The Power Slam Podcast - Terry Funk Tribute, AEW & More

If I bleed tonight, if I am said tonight I don't have a job to find And if I were tonight, I'm so tired tonight I'm fall asleep when I'm home When I'm home Hey, everybody. Welcome to a brand new episode of the PowerSlam podcast here on Patreon a day early or whatever you get your podcasts on Friday. My name is Kenny joint as always by Mr. Very early morning recording for us which is which I asked for which is very rare Well, that's it Kenny. You're off on your travels again to the big smoke London. Yes, yes indeed. So how could you going down on the Thursday? Because we've got some friends in London who don't watch wrestling so we're going to catch up with them tonight And then there's a press morning tomorrow or press afternoon tomorrow. So yes, that's why we decided to get down to early. So luckily we did Otherwise, if we didn't get down tomorrow and the press day was tomorrow, we've had to change plans so it's worth it in the end. Yeah, I would give away who's on the press morning, but you know what it's like. You don't want to jinx it because then somebody really good. You don't turn up. Then you're less going on thought was going to get that person. Yes. But yeah, and I mean, it's very I got a chance to watch some of dynamite last night just a couple of thoughts that I had. There was a contract signing the Austrian Jericho. It was very good. They sold the match pretty well. And that's that's good. And there was the only change I guess for all end is that obviously we knew that Phoenix is not able to make the trip because of these issues. Okay, he's been written out of the show. But the two the two people who are joining the Black people in that club are the returning Santana and Ortiz. So they're back. Okay, it seems like. But in fact, was it in blood and guts that Santana suffered the injury? I think it was. Yeah, yeah, no blood and guts. Yeah, I was blood and guts. Yeah, blood and guts 2022. Wow. I mean, that's. I mean, not because it was I think it was an ACL. It was serious need you have a leaf. Yeah, it was bad. Yeah, I mean, you forget how long it can take or this is a reminder of how long it can take for these people to recover from these injuries. I mean, we see Dakota Kyle there. You think, oh, wow, should we back in the ring next week? Well, she won't be. She can walk around, but she's not ready to go. Yeah, absolutely. And that's that's the thing. It's like, you know, you forget. And he put a post up on his Instagram. I guess late last night when he kind of said, you know, it's been a very long journey to get him back to us to do this again. So, you know, it's got to be pretty good for him that he's got back just in time for Wembley. So. Yeah. I mean, I hope you use those guys right this time because I believe that I think it was Santana was ready to quit. He was ready to go. He was really disgruntled with the way that AEW was using him. And I don't blame him. You know, they were hell of a team in, you know, TNA and I just don't feel like they've ever been used to the, you know, the fullness of their potential in AEW, but, you know, maybe make, well, this isn't a golden opportunity for them to communicate the message to Tony can. Listen, we're ready to go. You know, we're here to perform. Give us a shot. You know, it's two, three, also in progress, isn't it? Yeah, they've got to hold up the end of the bargain. But I think the good thing for them is, whoever wins the Young Box FTR match will do their predictions on the overrun. Whoever wins that, they're going to need some fresh opponents. So Santana or T's are well worthy of a, you know, I run with the tag champs and potentially a tag title run down the line. So yeah, good to see them back. And hopefully they can, you know, yeah, make it count this time. And Tony can is able to give them more. I mean, at least that they're not with Jericho anymore, which is good because, you know, Jericho is a big name and, you know, you kind of have said kick. Well, exactly. Absolutely. You are. I mean, in some cases, being Jericho's sidekick is not the worst thing. I mean, for Jericho's good. Exactly. I mean, I do wonder how some members of the former Jericho Appreciation Society are going to fair. I think they're going to really struggle. But there's been other occasions when being Jericho's sidekick has think has held people back. So, and certainly the case of Santana or T's. For sure. But obviously the big news for today for the podcast is sad news. It is the last night Terry Funk passed away. Age 79. And you know, the tribute is pouring out for him from everybody you can think of. But yeah, I mean, I think people kind of knew that it was coming or since it was coming. Just based on kind of his health in