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Get The Funk Outta Town: The Funk Brothers in the WWF

Posted: Sep 14th 2024 By: Brian Damage - RingTheDamnBell.Wordpress.com

The Funk family are one of the truly iconic families in all of professional wrestling. Starting with the patriarch Dory Funk Sr who was a legendary wrestler/promoter for decades. He had two sons, Dory Jr and Terry who superseded their father in the business. Both achieved tremendous success wrestling throughout the territories and all over the world. The Funk brothers also both won the NWA world title in different periods of time. It only seemed inevitable that when the WWF expanded nationally…the Funks would be on Vince McMahon’s radar.

The first to set foot in the now Vince McMahon Jr owned World Wrestling Federation was Terry in 1985. He made an immediate impact before his first match by attacking ring announcer Mel Phillips who dared to put on Funk’s cowboy hat as he left the ring after introductions. Funk was booked as a wild man with a very short temper. He would bring a branding iron with him to the ring and brand all of his fallen opponents.

Terry was given a manager in ‘The Mouth of the South’ Jimmy Hart much to Funk’s chagrin. Terry felt that he never needed a manager in his career because he could generate heat and speak for himself. Despite Funk’s reservation’s, Vince insisted that Terry have a mouthpiece, as it was tradition at the time in WWF for most heels to have a manager.

All around him, Terry noticed things were a bit different working for the WWF. For one thing, the money was a lot more than any territory. According to Funk, that led many wrestlers on the roster to act like rock stars and party way too much. The combination of money, being on the road more than any place else and lack of supervision caused a few wrestlers to spiral out of control. One of those wrestlers was The Junkyard Dog, who was Funk’s main feud in the company. Funk liked JYD and felt he had a ton of charisma, but wrestling him every night became a chore sometimes due to JYD’s partying lifestyle.

After just a few months with the WWF, the road was already getting to Terry and wanted family by his side. The decision was made to bring in Terry’s older brother Dory to the WWF. Adding Dory Funk to the roster, helped Terry cope from the circus like atmosphere the WWF provided. Dory was initially introduced by his real name, but McMahon felt he needed a “tougher” name and asked Dory for suggestions. Dory was nicknamed “Hoss” in his school days and Vince loved the name. He was eventually renamed Hoss Funk something that Dory actually liked. He knew right away that the WWF had their own ways of thinking and being the son of a promoter himself…went and played by Vince’s rules.

Hoss Funk joined his brother in feuding with the Junkyard Dog and faced JYD and Tito Santana at Wrestlemania 2. Despite his brother now employed by Vince, Terry was growing weary of the intense travelling schedule. He was also getting calls from Hollywood to do movies. Terry said that he could make thousands and thousands of dollars just by memorizing a few lines in a script and sitting on his ass the rest of the day. Terry wanted out of the WWF and started no showing some shows. He eventually quit in 1986 by writing a note to Vince that his horse was sick and he needed to go home to Texas to tend to it. This later would become a running joke between Terry and Vince every time Funk would return to the company and later quit. At Funk’s WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2009, Vince saw Terry backstage and asked him “How’s your horse doing?”

With Terry on his way out, he said that it was his brother that suggested the gimmick of another Funk. Jimmy Jack Funk was introduced in April of 1986…the same month that Terry quit. In reality, Jimmy Jack Funk was Jesse Barr, a second generation wrestler that worked often with Dory in the Florida territory. Jimmy Jack carried a noose with a cowbell attached to it and wore a Lone Ranger style mask. It was heavily rumored that McMahon wanted that gimmick for Harley Race and was to be called ‘Hangman’ Harley Race. The gimmick was given to Barr instead and used as a member of the Funk family.

Initially, Jimmy Jack Funk was called a cousin of the Funk’s, but later changed to a “brother” who was kept in the Funk family basement and was wilder and crazier than Terry was. The new team didn’t have the same impact that the true Funk Brothers had and after a while of toiling on the mid card…Dory had finally had enough and left the company in August of ’86.

With Dory out the door, Jimmy Jack was left alone and Vince McMahon wasn’t as sold on the character without the real Funk brothers involved. Jimmy Jack was used more as glorified enhancement talent in getting over other stars Vince wanted to push. Jesse Barr was eventually released by the company in 1987, after a backstage fight with Haku…thus ending the Funk run in the WWF for several years.