Terry Funk

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Terrance Funk United StatesUnited States
Terry Funk.jpg
Data
Ring name Terry Funk
Chainsaw Charlie
Additions to names The radio operator
height 185 cm
Fighting weight 113 kg
birth June 30, 1944
Chicago , Illinois
Announced from Double Cross Ranch, Amarillo , Texas
Trained by Dory Funk Sr.
debut December 9, 1965
retirement 2006

Terrance Funk (born June 30, 1944 in Chicago , Illinois ) is an American wrestler . He is better known by his ring name Terry Funk .

Career

Sports background / beginnings

Funk played on the football team while studying at West Texas State University .

Terry Funk's father Dory Funk Sr. was an active wrestler himself and later the booker in charge in Amarillo . It was clear early on that his son Terry would also become a wrestler one day. Hardly from university, he got into the ring during his father's doctorate in Amarillo. Initially his role was that of a naive "sacrificial lamb" who was terribly beaten by opponents in the ring, only to be redeemed by his father and brother. But soon this role was dropped in favor of an absolute rule breaker.

National Wrestling Alliance / World Wrestling Federation

In the following years, Funk and his brother Dory received the local World Tag Team Titles several times. But he was also successful as an individual wrestler and won various regional NWA titles in the southern states . During this time he and his brother Dory were working in a feud program with brothers Jack and Jerry Brisco . Finally, Funk was allowed to defeat Jack Brisco in a one-hour match for the NWA World Heavyweight Champion title on December 10, 1975 , and now hold the title for 424 days.

As an NWA champion, Funk had to face an extremely tough program of title defenses. He defended the NWA title at least 144 times in the following thirteen months. He feuded with later wrestling legends such as Jerry Lawler , Abdullah the Butcher , Dusty Rhodes , Dick the Bruiser and the up-and-coming wrestler Ric Flair at the time . Eventually he had to cede the NWA title to Harley Race .

After the role of the figurehead of the NWA had been transferred to Harley Race, the Funks went to Japan , where they had made a big impression on Japanese wrestling fans by winning the NWA International Tag Team title from Antonio Inoki & Giant Baba in 1971 . Here they were stylized into legends due to their unorthodox fighting style and were allowed to hold the renowned Real World Tag League of All Japan three times until 1983. After their Japan tour, the Funk brothers also competed in Puerto Rico , where they were hired by the World Wrestling Council and were allowed to hold the tag team title.

When Dory and Terry Funk returned to the United States, the two competed in small independent and regional leagues. Finally Terry Funk decided to end his career and played his farewell match on August 31, 1983: Together with brother Dory jr. he competed against Stan Hansen and Terry Gordy .

Due to financial problems, Terry Funk resigned from retirement two years later and signed a contract with what was then the World Wrestling Federation . Here he was allowed to challenge Hulk Hogan several times for his world title . The highlight was a win at Wrestlemania II against the Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana , which was achieved together with "Hoss Funk" (Dory Jr.) and Jimmy Hart . In addition, the WWF invented a third radio brother named "Jimmy Jack Funk", which was portrayed by Jesse Barr.

After Terry Funk was written more and more sporadically in the storylines, he finally let his WWF contract expire and signed a contract with NWA World Championship Wrestling .

NWA World Championship Wrestling / United States Wrestling Association

On May 7, 1989, Terry Funk was present at a match between Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat , which was hosted by NWA World Championship Wrestling. After Flair won, Funk was allowed to storm into the ring and challenge Flair for his World Champion title. After Funk was only allowed to lose by disqualification against Steamboat in the following month, the long-awaited clash came about. But Terry Funk was not allowed to win the title. He later challenged Flair to a match that could only be decided by giving up and announced his resignation in the event of defeat. On November 15, Funk lost in this scheduled match and declared his career over again.

One year later (1990) Funk was back in the ring in Memphis, where he resumed his feud with Jerry Lawler and was allowed to take the USWA Unified Heavyweight title from him . Funk's wrestling style had meanwhile adapted more and more to extreme hardcore wrestling . And so the feud ended in an extremely bloody match in an empty hall, which Lawler was allowed to win.

NWA Tri-State Wrestling Alliance / Japan

Terry Funk has now been committed to NWA Tri-State Wrestling and then went back to Japan.

