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The following program is a podcast, Wine.com Production from Hollywood, California, by way of the Broken Skull Ranch. This is the Steve Austin show. Give me a hell. Yeah, yeah. Now here's Steve Austin. A couple of shows go, I told you guys, it has been about eight years since I've read a book and then I read a book on Bob Probert, the hockey player for the Detroit Red Red Wings. I was about to take a trip and because I gained so much momentum from that one book, I knew that I needed to keep that going. So I had a couple of books on my bookshelf and there was a there was a book in particular that came out in 2005. I've had the book since 2006 and I've never read it. And the book was Terry Funk more than just hardcore. This thing has been sitting on my damn bookshelf forever. And I said, Man, this is a prime time to read this thing. So I took it on my trip with me. From L.A. to Houston, Capri in Houston, back to L.A. Finish it. Just yesterday, I've been bragging about this book because it hit it, hit home with me on so many levels coming from the business of pro wrestling. And I told anybody that's a true fan of the business that you need to go out and buy this book because that's how important I think this book is for any of you. Cash, whether you're a guy or gal trying to get into the business of professional wrestling. You need to read more than just hardcore because stories about the business, it's what the business is about. It's about the respect for the business, the love for the business. And Terry Funk has spent a lot of time in the business. There's there's a life lessons in here. It's just an up and down thing that takes you on a hell of a ride. There's several spots in here where they just laugh out loud stuff, and it just hit me right in my core. And I said back then I got to have Terry Funk on the show. So without any further ado, I got Terry Funk on the show. Terry, thank you so much for being here on the Steve Austin show. Welcome. Well, I'm glad to be here, Steve. Thank you very much for introduction that I probably didn't even deserve. I sound like a hell of a guy there. Well, I know there's love to be. I try to be pretty solid human being when you're in the ring. And you know, Terry, when I was reading your book, you know you come from from Amarillo. Your dad was a professional wrestler. He was a promoter and Dori Junior came along and then you came along. It's a life long career. Your whole life has been in the wrestling business, but I don't want to start right from the beginning. I want to jump right into something that's been on my mind ever since the day it happened. And as I was reading the book, I was like, Holy s**t, I was there on this occasion. I want to take you back to Easy W the easy W Arena right there in Philadelphia. That little wonderful s**thole building with great atmosphere. It was my first night in the territory. I was hit it up from a triceps injury. Eric Bischoff s**t can me. Paulie gives me a call. I show up. It's you and Mick Foley in the ring. There's a there's a flaming branding iron and then there's a flaming chair. And the next thing I know there's a there's a fan burning at ringside on the front row and I'm thinking, What the f**k did I get myself in new? I got sued. Mick came out of the dressing rooms, to my surprise, with a flaming chair. I don't know where he got the damn thing, but it was slimy. It had three foot flames on it. He ran around the room and came into the room and hit me with the damn chair. I was burning up. I rolled out of the ring. He threw the chair at me and somehow I got sued and I was the one that was in trouble that had to go up there. I think the guys shoot us for like $20 million. So what happened out of it? We went ahead and lied our way out of it. I guess they found us not guilty. We like that. Sorry, son of a b***h didn't get a nickel. God dang, man, I was taking my seat. He's got burns for life. Oh man. You know, it was my first night in the territory. I needed the money. I'd been fired. You know, the gun was that guaranteed check from WCW. I roll in and all of a sudden I'm thinking, Man, what in the hell is going on here? People are going to burn up in flames and die as if this business promotion is going under a. What am I going to do for my next job? Well, gosh, I'll tell you what you know. But at that time, though, as we had to make a name for ourselves, there was no television. It was all done by word of mouth and America, you know, by word of mouth. We're pretty much across the country. How was it in those hours? How long were you actually any CW? I was there from the very, you know, if you want to know who started this thing, it was myself and Eddie Gilbert. And I think his name was Todd Gordon. Yeah. And it was. Todd and Todd had some books that he wanted to put in the business, and Eddie and I flew up there. And met with him and fairly and open opened up our first show, and when we had the first show, there was about 300 people there, but it was better than nothing, you know? And the show absolutely stunk and I went out there that night and I told them, I said, You people just bear with us, you know, have some patience, and we're going to do a lot better than we did tonight. And sure enough, we did week after week. And finally, it got, you know, extremely popular up in that area. Then Hayman came along Paul Heyman, and he did a good job to do a good job of promotion. So Paul wasn't initially in the mix. It was you, Eddie Gilbert and Todd. No, no, no, no. We were. And that was still Eastern Championship wrestling, correct? Yeah, we were scratching them. So when did the extreme name change come about? And whose idea was that? I, you know, I don't know, is that it kind of came about as a fans themselves created their name. Now you're going to hear some people created it for that, but it's not true. The fans themselves created ICW and they called it the extreme championship wrestling volley, or one of the promoters picked up on the idea of it and went with The CW because it was CW. It was Eastern Championship Wrestling to start with. Well, Todd Gordon and you know, they just changed that. He's turned to extreme, you know, and they changed it after they saw a few matches like myself burning up and so few things like that. You know, he was a chair calling for chairs in the ring and having 250 300 chairs thrown into the room. You know, just some crazy stuff, but it had to be that way. Now, was it that way every week? Was it that way of a week because I remember y'all, y'all got that machine rolling. I was busy on the road doing a different gig, and it didn't have time to catch all the TV. And then I started catching it, but I was catching it. I was way a few months behind and it was absolutely insane. And I mean, that is in a good way. There was so much energy, so much enthusiasm. Everybody had their balls on the line going for the promos, were coming out of that place, were off the charts. The walk in the ring, everybody was giving it everything they had. Oh, was it everybody bonding together right off the get go? Or was it after that sting crew that first night and you got the promo and say this thing is going to get better? What lit a fire underneath that promotion to say, Hey, let's turn this motherf**ker around just by the process of elimination of the process of elimination was How do you exist? You better be better than anything else that's on television. And if you can be better and more exciting and more dynamic, well, then you've got to change. And that's what we knew we had to be, you know, and we had a great camaraderie among the guys that we weren't going to, you know, we were going to go down in a flame if we went down. That's why we all kind of looked at. It was just sad, all for one, one for all mentality. Absolutely. And it was a wonderful mentality, you know? Hey, let me show on it. That's the most wonderful thing about it, you know, and the characters came in up there, you know, and it was a great energy into the thing, you know? But I don't know if you, you know, whenever I was at WrestleMania, as I introduced characters, you know, and I don't know if you listen to my introduction or not, but it was very much about what a wrestler should be, right? What I feel a wrestlers should be. What what Steve Austin thinks that a wrestler should be what you know. And I'm not one. I'm not claiming to be one of the great ones, but the ones that really have the love for the wrestling business know that you know, it's the wrestler in the ring is who it's all about, whose face is covered in blood, sweat, dust and dirt. He's a wrestler that does the best not only for himself before his opponent, and most of all, for you, the fans that have given up your hard earned cash to see something special. Let's let us continue that note there in talking about someone putting it all on line for the promotion, for the paying customer, for the rest of the locker room. And we're going to talk more with Terry Funk right after this. The Steve Austin show the Steve Austin Jr.. OK, coming back in, we're talking about Mick Foley and