Part of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: View the full index. I met a traveler who had wrestled across the lands,Who said: Two men stood in a Chicago ring,One carried dreams of gold within his hands,The other carried nothing, not a thing. One, Two The first had conquered kingdoms in his day,Had worn the crown […]
Written by Ian Douglass, author of A Decided Novelty: The Essential Guide to Black Pro Wrestling History, 1880–1950. Part of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: View the full index. By the time 1983 rolled around, the retirement of former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk that had been teased for nearly three full years was […]
September 30, 1967. Michel Saulnier tries his best to slow down Le Petit Prince. He works headlocks and hammerlocks, trying to secure a man who seems incapable of being trapped. Prince keeps flipping and twisting his way out. Saulnier gets hold of him again. Prince finds another way to escape. Then Prince gets meaner. He […]
Written by Jon Langmead, Author of Ballyhoo!: The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling Part of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: View the full index. At the start of 1981, the days were already numbered for what we’ve come to call the territory era of professional wrestling. Just a decade earlier the […]
Maxx Payne spent thirty-one years waiting to release his infamous WWF backstage footage. With help from Joe Dombrowski, The Thing That Should Not Be is finally seeing the light of day. In October 1995, Maxx Payne took a video camera on a World Wrestling Federation tour of Europe. Thirty-one years later, that footage is finally […]
Part of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: View the full index. Terry Funk was a better actor than most of the people who made their living acting. He just happened to do most of his best work in a wrestling ring. In 1978, he finally got the chance to take that talent to the silver […]
Written by Jonathan SnowdenPart of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: View the full index. An imaginary conversation with Terry Funk about Houston, July 1, 1977. You want to know what I was thinking? I’ll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking I was going to beat Harley Race and take my world championship […]
Written by Tony Richards Part of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: View the full index. 1976 was a remarkable year in American professional wrestling, a year in which the United States celebrated its bicentennial, the National Wrestling Alliance continued to serve as the sport’s most influential pro wrestling organization, and Terry Funk carried professional wrestling’s […]
Written by ColePart of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: view the full index. 03/13/1975 2/3 Falls match for the NWA International Tag Team Titles This was an incredibly intimidating project to approach compared to our feature on Danielson from a couple years ago. Terry Funk’s career is an absolute behemoth to try and look at, […]
Written by Barbara Rocca Part of Violent People’s FUNKIN’ FALL series: view the full index. AMARILLO, TEXAS — 1974 I’ve been a good ol’ boy from Amarillo my whole life and Western States Sports is the territory I grew up with. IIt’s the promotion my daddy took me to as a boy, and one that […]