Dory Funk Jr. recognized by the Cauliflower Alley Club

The Cauliflower Alley Club for decades has recognized the legends of the professional wrestling industry. In Las Vegas as part of their annual award show, NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis was able to honor the tenth man to hold the championship, Dory Funk Jr.

Funk was awarded the Lou Thesz / Art Abrams Lifetime Achievement Award. As taken from their website, “The nominee must have had a strong amateur grounding, as well as a widely recognized, widely respected professional wrestling career.  In addition, the nominee must have also achieved success in other areas of the business, which in combination have brought credit to the profession.  Areas meriting consideration in addition to wrestling itself include promotion, broadcasting, managing, refereeing, announcing, booking, or other areas associated with the presentation and/or management of the wrestling industry.”

Dory Funk Jr. won the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship on February 11th, 1969, by defeating Gene Kiniski. Funk would hold that title for 1,563 days before losing the championship to Harley Race in 1973. Funk is famous for wrestling in every decade since, including this one. Dory last stepped into the ring on November 28th, 2018 at part of an exhibition with Osamu Nishimura at a Tokyo Gurentai TV Show. And a year before that had his last match in All Japan Pro Wrestling teaming with Dalton Drellich, Nishimura and The Great Kabuki to defeat Atsushi Maruyama, Daisuke Sekimoto, Great Kojika, and Masanobu Fuchi.