people putting everything on the line, yeah, for the for the fans that are paying that hard earned money and for the other guys in the locker room, we're trying to further the cause so that that attitude is that around today. I definitely think it is. It's not among every guy, but it's among most of the guys, you know, and there they are and they can so much, you know? And but it's so hard for an individual to come up anymore, you know? But there there are, you know, WWE has got some great guys. Gerald Briscoe does a great job of shaking out the bushes, you know, and he shakes rose bushes out there and looks for those guys, and he finds them. And WWE school and in now it's in Orlando, not in Tampa anymore, but they do a great job too, you know, and we have got, you know, it's Steve. I've said this before, but if you have what is professional wrestling? It was a pure shoot 1985, right? And it was total entertainment events announcer, total entertainment and nine in 2010, right? Well, if you stretch a line along and we all evolve somewhere along the line and what we evolve to is what the people wanted us to be, what turned the turnstile. That's what this business is, what the people want it to be, and that's what it always is. It's by their choice what you have in this day and age. It's not by our choice. They dictate to us. And that's the same thing that was happening in ACW. The fans were dictating to the company. They let them know what they wanted, what they wanted to see and what they were willing to pay for. You gave it to them. You made an interesting note there and talking about the evolution of the business from being a total shoe to a work atmosphere, a work product and to just being straight up sports entertainment, you know. And and finally, Vince goes to The Athletic that. No, no, no, no. But here's here's my question. My question is this and that evolution process? There you were before wrestling had come out of the closet, so to speak in the business was still protected. And all of sudden, you've got all of the exposed because everybody, even from back in the day, wanted to think and say or imply that it was fake or just call a spade a spade and say, Hey, this is fake. And guys, we're out on the streets fighting to protect our business. Your dad did it. You did it. Don Jr. did it. So then when you're entrenched and you're trying to protect the business and 20 comes around and heraldo, Rivera is doing his thing. And Dr. David Shaw slaps the hell out of John Stossel and breaks his eardrums to protect the business. What do you think? And while all this has gone out on like, is it, Hey, the business is changing. Are we going to hang on to what we got and stand our ground? Hang on and stand your ground? That was always, you know, I mean, that was the way that my father taught me. Hang on and stand your ground. But I knew, you know, I hung on and I stood my ground and I stood my ground and stood it. And finally, as I realized, but I came to the realization once a lot of other guys didn't do you know, they wanted to stick with the old style and the old school? And this and that and I went ahead and I made my move up to WWE. And the reason I made it was because I knew that's where it was going. That's where it was going to all, you know, accumulate and come to a peak was up there and there wasn't going to be any. And I knew that and other guys didn't know it. And a lot of guys a, you know, a lot of good guys, a lot of my good friends, you know, went broke in the business, you know? And should that happen? You know, life is life. Life is like, you know, and that's just the way it is. Well, you know, with without telling the people, Hey, basically this is sports entertainment. We're basically saying the greatest thing that ever happened to our business. It was a thing that I was the furthest from my mind at the time. What's the furthest from my brother's mind at that time? It was the greatest thing that he ever did. When Vince McMahon ever did whatever, he said that we are sports entertainment. I always got he didn't do that. There would be no business right now, and I always got, you know, from from when that first happened, I was kind of like, Well, at least we're not trying to insult the public's intelligence anymore because, you know, the all all the while back in the evolution, as you as you protected it, you know, you didn't want to smarten anybody up. And now when you're finally saying, OK, it's entertainment and you can really push the envelope creatively with the different storylines and not insult their intelligence and further bring them closer to the business. I agree with you 100 percent. But with that being said, Jerry, I was on a funny trip, you know, and the trip was as I flew up from Florida and several, I'd say four or five of us flew up. We flew up to, gosh, I don't know, it was up there on the East Coast, but Verne, can you put a show on? It might have been up to Minneapolis, but Eddie flew at supper and there was myself and junior and Eddie and a couple of the other boys with him, you know, and we flew up there to partake in the match up there because they were making total tapes. Supplied, Vince. You know, the territories were well, we flew up there, you know, and it was it was. It was an amazing situation. You know, Eddie Graham was half nuts, you know, and always will be. But he had a great mind for the business, you know, and I think that if he would elected, I don't know what he would have done. You know, I think he was a dangerous individual. Hey, you know, I think he pulled out its pull out as weapons to protect Florida from the takeover that was taking place. Hey, Bill, let me ask you a quick question about Eddie Graham because I had his name written down here. I've got so many things that I have written down and different names, but I always heard and you know, Eddie Graham ran the Florida territory down there and I never got a chance to meet the guy. And I heard so many wonderful stories about that Florida territory and how bad as it was and the weather, the travel, just it was great territory. And Eddie Graham is always considered such a genius, but in particular with finishes. What was it about Eddie Graham that was so much more forward than everybody else from a promotional standpoint or finish standpoint? He was. He was brilliant. You know, I'll give you an example of Eddie is one night we were going up to Orlando and he went ahead and he and I discussed the finished with two other guys. We're going to use that night, you know, and talked about it and everything else. So we got there. And he says, Terry says, Come on in here and watch it. So he went ahead and he said to the two guys. He said, Well, what do you think we should do? And one of them said, Well, I think we should do this. And Eddie Eddie went ahead and kept them from talking just adrenaline there till they finally came up with the same finish that he he had discussed with me on the way up. He was a wonderful, wonderful manipulator. He had a wonderful mind for the business. He truly did. And, you know, as he did a lot of great things to, you know, as he learned a lot from my father, who learned a lot from a guy by the name of Cal Farley, who was a full time wrestler here years ago that started boys ranch up here in the Amarillo area. That's when your dad took over. Correct. Famous ranch, you know? Yeah. And as they take on the underprivileged kids there. But Cal started that place, you know, and my father always preached that he would kill. Preach to him. You've got to do good things, Larry. And my father, too, for your community and you've got to do the right things for the people in the town. You've got to be a good person. And that's what Eddie molded his life after my father to mold it in after what he called it tears. And you know, that's a very important thing that you're thought of as a good person, you know, and that he was a good person. Of course he was. He was ready to go ahead and fight somebody any chance he got. All my dad and him used to, you know, duke it out all the time. Hey, Terry, let's talk about your dad for a second. Oh yeah. He got in the ring. He learned how to wrestle, and he was already a wrestler, but he got into the business pro-wrestling. That was a hard road for him to get in, and they started promoting then as I was reading the book. Oh, I never really picked up who brought who broke into the business or who trained you. Was it indeed your father who taught you how to work? My father trained me. I started up here. I watched it, you know, whenever I was a kid, you know, four years old, all the other kids wanted to play cowboys and Indians, you know? And I wanted to wrestle because my father was a wrestler, you know, and I just always, always wanted to be a wrestler all of my life. And you know, as is, my brother was the same way we both knew where we were going. You know, but my father, he he was a great amateur out of Indiana University. He won three state championships at Indiana. I'm not, 'scuse me, at Hammond High in Hammond, Indiana, and then he got a scholarship to Indiana University. Well, he was there under Billy