Dory Funk Jr. has died at the age of 85, World Wrestling Entertainment COO Paul Levesque announced on Tuesday.
The older brother of the late Terry Funk, Funk had a career spanning seven decades and was also a trainer, running his own school.
A native of Hammond, IN, Funk won the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World’s Heavyweight Championship, the industry’s top singles title, from Gene Kiniski in 1969 in Tampa. He would go on to hold it for over four years before dropping it to Harley Race in Kansas City. His 1,563 days with the title was the second-longest reign ever behind Lou Thesz’s 2,300 recognized days as champion.
During his time in the NWA, Funk took on the likes of Nick Bockwinkle, Ernie Ladd, Mil Mascaras and Wahoo McDaniel. Funk’s most famous rival over the course of his career was Jack Brisco. From 1966 to 1983, Brisco and Funk shared a ring on 160 occasions.
Funk spent much of his career in Japan with All Japan Pro-Wrestling. With AJPW, Funk would win the NWA International Heavyweight Championship on three occasions. In AJPW, Funk did battle with both Japanese competitors like Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta and Toshiaki Kawada, as well as top gaijins including Stan Hansen, Ted DiBiase and Bruiser Brody.
Funk also had a run as a tag-team performer with younger brother, Terry. The Funk brothers won tag titles in territories across the U.S. The duo also won AJPW’s Strongest Tag Determination League on three occasions. Terry Funk won the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship in 1975 making the duo the only brothers in history to have won the title.
In 1986, Funk had a brief run in the World Wrestling Federation where he was rechristened as “Hoss Funk.” Dory and Terry Funk defeated the team of Tito Santana and the Junkyard Dog at WrestleMania II in Los Angeles. Funk would depart the promotion by the summer of 1986. He would be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009.
Canada also played a role in Funk’s career. He defended the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship on a number of occasions at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens with wins over Kiniski, Johnny Valentine and The Sheik. He unsuccessfully challenged Ric Flair for the title at MLG in 1982. He last wrestled in Toronto as part of the WWF’s Big Event at Exhibition Stadium in 1986.
Funk would also spend time in Calgary with Stampede Wrestling. He successfully defended the NWA World’s Heavyweight Championship against Billy Robinson, Abdullah the Butcher and Kiniski. He was unable to win back his title from Race at the Victoria Pavilion in 1978. In his later appearances in Calgary, Funk would share a ring with a young Bret Hart in 1979 and Brian Pillman in 1995.
The nascent days of Extreme Championship Wrestling saw Funk make appearances alongside Terry, who would go on to hold the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. Among his matches in ECW, he teamed with Terry in a no ropes barbed wire match against The Public Enemy (Rocco Rock and Johnny Grunge) in 1994. His final appearance for the company came in 1997 when he unsuccessfully challenged Shane Douglas for the ECW World Heavyweight Championship.
Funk would make sporadic appearances in his final years, appearing at conventions and wrestling at the shows associated with them. He appeared in the 1996 Royal Rumble, took on Samoa Joe in 2006 and teamed with the Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner) in 2020. His last recognized match came in 2024 when he teamed with Osamu Nishimura against Raijin Yaguchi and Atsushi Onita in Kanagawa, Japan.
Living in Ocala, FL, Funk ran the Funking Conservatory wrestling school, originally opened in 1991. The school teaches “The Dory Funk Method,” highlighting safety, in-ring performance and television skills. During the late 1990s, the Funk brothers would host Funkin’ Dojo seminars with WWF hopefuls. Among those who wrestled at the camps were future legends Kurt Angle, Adam “Edge” Copeland, Christian Cage, Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy.
