WWE Region, Lexington Region, First Round: (11) Dory Funk Jr. vs. (22) Arn Anderson

[Tastycles]

This is a first round match in the WWE Region, Lexington Subregion. It is a standard one on one match. It will be held at the Rupp Arena, Lexington.

#11. Dory Funk Jr.

Vs.

#22. Arn Anderson

​

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.

 

[Niicks]

Going to have to take Arn on this one. The Enforcer was an incredible athlete, and very overlooked during his time. Who couldn't love AA?

 

[god-soldier]

This would be a hard fought smash mouth fist for fist match from beginning till the end but Arn Anderson would pull off this win because he studied Dory from the moment he heard that they would meet in the tournament.

 

[The Brain]

Arn Anderson was one hell of a guy in his prime. I think he could beat Dory Funk Jr. with a nice win. Double A for the win here.

AA for me too with his classic spinebuster, arn was an amazing athlete and takes this in a great match.

Going to have to take Arn on this one. The Enforcer was an incredible athlete, and very overlooked during his time. Who couldn't love AA?

AA was a brute, I see him defeating Dory with his spinebuster.

I am going with the underdog (or so I thought lol) arn with a devastating spine buster .

This would be a very hard fought match with AA winning it.

Arn Anderson shall emerge victorious.

Long match, but AA gets the three after his spinebuster.

Wow these are some amazing arguments. How could I argue with such well thought out posts? Let's see, Dory Funk Jr. defeated a great wrestler in Gene Kiniski for the NWA heavyweight championship and held it for four years before losing it to Harley Race. Arn Anderson spent his career playing second fiddle to Ric Flair. I'm just going to leave it at that for now. It's a short post but is way more reason to vote for Funk than the people I've quoted have given you to vote for Anderson.

 

[The_Sharpshooter]

If you vaguely look at the career of these two guys & imagined them in a storyline, I'd imagine it to be Funk facing Arn to get to Flair. And Arn being as great as he is, he would put Funk over lovely.

Arn's one of my faves and one of the coolest cats ever, but I'm going Dory on this one:
1. Just to go against everyone else.
2. Dory put companies on his back. Arn never had that responsibility.
3. If Dory hits Arn with that Piledriver, AA aint walkin no mo!

 

[Shadowmancer]

Whilst Double A is good, he was always the bridesmaid and never the bride. Dory Funk jr held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the late 60s early 70s when the NWA was almost the only game in town. He held the title for 4 years, he was still wrestling right up until the last year or so doing tours in Japan, he still is teaching people how to wrestle at the age of 71. Dory beat one of the greats for the title.

 

[PsychoBlack]

Arn Anderson was great no doubt about it. He was also the third best horseman after Flair and Blanchard and spent his career as a tag team or mid card wrestler. Dory Funk Jr comes from one of the most famous wrestling families this great sport has ever seen. He was a multi time world champion and made you feel his wrath every second you were in the ring with him. Dory goes over rather easy in this one

 

[Tastycles]

Funk was probably raised to World Champion prematurely. Very prematurely, I think he'd been wrestling less than a year when the NWA council gave him the nod. However, he's still been a world champion, something Anderson has never been near, and again, unlike Anderson, he was always the focal point of his feuds rather than a barrier to someone else. Funk definitely has better credentials on paper than Anderson, and when you consider that Anderson's "power" for all it's worth led to him losing to a lot of technical mat wrestlers over his career, then this one should be obvious. Vote Funk.

 

[Shotaro]

(forgot this wasn't a spam section with previous post)

Arn Anderson would win, not because he'd out wrestle Dory Funk. AA would win because of two words, Four Horsemen. Say what you like about him being second fiddle or even third fiddle in that group. Arn was the powerhouse in wrestlings first great stable. And that's why I'm voting AA.

 

[Shadowmancer]

Outside interference does not happen within this tournament, There is no threat of it at all. So any help from the rest of the Horsemen is null and void. Dory has a style that can take down Arn. Shame this match doesn't have a reality on youtube if it happened in reality as it would be one heck of a match.

 

[The Wrestling God]

Dory Funk gets this one for the following reasons:
He was a bigger draw then Arn
He held a world championship
Arn has a history of putting guys over
In terms of storytelling it allows for Ric Flair to get revenge for any Horsemen taken out

 

[NSL]

Oh, this is tough...I want to vote Arn. He's a great wrestler, and one of the best mic men I've ever seen. He was a great heel, and could work with anyone. But, as numerous people have pointed out, Funk won the big one, and has had a more far-reaching influence in the business.

It'd be one of my favorite matches to watch in this tournament, but Funk ekes out a win...

 

[klunderbunker]

I went with Dory here. At the end of the day, Anderson is the guy that was always on the outside looking in. Dory Funk Jr. was NWA World Champion for over four straight years. That's longer than Hogan's reign in the 80s was. This is a match I'd love to see because it would certainly be excellent, but at the end of the day Dory was a lot more successful than Arn and he takes it. If nothing else, watch the 1995 Rumble. Dory, almost age 54 at the time, is in it and outworks about 90% of the people in the match. Also we have the same birthday so I have to pick him.,

 

[Peoples_Champ]

Dory Funk Jr has the double disadvantage of being 1. a wrestler in a long-gone era that many users have never seen and 2. facing a wrestler that many users have seen / heard of (note to mods: this can easily be rectified next year by embedding youtube videos to help out some of the older guys. seriously, it'll add some objectivity to these matches).