Tom. His first year made the team did everything in the war broke out. So what happened then is he joined up because he is going to be at a navy. He wanted to be, you know, have a beer instead of rolling around in a tent. So he joined the Navy and spent four years at it and he came back and whenever he came back, he just walked into the Chicago arena, said, I want to be a wrestler. Well, they had a couple of shooters up there, so they said, Okay, if you can beat this guy, you can. So he beat that guy. So he came back the next week. They put him in with another guy. He beat that guy. He beat about five or six of their boys and I decided to smarten them up so they smartened them up. And also, you talk about that kind of heritage that I had in the business, you know, and you wonder why that we thought the way that we did and everything and were so set in our ways of staying with, Hey, the business is issued, well, you know, it's all of my life at Boys Ranch, you know, and I saw my father go ahead and get guys out onto the roof of the school, you know, and there are some trees that were growing up beside it and guys would knock the business and he'd say, Come on up the roof. They had a man up there, you know, and he'd beat them up so bad they'd run right off the roof and try to grab the tree. Limbs couldn't reach be about 10 or 12 feet to the ground. They were just wanting to get out of there alive. But you know, I watched all of this stuff and I watched Eddie do it with Jack and Jerry, you know, and time after time, most guys beat up mark after mark, after mark, after Mark. You know, I did the same thing in Amarillo. My brother did the same thing, beat up people, beat up people. That's the way you do it. But if you get one that sticks around when they get into that thing, you know, and we started it, so many great guys out of this area, but they had an appreciation or respect for the business. And going back to when your when your dad, when in Chicago, he wanted to get in the business, they put him in a ring with a shooter. He whips his ass, another shooter, he whips his a*s. When you say you got two shooters in a ring and these guys are legitimate real deal skills for anybody who don't know what a shooter is, someone who can really wrestle, really fight, really do it all. But how far would these guys take it? They put them in a ring. Here comes this new guy Norfolk senior end of that ring with a tried and true shooter. How far it carried it? I let that go. They let it go all the way. They let it go all the way and they let it go ahead and go in the match. And because he was drawing a crowd, he was from Hammond and they had it there. And Hammond, you know, in Chicago, six miles from Hammond, and they'd have the matches and the old man and go ahead and go in there and he would win. So he won again. He thought he was doing the right thing. So a once a week after week and what the only thing he could figure out was to make the guys believe that the only way he could get the crowd up so he cross your face and you know, Albom and just it was just a total and may do that time after time. But the old man was tough. And, you know, like whenever they had the wrestling war in Houston, I didn't even discuss this. But whenever they had a wrestling war years ago in Houston, you know, Macklemore was down there then you probably never even heard of that name. But Macklemore was down there and a seagull. But anyhow, as my father went down there and. Well, it's going to, you know, he was their shooter, you know, and the other ones that were down there was Ray Gun for your uncle, national champion Ricky Star. They all went down there, you know, and faced everybody that anybody would send them there. But check it out there. I got a question for you. I'm all over the board on this thing. So your dad's a shooter? I'm making sense. No, you make a total sense, but your dad's a shooter. You can shoot. So Condor Jr. No, I don't know if I can or not. Not right now. But I'm just saying back in the day, I mean, you were a wrestler wrestler. You can mat wrestle. You could, you could chain wrestle. You could do it all. So then that's why, you know, that's one thing is that they whenever they would pick a champion, they always wanted one that could handle himself. Absolutely. And I want to get to that. But my point is and my question with all these wrestling skills that you, Terry Funk, possess, you start doing moonsault. I got it on my notes. It says Moonsault. Really? Absolutely. Yeah. How do you how do you go from a mat technician, brawler, wrestler extraordinaire to the moonsault? What were you thinking? What was the thought process, man? Bob Armstrong was in the ring at the time I was wrestling Bob Armstrong down in Tennessee. So I said, Bob, I want to come off the top rope on you. I want to do a backflip. I don't know about that, Terry. I said, Don't worry about it. I'm going to cover you up with chairs first. So I had about a through about 30 chairs on top of chairs. I was making the chairs. What year was that? I don't know. I was in my 40s. But what possessed you to go back and tell Bob Armstrong, you're going to do a damn jump off the top turnbuckle under 40 years old? I got to excite the people. I got to do something. Well, first time I saw you in the ring, I knew you were going to make it. I knew you was going to make a lot of money, and I was my talk to you too. Where was that at? I think it was honestly and seriously up here in Philly. I don't know if you were up for work, but did you rest for for you, C.W.? One time I've been watching you on Dallas. I think it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I knew that you were a great worker. So you're the first time, you know? And that's the funny thing is, I can pick out guys that, you know, I mean, I really, truly believe I could go ahead and I could walk out there right now and tell you which guy is going to draw money and which guy. And I think that I think that Steve Austin can do exactly the same g*****n thing, man. I tell you what, I got a pretty lucky break coming into Dallas with Chris Adams. He saw something in me. They sent me to Tennessee. I worked for about six months, starved to death, and they brought me back. I remember when I was working for Jerry Jarrett and he said, OK, Steve, we're fixing to send you back to Dallas. And I told him, I said, Man, I said, You're firing me because hell no, we're not firing you, Steve. You want to turn. You go. Turn your heel and send you back to work with Chris. So I got lucky to be in a good program with Chris, and Chris is as good as you could be. It could be equally as bad. And it had his he had his issues, but he was a great mentor. As far as work in the ring, he always let me keep my heat when I needed it. He always got the win when he needed it. So it was a good platform for me. And so he helped me out tremendously. But I remember when I was in high school, and this is a story that Mick Foley always tells. Mick was in the business before me and we were in class wrestling school that Saturday morning after the TV taping aired Sport Atrium and we were running the ropes. And Mick always says if there was one guy that was going to make it, it was going to be that guy with the long blonde hair because you just had something. So Mick kind of picked it out early in the day, too. But anyway, enough about the s**t about me. I got lucky. I made it. And now let's talk a little bit about Mick Foley. You guys are the best of friends. You've done some absolutely brutal matches together. And when did you first meet Mick? Well, I first met him. We were out of national. Oh gosh, let me say it was NWA from out of Atlanta and we were down WC. It was Dallas wrestling and I had seen Mack on a tape and Mack came down there and came up where we had after we had the matches. It was WCW after we had the matches. Mick came on. Bear and I said, you know, I said, Boy, you had a good match, you know, and I said, I knew him. I knew him because whenever I see a guy like that, I just instantly just he just instantly struck me as he had a little box. You know, I mean, at that time, you know, he had a little box office setting. You know, I knew that he had box office in him, you know, and that's the same way with you. You know, it's I know that you at box office and, you know, other guy that knew that you had box office and it was Rick. Rick always thought the world of your work. What I remember back in the day when I was more of a technical wrestler before I got dropped on my head and it kind of changed my style into the brawler. You know, I was kind of considered a little bit of the next Ric Flair, although that comparison can never really be made. Each wrestler is their own person, but you know, that was that was that would be light years away and would never happen. But I remember in your book one of the things you said about Mick. He came up to you if you remember this. And he said, Well, how was my match? And you told him his adrenaline shifts or you told him I was a s**t and then you were just, you really got to just f**king with him. But then you actually said, Kid, you got potential