WWE Hall of Fame 2009 : Dory Jr. and Terry Funk
The Funk Brothers are the 2nd and 3rd Superstars to be announced for the 2009 Hall of Fame. Career highlights, personal views and more!
Terry and Dory Jr. were announced as the second and third inductee’s into this year’s Hall of Fame on the Feb 16th edition of Raw.
While neither brother had a particularly memorable run in the WWE (the pinnacle of their respective runs both coming at Wrestlemania 2), their careers have seen them put on numerous spectacular matches across the world as well as win a plethora of titles between them.
Before reading on why not check out my formal article on the Funks here:
WWE Hall of Fame 2009 Dory Jr. and Terry Funk
On with the show….
Personal Views
I’m afraid this section isn’t going to be very long as I haven’t really seen much of the Funks over the years, and what I have seen (mainly in the WWF/E) has been largely forgettable but here goes.
The first time I saw Terry was shortly after I got into wrestling in 99, after going back through old videos I ended up watching Wrestlemania XIV and the Dumpster match between The New Age Outlaws and the team of Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie (aka Terry Funk).
I distinctly remember being disappointed at the time because Cactus and Funk won the match. I was, and still am a huge Outlaws fan so them losing was probably the reason behind this, but I do remember thinking Funk wasn’t the best wrestler I’d ever seen. I still stand by this statement, but after seeing and reading more about his career I now have even more respect for him, achieving all that he has by adapting matches to his own style.
I first watched the King of the Death Match tournament from 95 and the Barbed Wire match against Sabu a few years after this and was totally blown away at the lengths Funk was prepared to go to, and the things he was prepared to do to his own body just for the entertainment of the crowd.
I then experienced this same awe in the 3 on 3 match at One Night Stand 2006 when he again put his body on the line for the fans, ending the match wrapped up in a barbed wire board.
I think Terry would have been the perfect candidate for Jericho to attack given the amount of times he has ‘retired’ then returned to the ring for one last hurrah, but I assume he either wasn’t up for it or Vince didn’t want to risk using him for such a big promo/angle as it was well documented in Mick Foley’s Hardcore Diaries that McMahon lost a lot of faith in him after a botched promo delivery and a few stumbles.
I can’t really offer any personal views on Dory as I don’t think I’ve ever seen him wrestle, other than perhaps a few clips of the match at WMII. Although I did read a lot of material on him while trying to compile the formal article and I realised that while he wasn’t ever the most prominent in front of the camera, he did (and still does do) an awful lot of work behind the scenes, whether it be writing, training, planning etc.
Bottom line is these guys both deserve to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, perhaps not for their involvement in the development of the company, but for their massive influence in making the wrestling industry what it is today.
JayD
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