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Revision as of 21:35, 9 November 2007

Terrence Funk
Born (1944-06-30) June 30, 1944 (age 80)
United States Canyon, Texas
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Terry Funk
Chainsaw Charlie
Billed height6 ft 1 in (185 cm)
Billed weight247 lb (111 kg)
Billed fromDouble Cross Ranch, Amarillo, Texas
DebutDecember 9, 1968

Terrance "Terry" Funk (born June 30, 1944) is an American professional wrestler, known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the later part of his career that inspired many later wrestlers, most notably Mick Foley. He is affectionately known as "The Funker".

Career

1960s-1970s

Funk started out his career in 1965, working in his father Dory Funk, Sr.'s promotion in Amarillo, Texas. He and his brother Dory Funk, Jr. quickly rose up the ranks and became big money wrestlers by the end of the decade. In his tenth year as a pro, Terry defeated Jack Brisco for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, then the most important wrestling championship in the business, and began a grueling fourteen-month title reign which ended in Toronto when he was defeated by "Handsome" Harley Race who won the title for the second time. Terry Funk took some time off after his world title reign but he and his brother traveled around the country (mostly in Texas, Florida, and Detroit) looking for a fight. Terry and Dory, Jr. also made a name for themselves in Japan where they became one of the top drawing foreign acts in the history of Japan. (The Funks were the first gaijins to be considered faces in Japan.) He made a name for himself with his over the top mannerisms and sometimes colorful get-ups as well as his brawling ability. Funk was also involved in the earliest barbed-wire match ever recorded. He wrestled Dusty Rhodes (wrestler), in this grisly match in the late 1970s before hardcore and extreme were words. Pro Wrestling Illustrated covered this story as "The horrifying barbed-wire fence match."

1980s

Terry made his WWF debut in 1985 a memorable one. In his televised debut on Championship Wrestling he not only beat Aldo Marino, but he also beat up a ring attendant named Mel Phillips who was also at the time, one of the WWF ring announcers. Funk also had the gimmick at the time of carrying a branding iron with him to ringside and using it to "brand" his fallen opponents with it.

In the mid 1980s, Funk teamed with Dory (calling himself "Hoss" Funk) and Jimmy Jack Funk (Jesse Barr), a storyline "brother." They were managed by Jimmy Hart. During that time he had a heated rivalry with the Junkyard Dog.

In 1989, Funk joined the J-Tex Corporation. He began feuding with Ric Flair after Flair beat Ricky Steamboat at Wrestle War for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Funk, who was one of three judges for the main event, challenged Flair to a title match. Flair refused, saying that Funk was "spending time in Hollywood" instead of focusing on wrestling. Funk then attacked, piledriving Flair on a ringside table. This put the champion, Flair, out of action until the 1989 Great American Bash where he faced Funk. Flair won the match with a piledriver, but shortly after was attacked by Gary Hart and The Great Muta. Sting came to aid Flair and the two brawled with Funk and Muta to close the show. Funk got injured but returned in to continue feuding with Ric Flair. A notable part of the feud was that Funk actually used a plastic shopping bag to suffocate Flair on television. Because this was obviously dangerous to anybody and to prevent children from emulating the incident, it was never replayed. The incident is also an extra on The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection DVD.

Extreme Championship Wrestling 1990s

Later in Funk's career, his style changed from wrestling traditional southern style wrestling matches to the more demanding and brutal style of hardcore wrestling. As a result, Funk started to gain a new fanbase of fans who loved his hardcore style and brawling.

In 1994, after a special appearance against Tully Blanchard at WCW Slamboree, Funk promised to help the fledgling Eastern Championship Wrestling (later renamed Extreme Championship Wrestling) by lending his talent and notoriety to the promotion, which had just split from the National Wrestling Alliance. On July 14, 1994 Terry and Dory Funk lost a barbed wire match against The Public Enemy. Terry got his face wrapped in barbed wire and Dory had to cut him out. Funk maintained a regular schedule of wrestling for ECW in its early days while also competing in Japan. He had many feuds and wrestled programs with wrestlers such as Cactus Jack, "The Franchise" Shane Douglas, The Sandman, Sabu, and Terry's own protege, Tommy Dreamer.

On August 20, 1995, the International Wrestling Association held a King of The Death Match tournament (Kawasaki Dream) in Kawasaki, Japan. In this tournament, Funk endured 3 extreme-style matches involving ladders, thumbtacks and barbed wire. In the final match of the tournament, he lost to Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack), in an exploding ring, C4 explosive, barbed-wire match.

