon as each match goes by. I hadn't seen much of him before this set, and I wasn't sure early on but i'm becoming a big fan. I thought he looked great when he was beating up on Funk here. He does everything with such an incredible intensity. Whilst watching Funk against Martel and Windham, I found that I was focusing more on Funk. Here my attention was split between the two men equally. That's a testament to Colon's skill and charisma.

 

I have to say it again, this disc has been phenomenal! Every match so far has been very good to really great.

[WingedEagle]

Another incredible promo from Funk before the match. He's going to win Universal Title and never return to this pig farm.

 

Lots of heel stooging and stalking around ringside from Funk. Piledriver on the floor and Colon bleeds. They work a sleeper that doesn't do much for me nor really fit into the territory, but Funk pulling the hair during the hold was a nice wrinkle. Comedy selling off the nut shot to break it and then Colon's cartwheel tells the crowd its time to wake up. On this occasion Carlos sets up the Figure-Four with some leg work, but then we get interference from Dory Jr. and a screwy finish. It appears to start pouring just after they wrap it up which is good fortune for everyone there. Curious why Terry & Colon didn't connect the way Colon did with Hansen or even Abby.

 

***1/4

[KB8]

If comic books are to believed, and I see no reason why they shouldn't, there's probably an alternate universe somewhere/sometime in which Terry Funk only toured Japan once every few years, and the majority of his peak was spent on the island of Puerto Rico. Don't get me wrong, I love Funk in Japan as much as the next guy. He had a ton of great stuff there. But imagine those Funks v Abby and Sheik matches happening in Puerto Rico? Imagine Funk getting to wrestle Carlos Colon or the Invaders or even Hercules Ayala every week? I wonder what kind of names they could've brought in with the drawing card of a former NWA World Champion being there full time. Fucking hell, never mind Abby and the Sheik, imagine Funk v Hansen happened in Puerto Rico?! A man can dream, I guess (those Funk/Invader matches from the early 80s are Holy Grail material at this point, btw). This is the final of the Universal Title tournament, which Funk reached by somehow getting past Windham and Martel despite literally wrestling parts of those matches with his pants down and/or a wooden chair around his head. His pre-match interview was incredible here. He calls Puerto Rico a giant pig farm again, says Colon is a yellow coward pig, then says he knows how to speak in a foreign language the crowd will understand. "Oink oink," he says, while you take a second just to thank the wrestling gods that we've been blessed with Terry Funk. Savinovic uses his sleeve to wipe his face of Funk's spittle so Funk just outright spits on him and this match is twelve stars before anybody's even gotten in the ring. This was actually a slightly more subdued Funk performance than his last two. Maybe it's because it's the final for all the marbles, but he was a little more businesslike. We still get some awesome shtick early on, though. This time he tries to back pedal from Colon and trips up over his own discarded chaps, then he takes a Flair Flip in the corner before seamlessly moving straight into his seesaw bit in the ropes as Colon peppers him with punches. Pretty soon he takes over, and as usual he goes to the piledriver outside, this time doing it on the stage. I'm a dork for guys working a chinlock and pulling the referee out of position by grabbing the hair, then using the other hand to blatantly choke while the ref' is looking out for more hair pulling. We got that here, and Funk even makes the hair pulling look like he's trying to give a guy a permanent bald patch. I'm not the first person to bring up Terry Funk's selling, but man is Terry Funk great at selling. He takes a punt to the balls (he did it to Colon first, so it was warranted) and it may be the best sell of a ball shot I've ever seen, and he even tries to turn it into a distraction spot by feigning a ruptured testicle so he can grab a foreign object. His sell of the figure four, while in the hold as well as afterwards, is really awesome as well. Nobody throws headbutts on jelly legs like Terry Funk. Not quite up there with the Windham and Martel matches, but it's good and something you won't regret watching.

[Microstatistics]

Great stuff as you'd expect with these two. Funk heeling it up and selling while Colon making that great great fired up comeback. Excellent finish and I enjoyed the payback spot with Dory in the post-match. ****

[dawho5]

So Funk's pre-match interview is the stuff of legends. He notices Hugo doesn't like getting spit on, so he stops talking and just flat out spits on him. And chases him down to continue the interview as Hugo just wants to get away. Then just when you think it's over he says he knows how to speak a foreign language. Oink Oink. The fans at ringside were just rabid for Terry and I think security wishes he's stayed more to the safe confines of the ring. You could see them getting a little worried at points. I enjoyed the sleeper with the hair pull bit, even if it didn't quite fit. Loved the finish, it works so well off of Terry's headbutts.