ACL out in you, but you're taking too much of an a*s weapon. I mean, yeah, it was plain to see that you can get your a*s beat, but you got to be more vicious in the ring. You got to have more offense. What I told him, that same exact conversation that I had with him, and I think it was to a point of his hunger and trying to get over. And I say this because there's so many young cats who will be listening to this, so many people trying to find their way. Like, I kind of modeled myself early on. It's kind of a chicken s**t heel, kind of in the vein of Ric Flair, which wasn't my forte. It didn't work for me. Here's Mick Foley trying to get noticed. Absorbing punishment, but not getting himself over to your point of Hey, this some b***h can walk past, too. So there's so many things that go with getting over. And I think when you opened up his eyes to that, that certainly allowed him to turn a corner. I know that I took him over there to Japan, and I know that he did a wonderful job over there, you know, and Mick has the, you know, epitome of of a wrestler, you know, either of a great wrestler. He's not in there to hurt that opponent. He's in there to make his opponent. That's what we all got to remember, you know, and and the other thing that we got to remember is the better we make our opponents and it makes you that much better when you beat them. But you know, that was one of the things that I always loved about working with Mick because man, I had some classic matches with that guy. And it was a very mutual respect and I was snug in the ring. Everybody knew that. So, you know, but that's just the way I work. But in total, total respect for the cat. And I was never trying to hurt anybody. And I damn sure wasn't a shooter. But my point is every time I worked with Mick, he put it on the line every single night. It didn't matter if there is twenty thousand or fifty mick or Tussaud's off because people paid their money, and that's how Mitch came to perform. And I think it truly is a lot of guys that are that have that feeling in the business, you know, and unfortunately, some of them are at a different level, but they do have that. You know, there's so many guys that have compassion for our profession that are in it right now, and that's the only reason they're in it is for the compassion they have for, you know, have you run into the a*****es too? Yeah, there's no there's there's always a*****es in every business. Yeah, there is. And and these are these feelings of hunger and trying to satisfy the crowd. I mean, obviously are not exclusive to you, me or Mick Foley there, to your point. Yeah, there's a lot of guys out there like that. But to to my point, there's also a lot of cats out there that will sandbag when the house isn't what it is. But you mentioned when you took Mick Foley over to Japan. Oh, you spent a lot of time over there. First of all, because now I just want to ask you, because there was a lot of guys you spent a lot of time, Terry, over in Japan, you spent a lot of time in the states. I mean, you, you were in both systems, entrenched. You were everywhere. But getting over in Japan, it seems to be a little bit different than getting over in the United States. Is there a difference because, you know, Dr. Death Steve Williams as as physical and great of a wrestler as he was and a stage it wasn't over so much, but in Japan, big money. What's the difference? You know what? What they had over there was a style is a very stiff and stiff style and same style. I've seen you work that way. Steve, I tried to. You know, I try to be solid and everything else, but they like that stiff style and they they love the wrestling part of it and dog could do it, you know? And they love that legitimacy from the past and dark have that, you know, it's just like Robinson in so many different guys, you know, that went over there through the years. You know, they you talking about Billy Robinson, right? Yeah. Hey, let me ask you a question about him. What that got takes some liberties in the ring every now and then. I've always heard it was a little bit of a salty individual, of course. So I'm writing a little bit of a main street from what I hear all those English girls should. He's there. Hey, did you know what? His kids do it? No. Well, his kid went to West Point and now he's down here at Pensacola or something like that. They've made the entire tire base after him, his base Robinson or something like that. Really naval in the Navy. Yeah, he's just done wonderfully. And you know, Billy's doing okay, too. I want to ask you and I like to see that whenever some some of our guys are doing all right, the older guys, you know what? I really worry about Steve, and I'm not kidding you. And this is a scary thought, and I'm not trying to point the finger at, you know, by saying, this guy is that way or that guy's that way or anything else. But you know, as I go to the Cauliflower Alley off club all the time, and I definitely notice that there's some of us that are having problems in older ages. They include that, you know, I think that the bumps take their toll. The bombs do take their toll, yeah, on a head, absolutely head shots that we take through the years, you know, let's let's let's talk a little bit about that. Oh, the bumps, the grind and the travel. Let's talk about bombs right now. And then I really want to get into the travel because you have some very interesting things to say about that. But these days are bombs to the head chair shots. Oh yeah, that's my old man told me a long time ago. He says, Terry said, Don't do that s**t. I was wrestling a Harley race in Amarillo, Texas, death match and I got out a chair and Harley did, too. And we tried to beat each other's brains out. And my old man told me, Sir Terry said, Don't do that crap. He said one of these days, you won't be able to think if you keep on doing that stuff. Well, you know, the thing about it is Terry, as you as you well know, like, I'm not thinking very well. I know. But you know, they do point, you know, you come from this wonderful background of amateur wrestling and like a cat like me who just a straight up football player goes to a professional wrestling school run by Chris Adams. And it was basically learning how to take Bob's protect yourself when you fall in a couple of wrestling holes. And then, as you know, everything else is on a job training. My point is never in any professional wrestling school that I know of, do they teach you how to swing a steel chair so many times you roll into a damn angle, a match or whatever your first day in a territory? Oh, you're getting the finish, bing bang boom. You run in with the chair and knock the dog s**t out of this guy. Do this with that guy and you're trying to protect the business, but you're trying to protect that guy. But when push comes to shove, you've got to swing at chair and it's up to them to block it or not block it. So man, my point is chair shots hurt like a motherf**ker. You know, I was always one of those guys kind of put up my hands if I seen it coming. But man, they can do a lot of damage. Absolutely. You know, and it's, you know, if you look at football too, though, you see those linemen getting on that flight defense of the best offensive interior linemen. You don't see many of them doing the, you know, doing the commentary for the NFL. Do you? Yeah. You know, you see you see those quarterbacks. So yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're all over there. Have, you know, the announcers, they hire those guys as announcers. Those linemen, they got up here somewhere. Oh, I know. But you know, I can't say they can't remember their name. It's hard to move around. But you know, with all the we're talking about the chair shots and the bombs. Yeah. I want to go into your first reign as a world champion, NWA World Champion, because you travel so much. But before we do that and we're talking about these head shots, I'm take a little bit of a break and come back with Terry Funk and we're going to talk headaches, hassles and horses**t on the road of professional wrestling. Be right back. This is the Steve Austin show. Guy coming back in from a little bit of break, I appreciate you guys support my sponsors, they mean so much to the Steve Austin show and they help me keep this thing on the air for free for you. So please show him some love and check him out. When we left off, we were talking about chair shots and a combination of injuries. Before we go into Terry Funk's first world title reign as NWA Champion, Oh Terry, let's let's go down what's right now, inventory on your body, the kind of injuries you sustained or surgeries, broken bones. How are you? You're still in one piece, probably a lot of duct tape and bailing wire. I'm the real $6 million man. You know, that's why I kept on going back out there and out there to California, because at the time, nobody covered anything as far as the wrestling business goes. So I go out there and get I think it's time it was 12 or 15 grand or something like that. Make that and I'd have entire insurance. And you know, you talked about your SAG insurance showing that you kept on