In Japan, Terry Funk competed in hardcore leagues like IWA Japan and Big Japan Pro Wrestling , where he played some brutal barbed wire matches.

Extreme Championship Wrestling / World Wrestling Federation

In 1994 Funk went back to the US and helped establish Extreme Championship Wrestling by playing hour-long matches with Shane Douglas and Sabu . In 1995, as a representative of the ECW, he faced Cactus Jack in the final of the IWA Japan King of Death Matches tournament in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Explosive Barbed Wire Board Time Bomb Death Match , in which he suffered third degree burns. A year later, he appeared again in a similar match.

After several resignations, the now 53-year-old was allowed to hold the ECW World Heavyweight Champion title in 1997 after an intervention by Tommy Dreamers when he defeated Raven . In 1998 he had to cede the title to Sabu after a match and Terry Funk signed a contract with the WWF again.

After he had already made a guest appearance at the Royal Rumble , Terry Funk returned to the WWF masked with a stocking under the name Chainsaw Charlie and formed the Hardcore Legends tag team with Cactus Jack . After various feuds, Terry Funk left the WWF at the end of 1998.

Extreme Championship Wrestling / World Championship Wrestling

Funk returned to ECW, where he had a feud with ex-student Tommy Dreamer before hepatitis A put an end to his career. Paul Heyman named Terry Funk an ECW World Champion for life because of his influence on modern hardcore wrestling and his personal ring style (Funk's style was always that of a rules breaker up to the beginning ) .

After Funk had left the ECW, he went to the WCW as a “Commissioner”, where he was able to become Hardcore and US Champion again in the last year of its existence. When the WCW was bought by the WWF in 2001 , Terry Funk now competed in various independent leagues such as the International Wrestling Association .

Independent / World Wrestling Entertainment

After Terry Funk's WCW contract was not taken over by WWF, Funk entered the independent leagues. He was also engaged several times in the Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) and IWA promotions .

In summer 2005, Terry Funk participated as a main eventer in by Shane Douglas led Wrestling event Hardcore Homecoming in part and in November of the same year at the event Hardcore Homecoming 2 - November Reign of Tod Gordon was the first member of the new Hall of Fame hardcore Wrestling added.

In December 2005 Terry Funk was hired by the WWE as a "technical advisor" and in 2006 he was hired again as an active wrestler for special matches. There he competed with Tommy Dreamer at the ECW One Night Stand 2006 against Mick Foley and Edge. For health reasons, Funk let his WWE contract expire.

Funk is currently back in the independent leagues. On January 4, 2010, he entered the major event Wrestle Kingdom IV of New Japan Pro Wrestling in the Tokyo Dome .

successes

title

  • 1 × NWA World Heavyweight Champion
  • 3 × NWA International Tag Team Champion
  • 2 × NWA World Tag Team Champion (Texas Version)
  • 1 × NWA United States Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × NWA National Television Champion
  • 2 × NWA International Heavyweight Champion (Amarillo version)
  • 7 × NWA Western States Heavyweight Champion
  • 2 × NWA Western States Tag Team Champion
  • 1 × NWA American Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × NWA Americas Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion
  • 2 × NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × NWA Florida Tag Team Champion
  • 1 × NWA Florida Television Champion
  • 1 × NWA Georgia Tag Team Champion (Florida version)
  • 1 × NWA North American Tag Team Champion (Florida version)
  • 2 × Amarillo Brass Knuckles Champion
  • 1 × NWA Los Angeles World Tag Team Champion
  • 1 × NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × NWA Wildside Tag Team Champion
  • 1 × Southwest Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × Southwest Championship Wrestling Tag Team Champion
  • Juggalo Championship Wrestling
  • 1 × Juggalo Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Champion
  • Pro Pain Pro Wrestling
  • 1 × PW Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion
  • 1 × World Wrestling Council Tag Team Champion

Awards

Books by Terry Funk

  • Terry Funk: More Than Just Hardcore

Filmography

Movies
Series

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Terry Funk: More Than Just Hardcore
  2. ↑ Power Wrestling - Lexicon Terry Funk in Ringside , 1/2008, p. 28
  3. ↑ Power Wrestling - Lexicon Terry Funk in Ringside , 1/2008, p. 28

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Funk, Terry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Funk, Terrance
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois , USA