Terry Funk Missed Opportunity To Appear During AEW Pay-Per-View

Terry Funk was one of the toughest and most hardcore professional wrestlers in history. He made a name for himself in ECW and later in other promotions and continued to wrestle until his 70s. The Funker, who was for the majority of his career regarded as “middle-aged and insane,” was slated to appear at an AEW pay-per-view at one point, but missed his chance.

Terry Funk’s career lasted from the middle of the 1960s to the late 2010s, during which time he surpassed professional wrestling in popularity. He participated in almost every significant promotion in Japan and the United States.

In the main event of the ECW’s first pay-per-view, Terry Funk won the ECW World Heavyweight championship. Moreover, it can be said that The Funker served as the foundation for the rise of numerous new talents.

Furthermore, Terry Funk was even invited to participate in AEW Double or Nothing 2021. The main event featured the Stadium Stampede match between The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz) and The Pinnacle (Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, MJF, Shawn Spears, and Wardlow). Dax Harwood recently elaborated on this during the recent episode of his FTR with Dax and Matt Koon podcast.

We were supposed to film a scene where Cash and I were walking in the bar with Tully (Blanchard), we had just ran away from Ortiz and Santana, we were walking in the bar. Sitting at the bar was someone by himself, with his back to us, and we got the ‘okay’ from Tony (Khan) to do this, we just had to get up with him. We walk up to the bar, we sit down at the bar, and the guy at the bar was going to be Terry Funk.

He was supposed to say a line from ‘Roadhouse,’ I can’t remember what it was. He was supposed to say a line, and we were going to take a drink with him, then in comes Santana and Ortiz, then we go into the brawl and we see Konnan. We see Konnan, we flip the table over to start the brawl, and when we flip the table over, it was supposed to hit the first few seconds of DMX ‘Party Up’ and that starts the big brawl. That got ixnayed, I don’t know why.” 

Dax Harwood further stated he and Cash Wheeler tried to reach out to Terry Funk numerous times. The Funkster did return the calls, however, it was too late by that time.

“We called Terry, Cash did, and we couldn’t get a hold of him. Called him again, left him a message, couldn’t get a hold of him. Maybe a week later, if that, Cash gets a phone call, and it says, ‘Terry Funk.’ Cash answered and explained everything to him. Terry said, ‘I would love to do that.’ — ‘We’ve already filmed it.’ Terry was very apologetic. He was down to do it, he just called back a bit too late.”

The match was ultimately won by The Inner Circle in the bout against The Pinnacle. However, Terry Funk’s involvement in the match could have been interesting to watch if it had happened.

Are you bummed that this appearance didn’t pan out? What’s your favorite moment in Terry Funk’s tremendous career? Sound off in the comments and join the conversation!