recent months and stuff. But yeah, what did you make of the news? And I guess you know, let's talk about Terry Funk and what he means and has meant to wrestling. Yeah, I mean, I know there's some photos posted of him. It was birthday in June. He turned 79 in June and there was some post photos posted every more line. And it obviously lost a lot of way, but frail. And so, you know, not enormous surprise. But, you know, really sad news. You know, the one of the old time great sleeves. This Kenny is savage, piper, dusty, jabris score, Hallie race, Nick Bachwin cool. We almost lost Jerry Lola what twice. And, you know, there's not many of these old, you know, these old greats left. So, you know, but what a guy. You know, I mean, you always, always made things more interesting wherever we went. And he went basically everywhere. Yeah, it was almost nowhere. I mean, he went to basically every major company on planet Earth, you know, even New Japan. You know, he'd been in old Japan style words and retired for the first time in August of 1983. You know, his famous retirement to her. This was something that I think he conceived at the height of the old Japan, New Japan war. In the early 1980s, which was as bitter as WCW versus WWF in the late 1990s. And Terry came up with this idea that he'd do this retirement to her. Then he'd have this retirement match August 31st, 1983. And that would give all Japan like a fighting chance of, you know, staying in business. You know, keeping the crowds coming in to see wrestle. Of course, he returned to action the following year. So, a lot of people in Japan were upset about that. A lot of fans were upset. He felt that Terry had, you know, given them their word that this will be it. And that he would not wrestle again. And, you know, they paid to see him on these retirement to her. And then he returned in 84, 84 was back in the ring. And for all Japan actually in November of 84. But I mean, that was something that Terry Funk was famous for. Wasn't it Kenny retiring? He did it better than anything else. The amount of retirement he had. But I mean, it was funny because of my first, my first experience of him was in WWF. And I guess it would be late 97. I think he came in in late 97. Yes, that's it. We've practiced his chin so Charlie, right? Oh, no. Well, he had his first run, didn't he? That was the shotguns famous shotgun Saturday night appearance, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, the shotgun Saturday night in Royal Rumble 97, kind of one-off penis, which I did shade on Twitter, by the way, if you've not seen it, which is great fun. And you posted a part of your interview in him, right? For power some of you asked him about that infamous tirade that he had. Yeah. But yeah, but then when he came back in the December, I was changed so Charlie. And I was saying this to you last night, and we were texting about it. I think even if you were a mage that, you know, whether you discovered him doing the WF stuff here, or whether you discovered him in ECW in the 90s, or even if you discovered him in WCW in 2000, like you could still tell why people thought of him so much. He was just a very captivating guy to watch. And yeah, I mean, you know, I saw something last night say this, and it was kind of, when it's crazy to think about it, something was less than all of his accomplishments. And let me just find the list here. Wow. We're a baby. So this, for example, right? Teddy Funk worked ECW pay-per-views, war games, the Tokyo Dome, WrestleMania, King of the Death Match, New Japan, and the Coco Dome. Smokey Mountain, his retirement show, and Kawasaki Stadium, that's not across his whole career just in the four years after turning 50. And you think, wow. Like doing all that, and that's just, you know, in your later years, is wild. But, you know, and almost, he was the only one who managed to get away with kind of people finding him in dealing with his continued retirements. I feel like a lot of people didn't really get away with that as much as he did. Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, at first, I mean, certainly the, when you were turning eight four, that did upset a lot of people. And it's like when you become a legend in your industry, people are more forgiven. You know, you can get away with more. But I mean, I mean, towards the end of his career, when he'd have to retire, I think it was about a dozen times or maybe more. I think he lost count. He didn't know the exact number. And some of them weren't proper retirements. Like he always, I remember when I first interviewed him for power sound, which was in 95, which he 12. And we talked about his WCW, the end of his run, WCW, as a wrestler, and he lost the I quit match to Rick Flair at the end of their legend every 