doing that and kept on going back. And then I go back to wrestling later in the year. So finally, I found out I was just a year away from retirement, so I went back out there and I am a retired artiste. But what I do is, I, you know, I have had total medical and still do, but I've had so damn much, you know, and I'm I'm thrilled that I was. I did that, you know, and I consider myself a genius. Well, that's one of the hard things about the business is because, you know, my whole life, I never had. You know, this is a straight up deal. I never had any insurance at all. And all of a sudden, I finally get the break. Do you know when you're in the ring, you figure if you get hurt, the promoter is going to pay for it. So my whole time, you know, when I finally made it up to WWF and now it's WWE, I never had any insurance. Now, when I got screwed up or blew something out in the ring, the WWF paid for it. But I didn't have any kind of benefits, no insurance. And I finally did a movie in 2007 called The Condemned and I did well. Yeah, but then I didn't do anything in the next year, so it relapsed. So finally, I got back in the game and made another movie. And so my point is guys like us are so hard and expensive to insure this beyond insanity. So now I keep my credits to your point, like you are to keep the SAG insurance because I mean, it sucks a*s. Oh oh, I tell you what, it's a great insurance, I guess, and they go ahead, you know? And you know, United say, $6 million, man. I've had two knees done and I've had elbows done. I've had so many different operations. You know, I had my guts done. I've had this time not and, you know, on and on and on. And I don't know, you know, plus my whole family is covered. And that's a wonderful thing to stay. My family was covered, but nobody could understand why I go out there and work out there in California, and I go ahead and get about that amount that I have to make in a year's time. And then I would have the entire year to go wrestle, and my whole family would be would be covered at that time. You were ahead of your time. You're thinking on your feet, for damn sure. Yeah, yeah. At that time and, you know, very important. Hey, I want to cover your first world championship. December 10th, 1975 Jack Briscoe. Now there's a decision process going on with the commissions and in particular, the commissions NWA belt to tell us a little bit about that process because, you know, it wasn't just like, you know, someone just says, Hey, it'd be great if Terry Funk was a champion. Take us through that process. Yeah, I think it was at the most right around 30 territories. And then you had a board of directors. That's how the champion was determined was by the board of directors. It was that was back then in the 70s era and Sam Mutchnick was the president. And then Sam stepped down and Fritz became the president. And at that time, Jack decided, you know, Jack had been hitting that road every day and everything. And and it just wore him out, you know, and it did. That's the way it was, you know, because like myself, I did 310 days out of 365, you know, but that's that's a lot, you know, and that's a lot of a lot of going. And I think it's I'm sure there's some guys in the WWE is probably hitting close to that stem cells, you know, right now, I don't know. But three? Jen was a lot of doggone on shots, you know? But anyhow, is this going to hurt me? You know, the Championship while I'm out, it wore them all out over a period of years and is ready to get out from underneath it. And so the two finalists were were playing Harley and there was a tie vote on it and Fritz von Erich went out. And this is a true story. And my brother and Harley were great friends at that time, you know, and Harley came up through the high school are no, absolutely. You know, there absolutely did. And as great of a boy and as smart of a guy as I've ever come across. But it came down to the vote in and there were six members. I believe it was. And Fred Silver came down to a tie is going to make the deciding vote. Well, it went three and three. So then it left all of the pressure on the fritz. And he said, I'd like to have any more comment. And my brother said, my my brother has a college education. And because they wanted to represent people like, you know, like they're somebody you don't miss our family still. But anyhow, what happened at that time is that that was the determining factor because Fritz wanted somebody with a college education. Mm-Hmm. And that's why I was picked over Harley. And I don't think Harley and my brother have talked since. And boy, I tell you what I did not know. I'll tell you what is. I love them both. Absolutely. And I really do. I love them. Both are both great guys. And and that was really it was a tough pill for me. You know, it wasn't. It's just it was I wasn't worth the trouble to go ahead and or worth the friendship or where you wanted between a rock and a hard place. But you know, you if push comes to shove, I'd rather have the belt than not have it. I mean, if I'm in a selection process and my person, I'm up against his Harley race. Well, I would rather have it than Harley. But the responsibilities go with that. Terry, you talked about your travels on the road, and the world champion is a lot different than the other guys. I mean, everybody's beaten down the road. It is a grind. It's physical. It's mental. Stressful for everybody. But that world champion, many times he's traveling by himself. I mean, because he's going to be in different gigs booked in different places. One of the things that I read that you used to do when you were passing through Dallas, would you somebody smarten you up to just getting on the tram which circled the airport and instead of checking to a hotel room, you would you would get on the tram and get you, you know, four or five, six, seven eight hours of sleep? Yeah, that's exactly right. We book the trick as pretty thrifty way to save a buck, save a buck. But let's talk about the travel on the road, because as tough as the travel schedule was as NWA Champion, some years later, you would go to the WWF and you said the travel there was tougher than being the NWA champ in a decade earlier. So down the road, it seems to you in your mind it was the road that brought on the grind, the drugs and alcohol. I think I think it wasn't necessarily the, you know, the the small whenever we were had all of the promotions. I think that we had less drugs than and the reason why it's a different era, a different time, of course, that is, you know. But you know, as we would drive as far as we could tour down the back, right? That's as far as you went, you know, and you were you were at home with your family every night. You know, our closest every night is having one or two nights out sometimes. But, you know, in a week's time or two weeks time. But basically, you were in a territory where you drove and that was that territory. Though what was so wonderful about that is because you had a schoolroom and a school room was whenever you get into the car and whenever you got into the car and whenever you're just starting out, you had to get into the back seat. And usually there was not only two of you two, maybe three and a seat would be pushed all the way back up against you and you'd listen to the old timers and you love every minute of it all. You know, it was it was a great education. The road was a great education to the business. Now. Where do you get educated? All right, let's all go to Chicago tonight. Well, I'll catch his flight. I'll catch a flight. You catch his flight. You're not really together. You don't really. You're not in that confined atmosphere. A couple of old guys going out and talking bulls**t to you and serious bulls**t, too. You know, that doesn't happen anymore, you know, I mean. But I thought it was a great, great thing through all of those years. And listen, as I understand today how they have to do it, and they're doing a great job. I'm telling you, I don't watch those boys and I'll tell you what. They have got better athletes than what we asked. I'm sincere about it, you know? But with being on a road tag, with being on the road and always trying to occupy a time, inevitably, but there seems to be art was released when I was around, you know, a lot of booze and a lot of drugs. Is that exclusive being on the road? Or does that just go with the entertainment business or the sport of professional wrestling? I think it definitely. Oh, that's a tough one, you know, I really the way you portray it, I never have really thought about it that much. You know, it was boos when it was boos. You know, and it's and it's turning lose of them. And what's with the drugs, you know, these are drugs is a funny thing. You know, people want to be close to the wrestlers, you know, and they will provide them with drugs. They will provide them with booze or whatever just to be close to them, you know? And that's the tough part about it is, are those individuals? And listen, I've not always been perfect for those individuals to go ahead and be on that road by themselves and to say no, whereas the football players are