10 Bell Pod

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On this solo, offseason, episode of 10 Bell Pod, Nick goes way back.
Long before AEW Dynamite, WrestleMania and before wrestling was ever called sports entertainment, there was the sport of grappling.
This is the story of where professional wrestling actually came from.
Starting in the coal towns of northern England, Nick traces the roots of modern wrestling back to the brutal catch-as-catch-can grappling matches fought by miners and laborers for money, pride, and survival.
From there, the story travels across the Atlantic to the American carnival circuit, where wrestlers challenged locals using devastating submission holds and carefully staged drama to build one of the greatest illusions in sports.
Along the way, the episode explores the birth of kayfabe, the rise of early superstars like Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt, and the moment when promoters realized that pure competition wasn’t enough to keep crowds engaged.
That realization led to one of the most important turning points in wrestling history: the arrival of The Gold Dust Trio, the group that reorganized the industry and turned wrestling from a legitimate sport into the carefully structured spectacle we recognize today.
Wrestling didn’t start in a ring under bright lights, it started in pubs, fields, and traveling tents.

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On the season 5 finale we wrap up our coverage on the great Terry Funk.
Terry Funk didn’t just wrestle across generations, he evolved, understood and embraced.
Today we continue to prove that the Funker became the connective tissue of professional wrestling history: a performer who thrived in the territory era, reinvented himself in the chaos of hardcore wrestling and still found ways to shape the Attitude Era and beyond.
From helping launch ECW to influencing legends like Mick Foley & Brian Pillman, to working with our very own Man Scout Jake Manning, Funk’s career reveals something deeper than longevity. He grasped the core truth of wrestling: that the business is about emotion, risk and evolution.
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Terry Funk wasn’t just a great wrestler, he was one of the most influential figures the industry has ever seen.
He helped connect multiple eras of professional wrestling: from the territorial days of the NWA, to the violent innovation of ECW, to the mainstream boom of the Attitude Era. Along the way he inspired generations of wrestlers, including Mick Foley, Tommy Dreamer, and countless others.
For many fans and wrestlers alike, Terry Funk belongs on any serious Mount Rushmore of professional wrestling.

What We Cover In This Episode
Terry Funk’s role in the early days of ECW

His brutal FMW and IWA Japan death matches

The infamous King of the Death Match tournament with Mick Foley

Helping elevate stars like Sabu, Shane Douglas, and Raven

The chaotic ECW chair throwing riot

Funk’s WWF Attitude Era run as Chainsaw Charlie

His feud with the New Age Outlaws

Behind the scenes influence on wrestling personalities like Brian Pillman’s Loose Cannon gimmick

Late career appearances across WCW, ROH, TNA, and the independent scene

Personal stories about meeting Terry Funk and why he was beloved across the wrestling world

Welcome to the season 5 MAIN EVENT - Part 1.
What is greatness in pro wrestling?
Is it money? Is it belts? Is it star ratings? Influence, risk, reinvention?
Because by any metric, it's Terry Funk.
This episode isn’t about Chainsaw Charlie. It’s not about the crazy old man swinging chairs in ECW. It’s about the through line of professional wrestling itself, and the man who quietly bled through every era of it.
Before the barbed wire. Before the empty arena. Before the “forever” retirement. 
There was a kid who grew up inside the business, learned it from the source, and then spent five decades reshaping it without ever chasing credit.
From territorial greatness to All Japan’s rise, from NWA world champion to Hollywood detours, from classic wrestling to controlled chaos, Terry Funk wasn’t just present, he was connective tissue. 
When wrestling changed, he changed with it. When it stagnated, he shocked it awake.
This is the story of a magician. A madman. A craftsman.
Before hardcore was a genre, before nostalgia was a marketing strategy, before the industry fractured and rebranded itself a dozen times over there was Terry Funk.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
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Terry Funk (Part 1): The World Champion Who Refused to Stay Retired

This episode reframes Terry Funk not as ECW’s grandpa, but as one of the last true through lines in pro wrestling history/.
From Amarillo to NWA World Champion, from All Japan legend to WWF villain, this is about adaptability, ego control, and creative violence. 
Funk isn’t just a Hall of Famer. He’s connective tissue between wrestling’s past and everything that followed.

He was born into wrestling’s foundation. Trained by Dory Funk Sr., raised inside a territory, and molded in an era where protecting the business was survival, Terry understood wrestling as both fight and theater from childhood.

