Dreamer: The Terry Funk enigma

Tommy Dreamer has been a wrestling fan since the age of 9. His favorite growing up? You guessed it: Dusty Rhodes.

You were thinking we were going to say that he said Terry Funk, weren’t you? But actually, being a fan of “The American Dream” meant that Dreamer hated Terry Funk.

Once he got in the wrestling business, though, Dreamer “learned to love Terry Funk.”

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“Terry is Terry, and Terry is truly crazy. But Terry did things in this business and helped people in this business, and never really took a lot of credit for it,” said Dreamer, who counts himself among that group.

Dreamer will face Funk for the first time in a one-on-one match at the Oct. 15 AWE Night of Legends pay-per-view.

In the walkup to the match, Funk has been laying quite the verbal smackdown on his protege, all with the basic message that Funk wanted a match with Dreamer because he’s old and can’t wrestle anymore, so he needs an opponent who won’t give him a tough time in the ring.

“Terry Funk says things that aren’t always true, and he may have a different reason for saying them. Just like his many, many retirements. Just like when he claims he’s a beat-up old man, and he still kicks the crap out of everyone he gets in the ring with,” Dreamer said.

“It doesn’t matter how old Terry Funk is. I’m 40 years old. When he was 50 years old, he was doing moonsaults into the crowd in ECW. Wait to see what I do to you, Terry Funk,” Dreamer said.