I've attached a video of Dory & Terry Funk going against Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen in Japan, which received a five-star rating from Meltzer (I know, the talk of objectivity and Meltzer is hypocritical, but at the very least it's a great match).

http://vimeo.com/28240687

To those undecided, please watch that match and tell me if AA was ever this good.

 

[tarp]

Neither star deserves to go home in the first round. Dory was a world champ but AA is the best wrestler to never hold the title and that includes Piper. I see AA wearing down Dory until he finally hits the spine buster at about 33 minute mark for the win.

 

[deem]

It always bugs me slightly how well Anderson does in these comps. I LOVE him, he is one of my all time absolute favourites and I couldn't respect him more. Plus I havn't seen much Dory Funk Jr. work compared to him, so I have every reason in the world to be biased towards the Enforcer.

Simply put, in a kayfabe solo tournament, Anderson should never do as well as he does. He doesn't have the resume to back it up. His prime as a solo performer was a TV title reign. THAT does not compare to a four and a half year world title reign.

Dory for the win.

 

[Natural Selection]

Going to catch shit for this but not only does Dory win this match he wins it by submission. This would be one grueling match, but at about the 45 minute mark Dory hits a piledriver and applies his cloverleaf. Arn battles within fingertips EDIT: of the ropes END EDIT: before Dory pulls him back to the center of the ring forcing the enforcer to tap.

Dory Funk Jr's Resume

All Japan Pro Wrestling
NWA International Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
World's Strongest Tag Team League (1977, 1979, 1982) - with Terry Funk

Cauliflower Alley Club
Other honoree (1998)

Championship Wrestling from Florida
NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship (4 times)
NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Terry Funk
NWA Florida Television Championship (2 times)
NWA International Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA North American Tag Team Championship (Florida version) (2 times) - with Terry Funk (1) and David Von Erich (1)
NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Continental Wrestling Association
CWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Georgia Championship Wrestling
NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Terry Funk

International Championship Wrestling
ICW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling
NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship (2 times)

National Wrestling Alliance
NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2006)

NWA Hollywood Wrestling
NWA Americas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
NWA International Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Terry Funk
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Los Angeles Version) (1 time) - with Terry Funk

NWA Western States Sports
NWA Brass Knuckles Championship (Amarillo version) (2 times)
NWA International Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Terry Funk
NWA North American Heavyweight Championship (Amarillo version) (1 time)
NWA Western States Tag Team Championship (6 times) - with Ricky Romero (2), The Super Destroyer (2), Ray Candy (1), and Larry Lane (1)
NWA World Tag Team Championship (Texas Version) (2 times) - with Terry Funk

New England Wrestling Alliance
NEWA North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI Match of the Year (1973) vs. Harley Race on May 24
PWI Match of the Year (1974) vs. Jack Brisco on January 27

Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum
Class of 2005

Southwest Championship Wrestling
SCW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Terry Funk

St. Louis Wrestling Hall of Fame

St. Louis Wrestling Club
NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Stampede Wrestling
NWA International Tag Team Championship (Calgary version) (1 time) - with Larry Lane
Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame

World Wrestling Council
WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
WWC World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Terry Funk

World Wrestling Entertainment
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2009)

Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class of 1996)

Other titles
New York Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

Arn Anderson's Resume

Jim Crockett Promotions / World Championship Wrestling
NWA National Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Ole Anderson
NWA (Mid-Atlantic)/WCW World Tag Team Championship (5 times) - with Tully Blanchard (2), Larry Zbyszko (1), Bobby Eaton (1), and Paul Roma (1)
NWA/WCW World Television Championship (4 times)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated
PWI ranked him #8 of the 500 best wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1991.
PWI Feud of the Year (1987) Four Horsemen vs. Super Powers and the Road Warriors
PWI Tag Team of the Year (1989) with Tully Blanchard
PWI Tag Team of the Year (1991) with Larry Zbyszko
PWI Stanley Weston Award (1997)
PWI ranked him #62 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003

Southeastern Championship Wrestling
NWA Southeastern Tag Team Championship (4 times) - with Jerry Stubbs (3) and Pat Rose (1)

World Wrestling Federation / WWE
WWF Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tully Blanchard
WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2012)

 

[Silly Willy Nilly Vanilly in the Milly]

hard one here...
Dory is indeed part of the Funk family, arguably one of the greatest...
But the Enforcer, IMO, had just as good, if not a better, run than Dory.
A bit off I know, but hey, Arn just seems to be the better of the two.
Not by much.
Vote AA.

 

[jtolliver23]

I would have to go with Arn Anderson on this one. It would be a great match no doubt, but I think Arn has the ability to pull out the win. I'm pretty much basing this off of the fact that Arn was one of the few guys during the whole NWO run who beat Hogan clean, even though it wasn't for the title, he still did it.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

How in the BLUE HELL is this such a close matchup? Dory Funk...one of the greatest NWA World Heavyweight Champions of all-time...against a primary tag-team wrestler who never held a singles title higher than the TV belt? Is this simply a case of illiteracy, where voters don't even read about the contestants?

Dory Funk should be winning this hands down. If this was a stable matchup or possibly a tag match, then Anderson might have a chance. Not otherwise.


So, before you press that button to vote for Arn Anderson, DO YOUR HOMEWORK ON DORY FUNK, JR.

 

[Natural Selection]

How the funk did Dory only win this by one vote? The man held the NWA title for four years. AA doesn't have one accomplishment even close to that. Thank God the better man won here.