WWF Saturday Night’s Main Event (1-4-1986)

From the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, it’s SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT!

I don’t usually do entire show reviews, of course, but I don’t NOT do them, and this is a request! There will be a couple more, too. Plus SNME runs about 60 minutes and had a breeziness, so I’m looking forward to it.

Just a reminder that if you DO want to request a full show — which is welcome! — it, like, costs more than the normal $3. Because it is long and takes up a lot of my time. And what a great treat you get in the end! Me saying shit about wrestling to read while you take a crap or dump.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Dusty & Dustin Rhodes vs Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck (WCW, 8-24-1994)

WCW Clash of the Champions, Cedar Rapids, IA

Watching the Dusty/Dustin segment that was part of the video of that Sting/Steamboat vs Flair/Austin match made me want to watch this match again.

It really is one of the great promos and storylines you’ll ever see.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Terry Funk vs Kevin Nash (WCW, 1-16-2000)

WCW Souled Out, Cincinnati, OH

A request! Hey wait a minute. Like the other match in this Ko-fi request, this was in Cincinnati. Is this a Cincinnatian remembering shows they went to live? If so, that’s fun.

This match is for CONTROL! It is also a hardcore match. If WCW commissioner Funk wins, the re-re-re-re-reformed nWo must disband. If Nash wins, he becomes the new commissioner. This show is mainly remembered for WCW begging Chris Benoit to stay, even with Kevin Sullivan in charge, by putting the world title on Benoit. He did not stay.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Terry Funk vs Rick Martel (CSP, 9-20-1986)

CSP 13th Aniversario, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico

A second round WWC Universal title tournament match, the night after Funk beat Barry Windham in Ponce to advance, and Martel had “beaten” Bruiser Brody by forfeit.

I still feel like Martel is largely underrated, because most of what people remember in a wider scope is his WWF run, and understandably so, it’s what he was most famous for. But God he was good, and he only go to occasionally show that off in the WWF as a singles guy. He was an AWA world champion for 595 days in 1984-85 for a good reason. A lot of wrestlers from back then have complimented his ability over the years, including Ric Flair, who is notoriously picky about who he’ll say nice things about.

This might be the only singles match these two ever had.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Terry Funk vs Barry Windham (CSP, 9-19-1986)

CSP 13th Aniversario, Ponce, Puerto Rico

This is a first round match in the tournament to name a WWC Universal heavyweight champion, the title having been vacated in late April when Carlos Colon was injured. A look at the bracket, as it were:

A great field and also Boris Zhukov!

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Ric Flair vs Terry Funk (NWA, 7-23-1989)

NWA The Great American Bash: Glory Days, Baltimore, MD

I will get to the requests that are still waiting, I promise.

But this is a pause in catching up there. Today, the world lost arguably the greatest professional wrestler of all time, as Terry Funk passed away at the age of 79. This is a match I have seen many times, but never talked about on this blog, for the NWA world heavyweight title in Baltimore.

This feud came on the heels of Flair’s trilogy with Ricky Steamboat (1, 2, 3), and a month prior, there was a great Funk vs Steamboat match at a Clash of the Champions, too. Funk had stormed back onto the NWA scene out of nowhere looking perhaps better than ever.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Ric Flair vs Terry Funk (NWA, 11-15-1989)

NWA Clash of the Champions: New York Knock Out, Troy, NY

A request! A classic! Ric Flair in 1989 had two incredible feuds, one with Ricky Steamboat (1, 2, 3) and then this one with Terry Funk, which began right after that third match, where Funk was a ringside judge in case they went the distance. Terry congratulated Flair and asked for a title shot, but Ric talked about how there was an NWA top 10 contenders list, Terry pretended his feelings were hurt and then that he was just joking, and then he beat Flair’s ass.

’89 Funk was a hoot, he was in great shape, he was coming semi-out of nowhere for this big run on the big stage again, and in general, ’89 NWA is about as good a year as a major promotion ever had artistically or whatever, just bangers everywhere, hot stories, great veterans and young stars meshing nicely, and then they would end up doing a shitty gimmick Starrcade at the end that sent them limping into the ’90s.

Anyway! This is the second Flair vs Funk title match, the first came at the Great American Bash in July, where they went to a double countout, and now this I Quit match in beautiful Troy, New York, at the Clash.

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Bret Hart vs Terry Funk (9-11-1997)

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!)

Royal Rumble Match (WWF, 1-18-1998)

WWF Royal Rumble, San Jose, CA

Got a Ko-fi request for any Royal Rumble match, dealer’s choice. I’d only ever reviewed for the site the ’92 Rumble, which is the best one and any other argument is deeply wrong, I’m sorry you’re not as old as I am if you disagree, on the plus side you will live longer, on the … minus side the world you are left with looks like it will be dogshit.

Anyway, I, as the dealer, put four options to the world for seven minutes.

7 minute poll vote hard, vote fast, vote with your heart and mind

— TAPE (@tapemachines) April 30, 2023

So here we are!

(Requests open and tips always appreciated!)

Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk & Beulah McGillicutty vs Edge, Mick Foley & Lita (ECW, 6-11-2006)

ECW One Night Stand, New York, NY

More like Two Night Stand, folks, am I right, where’s the lie? Requested via Ko-fi.

The second One Night Stand didn’t have the energy of the first one for a lot of reasons. One, just because it’s a sequel. Two, because it was less about the great fun of an ECW reunion and more about “launching” the “new” “ECW” “brand,” which “predictably fucking sucked” after this show. But I remember enjoying this match, and the show was good, too.