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Former NWA World Champion Dory Funk Jr. passed away today at the age of 85, bringing a quiet close to the Funk family legacy that lived on for many generations from Amarillo to Japan and beyond. His passing was announced by Brian Blair and The Cauliflower Alley Club. The Ocala Gazette in Florida reported that Funk's longtime wife Marti stated that Dory had been in hospice care when he passed.
One of professional wrestling's most respected technicians and one of the longest-reigning NWA World Heavyweight Champions of all time, had a remarkable career that spanned more than six decades. Born into professional wrestling and the son of the late Dory Funk Sr., he broke into the business in 1963 after playing colege football at West Texas State University and excelling in amateur wrestling., He started with his father's Amarillo territory but was less of a rugged brawler and more of a technical grappler compared to his father and his brother, the esteemed Terry Funk. That was not say Dory couldn't brawl, but the rugged nature of his work in the ring was based on the foundation of grappling and striking as opposed to the wilder nature of his brother and father.
"It’s hard to find the right words to say goodbye to a man who became a mentor, a leader, and a dear friend, Dory Funk Jr.." Brian Blair stated. "My love for him started all the way back as a kid at the Bayfront Center, booing him as the ultimate heel while he took on my hero Jack Brisco. He was an absolute legend who commanded respect just by being himself. My heart goes out to his wife, Marti, and his family. You will be deeply missed, Dory. I know God is welcoming you with open arms. Rest easy until we meet again."
Funk's biggest moment in the business was winning the NWA World Championship from Gene Kiniski in February 1969. This was a time period where the NWA title run meant you were the most important wrestler in the world and had the endless grind and responsibility fo traveling the world to all the NWA member promotions to not only put on great matches but to make sure the challengers and promotion were left stronger through your efforts. Funk excelled at the role for over four years before dropping the belt to Harley Race after a disputed injury caused Funk to miss dropping it to Brisco. Before that, Funk and Brisco were the epitome of great technical wrestling matches that doubled as wars, similar to how Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair or Dean Malenko vs. Eddie Guerrero would be celebrated by fans in later eras.
Terry and Dory became some of the biggest gaijin (foreign) stars in Japan in the 1970s and 1980s while working for All Japan Pro Wrestling. It would be impossible to do them justice as I am writing this off the top of my head, but they had incredible brawls with Abdullah the Butcher & The Original Sheik as well as teams like Jumbro Tsruta and Giant Baba and the duo of Jimmy Snuka and Bruiser Brody. The Funks captured the World's Strongest Tag Determination League tournament three times and earned Tokyo Sports' Match of the Year honors in 1980. Dory also won the NWA International Heavyweight Championship on three occasions for the promotion. For many years, Dory was a major conduit for talents to get into All Japan Pro Wrestling and remained a regular with them in the ring through the 1990s.
Beyond Japan, where Dory's name meant the most internationally, he was involved in many territories beyond Amarillo, including Mid-Atlantic and Florida, each of which he was a massive part of. He popped up in Memphis and later Smoky Mountain Wrestling as well. Terry and Dory also had runs in Puerto Rico's WWC (including a memorable bout against The Road Warriors at an Anniversario event) and Dory came for a short-time to ECW to team with Terry against The Public Enemy in 1994. In one alleged story that has been passed around, he arrived to Philadelphia to face TPE, only then learning it had been promoted as being a no ropes barbed wire match. The brothers last teamed in 2013 for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Before that, their final bouts together were in 2005 for Sal Corrente's WrestleReunion, facing America's Most Wanted in Tampa and then taking on The Midnight Express in Valley Forge, PA.
Terry and Dory only officially wrestled once, in a tournament final in All Japan Pro Wrestling, which Dory won.
Dory had a run the mid-1980s with the WWF teaming with his brother Terry, but at the time was re-named "Hoss" Funk. They faced The Junkyard Dog and Tito Santana at the second Wrestlemania. When Terry stepped out of the promotion., Dory remained, teamed with "brother" Jimmy Jack Funk (a masked Jesse Barr) and continued on for some time. The Funks were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009 in Houston, Texas.
Funk was also a tremendous trainer and was used by WWF during the earliest era of their developmental system, running camps that helped nurtue and prepare Edge, Christian, Kurt Angle, The Hardys and others. Funk was also involved in training Jumbo Tsuruta, Osamu Nishimura and Mickie James during early eras of their career, as well as many others. Dory's !Bang! promotion and camp ran for many, many years out of Ocala, Florida.
Funk's last match took place in 2024 in Japan, teaming with Nishimura to defeat Atsushi Onita & Raijin Yaguchi. While it was beyond evident that Funk could hardly move in the ring, everyone involved went out of their way to try and mask that as much as possible in a bout dedicated to Terry. Funk released a book several years back, derived of articles he wrote online as an early adopter of the Internet.
When it comes to studying technical professional wrestlers, there's very few who worked at the level of Dory, who will likely be celebrated as one of the best of all time in those circles, similar to Billy Robinson and Jack Brisco. What I wrote here is a minute accounting of the greatness that Dory and his family brought to professional wrestling.
PWInsider.com sends our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Dory Funk Jr. We are told the plan is to hold a public memorial this Fall.
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