Andrew Lutzke
Presented by Title Match Wrestling
Manny Fernandez starts by calling one of the stagehands a “Jew bastard” for smoking. Funk chimes in and talks about how “money is the world” is a Jewish saying.
Terry visited Greece recently with his wife and claims it cost him 180 dollars to buy two burgers, 2 sodas and some fries and he bashes the U.S. government sinking the value of the American dollar. Funk wants a revolution in America to fix things. Manny approves.
Manny Fernandez went to West Texas along with so many other wrestling greats.
Funk used to ride his horse and watch West Texas football practice. He’d heckle the players as they scrimmaged.
Dusty Rhodes was “too fat” to make the football team according to Fernandez.
Dick Murdoch would talk about playing at West Texas State, but he never even graduated high school. He still got to play middle linebacker in the alumni games after BSing his way in.
Funk takes off his shoes and smells them. He offers Manny the chance to see how much they stink.
Terry says he has taken too many of the vitamins “A-G-E”.
Rhodes would threaten to fire Fernandez constantly when they worked in JCP together.
Dusty worked at a gas station before breaking into the business, Funk would see him semi-often around town.
Manny liked hunting groundhogs and rabbits while in college. The carcasses would end up in classrooms for a prank.
Funk caught a giant snapping turtle and hid it in the showers at West Texas.
Bruiser Brody was kicked off the football team for cutting down a tree at an apartment building near the school during a party.
The football coach was very religious and would punish you for swearing.
Funk gave Brody the nickname “The Hammer” when Brody broke in the business, but Brody didn’t stick with it for long.
Stan Hansen was making 550 dollars a month working a normal job, then ended up making that a week early in his wrestling career.
Dusty did not like taking abuse while playing football. He would whine to Funk about it.
Rhodes lied to a promoter about the Funks training him and got himself booked in Boston to break in the business.
Fernandez puts Rhodes over for booking him wherever Dusty had political power.
Funk suggests Manny and Dusty were a gay couple, he then jokes about what kind of lover Rhodes would be compared to Pat Patterson.
Manny was placed in the ring with shooters early in his career in order to test him out and give him a taste of pain.
Fernandez says Dory Funk Sr and Eddie Graham were perhaps the two best minds in the wrestling business.
Funk Sr. would book Mexicans and they helped draw good houses in Texas.
Tito Santana had the best plan of all the old wrestlers. He saved his money, retired and became a teacher.
Terry had to tow the line because his father would give him whooping otherwise.
Back then you learned the term “shut up and listen’.
Fernandez would work the same guy 7 nights a week and had to learn how to work in order to keep things fresh.
Curtis Iaukea’s promos are gushed over.
Funk says we’ll never know if the current WWE is better than the old ways because they are two totally different business’ and they’ll never actually compete head to head.
Manny helped train Ken Shamrock. Fernandez thinks the current MMA has a lot more glitz than the early days which were more pure sport.
Funk used to compete in rodeos for fun. Ray Stevens took part in them as well.
Stevens and Harley Race were both 14 years old when they started wrestling.
Fernandez says Rhodes was the biggest pussy he ever met. He then fibs and talks about running into the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1986 at a bar with Rhodes and the NWA crew. Rick Rude and Manny had to stand up to the football players smack talking them, Dusty backed off. (Of course the Jags debuted nine years afterward.)
Olympian Chris Taylor and Funk once saw a girl being assaulted. Funk talked shit to the guy, then hid behind the massive Taylor after the guy pulled out a gun.
Dick Murdoch got into a bar fight and knocked out a ranked boxer. They don’t say who it would have been.
Dory Funk Sr. died after grappling with Les Thornton at his ranch. Funk suffered a heart attack -he was only 54.
Eddie Graham committing suicide caused shock waves through the business. Funk thinks Eddie may have ended up in charge of the whole industry had he lived.
Manny wants to die in the ring. Funk wants to die drinking beer on his ranch, lifting his leg to let out the occasional fart.
The guys still visit Dick Murdoch’s grave and always make sure to leave a Coors Light beer for him on the grave.
Murdoch’s love of Coors Light led to him becoming a spokesman of sorts for them, and he drove around drinking with strangers, being paid to promote the product. He lost the gig after intentionally ruining an exec’s vehicle.
Fernandez handed Murdoch a beer while driving from a spot show, Manny didn’t open it first, so Murdoch grabbed it and smacked Manny in the head with it.
Manny was teaming with Matt Bourne once against Hacksaw Duggan. Duggan would not sell, so Bourne tackled him in a shoot style, then kicked Duggan in the face.
Fernandez doesn’t feel the modern era workers could handle the seven days a week work schedule that the old timers had to endure. There was great camaraderie in working hard, then drinking beer in the car from town to town.
Dusty and Funk got messed up while on a road trip in the Texas boonies. Since they could not drive, they taped Rhodes’ boot to a midget wrestler’s leg and had him drive them.
Little Tokyo was riding with Fernandez and others while everyone was drunk, so they had the midget get on the CBs and harass the truckers around them.
Final thoughts: This was certainly wacky and not the standard shoot interview. Clocking in at just under and hour and fifteen minutes, I highly suggest you seek this one out as it’s on youtube.
