The wrestling world is mourning the loss of two amazing people this week after the passing of Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt, and tonight’s WWE SmackDown was reworked to be a celebration of both men’s lives and careers. WWE began the episode with a 10 Bell Salute, and then during the show Cody Rhodes came out and delivered a fantastic tribute to Funk, who was also close to Cody’s father Dusty Rhodes. Rhodes would tell a personal story of interacting with Funk when he was 11 years old, and then he would highlight Funk’s Hall of Fame career. You can find the full tribute and the video tribute from WWE below.
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Rhodes started things off by saying, “I know what I want to talk about tonight. I want to tell you about a time, 11 years old, I’m at the Denver airport. I’m traveling with my father, and across the people mover, I hear a man yelling the most peculiar insult. I hear a man calling my father an egg-sucking dog. Michael, can we say egg-sucking dog on FOX? Well, we said it. He had a few choice words for my grandmother as well, and again, I could not see the man yelling, so I’m assuming at 11 years old that we’re about to have some sort of domestic incident.”
“And then I see him. It was the proprietor of the Double Cross ranch. It was Terry Funk. Modern nomenclature being what it is, we get to call ourselves the coolest thing. We get to say we are WWE Superstars. Now over the years, we have been called other things. We’ve been called wrestlers. We’ve been called athletes. We’ve been called artists. We’ve been called competitors. Some of us have been called carnies. But then there’s a fabled few that have earned the right to call themselves Cowboys, and both Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt were Cowboys in the best of ways,” Rhodes said.
“Now I have the privilege of talking to you about Terry Funk. Second generation star from Amarillo. The one that wore the 10 pounds of gold and he wore it proudly. A man who went to West Texas State, and out of all the wrestlers who say they went to West Texas State, Terry Funk actually attended classes there. Terry Funk has been a constant in pro wrestling and sports entertainment for 50 years. And for 50 years Terry Funk has constantly been changing,” Rhodes said.
“There’s this little thing called the rub, when someone with such a legacy, with such equity, steps into the ring with those who don’t have it, reaches down their hand and pulls them up to their level. Some legends do that for one or two. Terry Funk did that for an entire company. An entire movement. An entire revolution. So let us take a look at this Cowboy’s Hall of Fame career,” Rhodes said.
WWE played a video package showcasing how Funk got started in the wrestling business and a bevy of memorable moments from Funk’s Hall of Fame career. Stone Cold Steve Austin and Ric Flair would speak about how great Funk was, and then the video showcased Funk’s success in Hollywood and across the wrestling world. That included WWE, where he would meet Mick Foley, and Foley would say in the video that Funk brought out the best in him. The video then moved to when Funk was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009, and you can view the video above.
Rhodes would then announce that in honor of Terry Funk, they were going to have a Hardcore Tag Team Match that featured the Brawling Brutes and the Street Profits.
