Terry Funk Presents WrestleFest: 50 Years of Funk, Amarillo, TX
A request! This is the main event of what was billed in Beyond the Mat as a “retirement show” for Terry Funk, but it’s never actually said that it will be. It is always said that it will be his final match in Amarillo. Despite any stories you may see elsewhere, he didn’t “break his retirement” to wrestle in FMW 11 days later, I mean Jesus, he clearly would have already been booked to go to goddamn Japan for that when this show took place.
He also went to Germany in October, then back to Japan in December, and by the end of the year (we’re talking three months from this) he wound up working WWF dark matches before a full-on return there as Chainsaw Charlie in January ’98.
Terry almost didn’t totally lie, though, and this nearly was his final match in Amarillo, but then he wrestled for WCW there at a house show in 2000, beating Lance Storm for the U.S. title, and then for the XWF against Greg Valentine in 2002. This is also his first match in Amarillo since 1993.
(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)
This was a cool show, with wrestlers from various major companies on the card. You had WWF representation from Bret and Mankind, ECW sent a bunch of people (Taz, Sabu, Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Chris Candido, RVD, Balls, Bubba, plus Joey Styles to do commentary for video release), Jake Roberts and the Headhunters wrestled Hakushi, Hayabusa, and Masato Tanaka, and so on. Dennis Stamp wasn’t booked but then he was, a bit I’ve long assumed was mostly made up for the Beyond the Mat cameras.
So you’ve got 3,800 in attendance at the Tri-State Fairgrounds Maxor Pharmacies Coliseum to see the reigning WWF champion work an indie show against an all-time legend in a no DQ match. These two had never wrestled one-on-one before as best I can tell, though of course something may be lost to time.
Terry’s out to “Desperado,” accompanied by Dory Jr. He gets hugs from friends on his way in, then the crowd raises in noise when he hits the apron and everyone can see him. Hearing Joey Styles call a Bret Hart entrance is not unwelcome or bad, but it’s just something you don’t see much. More than this one time, actually!
Dennis Stamp gets an announcement as the referee. Joey says that years ago, when Hart was staying with Dory at the ranch in Amarillo as a youngster, Stamp had an opponent no-show, and 15-year-old Bret Hart stepped in for his first match against Dennis Stamp.
A bunch of Funks and ECW guys get in for a photo with Terry. Sandman’s behind the family bleeding with a cigarette, just as he should be. Paul Danger takes the mic and says the wrestlers with him represent ECW. That gets a somewhat mixed reaction. Paul swears to the crowd that the promotion was put on the map because of Terry Funk, and he sweet-talks Amarillo and the state of Texas at the same time, a true master.
Tommy Dreamer presents Terry with the lifetime ECW world championship. More picture-taking. Bret Hart just kinda hanging out across the ring. After they all leave the ring, Bret gets the mic. He wants to say a few words. He’s a heel (in the States) on WWF TV, but he asks the booing crowd to hear him out.
“I just want to say that I’m honored to be here tonight. It’s a privilege and an honor to work with, in my opinion, the greatest wrestler in the history of the game. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart, and I know a lot about the roots of Amarillo, Texas. I was invited down here years ago when I was a real small kid, and I stayed with Dory and I stayed with Terry, and I got to watch Amarillo wrestling, and I will say one thing, it was the greatest wrestling there ever was, and it’s a very important thing to me to be here tonight. I just want to thank you, congratulate you on your lifetime achievement, it was well-earned and well-deserved. And one last thing: I’m gonna give you a Canadian ass-whipping even though it is your last fight, thank you very much.”
Perfection. Reel ’em in, then fuck ’em up, but not even disrespectfully. It’s just Bret saying he’s here to win, and he’s going to compete. This is no exhibition.
Basic wrestling between two great veterans to start. Funk trying a pin on a side headlock, and really cranking on it. Bret really subtly (no) telling Dennis Stamp to make a fucking count because his own shoulders are down. Hart gets to his knees but Terry keeps the headlock on tight, and maintains it when Bret gets it to the ropes, which Stamp eventually remembers is reason for a break.
Jockeying for position again as they restart, cautious and focused. Funk with a fireman’s carry takeover, grabs an arm, and goes back to the side headlock. Back up again and Funk just hanging on to a leg, giving Bret no leverage. Funk takes him down, goes for the spinning toe hold, and Hart immediately gets to the bottom rope and takes a quick powder.
