How do you answer the question, who was Terry Funk?

For most reading this, they have never lived in a period where Terry Funk was not a part

of the wrestling business.

A man who bookended a career with Sputnik Monroe and Jerry Lawler and wrestled with a who's

who, from Johnny Valentine to CM Punk, Jumbo Saruda to Tomohiro Ishi and Dusty Rhodes to

the insane clown posse.

To many, Terry Funk is professional wrestling.

Being so complex and deep-rooted that you know when you see it but struggle to summarize.

The importance of Funk is being felt throughout the industry this week.

It was a day that was inevitable and on August 23rd, 2023, Funk took his last breath

while his fans subconsciously yelled forever in his honor.

While there is often a chasm between one generation with the following ones, for Funk there was

no divide.

He saw it as his duty to give more than he received, to create jobs to expand the industry

and most of all to see what was coming next.

Funk sacrificed his physical well-being for the paying customer, treating the exchange

as the way the business moves forward and keeps the audience coming back.

Whether he gutted his way through a 1989 program with Workflair, nursing a broken sacrum,

entering the decade of the 90s with deteriorating knees and a bad back or making a booking

immediately after hernia surgery, Funk gave life to the wrestling industry while mortgaging

his own.

While the Funk family put their stamp on Amarillo, Texas, it was Indiana where Terry Funk's

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