This live special goes into Mick’s career, and explores his life on the road while also providing him an outlet to highlight younger talent and plug his family’s new WWE Network show: Foley, Foley.
The podcast begins from Axxess with the podcast set in mid-ring for the first time ever. Stone Cold comes out and gets a ring introduction in Texas – including posing on the ropes and the screen going black when he flipped the bird. Austin cuts a what-filled promo on Mick Foley’s history with him. Mick comes in and gets a “holy shit” chant that is unmuted, while Austin’s utterance gets muted.
Mick takes a while to get his cheap pop and he talks about seeing Steve train with Chris Adams in WCCW and feeling he had “it”. Steve compliments Mick on looking good now and he says that they used to go the gym – which makes Mick happy since it proved he’s been in one. Mick is down 50 pounds and credits it to a better diet and DDP Yoga. Mick was told that there was no hope for his spine, but the yoga helps alongside swimming and he’s at his lightest since 2004. Mick credits Bronco Lubich and Skandar Akbar lecturing him to save his money. Mick shares a story about making a bet with Owen on who could last the longest on $20 – and Owen tapped out at two weeks.
Mick says he was more comfortable as a youth dressing like Dude Love, but it wouldn’t work in the ring first, so he made Cactus Jack as an homage to his dad. Mick talks about showing up in Memphis after paying for some photos and then coming in looking like he had a tiny bit of muscle under the flab. Steve says that when Mick was in Dallas, he met a girl, and Mick says his youngest son is in the front row. He wondered if he should tell her he was Mick Foley and not Cactus Jack – but he liked her, and decided to just be Cactus Jack with her and it helped him build his character. Whether in or out of character, he was cheap though and asked her kids to just have water when eating out.
Mick talks about learning wrestling much like language – you start with letters, then words, paragraphs, chapters, and books. Eric Embry gave him creative freedom, while Akbar told him to just do whatever worked and was different. Mick talks about Dynamite Kid knocking his jaw out of alignment for a year with a stiff lariat and learning to be a softer worker from that. Mick says he didn’t like pain, but was driven by it and there was a time when there wasn’t a huge difference between himself and Cactus Jack.
Mick wants to talk about Dean, but Steve derails things into talking about his poor pay in Japan. Mick says that he told his wife about that like the last time he had a good news/bad news talk it was good news – he was coming home early, but the bad news was he was now missing an ear. Steve asks Mick about a WWE Network project with his family, and he introduces Noelle. Noelle now has theme music and a pink version of Mick’s flannel graphic and Mankind mask. Steve says she’s beautiful and you’d never guess she was Mick’s daughter. Their show will be called Foley, Foley.
Mick says that Vince loved the chemistry Mick had with Noelle, and the show will cover Noelle’s modeling and wrestling training. Mick was surprised that the way he walks would deter her, but it didn’t. Mick says she’ll be trained the right way and Noelle says she loved going on the road with Mick and her brothers. Noelle says she was fine with Mick missing events because they knew he did the best he could to get home. Foley Foley will start filming in two weeks. Noelle says that they’re a weird-normal family and Mick says they’re like the Munsters. Noelle says she’s about as frugal as her dad and will buy nice things – but get the best deals, and their show hits the Network in August.
Mick talks about the origins of Mankind being Mason the Mutilator. Vince had the mask made for Taker, and wanted to use it for his opponent – but didn’t want Mick in the company. Jim Ross bugged Vince enough to give him a shot, but he’d only hire him if he could cover up his face. Mick says that on April 1, 19996 he debuted in the company against the Undertaker. Well, it would be pretty fitting to have them interact at WM.
Mick talks about getting into the Mankind character by spending time in boiler rooms and under the ring, which Austin praises him for doing since it’s basically like being a method actor. Mick credits the multi-part Jim Ross interview with breaking him out of the pack in 1997. During the shoot, he heard Vince say “This it outstanding!” and it won him over. Mick talks about how Terry Funk helped create the map for the Cell with Taker.
They talk about the fall off the Cell being bad, and it getting worse with the chokeslam. Mick says that he hugged Stephanie all bloodied up, and hugging Pat due to him experiencing a loss in his life. Mick then went out for the main event of that show to attack Steve with a chair in the first blood match. Mick looks at the footage and has no memory of any of this.
Mick finally talks about Dean and says that he doesn’t care about how often he’s back, that he wants to do something that has impact. Mick says that he was too concerned with making waves, and realized that his job was to portray Dean in the best light, he told the writer that the skit was too funny and not serious enough. He wasn’t sure how to structure a backstage promo, but he just let things roll when the cameras did and he loved the line about him being Mick Foley and Dean being Dean Ambrose. Mick says that he’ll never look at doing a backstage promo the same way again because he used to think it was a throw-away bit, but he realized that it could be an effective tool to use.
Mick talks about the Freebirds and his history with the team – including him helping Buddy move in ’87. He loved Stan Hansen, and Mick almost named his son Mickey Stan. Mick says that the journey to a match isn’t as important as the destination and he was getting ready to work a tag with Stan, and he wanted to work spots only to have Stan tell him “I don’t work spots”. Mick says that the main eventers are expected to steal the show, but the divas could do it – and Charlotte will usher in a new era in front of 100,000 fans.
Mick closes the show with a Vince impression about WrestleMania being bigger, better, and better while Austin gets in a dig about not being a fan of WrestleMania being free. This was a fun little show – but not a must-watch. To see all the screens for it, just click here.
