Terry Funk On AEW's Early Success, Vince McMahon's Inability To Change, Bringing Back Old Fans
This week for feature episode #22 we welcome back the Terry Funk to the TMPT Empire. Never a loss for words and always ready to tell it like it is, The Funker took some time to chat with us about AEW's recent success and their dominance on the Wednesday night ratings war thus far. In this excerpt from the interview, Funk calls out Vince McMahon's inability to change in the ever-evolving wrestling landscape. The full episode can be downloaded at this link.
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Early success of AEW:
"They (AEW) beat them (WWE) right out of the gate on how many people watching. That is not good, that is wonderful. It's curiosity and they have to understand that and they have to be prepared to produce a better show than what they did that first week and second week and continue on getting better and better and better. That is what they have to have, they have to have that attitude and that belief that they can do it."
AEW ratings:
"Well, here's the thing. Why do you think they have that many viewers? It is not all curiosity. It is because the people want something better than what he's (Vince McMahon) is producing."
"I think that you can't turn sh*t into a great meal. You can't put whatever you want into there but that is what Vince is doing. He has become repetitious, he has become stagnant, and some of his stuff is totally overbearing and that is just a matter of truth. Now you've got a fresh flower coming up right behind you."
Is AEW bringing back older fans?
"Of course not. Hell, we are all dead. It's fresh new fans looking for a damn change, looking for something different, looking for not wanting to play an idiotic football game (XFL) that lasted how many games? Two the first time he tried to produce football? Now he wants to go at it again?
Is Vince out of touch?
"What it is is the inability to change. It is an inability to do it and impossibility. That is the truth because you become attached to people, you become inept and that not only includes your wrestlers but it includes your creators. They become attached to them and they become stagnant, they become old and they become repetitious. The water is getting dirty and they better filter it."
"He can change but he can't change his characters. That is the thing that wrestling is, we are who we are. Even when we are established we are not actors. We are wrestlers. That is his fault because he feels we are actors. I am not an actor and never was an actor in my entire life."
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling now co-hosts podcasts with ECW Legends, "The Franchise" Shane Douglas: Triple Threat Podcast and "The Queen of Extreme Francine's "Eyes Up Here" as well as JJ: The JJ Dillon Podcast. Follow @rasslinpal, @TwoManPowerTrip & @The3ThreatPod on Twitter & visit www.tmptempire.com for everything in the TMPT Empire.