What’s the story?
These days, it’s almost becoming fashionable to try and make it in the pro wrestling business outside of WWE: just ask Cody Rhodes or anyone else from Bullet Club.
But apparently, it’s not just the younger generation who are focussing their efforts outside of the big leagues.
Wrestling’s resident septuagenarian, Terry Funk, recently opened up to Wrestle List about a potential WWE return, noting that even though he’s still involved in the business, he doesn’t have any desire to return to the company.
In case you didn’t know…
Funk’s enjoyable multiple runs with WWE over the course of his 52-year pro wrestling career.
He first signed on in 1985 before returning towards the tail end of 1997, and since then he’s made a number of one-off appearances, such as his outing at the One Night Stand 2006 pay-per-view and his pre-WrestleMania 32 cameo to provide a pep talk to Dean Ambrose.
Going in depth
For the record, it may be worth noting the context of the discussion regarding Funk’s possible return to WWE.
Funk was asked about a possible return similar to that of Mick Foley—or in other words, it was insinuated that a hypothetical return would be in some kind of on-screen role as opposed to an in-ring-competitive one.
Next steps
Though a WWE return doesn’t look to be on the cards, Funk is scheduled to appear at a Big Time Wrestling show on Sep 23, where he’ll team with the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express to face Jerry Lawler, Brian Gilbert, and Brian Christopher.
Funk will be over 73 years old when that match takes place, and though while it’s officially being advertised as a retirement match, he’s already bowed out from the business 22 times and counting, so don’t be surprised if there’s more to come from Funk.
Author’s take
In 2017, talk of a WWE return for Funk seems a little far-fetched to say the least. Still, it's interesting to see that Funk himself has shot down that talk—not that there was all that much talk there, to begin with.
Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.