Dory Funk Jr. dead: WWE Hall of Famer, part of

Dory Funk Jr., a professional wrestling icon and one of three members of the Funk household to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, has died at age 85.

Marti Funk, Funk’s spouse of 40 years, told Florida’s Ocala Gazette that her husband died Tuesday while in hospice care. No additional particulars got.

Born on Feb. 3, 1941, in Hammond, Ind., Funk was the oldest of Dory and Dorothy Funk’s two sons. Spending most of his childhood in Amarillo, Texas, Funk grew up admiring his father, a skilled wrestler and promoter who once wrestled in Canada as a heel named the Outlaw who hailed from the fictional location Double Cross Ranch. As wrestlers, Funk and his brother, Terry, often have been billed as being from there as effectively.

“As a kid, I used to dream I could do all the things my father could do,” Funk said during a 2007 interview for World Wrestling Entertainment. “I wanted to be just like him.”

Funk performed offensive and line of defense on the West Texas State University soccer staff (now West Texas A&M) from 1959 to 1962 — he was inducted into the college’s athletics Hall of Fame in 1990 — and went straight into skilled wrestling. His 50-plus years in the business included stints in a quantity of associations across the U.S. and Japan.

He was the National Wrestling Alliance heavyweight champion for more than 4 years uninterrupted (February 1969 to May 24, 1973). In 1986, Funk and his brother joined WWE (then identified as WWF) as a staff and defeated Tito Santana and Junkyard Dog at WrestleMania 2.

Funk’s involvement in wrestling also expanded into promotion. In addition, he and Marti owned and operated the Funking Conservatory, a wrestling college where he educated a quantity of future WWE superstars including Kurt Angle, Christian, Edge, the Hardy Boyz, Mark Henry and Mickie James.

“He was such a good guy,” Marti told the Ocala Gazette, “such a good guy!”

The Funk brothers have been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2009. Dory Funk Sr., who died in 1973 at age 54, was inducted posthumously to the corridor’s Legacy Wing in 2025. Terry Funk died in 2023 at age 79.

WWE chief content officer Triple H announced Funk’s death Tuesday afternoon on social media.

“From the Double Cross Ranch to the @WWE Hall of Fame, Dory’s style inspired countless performers in our industry” Triple H wrote. “Whether it was at WrestleMania 2, WCW, ECW, or the dozens of NWA-affiliated promotions, his travels across North America and Asia were a part of the early blueprint that helped build this business into a global phenomena.

“A hard-nosed and fierce competitor, his rugged in-ring style was only eclipsed by the decades he spent training athletes to perform in the squared circle he loved so much. My thoughts and those of the entire @WWE Universe are with his loved ones during this difficult time.”