On Brand Segunda Caida: Early 90s Funk

Terry Funk/Dory Funk Jr. vs. The Land of Giants (Skywalker Nitron/Butch Masters) AJPW 11/12/90

ER: I was in the mood to watch some Terry Funk matches I had never seen, and this certainly fits that bill! We regularly get people asking why we don't have more SKYWALKER NITRON on the blog, so this buys us some time from those types. And it's true that while Terry Funk was in Road House, he has not ever been paid money to portray Michael Myers or Sabretooth, and that still means something to a lot of people. But my god what a Terry show this is. Terry is so great working both giants, running around them in amusing ways, mocking their "step over the top rope" ring entrances by stepping over the guardrail to get away from them, literally forcing two giants to angrily chase him. The way he sets up this big moment is so wonderful, testing the waters with failed shoulderblocks, feeling out Nitron, building to head faking his way into an ankle pick, flopping to the mat to grab a leg. It was incredible. Throw in Terry throwing stiff punch combos on hot tags, nice headbutts, and a pair of really big bumps over the top to the floor to put over the Giants, and it was all a weird kind of magic. Dory couldn't move them, so it kept setting up Terry to save the day and lead to a ton of fun moments. 

The Giants are fine. This is probably the most cohesive I've seen them look, and I thought they mixed in their big boots nicely, thought Masters had a genuinely great bearhug on Dory, and I think a giant-assisted legdrop is a cool tandem finisher (that got a really awesome nearfall reaction, as I actually could have seen them do something crazy like let part-timer Terry lose to these guys). The finishing stretch nicely whips the crowd up, and while I was hoping for a finish a bit more interesting than Dory hitting a sloppy as hell Thesz Press, the Terry performance here alone made this a bank full of money. Terry is ALWAYS fun against weird opponents, and two 6'9" Faux Warriors are the perfect kind of weird.

Terry Funk vs. Road Warrior Hawk NWA Grandslam 4/17/93

ER: There really aren't a ton of Road Warrior/Funk interactions, and this was about as fun a singles match as one could have hoped for. This was a nice and full gymnasium for a big indy card, and here's Terry Funk coming out for the main event, screaming at fans, yelling at moms in baggy white sweatshirts, ripping his chaps off and threatening to swing on people, ranting and raving through the crowd before making his way back to the ring. When Hawk finally comes out, Funk leaves the ring and shoves Dennis Coralluzzo around, then waits until Hawk is distracted by greeting a disabled fan and jumps him. This whole thing is great, a tremendous Terry show. He buries Hawk under chairs, brawls through the crowd and, importantly, the crowd brawling is genuinely good, with Funk throwing stiff body shots and hard elbows to the back of Hawk's neck. Funk bounces a trash can off Hawk's head and then actually gives him a piledriver on the floor. The crowd is fully hot for this and the ring bell keeps ringing, which I think always adds to the chaotic feel of something like this. Things hit an impossible peak when they brawl up through the bleachers, Funk gets his head smashed into the wall at the top and then bumps backward, upside down, sliding down the bleachers. Amazing. Funk gets great color, bloody as hell on a Saturday night in Minnesota, getting press slammed by Hawk back in the ring, making damn sure those people got their money's worth. This was a card filled with talent, and this match is officially listed as going less than 2 minutes. If one single person in attendance complained that they only got a "2 minute match" from these two? Wrestling just might not be for them.