WWE Hall of Famer Terry Funk once dodged a major WWE appearance by telling Vince McMahon his horse was dying.
Writing in his 2005 autobiography, Terry Funk: More Than Just Hardcore, the late wrestling legend revealed that he was initially set to join the WWE in late 1993. The plan was for Funk to play one of Jerry “The King” Lawler’s masked knights in the Survivor Series pay-per-view, facing off against Bret Hart and his brothers. According to Funk, the match would have seen Hart defeat and unmask him before applying his signature Sharpshooter a second time.
“I was actually supposed to work in the WWF in late 1993,” Funk wrote. “They had called me about becoming head booker… They wanted me to wear some silly outfit with a blue mask, to be one of Jerry Lawler’s knights.”
Beyond the match, Funk was also being considered for a key backstage role, potentially replacing his longtime friend Pat Patterson as the company’s creative head. Funk met with WWE higher-ups, including Patterson and McMahon, and even had dinner with them. But after some reflection that night, he decided he didn’t want to go through with it.
“As I lay there, I got to thinking, ‘I’m not sure if I want to follow through with this deal,’” Funk recalled.
The next morning, Funk quietly packed his bags and left a note for McMahon:
“My horse is sick. I think he’s dying. I’ll see you later.”
He fled to the airport and was already on the run when airport staff paged him for a phone call. When Funk returned to WWE in 1997 as the eccentric Chainsaw Charlie, McMahon didn’t let him forget it.
“When I came to work for him in late 1997, one of the first things Vince said to me was, ‘So how’s your horse?’” Funk wrote.
Survivor Series 1993 went ahead without Funk. Lawler was pulled from the event due to legal issues, and Shawn Michaels stepped in as the team leader. The knight roles were filled by Jeff Gaylord (black knight), Barry Horowitz (red knight), and Greg Valentine (blue knight). None of the knights were unmasked during the match.
Which WWE Show Did Bruce Prichard Say Was Scrapped Due To A Terry Funk Promo?
Bruce Prichard once recalled how a WWE show was “thrown off the air” due to a Terry Funk promo. Prichard said that the Shotgun Saturday Night show was taken off the air by the show’s network due to comments made by Funk during a promo on the January 18, 1997, episode of the show. On the show Funk cut a promo in which he referred to Jim Ross as an “Oklahoma son of a b*tch”, labelled Vince McMahon as a “yankee b*stard” and most famously said to Todd Pettengill “your mother’s a w*ore.”