Glass Hand Dissolving: Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr.

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vs Abdullah the Butcher & The Sheik (AJPW 12/13/1979)

Man, is this violent. Guys are stabbing and getting stabbed. Guys are bleeding, being bled on, punching each other in the head wound.  Even Dory gets dragged into the fray. Somehow, amongst all of that, there is also a pretty standard tag match, where Terry gets worked over and makes a hot tag ot Dory Jr. Spoiler, but this is easily the best match of this set of 5 and a very, very solid match for 1979. 

vs Tommy Rogers & El Gran Apollo (Georgia 1/2/1982)

This is pretty much a squash. They give a fair bit to Tommy Rogers and a little bit to Apollo, but this is pretty much non-competitive. I don't know what you can really take away from a match like this other than The Funks do a couple of cool things. Terry hits a good elbow drop, the Dory uppercuts look good, as does the butterfly suplex. That's about it. 

vs Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen (AJPW 4/22/1983)

Brody and Hansen eat up a lot of this match, as you might expect. The Funks put up a bit of fight early against Hansen, but as soon as Brody tags in, the Funks don't get much. Terry, as you might think, really sells for Hansen and Brody, and Dory is always convincing as a guy who's being beaten but is still putting up a fight. Everyone is playing their role here, it just isn't supposed to be all that competitive. The moment the Funks start to get somewhere, Brody goes for the chain and gets DQ'd for fighting with the official. 

vs Dynamite Kid & Johnny Smith (AJPW 4/5/1991)

This is a lot of Dory. He spends a lot of time working the mat with Johnny Smith. That's fine, I will say that losing some mat exchanges doesn't create the same sort of tension of a hot tag as any other offense, but when you're tagging in Terry Funk, the tag is going to be pretty good anyway. When Terry gets in and pretty much spams big moves, until he eventually tags in Dory again. Dory wins with a spinning toe hold, which Johnny fights convincingly. This is good, not great. 

vs Cactus Jack & Texas Terminator Hoss (AJPW 4/6/1991)

Hoss does a decent job here; he really only works with Dory, and that isn't the best matchup for him. I say that because, well, he stands out as not belonging here. Dory and Foley, and obviously Terry and Foley, are much better and more interesting matchups. Part of this suffers because the fancam just doesn't capture a lot of the stuff in the crowd. Dory sells for a lot of this, and I'd say this is the best example of him selling in these 5 matches. Another good, not great one. 

Verdict

Don't know if this is enough to make a case for being an all-time great team, but it is certainly one of the better collections of matches thus far. Points for actually being a team, and working like a team, points for being able to switch roles, points for variety in match structure. A great team. 

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