Jeff Jarrett paid tribute to Dory Funk Jr. following his death, and placed his four-year NWA World Championship reign at the center of his legacy.
Funk held the title from 1969 to 1973, the longest reign other than Lou Thesz.
On My World with Jeff Jarrett, Jarrett recalled working a long NWA title match against Funk in Ocala during his TNA run, and said the booking of that trip was personal.
“The biggest reason was my father. He was, and I’ve said this many, many times, he was my father’s favorite champion.”
Jarrett said Funk’s reign has to be understood through the promoters who kept him on top.
“When you have collectively, we’ll call it 20 to 30 businessmen, not just promoters, but businessmen, saying, okay, we want Dory to be our champion, he represents everything that we want as a professional wrestler… we got to trust him. We got to believe in him.”
“If you don’t have the success of Dory Funk, you don’t have the success of Harley Race, and if you don’t have the success of Harley Race, you don’t have the success of Ric Flair… I think the very top of Dory’s legacy is he was the touring champion for the longest when it mattered the most.”
Transcription by Global Force Entertainment.
