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| Dory Funk Jr. with the Ten Pounds of Gold (Photo from the Pete Lederberg Collection - plmathfoto@hotmail.com) |
Dory Funk, Jr. believes he has one the NWA world championship from Ric Flair in Florida, but in the end, the title was returned to Flair.
It's hard to think of Dory Funk, Jr. as world champion without the classic "Thesz" style belt he held from 1969 through 1973. The domed-globe version of the title belt came along shortly after he lost the title to Race.
We have a few photos collected of wrestlers who never held the NWA title, but came close, and these photos feature them with the "ten pounds of gold." It's a feature called "Great Pretenders" You can see those by clicking the links below.
Funk, Jr. doesn't really fit here becasue he wasn't a pretender to the thrown (to say the least), but we've included the photo in that section becasue of how interesting it is to see him with the domed globe belt.
See earlier posts with other photos featuring great pretenders to the NWA title:
- Great Pretenders (featuring Bruiser Brody, Mr. Wrestling II, Wahoo McDaniel, Jerry Lawler, and Buddy Landel)
- More Great Pretenders (featuring Jumbo Tsuruta)
- A Sure Bet to be Champion? (featuring Magnum T.A.)
- Another Great Pretender (featuring Mil Mascaras)
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Check out Ten Pounds of Gold, the book that takes a close look at the 1973-1986 NWA title belt: www.TenPoundsOfGold.com