not on the road by themselves. They're in a plane with 65 or 70 of them, or however many they've got go on or 120 and they're all together. But they've got trainers, they've got coaches, they've got overseers to watch them if they don't come into like this and that, but who looks after those kids? I mean, the wrestlers. And so, you know, the funny thing about that, yeah, but even back in, back in the day and now, you know, obviously things have changed from when you were in the ring, me in the ring. And now these these guys today they've got trainers and doctors flying around with them, his whole liver system, when you and I were around kind of back in a caveman days. But yeah, that's good. That's great. But man, to me, it was just and the things I did and I was, I was always more hangin with the drink and crowd, but it was a way to pass time. It was the socializing part of it, just passing the time, but one thing led to the two another. And then, you know, here we talk as 2013. And you have, you know that over 50 of the guys that have died in the last 10 years or whatever it is, I don't have any statistics on that. But every time, not every time, the last time one of the one of the boys died. This always I bring this up because it always bothers me and I made it out alive. So did you and everybody should. But someone else died and someone called me up on the phone and I said, Yeah, how long is this going to go on before Vince does something? And I'm like you. Eight Venture's Fault. Every man is responsible for what he puts inside his body. Whether it's a pill, a drink, whatever. And my mind, everybody is responsible for taking care of themselves and on and on Vince's behalf. He's paid for all these guys to go to rehab, all these detox programs. He's gone over and over way beyond anything that he should have. But I always get mad at people when they're accusing Vince of being the culprit because he's not. Do you share that same sentiment with me? 100 percent. So, Steve, it's it's it's absolutely absurd to blame someone else. You know, and if it's just you've got too much at stake, you know, you got the possibility of going ahead and in this day and age, the possibility of going ahead and having not just alive, but a wonderful life and ever having the majority of it in your later years to go ahead and do what you want to. You can watch your money and do the right thing. You know, you get to watch your money, pay your taxes, not blow your money up your nose like so many have done. And certainly, I was never any angel throughout my run. But it's all about and this kind of goes down this road in your book. It's about accountability and responsibility for your own actions. You gotta live up to your end of the deal. You make your shots, you do your job, you take care of your business and it's all on your back. That's exactly right. You know, hey, you know, Terry, I've been in the restaurant business, man. Not nearly as long as you and I had a few years. I'll tell you that. Well, you know, I did OK. You know, for for a little white guy coming from South Texas. But back in the day, you know your father, Dori Senor promoted, he wrestled. And then your father died and you took over that emerald territory and you, according to your book. I mean, you immerse yourself so much into the business and probably working in a ring book and running everything so much that you totally, you know, built up a wall between yourself and your wife, Vicky, and ended up getting a divorce. She left you. What were you doing? Was it just on the road work in wrestling, the promotion aspect of it, what was it that just drove the wedge between y'all's relationship? You really want to know. I was obsessed with her business. She's obsessed with it. Continuing on and being better than it was before, you know that my father passed away. My brother and I both were somewhat obsessed with it, you know, and every day we were on the road, every day we were at meetings, you know, we were running, we were on and probably 18 town while let's be seven over fifteen pounds a week, you know? Yeah, that's a lot of towns and we're running to him and and wanting to prove to the to the country the, you know, and and for our father, you know, is to continue on with the business and keep it going and has to do that. What was the process you end up? Divorces you? How did you how did you end up getting back together? Well, I was. I was. This is honest, God truth. We were only separated by a team. You know, we we were totally divorced for about 18 months and we got back together whenever she she went out and I asked her and we went through the process back and forth, back and forth from absolutely a war to just a similar battle to the end understanding that we're still loved each other, you know? And at that time, I was champion, and that's whenever I I was champion for. I forget how many months it was about a year and a half or something like that. But anyhow, as I went ahead and she said she wanted to get back together and I said, OK, I'm getting rid of this belt immediately, and that's what I did, you know, as I got rid of the darn thing. And then I left a big weight off your back when you got rid of that belt and you were able to spend more time at home. I love every minute. Whenever I got home with my two children at that time, you know, they were young. I was blessed to have the opportunity to get back with my wife, you know, and we're still together after, I guess we don't even count. We just call it time out, you know, took a few months time out there, you know, and finally got back together. But then all except for those months, been married now for I think, 47 years or something like that. You know, before before we get out of this, you know, the road hit a lot of stupid things along the way, too. You know, I think we all well know. But the other thing about it is, and I tell everybody, I mean, this is from my standpoint or how I always looked at the road. When you get on the road, you love it, you're hanging out with the guys you working and hearing you get that adrenaline rush and you go down and the next town and then you've been on a road long enough, you're ready to take your a*s home. But then when you get home after a day and a half, you're bored, you're ready to get back on the road and you love your family, but you got a chance to see them. But that road keeps calling your name. That road is saying, Steve, get your a*s back out there. So, you know, it's that kind of dynamic, and I tell people, you kind of go into zombie mode, get fully functional, you're aware of everything, but you just go through the paces and you're drawn to the next town. And then you finally, you know, like when I got out of the business now, I say, that's when I turn back into a civilian and I finally got the business out of my blood. But it's an addiction, isn't it? It's not out of your blood. No, but you know, what I'm saying is it's out of my system as far as I'm not addicted to it any more. The ring is not calling my name. That's right. That's right. That's the way you want it to be, too. And why would that retired? But nobody, you know, like people ask me about me coming out of retirement. So I said, Well, if they offered me enough money again, I'll come out again. But right now that you're talking dollar signs right there. So right now, if they're not, if the dollar signs aren't yelling at you, that's one thing. But you don't steer. You don't still hear that voice calling your name, do you? No, not at all. Got you. I want to talk to you. I want to. I want to shift gears because there's one thing I certainly want to talk to you about, and that's promos you warned the all time great promos and I've watched you say ever. Well, that's the truth. I don't ever say anything unless it's a real deal unless somebody knows I'm joking around. This is a real deal. And some of your promos back in the day, you know? And I watched a lot of them back then and I watched a bunch of them on YouTube getting ready for this interview. And many times you roll in. And it was a pre-tape and you had three to five minutes average to talk and it was to set up an angle or to get a program started. A lot of them were on the fly in front of live television. My my question to you is, I mean, I want to talk all about the aspects of promos, but let's just take this situation. You're coming in. It's a pre-taped promo and you're going to you're going to get involved with someone in the program and you've got three to five minutes. What kind of what kind of construction phase of this promo did you go through? How how far in advance are you thinking of what you're trying to put together and the message that you wanted to convey? You know, sometimes it was very quick and sometimes, you know, sometimes you didn't know about it and it was just the immediate thing. You know, I want you to talk about this, you know, and you just, you know. And in other times, you would have time to prepare, you know, and I don't think, you know, it's who I learned that the ability to do a promo from who were, you know, who did I learn from? Who did you learn from? Father