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JESSE VENTURA PAYS TRIBUTE TO TERRY FUNK

Governor Jesse Ventura took to his Substack to pay tribute to the late, great Terry Funk, posting a video noting Funk was a "consumate professional, always looking out for the business."  You can watch the video at this link

Ventura's complete comments:

"Hey everybody, Governor Jesse Ventura, or for this one, Jesse the Body Ventura. You know, I got the sad news this past week that the legendary Terry Funk passed on.  Coming out of the famous Funk family of Amarillo, Texas, his father Dory Funk and his brother Dory Funk Jr. When you talk about West Texas and tough, hardcore wrestling.  When you talk about the Funk family and Terry Funk, he was a pro's pro for the world of wrestling. He was made for it, consummate, professional, always looking out for the business. I had all the admiration in the world for him.

In fact, I was barely out of being a rookie and was the Northwest heavyweight champion out in Portland when Terry Funk was the NWA World Heavyweight Champion.  Terry came in and I got the privilege of wrestling him to a couple of one hour draws. In those days, they actually had those.  You went out into the ring and you wrestled for one complete hour to a draw. And I'll never forget, it was Yakima, Washington. I was running a temperature of about 102.  I was sick as a dog. I came into the dressing room, this is way back in the seventies. I looked at Terry, I'm supposed to wrestle him for the world title at night. I said, Terry, I'll never make it 20, 25 minutes, just pin me in the middle.

Terry Funk looked at me and says, 'Oh no. He said, I'm not going to harm you here.'  He said, 'We're going to do an hour and you're going to see that we'll get through the hour. He goes, just follow me.'  I did and Terry Funk made me look like the greatest wrestler in the world, and I did one hour with him, with a temperature of about 101 or 102. I don't think there's another wrestler in the world that would've did that. And there certainly was very few wrestlers in the world who could accomplish that. Having a partner in the ring who was sick as a dog that night, and having an explosive, tremendous match. So my heart goes out, Terry Funk. You wore the championship with pride, you did it with dignity.  As the song goes, nobody does it Better."

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