SLAGLE:  Hey everyone!  Thanks for visiting the "Superstar" Billy Graham website at SuperstarBillyGraham.com.  Today I'm really excited because we have, literally, a living legend with us here.  Not, Bruno Sammartino, but we do have the former Florida Heavyweight champion, two-time International Tag Team champion, five-time Western States Heritage champion, two-time Western States Tag Team champion, Georgia Tag Team champion, Americas Heavyweight champion, WCW Hardcore champion, ECW World Heavyweight champion, and of course, the NWA World champion -- and I'm sure I'm leaving out a dozen or so more titles as well -- but, it's my pleasure to introduce straight from the Double Cross Ranch in Amarillo, TX., Terry Funk.  Terry, how're you doing today?

FUNK: Well, it's a pleasure being here.  I guess I went through all of those areas and did all of that, but, gosh darn, some of those sound like a long time ago!  A long, long, long time ago!

SLAGLE: Well, you've been around for a while, so...

FUNK:  About a lifetime!

SLAGLE: Yeah!  Well, Terry, first of all I'd like to thank you for joining us here today, and I was wondering if you could give us a little update on what's going on with you in WCW, are you happy with your situation there, and do you have any new programs coming up or anything?

FUNK:  Well, I'm very happy with the group that's down there now.  I haven't been unhappy with anybody.  I'm just doing time, well, not doing time, I'm enjoying it very much.  I'm in the latter part of my career, and every day I have down there, I consider it a gift.  I'm with a bunch of guys that I enjoy and have fun being with, and that's good too.  As far as the people that are in power down there....well, I've been through several of them!  It's seems like they have revolving door down there.  And, hopefully, it's the end of the run of the changes with Eric back down there, and hopefully Vince [Russo] will be back down there.  Possibly he won't be, I don't know.  It just changes so fast.  The whole entire business changes overnight anymore.  It's not like it used to be!  It used to be that you'd have to sit and wait for a change for years and years and now it just happens daily, the business changes daily.

SLAGLE:  Yeah, it seems like if they could just get their management problems solved -- I mean, they've got the talent there and Vince Russo is a pretty creative guy who seems like he knows what the modern wrestling fan wants to see.  So, it just seems like it's a matter of getting everything together...

FUNK:  Well, you know what was really good was this last week, Fit Finlay was down there and he was helping with that end of the business, and also, Johnny Ace was down there helping out.  Those guys are very capable wrestlers and both have experience in manipulation and running the back side of the wrestling business, in other words, behind the scenes, you know?  They can call the shots in the ring, they've both been in the ring, and I think they can both really help Russo out.  I think it's a little bit of freshness.  I've got a lot of respect for Arn, too, but I think that this is a little bit of freshness, you know?

SLAGLE: So, is Johnny Ace, is he like part of WCW now, or is he just kind of consulting them?

FUNK:  It looks like he might be coming in there.

SLAGLE:  So, he's given up his All-Japan gig?

FUNK:  I have no idea what the situation is.  But, I know that this past Monday he was in there helping out and did an excellent job.

SLAGLE: Well, it would be good news for WCW, that's for sure.  Now, Terry, taking into consideration your father's success in the business, did you always want to be a wrestler, or how did that all come about?

FUNK: Absolutely!  In fact, it's kind of shameful that I went college for as long as I did.  I never had any intention of using it, but my father insisted that I go.  He said I had to have a profession, something I could fall back on in case you're physically injured.  He felt very strongly that way.

SLAGLE: So, you knew from the time you were a child that you were born to get into the ring?

FUNK:  Well, some kids know they want to be a fireman, they want to be different things in this world and do different things.  They always dream.  I always dreamed of being a wrestler.  It's rather absurd, but, that's my life.

SLAGLE:  It's certainly in the family, too, because, obviously, your father and your brother Dory, the three of you were just so respected in the business and with the fans and everything.  It's seems like a natural progression to me.

FUNK:  Dory's doing real well down there in Florida, with the, oh, I don't know what's it's called...

SLAGLE: The Funking Dojo?

FUNK:  I think that's what it is.  He has a great school down there, and it's doing real well.  He does a good job teaching guys, and he's taught a lot of the young guys in this business.

SLAGLE:  A lot of the really successful young guys!  There's a whole crop of them up in the WWF.

FUNK:  There's a lot of advantages to going to a school like his.  I'm not trying to sit here and plug his school all day long. The Power Plant has some great guys, really truly great performers, and great kids.  But, because they are with The Power Plant, WCW doesn't seem to want to bring them up, because they know they have a lock on them, so they're not dangerous.  Nobody else is going to grab them.  And, Vince has his school, also.  And, the guys that are in that school are not dangerous.  He's got a lock on them.  ECW has their own group, but they have a lock on them.  The really good thing about it is, when you go to a school like my brother's, you have the ability to shop yourself around.  Or, any school, you know?  I think schools are good, I think  all the way across the country...I'm not just sitting here plugging his school.

SLAGLE: Well, also, Dory Funk Jr.'s school does stand out a little bit above some of the others just because of the fact that, I mean, he does know so much about wrestling that you get that little extra step up.

FUNK:  That's true, but there's also a lot of...there's some good schools across the country.  There are some very good schools.

SLAGLE: Absolutely.  How much older is Dory than you?  How many years does he have on you?

FUNK:  He's three and a half years older than me.

SLAGLE:  So, were you wrestling at the time he was the champion?

FUNK:  Absolutely.  (sarcastically) If I can remember that far back!

SLAGLE: Now, Terry Funk was a wrestler who really, in a lot of ways, made a name by the 'sneak attack'.  You've had dozens of legendary sneak attacks on some of the greatest wrestlers ever.  A few that come to mind would be, obviously, Ric Flair, where you piledrove him through a table.  And then also...

FUNK:  That was the origination of the table...

SLAGLE:  Going through it?

FUNK:  It was like 1989, and people didn't realize that, but I think I originated the tables.

SLAGLE:  I wouldn't be surprised.  Now, you also did some run-ins on Dusty Rhodes, you cost him the [NWA World Heavyweight] title back in `79, and some good stuff with Jerry Lawler, too.  In your opinion, which one of your sneak attacks was the most effective in turns of how it got fan reaction.  Which one really stands out in your memory?

FUNK:  Oh, I'd say probably the Flair one, in the Steamboat match.  I think it was set up really fine, and I think it made a great scenario for a long-term program.  I think it worked out very well for WCW at the time.  It produced a few numbers.  They were in trouble.  Again, it seems like nobody asks me to help them whenever they're in great shape, it's always when they're in trouble!

SLAGLE: Well, actually, if my memory serves correctly, again, this was over a decade ago, but that did some of the best PPV numbers that they had had in quite some time, I believe.

FUNK:  In quite some time, back then, yes.  It did give a shot in the arm to the business at that time.

SLAGLE:  Yeah, it was really unexpected, too, because I believe you came out of retirement for when you were doing the judging thing on the Clash....

FUNK:  (laughing) I think that was my seventh retirement...