When we (Infernos) first went to Amarillo, Dory (Funk Sr.) says, "Frank, I need something right away since you guys are here. Not to just go out and get a win. I need something to really get the people excited." So I said, "I just got here and I don't know what to do." He says, "Figure out something and I'll be back pretty soon." This is the old man.I come back and I'm out there looking around. I see where our car was at, and the camera, and this and that. I say, "Alright. I've got something for you. We'll park our car outside the exit door there. Can that camera swing around and film outside?" The cameraman said, "Yeah. I can do anything you tell me to." I said, "Alright. We'll go out (into the ring) and beat our guys, then get in a confrontation with Terry.
Terry was just a kid. Bockwinkel was there, Ricky Romero. I say, "Get some bricks and stash ‘em outside. Terry takes after us with something and we go right out the exit. We go out and jump in the car. Terry takes a brick and he goes over and smashes a window." (laughs) Dykes liked to have died. He had a brand new Lincoln. "What? My window? Oooh!" I said, "Yeah, don't worry. Senior will pay for it." Senior's listening. "Oh, okay. I'll go for that."
I go on. "Dykes will make it out when Terry runs out of bricks, makes a getaway, and goes and calls the cops. The cops come down, Terry goes back with the old man to the commentary position, Dykes waits for the cops to come, and we'll get Terry arrested." The old man goes, "Whaaaat!?" I told him that again. He says, "That's wild. Man, I don't know. How do you know it's going to work?" I says, "They'll have to arrest him. The damn car's all tore up." So he says, "Alright, let's try it."
At ring time, we go in and beat these two guys, Terry jumps in the ring, we work some deal, we got after Terry, then Terry gets some prop and chases us out the side door. We went out the side door and the cameraman, on cue, swung around and filmed outside. We all jump in the car and Terry grabs the bricks. Instead of going over and hitting the window, from where he was standing, which is about fifteen feet away, he starts throwing the bricks. They was hitting the window and bouncing on the hood of Dykes' new Lincoln. All the paint is chipping and Dykes is crying, "Oh, my God, oh!" BANG! Here comes another one. Dykes gets out and BANG! Here comes another one.
Finally, Terry runs out of bricks.
Dykes goes, "I'm gonna go call the cops!" He runs to the switchboard and calls ‘em. The cops are there in about five minutes. Terry's screaming and kicking the doors. (laughs) Oh, that Lincoln took a hell of a beating. I think it cost about $2,000 to fix. (laughs) Terry's with his dad on the set and the camera is back inside. The door's closed. Dykes tells the cop, "Look at my car! That Funk did it and I want him arrested."
The cop walks in and he's looking. The camera is on the action in the ring. The cop says to J.C. "Is that camera on that boy where he's sitting?" He says, "No, they're filming the ring." That cop walks up and the camera switched right on him. It left the action in the ring and switched to the commentary position. The cop walks up and he's going like this to Terry. (Terry has his back to the cop, who taps him on the back) Terry won't turn around and look at him because he wants to make sure the camera catches him. He's talking to his dad and he's going like this. (Flicks his hand back over his shoulder in a gesture of dismissal) The cop says, "Hey!" Terry turns around and says, "What is it, officer?" He says, "I want to talk to you." Terry's pretty smart. He says, "About what?" The people are all looking. He says, "About tearing this guys' car up."
So Dory, the old man, jumps up and says, "That's all right, Terry. You go with this officer. There's never been a Funk in trouble." (laughs) Terry was always getting speeding tickets. (laughs) We got Terry a crash helmet one time because he was always wrecking cars. "There's never been a Funk in jail. This is a great humiliation to the Funk name. Me and my boys was gonna buy all these Army barracks over here and call it Funk U. We were gonna put up a college for underprivileged children." (laughs) He said that on TV! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. (laughs) Oh, yeah. The old man was something else. He says, "Go on, son. I guess now there won't be no Funk University. Funk U won't be opened. It's a great blight on our name."
They took Terry away and the old man started crying. (laughs) Funk was bald-headed and didn't have a cowboy hat, so Terry got a beanie hat. Funk had that beanie hat on his head, standing there bawling. I think that was on a Saturday.
We left town and, when we got back at the end of the next week, there was a line queued up way down the street. The tape bicycled through the territory and really kicked things off. It was a fast getover. It was such an unusual thing. In the peoples' minds, we had gone from a work to a shoot.