1989 feud. And they had I quit match, the Clush of the Champions New York knockout. And Terry Fong didn't think that that was going to be retirement match. And he was like, what? So I'm retired. And they put him in the commentary, behind the commentary desk. And so he ended up working behind the scenes. And he wasn't really satisfied with that. And you know, the call of the ring was too strong. And there was offers there. You know, he ended up working for Memphis and ended up returning to Japan and did stuff for Tri-State. And then he CW came along and was with them in night three. And he just did also, I mean, he ended up doing a match at Slambury night four for WCW. So they brought him back again. And you know, so he was somebody that, I think is the years past, people didn't take his retirement seriously, so they didn't feel jute by them. They were almost like, it was Terry being Terry, you know. Here he goes again. Yes, exactly. Exactly. It was just him sort of, almost, it was almost in on the joke. I think that was the way it was as the years passed. Yeah. I mean, the other thing is, when his wife Vicki, who was famously and beyond the mat with him, died in 2019, and you're famous a lot at an older wrestlers that if the, you know, if God forbid their wife passes away, it's very difficult for them to get on after that. And I know that in 2021, it was kind of, I don't want to say the word exposed, but it was kind of public knowledge that he was back on dementia. I think he was an assisted 11 for a while. So, I mean, you know, he's, because I was trying to think, so the last match he had according to Cage Match was 2017. Yes. Where he did a, a big time wrestling, six man, or he did a couple of big time wrestling, six man tags, with the Rock and Roll Express against Brian Christopher, Doug Gilbert and Jerry Lawler. So, I mean, 2017 is your last match when you would have been 73? 73 years born in 44, yeah. So, I mean, that's, some, I mean, I don't necessarily know if those matches should be, you know, put on, put online and be what people would remember and for, but I mean, he did have that, because his last kind of, I guess his last big match would have been the, the ECW one-night stand thing with Edge and Mick Foley and stuff. That was kind of his last big stage match. I would say so, yeah. I would say so. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean, in terms of, because I was, I was interested to see so many different people tweeting who were, you know, my age, a little bit younger. It seemed to his kind of, there's, there tends to be some older wrestlers who people don't check out their old stuff. But funk seems to be one that people do the flair stuff, being, I guess, the, the biggest example of what people do go back and watch. Because that, that 89 stuff with him and Flair is just, it's another level. Oh, absolutely. You know, he made, he was one of the ringside judges for the final match at a steam ball, versus Flair feud. And that was a music city showdown. And, so Flair again, the bell. And, you know, essentially turned babyface and it was all very pleasant. And then Terry Fung, one of the judges comes in the ring and, you know, ostensibly is there to congratulate Rick. But instead, then throws out a challenge to him. And Flair is like, well, you know, hold on a minute. You know, we've got a top 10. You're not in the top 10. You've been acting. You know, you've been, you know, he was in Roadhouse and, you know, Paradise Ali. That was actually in the 70s. But he was, he did quite a lot of acting gigs in the 80s. So Flair very reasonably said, listen, Terry, you know, in the top 10. You know, it's just a challenge. It's going to be something in the NWA or WCW's top 10. And Terry said, so what you're saying is, you're saying, I'm not good enough. Aren't you, Rick? You're saying I'm not good enough. You sort of, like, sense that, like, something is turning. You know, the mood's turning. You know, kind of like, when you're the poor, but you're, like, thinking, hmm, happily, I don't go in those pubs where fights kick off anymore, but you know, when your sense that the atmosphere and the mood is turning, you're like, you're going to retreat and you're, like, time to go. And, you know, then folks like, oh, you know, you kind of backs down, but people are like, hold on a minute. There's something afoot here. You know, put it here, put it there, Rick, you know, I just want to say, well done. And then he punches him with his massive beat down and power drives him on a table at ringside. And people genuinely thought, people genuinely thought that Flare would suffer the broken neck. And, on commentary, Jim Rossi, he broke his neck in a plane crash and, oh, my God, Terry Funk's gone crazy. And, it was incredible