Funk goes right after him, because again, this is no DQ. Hart avoids engaging out there, gets in the ring again, and then does not give a clean break in the corner, after which he goes heavy after the ancient grandpa knee of Funk. Funk tries to get outside for a breather, Hart follows and brings him back in. Hart chokes and it’s no DQ but Stamp is all overly involved anyway.
Hart with a side headlock and a couple of shots there, Funk teetering in the ropes and Bret knocks him down to the floor. This time Hart doesn’t follow, and wanders over to give his goofball brother Bruce, his cornerman, a high five. When Funk tries to come back in, Bret just keeps laying in the right hands, raking the eyes, Funk just can’t get going again.
By the way, I don’t really mean to bust the late Dennis Stamp’s chops, that guy had a fascinating career in wrestling. Trained by Verne Gagne, worked all over, and here’s just a condensed list of some of the people he wrestled: Dusty Rhodes, Larry Hennig, Dick Slater, Bill Watts, Jack Brisco, Pak Song, Gene and Ole Anderson, Ron Garvin, Jimmy Garvin, Bob Orton Jr, Boris Malenko, Bob Backlund, Greg Valentine, Masa Saito, Gene Kiniski, Roddy Piper, Ricky Romero, Terry Funk of course, Dory Funk Jr, Superstar Billy Graham, Andre the Giant, Ted DiBiase, Johnny Weaver, Genichiro Tenryu, Adrian Adonis, Pat O’Connor, Tito Santana, Pat Patterson, Rocky Johnson, Tony Atlas, Ivan Putski, The Fabulous Ones (teaming with Billy Robinson), Rick Martel, Curt Hennig, Baron von Raschke, Jimmy Snuka, The Rockers, Koko B. Ware, Otto Wanz, Wahoo McDaniel, Ricky Morton, Jerry Lawler.
I mean, you’re talking about a remarkable career there. Not a Terry Funk or Bret Hart career, he was never close to being a top guy, but he did get shots at the NWA and AWA world titles along the way, traveled the world wrestling for about 20 years, and got a lot of slots against guys who needed a reliable opponent who would do their job right, both early and late in his active run. Some he met when they were young like him, some he met when they were winding down their own careers.
Bret with a vertical suplay, then he goes to the legs and snaps it over, stretching the hamstring, staying on the leg, doing more damage. An ass smash on the knee over the bottom rope. Funk tries to get up but can’t stand as the WWF champ continues to break him down, just stomping on the knee now.
Hart takes it to the mat now, twisting on the knee, then floats over and drives his own knee down into it. Funk up and takes the southpaw boxing stance, and the crowd loves seeing Terry show that fight. Bret trying to get inside, and he manages it, sticking the boot in at the right leg this time.
Funk back outside, Hart follows. Bret grabs a chair and drives it down into the knee. Hart’s trying to take out both knees, then slams Funk’s face into a ringside table. Stamp again involved. Bruce grabs a chair and I think he’s about to go goofy and hit Stamp with it from behind, but he doesn’t. He is interacting with Dennis, though.
Back in the ring, and Bret is just in full controll with right hands, but Terry has a hand on the singlet and won’t go down, and won’t let go. He gets up, in fact, and starts wildly swinging, but Bret slips it all and goes back to the knee, grabbing a figure four leglock. Hart grabs the middle rope for leverage, and Dennis can’t do shit about it.
Funk shouting at another of Bret’s brothers, Smith, who is holding up Funk’s lifetime belt. “You son of a bitch! Come on, you asshole!” Stu’s also there. Stu is not involved in the chicanery, at least not directly. All of them, of course, were truly there out of a genuine respect for the Funks, sort of the Harts of West Texas but with less drama. Not no drama, but less.
Funk gets his body half out of the ring, screaming at Stamp to “make him break,” but it’s no DQ. So Stamp, in typical biased Texas referee fashion, physically breaks the hold. Bruce hits Terry in the head with a chair. Kinda fair trade, to be honest.
After that, business picks up a bit, with Terry throwing hard shots to Bret’s ribs, Bret throwing hard rights to the head, they’re just throwing at the same time, and Funk is getting into a zone, making it to his feet and dropping Bret with a big left.
Bret’s rocked, and Funk picks him up for a big punch combo, the jabs into the haymaker. Reverse neckbreaker! DDT! Piledriver! The Funker’s on a roll! Two count there, but Bruce got Bret’s foot on the bottom rope. Bret, not trusting Dennis Stamp to see that, kicks anyway.
