Dory Funk Jr. has died at the age of 85. His wife Marti confirmed to the Ocala Gazette that he passed away under hospice care on Tuesday, August 4.
Funk was the last surviving member of wrestling’s most consequential family. He was the son of Amarillo promoter Dory Funk Sr., who ran Western States Sports, and the older brother of Terry Funk, who died in August 2023 and whose influence turned up on WWE television as recently as this weekend, when CM Punk revealed his SummerSlam moonsault was a Terry tribute. Dory Jr. and Terry are the only brothers to each hold the NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
Four Years As NWA World Champion
Funk debuted in 1963 and beat Gene Kiniski for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on February 11, 1969 at the Fort Homer W. Hesterly Armory in Tampa. He held it for more than four years, the second-longest uninterrupted reign in the title’s history, before losing to Harley Race at Memorial Hall in Kansas City on May 24, 1973.
The drop to Race came after a truck accident on his father’s ranch in West Texas forced a hurried change of plans. Funk had originally been booked to face Jack Brisco for the championship that March.
His style was the argument for wrestling as a legitimate athletic contest. He worked from a college wrestling base built at West Texas State, finished with the spinning toe hold his father introduced, and is credited with inventing the Texas cloverleaf. That approach carried overseas. He debuted for All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1973 and spent decades there as one of the promotion’s most trusted foreign stars, teaming with Terry in a tag team that won gold in Japan, Florida, Georgia, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico.
The Funkin’ Conservatory And A 61-Year Career
Funk opened a wrestling school in Ocala, Florida in the 1990s, first known as the Funkin’ Dojo and later expanded into his own promotion and training center, the Funkin’ Conservatory. Kurt Angle, Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Lita and Mickie James all came through it. He and Marti ran the school together for years.
He never really stopped working. On August 24, 2024, at 83 years old, Funk wrestled a Double Hell Current Explosion Death Match in Kawasaki, Japan on a card honoring Terry and marking Atsushi Onita’s 50th anniversary. He took an exploding bat to the back and still won the match with the spinning toe hold.
Funk was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2005, the NWA Hall of Fame in 2006, and the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009 alongside Terry as The Funks. Their father joined them in April 2025 as a WWE Hall of Fame Legacy wing inductee.
Funk is survived by his wife Marti. The two were together for 46 years and married for 40.
