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Dory Jr. & Terry Funk


Grimmas

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I've not finished my Dory stuff yet, but it's already safe to say that these guys should by rights be top 5 at the very least and probably top 3 or higher. Very probably they will be my #1.

 

I've talked about the "fire and ice" dynamic elsewhere, but just think about how cool this team is: two former NWA champions, brothers, one the brawler, one the technician. Both insanely respected in the business and both probably "legends" by the time you get to 1980. The closest thing we have to a long-term "super team". It's not a perfect analogy but it's almost like a 70s equivalent of, say, Bret Hart (Dory) and Stone Cold (Terry) teaming up. I think it's easy to forget that they were both legit stars in their own right. Dory was NWA champ from 69 to 73 and talked about everywhere as the best technical wrestler in the world. Terry was Terry. It's neat how they were able to get over independently and then tour the world as this super act.

 

I am waiting for a Jack Brisco set to come through the post which lists quite a few tags with The Briscos from the late 70s and early 80s. I don't know how many will be just highlights and how many are full, but guys from that era always talk about that as one of the all-time great rivalries. I have hopes for those being of some quality.

 

Whatever you make of the Abby/Sheik tags, they have some terrific matches in the 70s with guys like Baba / Jumbo and Bockwinkel / Lanza and others. I have really really enjoyed some of their mid-80s stuff so far and am looking forward to matches that were left off the AJPW set like those vs. Hansen/Brody and Hansen/DiBiase. Even if none of them are 5-star affairs, those matches surely can't be bad and the work from both Funks is never less than really solid.

 

Just such a cool and legendary team who should be #1 contenders. They were arguably bigger stars than The Road Warriors. They were together longer than Arn and Tully. Unlike some teams, they were a "proper team". They have great matches, great feuds and many amazing moments.

 

The key advantage that they have is that they were kind of their own bosses. No booker was ever going to make them turn on each other. They never had to split up. If Dory or Terry wanted to go on a singles run for a few months working an angle with Lawler in Memphis here or a run as Florida champ there, fine. If the other brother decided to make their way to the same place, then great they could work a few tags. They were able to maintain separate identities and careers while still legitimately being a regular tagteam. And somehow, they did so without appearing to be attached by the hip. THAT is truly unique. There just isn't another team who had runs in so many different places and contexts. In this case, blood is thicker than money.

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Of the early AJPW RWTL stuff, I thought Dory was way better in a tag setting, but him slowing things down after what Funk would do in some of those great brawls threw me off too much. I think he was a fine, totally capable worker, but I don't think I could see these guys making my list when the team dynamic worked a lot better within other teams that even featured lesser workers.

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Which brawls in particular does Dory slow things down? Not vs Sheik and Abby.

 

They also have some great technical matches vs Baba and Jumbo which are masterpieces and probably the most underrated series of tag matches ever. The 75 one is amazing. I liked the long match vs Hansen and Gordy in 83 a lot too (5 star).

 

I'm not saying that there aren't occassions where Dory slows things down, but in the "great brawls" it's not true. That's really been a big part of my reassessment: that Dory was great at working brawls and brought it in them.

 

It's also not true that in the longer matches Terry was working fast and Dory was working slow, Terry could hit the mat too. I think a lot of the perception is carried by their characters: Terry fired up, emotional, ready to kill someone; Dory dispassionate and calculated (which some people read as "disinterested"). So they perceive an energy drop, even if Terry's been doing an abdominal stretch and Dory's throwing uppercuts.

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