performance by Funk. I mean, could be, you know, one of the greatest heel turns ever. And, you know, Flare really sold it. It took a lot of time off. And then they came back and had the match at the great American Bash, which was just amazing. And did, like, a really good pirate by WCW standards. And that feud ran from, you know, July through to November when they had the I quit match. And, you know, it did, like, really good business by WCW standards at the time. So, and a lot of that was just down to Funk and the amazing, you know, level of energy and villainy and menace that he brought to the role and to being a heel and, you know, finally, of course, put Flare over. As he always did, I mean, he was always as good as his reputation. Funk would always do business. He would always put the guy over in the end. And, you know, highly respected for, as well, not being difficult, always being there to work and help. And, you know, make the people who were staying into bigger stars when it was time for him to leave. You know, he was somebody that lots of people in the industry looked up to. Ted D. Biasi, for instance. Terry Funk was, like, a mentor to him. I remember reading it into you. I think it was in the pro wrestling torch with Ted D. Biasi from 94, I think he was. And D. Biasi said he would accept the gig that was offered to him that would become the million dollar man. In the WWF in 1987. And he was like, you know, I've got this, you know, I'm a great deal here with Bill Watts. And I'm working all Japan. And it's good money. You know, I'm really respected. I like the people I work with. And, like, going to work for Vince. It's like going to work for the enemy. And it's a completely different environment. And do I want it? And Vince wouldn't tell Ted what the gimmick was. Because he would only tell him after he'd signed the contract. And Ted said that he ran Terry Funko. And he's like, what do I do? And Funk said, you know, listen, this guy's just drawn. Like, 93,173 fans. Even though that was a bit real. But, you know, it's still not huge crowd to wrestle many of three. This is right after wrestle many three that Ted came in. And, and Funk said, just take the deal. You know, this guy's a genius. His company is, you know, just blowing everybody else away. You need to be part of it. So that was part of the reason why Ted D.B. Assie became the million dollar man. Because Terry Funk, you know, recommended that he accept Vince Whitman's offer. Even though Ted didn't know what the gimmick of the persona would be. And that isn't a citizen saying when you think about it. You know, if that must have been a hard decision, because you don't know what you're going to be made to be. And you're going to be adorably doing it on us. So you're going to be, you just don't know. You know, you're going to be doing it on that level. You're going to be doing it on that level. Yeah. And I was going to ask you because obviously you interviewed him a couple of times. Terry Funk, 95 and then again in 9798. 95 and 98. That's right. And what were your experiences like interviewing them? Because I saw a lot of people saying that he was a real pleasure to talk to. He was. Yeah. He was. I mean, he made so much time for, you know, PowerStand was very little little magazine in that level. He wasn't really selling very many copies. And, yeah, did this extensive career, you know, retrospective interview with him. And, yeah, I mean, he was just, you know, it's like Kenny, some people when you do an interview with them, they can't wait to get away. And Terry was just like, he had all the time in the world for PowerSlam. And we spoke again in, in late 98, after he returned to ECW. And we talked about his WWF return in night seven, you know, winning the ECW title at Barely Legal and various other things as well. Sushi Anita, the business in Japan. You can talk to Terry Funk about anything. You know, he was so well versed in the business. And he had this, you know, tall recall of things that happened in the past. And he reached that point where he, he knew he could say basically anything because he had that legendary status. And he was always going to be able to find work somewhere. So, you know, you know, he put the boot in. You know, he would, he would be honest with you when it came to his feelings about certain performers. I mean, look at that night. Yating of you and what he said about Sushi Anita, you know, from FMW. And, you know, Anita was a guy whose whole career was based on Terry Funk. You know, it's all ring style. He was never as good as Funk in the ring. But the whole crying and the, you know, his blood and seeking the sympathy of the audience. I mean, Eta's act was very much based on what Funk had done. So, and, you know, he was really