Harley Race vs Terry Funk (NWA Title Match, JULY 1, 1977) 

Both earned their place in history.

For sure

Jungle Boy Jack Perry has entered the chat

Yes and both such great, long careers

True. I think also with the advent of MMA, people appreciate more how wrestlers apply and sell the moves back in this era.

You hit the nail on the head with "ART."

Very Astute , spespwcially for someone who was intro'd to wrestling during the biggest hotshotted era of wrestling in history . The Attitude era really destroyed the industry because it left the promotion with nowhere to go after throwing every thing and the kitchen sink at the fan . Its rare to hear a young fan sing the praises of old school wrestling.

@@ShinSuperSaiyajin You would think so Ramil but wrestling has degraded to a Stunt show .

@@georgeelmerdenbrough6906 to a degree I will agree. But there are still those who draw because they are good at mat wrestling like the Zack Saber Jrs or Bryan Danielsons

Me too LOL

Same

Fuckin’ awesome..😁

@@ShinSuperSaiyajin ららららららららららららりららららららららららららららららららららららららららるらららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららららら

Lmao thats how I got here

Glad you enjoyed it.

@@SuprJoinT Excellent match. Kudos for the upload.

Storylines didn’t even exist back in the 70’s till Vince made wrestling storylines, this was real professional wrestling 🤼‍♀️ trying become who’s the best

@@ricardosantiago9888 pos vkn DID NOT invent storylines. Storylines and ring psychology have been around since the 1950s.

@@ricardosantiago9888 lmao you modern day kid have no idea about wrestling.

To me high spots just make it so obvious that you are not watching a true competition .

Yes sir .. Harley was the man.

Nope.

Matches are rushed. Only high spots and finishing moves people kick out of on regular basis

NJPW

They come through the curtain doing cartwheels now

It is real wrestling and thats what i was looking for

PABrewNews Yes! It emerged very quickly and was pretty technically sound for such a sudden press.

Yea same here, was all oh shit damn that was beast

Alain Robert wrestling is just awful today

Totally agree!

Pro Wrestling today isn't wrestling Boss. It's Dancing and talking.

Gimmicks? Its scripted. Watch 3:42 slo mo & he clearly hit Harley across the chest., nowhere near the neck or throat , yet the announcer clearly says he was slashed across the throat . Then Harley acts like hes hurt. - Its entertaining though. Back when I was a teen I thought all this was real.

@@97warlock part of the story

This was my first reaction! How Harley get those waves so W A V Y?!?

Straight Ocean 🌊

Facts lol

Harley never brushed his hair. He would only have to look in the mirror and say, "Hair, do this style" and his hair would say, "Yes sir, Mr. Race, we will do it."

Pre Hardcore Legend. Terry Funk is a tough s.o.b has well has Harley Race.

Yeah i geuss it was.

Terry Funk was a very accomplished wrestler before he started.doing the hard core stuff

But Harley wasn't gonna do that stupid Mick Foley shit, Funk should not have either. Remember when Funk was fighting Mick and they were both taken out on stretchers, and moments later they both ran back to the ring with IVs in there arm and shit.

Did he HAVE to go to Japan to get blown up?🔥🧨 (The Japanese and Chinese pioneered gunpowder!)🎆🎇

thats because its an example of great wrestling the same thing happens in other formats all the time

Get used to it . People are realizing that wrestling doesn't exist anymore .

Race and Flair are my GOATs of the NWA ..in my opinion the two best ever

@phillydisco well you thought wrong then, didn't you? 😉

Lou thez was GOAT n flair wouldn't have even been considered good enuf to wrestle Bruno. Bruno would have broke flair in half. But u forget flair usually had help.

I agree with you..Race was one tuff some bish in and out the ring..I miss Florida wrestling days of funks Briscoe Tommy rich Dusty Rhodes..Mike Graham..all rest didn't matter..that side of the NWA was the Real NWA!..so I'm with you one million percent Ma'am..today's wrestling is garbage

He died way too early

And if you heard this on the radio it would make sense. Not a soap opera style. Things have changed over the years and decades.