His NWA title reign proved range. 
Technical in Missouri, stiff in Japan, brawling in Florida, adaptable everywhere. He made local heroes look credible without diluting the belt.

Japan made him immortal. 
The Funk Brothers vs. The Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher wasn’t just a feud. It was generational business that funded his first “retirement.”

The empty arena match changed television wrestling. 
What failed as a ticket selling angle became a blueprint for controlled chaos and performance intensity.
He understood timing. 
He left when it made sense. He returned when it mattered. From WrestleMania 2 to the 1989 Flair feud, Funk repeatedly turned “one more run” into something essential.
What usually gets missed
Before the barbed wire and blood, Terry Funk was already one of the accomplished, most complete wrestlers in the world. 
And then, he kept evolving.

Part two of our Road Warriors series is less about wins and losses and more about what happens as the roar fades.
After reaching one of the highest peaks in pro wrestling, LOD goes through tough times, weird times and weirder times.
This is what happens when legends collide with addiction, corporate politics, ego, changing eras, and their own mortality.
This episode is about legacy. About partnership. About how hard it is to separate the unit from the individuals. And about how two men who once felt larger than life were still human underneath the paint.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
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EPISODE NOTES
This episode covers the hardest years of the Road Warriors’ story.
After Hawk’s substance abuse spirals and Animal’s devastating back injury, the team fractures, reunites in Japan, survives corporate WCW, and then walks into the Attitude Era meat grinder.
The lens here is simple: what happens when a legendary act collides with an industry that no longer values dignity, loyalty, or long-term protection?
It’s about addiction, exploitation, nostalgia, and the final stretch of two icons who refused to disappear quietly.
Hawk’s struggles were real and weaponized. 
WWF turned his legitimate substance issues into a suicide storyline in 1998, one of the lowest creative points of the Attitude Era.

The nostalgia pop never died. 
No matter the city, company, or year, the Road Warriors’ music still detonated arenas.

They were transitional figures in two eras. 
In WCW and WWF, they became the bridge between territory dominance and Attitude Era chaos, even as younger teams like DX’s New Age Outlaws were elevated off their credibility.

Japan treated them as royalty. The Hell Raisers run with Kensuke Sasaki and repeated Tokyo Dome appearances proved their brand traveled globally.

The final years were purgatory, but respected.
Indie loops, onenight WWE returns, and church circuit appearances showed how deeply embedded they were in wrestling culture.

.

WELCOME TO THE C0-MAIN EVENT
This week on 10 Bell Pod, we’re not just talking about a tag team, we’re talking about force: The Road Warriors.
Hawk and Animal were 2 bar room bouncers from Minnesota who didn’t “play” tough guys on television.
The spikes and war paint and made characters, but they were as real as it gets.
This episode isn’t a nostalgia lap. It’s a correction.
The fact is, Hawk and Animal were drawing at Hulk Hogan level without needing Hogan. That they were selling out arenas in Georgia, Minnesota, Japan, and the Carolinas while Vince was still figuring out what to call “sports entertainment.”
We dig into what made them different.
The legitimacy.
The look.
The Doomsday Device.
The promos.
They weren’t just another hot act. They reshaped pro wrestling.

IMPORTANT LINKS:
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EPISODE NOTES
This episode examines the Road Warriors not as nostalgia icons, but as a cultural shock to wrestling’s system. From Minnesota bouncers to Georgia monsters to global attractions, Hawk and Animal didn’t just succeed, they rewrote what a tag team could be. This is about power as presentation, marketing as myth, and how being too big for the system eventually creates friction with it.
They entered fully formed. 
Unlike most teams assembled after singles runs, Hawk and Animal came in together, with a look, presence, and chemistry that barely changed for 20 years. The spikes, the paint, the music, it was immediate and permanent.

“Road Warrior pop” was real. Their entrance alone could headline. They didn’t need belts to feel legitimate; the aura was the draw. Territories rose when they arrived.

They bridged worlds. AWA, NWA, Japan, WWF, they worked everywhere and fit everywhere.

WWF was supposed to be the next level. In 1990–91, Vince positioned them as near equal attractions to Hulk Hogan. However, business structure matters: lower guarantees, thin merch percentages, and steroid era scrutiny created real resentment.

Money and management broke the myth. As Hawk’s substance issues escalated and Animal tried to stabilize things, financial disputes and creative shifts exposed the cost of being paid like one act when you’re two men carrying the company.