was exceptionally good. Another good one. Courtesy OK. Another great one for us, Michael. These guys were wonderful. You know, Mark Loewen. He was. He was great. But it wasn't near as great as most other guys that I mentioned right there. You know, they have the ability to, you know, taker to take a minute, you know, or take two and a half minutes, and it's all about putting an a*s every 18 inches. That's what it's about. And they could actually talk them into the end to the arena. You know, Curtis was one of the best of all. My uncle was one of the best of all. I wish you guys would have what have some. Access to horse, Michael's problem was whenever he was alive, I learned from him I would go to the floor for a television studio where we shot the promos, you know, and I would walk into there and there would be Boris Malenko, you know, and Boris Malenko. Everybody wondered what he is doing. He'd have a little piece of paper there. He'd be looking at that playing marks from back and forth and thinking and thinking and thinking and looking at it and thinking, and he would go out there and he'd make the most marvellous call that you've ever heard, you know, like it would just captivate you. I could talk people into the seats. Boris Malenko came courtesy of Caila the same way, you know, but Malenko thought about it more than other people did. Curtis, it was a natural gift to him. At one time in my life, it was a natural gift to me, you know, but it comes over a period of time. You just don't start doing anything and start talking on television immediately and coming up with these wonderful things. It takes time and the more you do it and the work you do each week. In other words, the more problems that you make and the more you do over a period of time, the better you get. But to me, what always was the most important thing of a promo to me, you know, content pacing was conviction. You better believe that motherf**ker that you're saying, and if you believe it, you can end it. It all depends on a lot of things, but you have to have the conviction in order to sell tickets. You can go out there and flap your gums a million miles an hour or talk as slow as you want. But if someone looks in your eyes and they know that you don't mean that that is not coming from your heart is not coming from your guts and you don't feel it, it's going to be a long day at the office when it comes time to sell some tickets. I agree with you, but that's what it's about is taking their time and making use of it. And that's how you. That's the difference between your wrestlers and your great ones, and they can do it all. They have to be able to do the promos. They have to be able to do it in the ring. They have to be able to do it all. You know, I truly love doing promos through the years, you know? But I was always believe in being on the fringe. That was very important to me, and sometimes it was taken the wrong way, right? And what I mean by being on the fringe is hitting home with people, you know, kind of like, yeah, I would say bordering on a shoot. Yeah, bordering on a shoot, bordering on something that they know, you know, that the fans know, hey, he does not like what he's saying. This is not just normal. He doesn't like it. And the guy doesn't like it, but he has to address it. You know, and I think that that really is is a defining point in promos. You know, I think you have to be on the fringe. I think you have to be right on the edge and that edge can sometimes. And I had it happen to me through the years. I don't want to say with who, but several guys, you know, they go ahead and actually get fired at me because of what I said on the panel. There's a there's a couple of those those guys in the book, but you know, and in delivering that knife edge promo, you know, there is those creative spots for the response and it's up to the recipient of that promo to find that opening and boom dagger right back to further the box office draw that match. Correct? Correct. Yeah, 100 percent. You've got it. That's it. There's no use in getting mad. But now don't get me wrong, if someone just does a total shoot that exposes something you didn't want exposed, well, that's the wrong kind of promo. But I'm talking like you almost. Oh, no, oh no, no, no. Or straight up, you know, kind of on a shoot side, but still in the vein of trying to draw money. And we both know the difference, but it's just that other side to say, Oh, all right, motherf**ker, well, I got this for you. And that's where the good magic starts happening. That's when the magic starts happening. And he damn sure does. And I don't care what he says about me because he's put house every 18 inches, you know, and drawing, drawing great money. And you work with so many guys and so many classic matches. But just because I was on YouTube and, you know, back in those N.W.A days and you and Ric Flair and Dusty worked so much together, and Dusty and Rick had so many matches and you got a chance to work with both of them. So, yeah, when you got. With each guy and you are all the same level, but what's the difference between working with now? Obviously, I know that Dusty was a bigger guy. The mechanics of the match was different, but what was the differences between being in the ring and Ric Flair and being in ring with Dusty Rhodes? You got three Hall of Famers and you're working against both of them. So what was it? What was what was it like with each guy? You know, it was. Both of them had charisma up the a*s. Yes, but that's what you want. You can't get any better than those two when it comes to charisma, and dusty is totally different. Rick did it through, you know, he did it through hard work and the American dream. I don't know exactly how he did that right, but he he, you know, he did it through talking, either through his promos. Was a guy that I didn't even mention about his promos was the greatest promoter in the country. He didn't have to do real well in the ring, but Dusty could do well and he did do well. You know, as you know, where Dusty came from, he came from right here. Amarillo, Texas. Yep, he actually came from Morrison, better played football at West Texas State. You know, played baseball here, too. Pretty damn good athlete. It's a little nuts, but he's pretty good athlete. Hey, you know, I kid, you have it any better than I have Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes, you know? Oh, no, I just heard of Cayenne. And you know what I mean? Ted's daddy was one of the great ones you put over Mike DiBiase in the backyard. Yeah, you said he really took you under his wing and, you know, helped you out a lot with your work and advice. Yes, he did. Good advice, the right advice, you know, and that road down the road with him. Every time that I had a possibility of getting in his car, I got him to a 10 year old and Teddy watched him grow up right here, you know, and brought him into the school. Here in West Texas, state is playing football out. High school football in Arizona got him a scholarship here. Then Dick Murdock got a hold of him after about his second year and went ahead and took him to Louisiana. Yeah, damn, dick should have never done that. He should have that should have let Teddy get his education. But Teddy was always one of my favorite workers, and Iron Mike was a little bit ahead of my time, so I didn't get a chance to. No, but that's all I heard was great stuff about Iron Mike was the best. Also, as a great amateur, three times two or three times national champions. Hey, I've been saying all these good things to you and all these good things about you because you're all through the wringer. I'm about to cut you like a dog. I'm not going to you. Here's a question this is straight up Did you guys invent the triangle match and easy debut, which turned into the triple threat match in WWE? No, I invented all of those. I know that's what I'm mad about. I hate it. