10 Greatest NWA World Heavyweight Champions

Long before he was bleeding buckets in striped tights for ECW, Terry Funk was a supremely gifted, old school brawler and technician in the territories. Initially outshone by his older brother Dory Funk Jr., 'The Funker' secured a surprise title win in 1975 over Jack Brisco.

Audiences had come under the impression Brisco would be defending the gold against Dory who had to pull out last minute. As is so often the case with late in the game replacements, wrestling promoters like to give them the win to establish a sense of spontaneity amongst viewers. After all, the replacement losing would be the painfully obvious call given it wasn't on the cards to begin with.

For Terry Funk, this meant defeating one of the most prolific World Champions planet Earth had to offer at the time. The audience went absolutely wild for the monumental upset and Funk suddenly found himself going strong on top of the card. From his intense, volatile promos to his fearless, often masochistically punishing matches, Amarillo's favourite son was a near perfect NWA World Heavyweight Champion for 14 straight months.

Arguably a long-reigning transitional champion, Funk eventually dropped the strap to NWA leading man in waiting, Harley Race. Firmly establishing himself as one of the best in the world, Funk enjoyed a more freewheeling '80s and '90s, jumping from promotion to promotion to apply his wild work without ever staying long enough to grow stale.