trashed and eaten in that, which I was quite surprised by. But, yeah, he was, you know, it was a good egg was Terry Funk. He was a guy that always made time for power. Sam, if we asked him, you know, we always, you know, a power. Sam, we always had a huge respect for who he was and what he had been and what he continued to do for the business. You know, he always has a, you know, a rotten Twitter. You know, you always made, whichever company you work for. And if you never, he worked with more interesting. And to me, there's no greater compliment than that. No, for sure. Well, the last thing that Terry Funk I was going to ask you about was, where do you think Mick Fully would have been without Terry Funk? Do you think things would have been much different for Fully? Had he not had Funk as a kind of mentor type person? Yeah, that's right. I just looked up to Terry Funk. I mean, that was why Fully went over and worked for the IWA because Terry Funk was there. And he was like, you know, obviously became King the Deathmatch in August of 95, it would have been. And Funk put him over and that was a huge, huge deal for Fully. I mean, I think Fully probably would have been all right. I think he probably would have still made it. Because if you look back what he was doing, you know, you did the stuff in WCW and got over there. You know, and that, you know, Funk wasn't involved. And okay, you could say that Funk's style, you know, influenced Fully to an extent, although Fully you know, took more bumps than Funk ever did. And then he went to ECW. And obviously, Terry Funk was there. He might not have gone to ECW if Terry Funk was wasn't there. But I think he would have done because, you know, Fully saw that this was the in place to be. You know, it was quite near where he lived. You know, it was decent money by indie standards. It was on TV. And it was very good for his career. And he was, and he was very good for ECW as well. So it was, you know, mutually beneficial relationship. And I think he would have possibly, he would have ended up in FMW probably had he not gone to IW as an, as an opponent of an eaters, I think. I think that's what he would have done. Had he not gone to the IWA? And the IWA was definitely, you know, the number two garbage promotion in Japan and, and by a wide margin, FMW was number one. But I mean, FMW didn't pay its, it stars very well. So, you know, I think he would have still gone because it would have been good for the publicity. And I think he still, still would have made it in WWF as mankind. I mean, that was a totally different character to anything that Funk had done before. So, you know, you can say, well, you know, he influenced a lot careers and obviously Terry Funk did. But I think probably would have been all right. And I think he would have made it anyway. And then my other last thing I'm going to put you on the spot here. If people are listening to this, and they listen to us every week, and not really seen a lot of Terry Funk, give them your suggestion. If they're going to watch something of Funk this weekend to kind of see what the hype was all about or just kind of watch something they've never seen before. What would you recommend? You know, I think it's a good starting point because it's Flair as an opponent. People know Flair. It's WCW. It's a big venue. Okay. If you look at it now, the production is not brilliant. But, you know, it looks pretty good. You know, it still looks all right. So, I mean, I definitely would suggest that. I mean, the I quit match with Flair. That's a really good match as well. I mean, there's loads of stuff in Japan. I think sometimes the early 80s stuff just might feel a little bit too dated for people. There's the crazy empty arena match. You had with Jerry Lola from 1981. I mean, that is one of the oddest things ever. I mean, it was not a success either. You know that. Even though it's very famous match, it was not a success. But I think that one there probably would recommend you watch that because it's just so out there. So, such an off the wall idea, even though there were other empty arena matches. And that one's worth checking out. And I think probably as well, the WrestleMania 40 match because, you know, that's a modern era type thing. I know it's, you know, over 25 years ago now, but it's still sort of modern era. And I think, you know, mankind, or sorry, cactus Jack, and Terry Fonco, Chen, saw Charlie versus the new age outlaws in the dumpster match. I think that one's worth watching because he's decided to link modern flavor to it. And sometimes, you know, these, these matches have got to be accessible, haven't they? You know, and if the two dated or two, you know, I'm not too violent or too unpleasant or too too dissimilar to what people are