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a triple threat match and I read your book that you invented the son of a b***h. Yeah. What about the ladder matches? Oh, I had a ladder match one time with Vince and Shane, and we were using like those little three foot ladders because I'm damn near crippled. It was the most embarrassing Pay-Per-View I've ever been in. You know the triple threat, Terry now y'all had y'all turn those into a fine art, and there's so many different ways to buy the creative time that you need so that you can always kind of, you know, get rid of the third wheel and two guys can work. And then that other guy roach rotates and you know how you go. But it's just so much going on there. And I read that that one match, that it was a shoot, it was you, Shane and Sabu, and you all pretty much working on a fishbone and call it all in the ranks. The first one? Yeah. And you just basically called it in the ring and maybe had a fishbone for a map. And it turned out magic. But you know, some of those, if they're not detailed, and that's the way I hate to work with too many details that you have to ingrain in your memory. And, you know, from back in the day when you just called everything in the ring and get rid of that other guy we ever did. They're a pain in the ass, Terry. I'm not happy about the triangle match, brother. You still aren't happy about. I'm still not. I'm not even in the g*****n business anymore. OK, we went back to W. I've also got this written down right here. I had to get, you know, I've seen some of the stuff where your wife and your daughters have seen your work and, you know, all through the days. And then all of a sudden you're doing all the hard core stuff. What are they thinking when they're watching? You do this crazy? Because I mean, I know it's all calculated risk. You know what you're doing, your brave son of a b***h. Put yourself in their shoes. What are they thinking? They they balled a lot at the mattress. Mm hmm. You know, and how to watch a loved one do that. Something that my wife, you know, I didn't want them doing that. But I, you know, they they watched and they believe, you know, and never did smarten them up until they were about 15, 16. You know them up and you know, and they really appreciated the business, you know, and that I just kind of followed the same road my father did. And on his way, he and me up, you know, as I was afraid, you know, I was smart, but I was afraid to say anything to my face flaps or something. Yeah. You know, the the hard core stuff there and ACW and then the stuff I read about you and Mick Foley doing over Japan. Barbed wire explosions, thumbtacks, total brutality. I mean, you guys are literally you're working, but you're taking a s**t pile of punishment just from the elements designed into that thing. You're getting burned. Oh, and then you get on a flight after you patched yourself up or maybe went and saw a doctor second, third degree burns, man. Well, you know, Steve is at the time was willing to do it because at the time I was making exceptional money over there, right? Gotcha. And there were at the time we had no TV, and in that group it was there. It was just an independent group. But at that time, we drew 44000 people. Them, so that wasn't a bad deal, you know, and I wasn't getting didn't get paid enough, but I got paid a lot. And what I could do at the time was go over there for maybe four tours of three weeks of peace, you know, 12 weeks in a year, six weeks a year and make make great money and come back home. And, you know, just kind of the reverse went back, you know, like those Mexicans come up here and go to work, go back home. I'm good. I was going to Japan, going to work from back home and having a lot of time off, you know? And I'll tell you what, you guys, you guys were hitting the pavement every day up here in New York. I mean, you guys bust your a*s for your money. And I know because I had been there before, you know, and it's a rough I'll hold, you know, rough road to hoe up there. And it's a lot of work, you know, was just trying to figure out again, you know, the easiest way to support my family well and make it to our lives fund, you know, cheaper plan and try to at least, you know, you got to keep it fun and it's a grind and you know, words, right? But once you get into business, you remember they used to be that old saying there used to be this old saying, and I heard this when I was in U.S. and it was always just when you get in the business to get out of the business, maybe, you know, you go in, make a bunch of money and then get out. Why are you still saying and you have your health bulls**t? That doesn't happen. No one wants to get out of the gardening business, but you know, it's a love for the Earth, really. And we all say, we want more. It's not. We want more. We want more. Yeah, we want more money. We want to work more. You know, you get into radio gear. But you know what, Terry? And I think we're going to be on the same page with this. You're doing it because it's your job and you love your job and you're lucky to be doing it because they don't feel like a job, man. I mean, anytime you can go out there and entertain a mass of people, regardless of the number and have that adrenaline rush, and there's a guy across the ring with you and a referee, and they're working that thing and telling that story. It is an absolute ball. But gives greatest hits. It's wonderful. But you love what you're able to take the ride that you're able to take those people on and the story that they get involved in and live vicariously through the angles and everything. They mean everything to the business because it's money. But it's the fans too. And I know that you love your fans and you've always been. Every time I've ever seen you humble as hell and I've never seen you with the big head, but you have such a relationship with your fans. You mentioned John over there in Philly. I remember John and Debbie. Yeah. And so remember John. And he was such he was a guy with the white dog, right? He very wise man in a wheelchair, always there at the matches. He was just just the biggest fan in the world, had a beautiful white dog. And then you talk about, Oh Mo, always giving you rides in Philly. I remember Mo, she called yesterday. Oh man, I can't remember what she was driving back in the day, but man, she was so helpful. You know, there was a shuttle system taking guys back and forth to the airport. I know they weren't making any money, but I know you enjoy. I guess what? I'm trying to make you enjoy your relationship with the fans. I really do. And I really appreciate them for, you know, I'm the one guy that knows that, hey, the only reason I'm living where I'm living right now is because of the fans. And do I have time for them? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. Whenever I'm whenever I'm a good guy. By golly, I got time for model care where it is. They are the reason that I am sitting here looking out this window right now at this water, and it's like it's beautiful and able to go ahead and be in Iraq and Syria and Iraq back and let a few forage. And it's not a bad life, is it? Well, the reason I'm leaving out is because of the morals of this world and the fans of this world. It's been a wonderful 90 minutes with Terry Funk, one of my all time favorites. I know, I know, and I know it's going to be easy talking to you. And I was doing, I mean, I made sure I finished the last few pages of the book again, the book and I suggest that everybody who's a wrestling fan go get this book. It's been out since 2005. I just read it. It's called Terry Funk. More than just hardcore. It's just the history of the business, the passion of the business and what goes on on the road, and a little bit the inside without exposing everything and David Copperfield showing you his magic tricks. It's a great explanation into the inner workings of the business. And before I say goodbye, Terry, with everything said and we've talked about today, I'd love to have you on again. But is there anything you regret doing your entire time in the business, jumping off something you shouldn't have blown something up? Or did you just leave it all as it was? I would leave everything as it as it was. I wish that I would have had more time with my father. You know, that's one of the things you know, I regret and I don't regret it. And I think one time Cactus and I were wrestling you. I think it was and somebody else had an opportunity in the ring to be in the ring with you. And the only thing I regret is that I that we didn't get to beat you guys. You know, you said I would have loved to beat you one time, Steve. Then I would have really bragged about you. I had said that you were the best. You were better than losers. Oh, Jesus. Got to go over you one time. You know, throughout the book, you keep going back. And it was all about spending more time with your family. You went down a hell of a damn road. You got divorced from your high school sweetheart. You got back. Whether you talk about watching your two daughters grow up and how much you valued that time. And I'm at that same place right now. Well, I never won Father of the Year. I was always gone and I'm working my a*s off and I could have done a lot better. But now I'm out of that ring. I love being with my wife and my dogs. I'm enjoying life. It sounds like you are, too. I want to say thank you very much for being on the show, and I wish you nothing but the best. I had a great time when you said this has been a podcast. One Production download new episodes of the Steve Austin show every Tuesday at podcast Wine.com. That's podcast Omnicom. See what hit blockbusters are streaming free during popcorn summer movies on Pluto TV? Watch the first four Indiana Jones movies, or Minari and Maid of Honor. Plus, Pluto TV has hundreds of channels with thousands more movies available online and on demand. Download Pluto TV on all your favorite devices for free. Pluto TV. Stream now, hey, never. Have you ever heard that story that Napoleon used the Egyptian sphinx for target practice and shot its nose off? Or maybe you've heard that a French astrologer named Nostradamus correctly predicted nearly 500 years of human history? Or maybe someone told you that the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. 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