Terry Funk further elevated ECW by headlining their first Pay-Per-View, Barely Legal, on April 13, 1997 and winning the ECW World Heavyweight Championship from Raven. He was later defeated for the title by Sabu in a much talked about Barbed wire match at ECW Born To Be Wired, in which the ropes of the ring were taken down and replaced with barbed wire. Both men had to be cut out of the wires at the end of the match. This was a truly violent match, involving interference and sickening instances - for instance, Funk's opponent (Sabu) had his bicep visibly torn open by the barbed wire - as a result of this the wound was taped up and the match continued. This match is lauded by many fans as the ultimate demonstration of hardcore, but ECW's owner (Paul Heyman) has since remarked in the ECW DVD BloodsportL ECW's most violent matches that 'what you are about to witness is truly disturbing.' In September of that same year, a show was held in Funk's hometown of Amarillo. It was called "50 Years of Funk" and was both a celebration the careers of Terry, his father and his brother, and Terry Funk's show. Terry lost to then WWF World Heavyweight Champion Bret Hart in the main event. However, before the match, ECW owner Paul Heyman presented Terry with a belt, paid for through a collection taken up by wrestlers on the ECW roster, that declared him Lifetime ECW World Heavyweight Champion.

World Wrestling Federation 1998

Terry Funk's retirement lasted just three months before he started taking independent bookings again. Soon after his return he was signed by the WWF and debuted as Chainsaw Charlie. As Chainsaw Charlie, Funk won the World Tag Team Championship with Mick Foley at WrestleMania XIV, when they beat the New Age Outlaws in a Dumpster Match. The decision was reversed the next night on RAW due to a technicality: the wrong dumpsters had been used in the match.

He left the WWF that summer when Mick Foley's solo career as Mankind began to take off because of his feud with The Undertaker. Upon leaving the WWF, Funk officially retired again, but only for a short time. His most memorable appearance during this time was in a non-wrestling capacity at ECW November to Remember 1998, the biggest show ECW ever held.

World Championship Wrestling 1999-2000

Funk wrestled for World Championship Wrestling in 1999 and 2000 and won the WCW Hardcore Championship and the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. He was also the WCW Commissioner at one time and the leader of the short-lived Old Age Outlaws that feuded with the nWo.

2002-2005

From 2002 to 2004, Terry Funk was a regular top star for the now defunct Major League Wrestling company based out of New York and Florida. Funk had several battles with the likes of the Extreme Horsemen (Steve Corino, CW Anderson, and Simon Diamond) including specialty matches such as an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match, Barbed Wire Match, and a 5 on 5 WarGames match. On the last MLW show, Funk was attacked by his former manager Gary Hart and his syndicate.

In November 2004, Funk competed in the UK wrestling company FWA's main annual show British Uprising. He teamed with Paul Burchill and Paul Travell to face The Triad in a 6-Man Tag Team Match. Funk's team emerged victorious.

In 2005, Funk was offered a contract by World Wrestling Entertainment to appear at the ECW reunion show One Night Stand, but turned it down in favor of working the ECW nostalgia show Hardcore Homecoming that was being put together by Shane Douglas. In the documentary Forever Hardcore, Funk explained that he could not work two shows that close together and would rather wrestle for the guys who cared about ECW rather than someone who could care less (Vince McMahon). At Hardcore Homecoming, Funk lost a 3 way barbed wire match to Sabu.

World Wrestling Entertainment 2006

Funk wrestled at ECW One Night Stand 2006 on June 11, 2006. As part of the buildup to the event, Terry appeared on the May 15, 2006 edition of WWE RAW, his first appearance on WWE programming since 1998 (the match was held in Lubbock, about 120 miles from Amarillo). He confronted Mick Foley over the attack of Tommy Dreamer the previous week. The two argued over whether Foley's legacy was rooted more in ECW or WWE, and ended with a brawl after Funk told Foley "WWE sucks." (A similar promo was done between the two in ECW in 1995, when Foley, as Cactus Jack, was doing a pro-WCW heel gimmick.) It was confirmed on May 22 edition of WWE RAW that Funk and Tommy Dreamer would take on the duo of Mick Foley & Edge (with Lita) at the ECW Pay-Per-View. Funk was at the June 7 WWE vs. ECW Head to Head event in Tommy Dreamer's corner and he competed in a WWE vs. ECW battle royal.