@@cartergarrett5905 Exactly so. The broadcasters should _always_ call a match so that if you close your eyes you can still see the action. If you must have two 'casters, it's fine to let one do the color (tell the story of the characters), but one should always call the moves and what is happening in the ring minute-to-minute. So much of the art of professional wrestling is lost.

lol it didn't

set the "seen" lol really? 🤦‍♂️scene🎥not seen👀...

Agree

It's not the hard way, Funk bladed. Pause the video at exactly 35:40, you will see the split of the aisle where the audience is sitting. Directly behind Funk, you will see two women. Watch the lady closest to the aisle. You will see her show the other lady with her fingers where the blade is hidden, then watch her slowly rake her fingers across her forehead demonstrating the blade job to her friend 😉

I never saw Harley Race in a bad match

At 38:59 Harley said to Terry, "It's over Terry, get to the hospital!"

@@georgeelmerdenbrough6906 True. I always thought he was a perfectionist when it came to his work.

@@mctavish23 He was an artist

It was supposedly to combat the notion that any title change was a fluke but it was really a way to keep both the champ and the challenger strong . This stopped with Ric Flairs first reign . It hurt Flair in my mind because as champ he never pinned any contender he faced cleanly, leaving you to wonder how he could be champion in the first place

​@Pood De Screwch Flair was champion because he had what it took to be the champion. and few others came close. Rick Steamboat was awesome but didn't cut it on the Mike. Not even close to Flair.

Flair was a big mouth joke!

That Race was agile enough to get up there without it showing was suprising too

Well, he WAS a world champion.

Classic pile driver for a pin.

CStomp1 z Looks like Terry is holding a blade in his left hand. Funk is a southpaw.

Could be. I think he's one of the best at concealing blading. Dory Funk Jr. carried the blade in his mouth, which seems completely insane. Look at the videos of the Funks v. Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher from Japan in the late 70's. In a couple of those matches you can clearly see Dory go to the mat face down, go to his mouth, blade, and put it back in his mouth. Unreal.

His ECW work was unbelievable.

@@mctavish23 He was great literally anywhere. He's probably the only guy I could ever honestly say that I didn't watch a single match he ever had and was at least entertained by it. Like there was definitely a lot of guys who were bigger names and I get it - that's the name of the game -drawing dough. But i'm not sure any was actually *better* at pro wrestling as an entire craft than he was.

Great summation . This grittiness of wrestling is long gone . It used to be human chess . There was a pretense of strategy that built durring the match .

At least they should wear each other down before the big move sets come in and thats what they did .

@@georgeelmerdenbrough6906 I have to agree, I train (freestyle) wrestling and jiu-jitsu, and watching this match is much like watching an actual grappling match in its pacing/execution (some of the moves obviously wouldn't work in legitimate competition but some might, some positions could probably be used to setup legitimate moves, and some things done are blatantly legitimate moves, like that Russian tie variation (which the announcers coin an "Abdominal Stretch") at 25:57) which makes it much easier to suspend disbelief.

True. They were the epitome of what it meant to be great "working" champions. Something you don't see much of these days.

People did not respect this style of wrestling so he devoted himself to a different style .

Blood Legion and it looks like a joke !! It's huge and stupid looking like a toy

That's why I'm glad that the NWA has the 10 pounds of gold.Nick Aldis had Harley's endorsement he's the right guy to carry on the lineage.

Vince does notvwant this in his promotion

@@georgeelmerdenbrough6906 Yeah, well, Vince wouldn't know good wrestling if it bit him on the nose.

Before the invasion of no talent steroid freaks. Just legit rugged guys.

And pure wrestling did matter!

Terry is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time but if he was tryna come up today he’d be denied for not lookin like a roided out freak.

