The Funker in Puerto Rico

Terry Funk v TNT (Puerto Rico, 10/15/88)

There are very few things in wrestling I enjoy more than Terry Funk in Puerto Rico. I don't know if there's a more perfect fit between a wrestler and a particular environment than Terry and Puerto Rico. Nobody thrives on visceral reaction and emotion and connection like Terry and the reactions in Puerto Rico are as visceral as they come. He wrestled this full match in his chaps and within 10 seconds he was running away from TNT, climbing up a set of scaffolding, being chased and caught and kicked down off it to then roll around in the dirt. He tried climbing over the barricade into the bleachers, tried crawling under the ring to get away, came out the other side and got caught, not realising TNT followed him under there. After a brief spell in the ring he tried running away again and went back to the scaffold, this time joined by two members of what I guess was the production stuff who tried to keep the thing held in place. I can only guess they did not know Funk would try climbing it in the first place and on the second occasion one fella looked to the other like "fuck sake he's gonna try and climb it again." His seesaw in the ropes spot where he gets peppered by punches is always great but this is the first time I've seen it where his opponent hits him with a superkick. He wound up back on the floor practically dry humping the turf and among other things maybe Terry Funk is the best comedy wrestler of all time. In the end he slammed a table down on the referee's head and then actually succeeded in running away. Every second of footage we have of Terry Funk in this territory is a treasure.