At ECW One Night Stand, Funk, Tommy Dreamer, and Beulah were beat by the team of Edge, Mick Foley, and Lita. Midway through the match, Funk was hit with a barbed wire board, and was taken backstage complaining of an eye injury. Funk would later come back (With a bloody cloth tied over his eye) to hit Foley with a flaming 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire. He was later thrown onto the barbed wire board with Foley, and would have to be cut out of it at the end of the match via wire cutters. According to the footage of Funk's medical attention found on WWE.com, it appears that Funk needed 5 or 6 minor stitches. Also, the eye seemed to be not harmed in any major way.

2006-present

Most recently Funk has worked some dates on the independent circuit and in Japan. Currently, he is semi-retired. Although he claims to be retired, Funk has returned to the ring all other times he claimed retirement before this current "claim." In fact, Funk has wrestled self-described "retirement" matches in each of the last three decades (dating back to 1980) and in at least three different countries (Japan, Canada and the United States).

In wrestling

  • Nicknames
    • "Be Nice" Terry Funk
    • "The Texan" Terry Funk
    • "Middle Aged and Crazy" Terry Funk
    • "The Hardcore Icon"
    • "The Funker"
    • "The Lord of the Hardcore"
    • "The Texas Bronco"
    • "That Hardcore Living Legend"
    • "The King Of Hardcore"
    • "The Living Legend"
    • "The Dirty Funker"
    • "The One and Only Living Legend"
    • "One Bad Mother Funker"

Championships and accomplishments

1Funk was named an honorary Lifetime ECW World Heavyweight Champion by Paul Heyman in 1997 due to Funk's contributions to both ECW and Professional Wrestling in general[1]
 ²Funk has one additional reign that isn't officially recognized by World Wrestling Entertainment.

Trivia

  • The Japanese manga series Kinnikuman has a Texan wrestler named Terryman, who is loosely based on Terry Funk. A main and popular character, a few of his signature moves are the Calf branding (which was innovated by Dick Murdoch) and Funk's signature Spinning toe-hold.
  • Funk is friends with the Insane Clown Posse. In Funk's book Terry Funk: More than just Hardcore, he recalls that originally the ICP took some wrestling footage of him and Abdullah the Butcher wrestling in Japan and dubbed the commentary into English, at the same time poking harmless jokes at Funk. They redistributed the dubbed footage under the name Stranglemania without his permission. Funk held a grudge for a while, but after a quick visit and leaving $4,000 as an apology, he made peace with the clowns. He later performed at the 2004 Gathering of the Juggalos at their wrestling promotion Juggalo Championship Wrestling (JCW). The full story can be found HERE. Scroll down to the Thursday, April 14 2005 archive
  • Terry jokingly mentioned on the Legends of Wrestling II game about wondering why Dean Malenko named the submission hold he "invented" the Texas Cloverleaf if Dean was from Florida. He later claimed Dean saw him perform the move in Japan and adopted it as his finisher.
  • Punk band Antiseen, wrote a song as a tribute to Terry Funk called "Funk U". The song can be found on the Here To Ruin Your Groove album and more recently on the Dear Abby EP along with tributes to Abdullah the Butcher, Sabu, and Cactus Jack.
  • Terry is a cousin of Billy Bob Thornton.
  • At the ECW Arena there is a banner that hangs permanently that displays Terry Funk as a tribute to him.
  • In the mid 1990's Terry Funk appeared regularly on the popular Ted and Fred Kelly morning show on KQIZ Amarillo. Click here to listen to audio sample http://www.hisair.net/airchecks/tedandfred1.mp3
  • In Ric Flair's book, To Be The Man, he mentions that Terry Funk had appeared drunk in front of his house wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and picked a fight with his pit bull. Flair's dog then jumped on top of Funk biting through his nose.
  • Terry will appear as a playable legend in upcoming video game WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008.

Other media

In 1999, Funk was featured in director Barry Blaustein's wrestling documentary, Beyond the Mat. He has also appeared in notable movies such as Roadhouse, Paradise Alley , The Ringer, and Over the Top, as well as other film credits. His legendary toughness was attested to in the wrestling documentary when cameramen followed him to a doctor's visit where he was told he shouldn't even be able to walk without intense pain.

Filmography

  • Television
    • Wildside (1985)
    • Swamp Thing (1991)
    • Quantum Leap (1991)
    • Tequila and Bonetti (1992)
    • The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993)
    • Thunder in Paradise (1994)
    • Beyond Belief - Fact or Fiction (1998)

Books

Autobiography: Terry Funk: More Than Just Hardcore 2005

Notes

  1. ^ [Beyond the Mat, Barry Blaustein's movie about professional wrestling, 1999]

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Terry_Funk&oldid=170415466"