WWE Hall of Famer Dory Funk Jr. dies at 85

[Batista]

WWE Hall of Famer Dory Funk Jr, whose career spanned more than five decades and helped shape professional wrestling across both the United States and Japan, has died at age 85, his wife Marti confirmed he passed under hospice care in Ocala Florida where the couple had lived for years

Funk was the son of wrestling pioneer Dory Funk Sr and the older brother of Terry Funk, forming one of the sports single most influential families, he became the last surviving member of that Funk wrestling dynasty following Terrys death back in 2023 at age 79, Funk began his own career in 1963 after finishing his college football career at West Texas A&M University, initially working with his fathers Western States Sports promotion before building out a career that stretched across North America and Asia over the following decades

He won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in February 1969 and held it for four and a half years, spending 1,563 total days as champion between 1969 and 1973, one of the second longest unbroken reigns in that titles history, he was inducted into the NWA Hall of Fame in 2006 and then into the WWE Hall of Fame alongside his brother Terry in 2009, and in a genuinely fitting piece of family history, their father Dory Funk Sr was posthumously inducted as a legacy honoree in April 2025, making all three Funks Hall of Famers

Beyond his own in ring accomplishments, Funk and his wife built the Funking Conservatory, where he trained a genuinely remarkable list of future stars including Kurt Angle, Edge, Christian Cage, the Hardy Boyz, Mark Henry and Mickie James, that coaching legacy arguably rivals his championship reign in terms of long term impact on the industry, and despite his age he remained a visible presence in wrestling well into his 80s, actually competing in a match in Japan as recently as 2024 and appearing in the crowd at a 2025 edition of WWE Saturday Nights Main Event

WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H paid tribute online, writing that Dorys style inspired countless performers in the industry and that his travels across North America and Asia were part of the early blueprint that helped build this business into a global phenomenon, the National Wrestling Alliance also released its own statement calling him a true legend whose contributions are still felt and celebrated to this day

WWE Hall of Famer Dory Funk Jr. passes awaywww.wwe.com

[Drifter]

His travels across North America and Asia being called part of the early blueprint for the business becoming a global phenomenon is exactly right, guys like Funk who worked All Japan and NWA territories simultaneously genuinely helped internationalize this industry decades before it became the norm

[Mark1]

Training Kurt Angle, Edge, Christian, the Hardy Boyz and Mickie James at the Funking Conservatory might honestly be a bigger legacy than his championship reign, thats a staggering list of future Hall of Famers he directly helped develop

[QuantumToken98]

Genuinely one of the toughest and most respected in ring styles of his generation according to everyone who worked with or trained under him, that kind of universal respect from peers across multiple generations says a lot about who he actually was as both a wrestler and a person

[Emma92]

1,563 days as NWA champion in that era is an enormous accomplishment given how competitive and physically demanding a touring world title reign was during that specific period of wrestling history

[RusticDaemon]

These older territory era legends passing one by one really does mark the end of an entire generation of pro wrestling history, hope WWE and other promotions continue to properly honor and document these stories before that firsthand knowledge is lost entirely

[Southern Puma]

The NWA World Heavyweight Championship reign length puts him in genuinely rarefied historical company, thats the kind of accomplishment that gets referenced any time people discuss the greatest world title reigns of that specific pre WWF national expansion era

[Zach72]

Being the last surviving member of that specific Funk wrestling family after Terry passed in 2023 must have been a strange and heavy weight to carry, losing your entire immediate wrestling lineage within a few years of each other