10 Things You Notice Rewatching Beyond The Mat

4. Terry Funk Never Really Did Retire... Even Now

Vince McMahon Beyond The Mat
WWE.com

With a good portion of Beyond the Mat focussing on the iconic Terry Funk, filmmaker Barry Blaustein stumbled on gold in the form of the legendary's Funker final farewell from the squared circle.

On 11 September 1997 at ECW WrestleFest, Terry Funk's last match ever was to be against WWF Champion Bret Hart. Only, of course, that wouldn't be Funk's last in-ring outing as he struggled to walk away from the wrestling game.

As Beyond the Mat comes to a close, we get a voiceover from Blaustein to say that Funk's September '97 retirement lasted less than three months. That return began as a few independent dates, before Funk turned up in the WWF as Chainsaw Charlie. But again, as Blaustein informed us, Funk was definitely retired for good on 7 June 1999 - that coming after a fantastic feud in ECW with Tommy Dreamer throughout 1998 and into '99.

Even that retirement wasn't final, for 2000 would see Funk brought in to stir up WCW's burgeoning hardcore division. Once WCW closed its doors in 2001, Funk would continue to work independent shows, competed at WWE's second One Night Stand PPV, and made appearances for TNA, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and Dreamer's House of Hardcore promotion - all complete with several retirement announcements.

As it stands, Funk last wrestled in 2017... although it genuinely wouldn't be a surprise to see the 73-year-old Funker lacing up his boots again at some point.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.