@@puertoriconnect4611 he'd do just fine with his willingness to put his take the kind of punishment he did.

Terry Funk looks fantastic here though. But yeah steroids and drugs killed many wrestlers.

The World Champ should have always been a heel . You did not want your best babyface to disappear because he had to defend the belt in some other area . You could afford to lose your top heel .

Real arm bars make you tap right away. Stop pretending ten minute arm locks are real!

It was still scripted, as in predetermined, but the old school guys made it more believable back when kayfabe was still alive. I truly miss this style and of pro wrestling 🤼‍♀️

Two legends. And, I agree, I believe Race was the best NWA World Champion ever.

In his prime, Lou Thesz would have mangled Race easily.

@James Bryan I wouldn't put Sammartino in the class of Londos or Thesz. And don't forget about Strangler Lewis who many think was the greatest wrestler of all time. Some of his matches were shoots along with some that were partially worked. It's too bad that Thesz only wrestled Sammartino twice both times in Toronto. Thesz won once and the other match ended in a draw. From various newspaper reports of those matches, Thesz let Sammartino have a lot of offense in both bouts. I always thought that Ric Flair was overrated. I have to agree with Sammartino when he said that every Flair match was the same. (For example; Flair getting tossed upside down into the ring post or how about this one that occurred all the time; walking away from his opponent and falling face down on the match. Race was a legitimate tough guy and not to be messed with. Dick Hutton had that reputation also but I never got to see him work.

@James Bryan Sammartino, at least, was a very credible wrestler in the ring. His overall record vs. Buddy Rogers was really bad. I recommend that every wrestling fan watch the 1951 Rogers-Thesz match from the Amphitheater. Rogers was twice the wrestler Ric Flair could ever hope to be. When Rogers briefly came out of retirement in the late 70's, he wrestled Flair a few times and Flair won most of the matches. Of course Rogers was long past his prime. You mentioned some good wrestlers but I never thought much of Pedro Morales. Austin was good in WCCW but he didn't show any wrestling skill, at least to me, in the WWE. The Rock, Cena, Savage and Hogan were not legit wrestlers. I did think that Savage's father, Angelo Poffo, was a very good worker in his prime. You mentioned Graham; the best of the Grahams, by far, was the late Eddie Graham. I remember seeing him in a match at the Amphitheater when he beat the crowd favorite, Prince Maivia quite handily. (His real name was Eddie Gossette.) I was fortunate to be at Comiskey Park to see Rogers beat O' Connor for the NWA title. Excellent match but I always thought that a match I saw at the Amphitheater between Sammartino and Kowalski was better. (they went to a 30 minute draw) They were great friends outside of the ring and had tremendous chemistry whenever they wrestled. Kowalski usually called the match and the impressive thing was that each of their matches were different. Not so when Rogers was U.S. champ and had a long program against Sammartino. The finish was like this; one fall apiece, in the 3rd fall Roger's tapped Sammartino on the back and Sammartino thought that he had won. He raised his hand in triumph and Rogers gave him the high knee in the back and pinned him for the win. The east coast promoters loved that finish. (before the internet, of course) They used the same finish 5 days in a row on the east coast. (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington and Pittsburgh.) Now, it's usually outside interference, a ref bump or a screw job ending. (Sorry, I'm rambling!)

@James Bryan I was never a fan of Randy Savage. I remember his wild match with Steamboat with a lot of crazy bumps and spots. Billy Graham did good promos but that's about it. Supposedly, Eddie Graham was another legit tough guy and was a very tough trainer also. You do make a great point about Gene Kiniski. I remember a terrific match I saw at the Chicago Stadium where Gene Kiniski wrestled Eduardo Carpentier. A great back and forth match that was only marred by a terrible finish when Kiniski was Dq'ed for kicking Carpentier with the toe of his boot. (The dreaded Illinois State Athletic Commission in those days!)