15 minutes gone, and Bret gets thrown out to the floor. Funk goes after him and lays in another big left. They get out into the front row and Bret gets smacked down into a steel chair. Funk gives him some distance and one of the Hart brothers gets a mic to tell the “morons” to “shut the hell up.”
Terry back in the ring, Bret grabs him by the feet and pulls him over to the post for the figure four there. Both back in now, and Bret is back on the leg, in control. Bret’s arms are absolutely fuckin’ JACKED at this point.
Hart brothers on the mic again telling him to “put him out of his misery, finish him off!” Bret just stays on the leg. Now a backbreaker, and Bret leaves the ring to fetch a chair. He drives it down into Funk’s knee twice, then puts it around the ankle and drops the leg down. Stamp trying to get the chair off Funk’s ankle, but Bret shoves him out of the way. It does get off, and Stamp doesn’t sell much, but to be fair he is a wrestler, not a referee by trade. He doesn’t need to die for 15 minutes after getting brushed with a mighty shoulder or something.
Funk grabs Bret’s leg and turns the momentum around again. Terry gets his own chair and just fuckin’ HWACKS Bret in the knee with it. He wants another chair. Fans are happy to oblige. Many of them. Dennis has to tell people to stop throwing chairs forward.
Another chair to Hart’s knee, then back out to the floor. Funk sets Bret up on a table as the 20-minute announcement comes in, then Terry does basically a Vader Bomb from the apron and crashes through the table alone. So he comes down knees-first there, too.
Stamp and Bruce argue some as a crumpled Terry is rolled into the ring and Bret takes his time following him in, because Bret’s a little hobbled, too. Front row attendees asked nicely to sit down over the PA. Bret drops an elbow, drops a headbutt to the breadbasket, gives the thumbs down to the crowd.
Hart goes for the Sharpshooter, but Funk counters with an inside cradle for one, Bret reverses it for one. Terry again grabs Bret’s leg, a repeated tactic as he tries to get back to his feet, making it so Bret can’t do much to stop him and give himself something to pull up on.
Funk’s busted open and Bret’s landing shots, but Terry finally gets back enough that Hart can’t land, and Terry gets the spinning toe hold! Bret counters with the inside cradle himself, Funk kicks at two. Clothesline from Bret! Another one! Funk ducks a clothesline and barely manages to hit a shoulderblock, gets two on that. Funk basically raggedly fell on Bret for that cover.
25 minutes gone now. Bret rakes the eyes, side headlock, but Terry with a belly-to-back suplay with a bridge, Hart gets a shoulder up, and the three count is made. The fans think Funk got it, but Styles saw the shoulder come up. And there’s the official decision: Bret got the shoulder up, and he wins.
Stamp explains the fall to Terry, who just nods and is accepting that it went the way it did. Funk sitting on the mat after that, Bret eventually extends a hand, and they shake. Bret raises Terry’s hand, Terry doesn’t want that, but they shake hands again.
Terry speaks. “No complaints about the match tonight. No complaints about the Funk family’s life in wrestling. It’s been wonderful and it’s been a great trip, and hey, I love you guys, too.”
It’s a damn fine wrestling match, blending about three decades of wrestling styles into something that works for both the 53-year-old Funk and the 40-year-old Hart, who was on arguably the true best run of his career in ’97. Bret knows everything Terry could want to do, including some of the more hardcore-leaning brawling, and he gives as much as he possibly was going to be allowed to give as the reigning WWF champion, and maybe a little more than Vince and Co. would have signed off on themselves.
It’s no end of an era or anything — these guys themselves would wrestle again in early 2000 in WCW, which wound up Bret’s second-to-last televised match until the artistically ill-advised 2010 return in WWE — but it’s a match out of time and place, and the setting in Amarillo and the way the show is put together makes it feel like a territory tribute as much as a night of appreciation for the Funk family, which works, because the Funk family were territory wrestlers, and so were the Harts before Vince came along.
There’s a mostly unspoken feeling here of respect and tradition between the wrestlers and families. Hart and Funk work it as a normal match, basically, and the Hart brothers make sure to keep heel-face dividing lines (not hard), but while Bret capably plays heel, he’s never overly dirty, it’s just that it’s a no DQ match, and when it’s over, he appreciates the man he’s beaten.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 