Rock Region, Los Angeles SubRegion, Second Round: (1) The Rock vs. (17) Dory Funk Jr.

[NSL]

This is a second round match in the Los Angeles SubRegion of The Rock Region. It is a standard one-on-one match. It will take place at the Staples Center.

(1) Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson

vs.

(17) Dory Funk Jr.

Polls will be open for three days following a one day period for discussion. Voting will be based on who you feel is the greater of the two competitors. Post your reasons for why your pick should win below. Remember that this is non-spam and the most votes in the poll win. Any ties will be broken by the amount of posts of support for each candidate, with one vote per poster.

Also remember that this is a non-spam forum. If you post a response without giving a reason for your selection, it will be penalized for spam and deleted.​

 

[NSL]

I'll admit that I underestimated Dory Funk in the first round, and didn't think he would get past the Bossman, but there is no way he beats Rocky here. Rock is due for a win in one of these tournaments, and won't be stopped this early.

Aside from his accomplishments, he has been mostly retired for...forever now, and still gets huge pops, and commands the crowd with the microphone. To be honest, I'm not even sure if this would be a good match, were it to actually happen, but I'd put money on The Rock getting the win.

 

[OYDK]

I'll get all the sentimentality stuff out of the way early:

- Dory Funk was a great NWA Champion.
- Dory Funk was able to get over in the States, Japan, Puerto Rico, etc.
- Dory Funk was one of the pillars of the NWA throughout the 70s and early 80s, and held the NWA title for over 4 years at one point.
- Dory doesn't get enough credit.

Anyway, Rock wins but I'd be tempted to hear a good argument for Dory. Ech?

 

[Tastycles]

Dory Funk got the NWA title largely because of the pull his dad had and then he bullshitted Jack Brisco out of a career-making match to win it by pretending to be injured, so for the wikipedia brigade, no he wasn't some all conquering champion.

The Rock obviously transcended wrestling ultimately, but within it he was one of its biggest stars. Whenever a major company has lost one of its major stars - WWF losing Hogan in 1993, for example, there is usually a downturn in fortunes. When WWF lost Austin in late 1999, The Rock completely threw the rule book out of the window and took the company to heights which it has never reached subsequently or before. The Rock is one of the industry's most recognisable and successful names, Dory Funk was a solid guy in the right place at the right time with the right father.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

The Rock has an extended family in pro wrestling and he is easily the most famous. I'd argue that Dory isn't even the most famous of the Funk family.

Rock is one of the guys that managed to transcend wrestling in ways that few others could, and was actually good at it as opposed to some others who starred in a few B films outside of wrestling.

Rock goes on.

 

[Pay Per Ghost]

The Rock here. Not really all that close and thats not a knock on Dory who is an absolute legend and a beast of wrestler himself, but Rock is just...The Rock. He is probably the biggest overall star that came from wrestling, ever!

 

[SSJPhenom]

What else can be said? Dory was great in the NWA and accomplished a lot. The Rock transcended the business and is a household name and was a household name even while he was still a full time wrestler. We can lay out accomplishments and all that, but I don't think it's necessary.

Vote Rock.

 

[Bernkastel]

I'll get all the sentimentality stuff out of the way early:

- Dory Funk was a great NWA Champion.
- Dory Funk was able to get over in the States, Japan, Puerto Rico, etc.
- Dory Funk was one of the pillars of the NWA throughout the 70s and early 80s, and held the NWA title for over 4 years at one point.
- Dory doesn't get enough credit.

Anyway, Rock wins but I'd be tempted to hear a good argument for Dory. Ech?

Sure. Rock lacked the longevity that Dory had and was a bit of a niche personality that regurgitated the same catchphrases every week. Compared to Dory, Rocky was extremely monotonous and repetitive. But I'm sure I will hear all about how entertaining and charismatic he was and how he commanded the attention of crowds everywhere, even though business fell off considerably under his watch from 2001-2003.

That didn't happen with Dory Funk. In fact I recall Ric Flair calling Dory a better world champion than Bruno Sammartino.

Rock was a great performer, but Dory was both a great performer and a great wrestler. And unlike Rock, Dory didn't just appeal to the fans of wrestling that wrestling had become a niche to.

So yeah, I'm voting Dory because nobody else will give it any second thought. We're all in awe that Rock can say llama penis on TV.

 

[Tastycles]

Sure. Rock lacked the longevity that Dory had and was a bit of a niche personality that regurgitated the same catchphrases every week. Compared to Dory, Rocky was extremely monotonous and repetitive. But I'm sure I will hear all about how entertaining and charismatic he was and how he commanded the attention of crowds everywhere, even though business fell off considerably under his watch from 2001-2003.

That didn't happen with Dory Funk.

A) The only time The Rock was clearly the main guy in WWE was in 2000, when the business grew. The NWA's business massively declined in the early 1970s. I'm not sure how anyone could possibly think comparing the relative successes of the two businesses these guys wrestled in would be an argument in favour of the guy who wrestled at wrestlings nadir when he's up against someone who wrestled at its peak.

B) Tell us one promo, one interview segment, one anything that Dory Funk ever did that was better than the Rock. I'm aware you may not be able to find a video, but tell us what he said, describe what he did, anything.

 

[Bernkastel]

A) The only time The Rock was clearly the main guy in WWE was in 2000, when the business grew. The NWA's business massively declined in the early 1970s. I'm not sure how anyone could possibly think comparing the relative successes of the two businesses these guys wrestled in would be an argument in favour of the guy who wrestled at wrestlings nadir when he's up against someone who wrestled at its peak.

B) Tell us one promo, one interview segment, one anything that Dory Funk ever did that was better than the Rock. I'm aware you may not be able to find a video, but tell us what he said, describe what he did, anything.

Business in the NWA didn't "massively" decline in the 70's. That was the decade that the territories grew out of the cities that promoters controlled. They had to have gotten the money to fuel the expansion of these promotions somewhere. What happened was promoters were selling wrestling at a far more rapid pace than what the fans were accustomed to and the demand dropped off. If you see drop off's in finance in the early part of the decade that's what happened. The NWA was still the top organization in the world for wrestling in the 70's so the decline obviously righted itself. It's what happened in the early 00's after WWE bought out WCW. Many of those fans did not jump ship and WWE's business naturally declined.

I realize that Dory Funk is not the best choice to bounce the Rock out of this. On the list that I did I had the Rock above Dory, but they were close. Close enough for this to be debatable. I just don't like seeing Dory or these other pre-modern wrestlers dismissed so easily as if they were after thoughts.

 

[NSL]

The Rock has an extended family in pro wrestling and he is easily the most famous. I'd argue that Dory isn't even the most famous of the Funk family.

Not only is The Rock the most famous, but him being famous is what made his father and grandfather famous. They were good enough on their own, but no one was talking about their greatness until Rock came along.

That's real star power.

 

[X]

I'll be voting Rock because I feel he was an all around better talent in most regards (excluding technical abilities) but I'd just like to point out that as massively popular as The Rock was and continues to be, his time on top of this sport was very short lived, and he was really only the focus of his promotion for one year (2000) and that was only because Austin was injured. He had about a good four years on top, which is about equal to the length of Dory's title reign alone. He may have gotten the title out of politicking (of course that describes the vast, overwhelming majority of world champions pre-80s) but you don't hold a belt for four years simply because of politics, it's not like they didn't have other options. That said, Terry will always be the superior Funk brother.

Rock gets my vote but it's not some kind of landslide decision.