used to now, it can be quite off-putting. So, sometimes you need that familiarity. So, I would start with those and then you get the feel for who Terry Fonco was. And then just, I mean, so many matches out there, stuff we, you know, the famous cactus Jack match from, I think, Hostel City Showdown in ECW. That was, that was pretty crazy. And there's all sorts of stuff from all of Japan. You know, the famous, you know, tag team, real world tag team, tournament finals, from like the early 80s, from like 82 and 81, and, you know, hit their involvement the funks, Terry and Doris, involvement in, in, in old Japan in the early 80s. I mean, just the heat for that is, is something else. So, but yeah, there's tons of stuff out there. What would you recommend, Kenny? What would you, what would you say? Yes, this is a great introduction to Terry Fonco. And you get this. Finally, I would say watching that Shotgun Saturday Night segment with him is a good start point just because you can see what he's like when he's older that he's, you know, that I posted on Twitter. It's not on YouTube, unfortunately, it's on Daily Motion, and you can see that he's, you know, he's an older guy, Austin's kind of, on the rise. You know, he's not where he would be, and it's funk. Basically, kind of, golden Austin in the segment is part of it, and it's really interesting, I think, to see this old guy who's kind of being put into the WWF, a little land, that he's not been in for 10 years, and he makes a really memorable impression, which, you know, you've got to say, if he was brought back later that year, you know, even though he got heat as he said to you an interview about what he said. I mean, late by the end of that year, they've kind of changed their philosophy more to being like, well, you know, the rule books at the window, there's no more good guys and bad guys, not crap that then said. So, you know, it's almost like, in some ways, unknowingly, an audition for what might become as run later on, so I think that's worth watching. And then, I really like the, it's not, the quality of the match in ring is, you could probably find far better teddy funk ones, but I really like the teddy funk Mick Foley match from Raw in 98. I really like the story of that because it's the whole story is that Foley's, you know, wrestling with himself as to what he's going to be and him and funk just lost the tag titles, then it after WrestleMania, there's really good story going to that. I'm trying to find the exact episode that it is on. Let me just find it. Any, another one as well. Funk's match with the whole story. Yes. It's a nice event. Broadcast January 4th, 1986. And that was, that was one of Hogan's, you know, really good Hogan match from that era. Yeah. And the funk's puts on a hell of a one-man show which he did. He was famous for. And if you know my blood, maybe the funk can eat a match from May 1993 with the exploding ring. If you're not seeing that, that's quite a spectacle. Quite a spectacle is the highlight. And it's the fully one is May 4th, 1998. So that's the roya episode of the network to watch it. But there's those loads of Terry Funk stuff. I'm sure he will come up again soon. But I did, I think, then, you know, usually we always, the intro to the power slam podcast, the outro is always just the power slam team, right? That's always kind of what it is. We don't change it. But I think for today, we should change it. And we should play something. I don't know how many people have heard this bit. It's one of my favorite songs in the 80s, which is just, I mean, if you want fun, go and YouTube and check it out. But I want to play one of the tracks that he had from that album. And it's called Barbara Streisand's News. That is the name of the song. And it's just absolute madness that Terry Funk recorded the best song in the 80s. But I think we should close with one of his, one of his songs from his, I mean, it wasn't a hell. It wasn't, it was an album. The most recent, right, very fitting. Yes. But yeah, we'll be back with the overrun to Maudo and patreon on Friday, which we'll cover all in. With some news as well. So yeah, but hopefully we did Terry Funk a bit of justice by giving him some time that. Yes, I think we did do it. I think we did do and he certainly certainly deserved it. You know, I remember, I'm power slamming. In back in where we back in 2013. I did like compile a list of 10 best US style all-rounders and Terry Funk was number four on that list. So that's how highly he was regarded. Not a bad place to be. Well, listen, here's Terry Funk's song for me. Thanks for listening for all your support. We'll talk to you soon. I told the truth tonight. You'll never find words to write. You've got some time tonight. I'll fall asleep with my smile.