It may not have started off well, but Mick Foley is incredibly proud of where the WWE 24/7 Championship has ended up on WWE television.
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The WWE Hall of Famer appeared on May 20 episode of Monday Night Raw to unveil the brand new championship, which was infamously booed at the time given how fans had been teased with the return of the Hardcore Championship from WWE’s Attitude Era. Foley broke down everything that went wrong with that introduction during his Starrcast III panel on Saturday.
“Now I understood to a certain extent that we were baiting and switching people by making them think they were going to get the Hardcore Title, but I did not know the extent of the vitriol I would receive,” Foley said.
“First of all I got lost about five times during my promo, I really did,” he continued. “I’ve never felt so lost. I was scrambling to cover points and it was too serious a promo for a comedic title. But they started getting with it when I said ‘It’s something you defend, you’re not just a champion in the ring, you’re a champion when you’re eating breakfast, when you’re sleeping, when you’re training, round the clock, 24 hours a day.’ I could feel the crowd like, ‘Ohhh.’ [I said] ‘Seven days a week and I present to you…’ it was almost like a big drum roll, ‘the 24/7 title!’ And if you audibly hear the oxygen leaving a giant arena, oh man that’s exactly what happened that night.”
The title would change hands three times throughout its first night, the last of which saw R-Truth pin Bobby Roode while using a referee that was hiding inside of a rental car. That rental car was actually Foley’s, and he said that particular segment was what sold him on the championship becoming a success.
“And then when R-Truth opened up the front door and you had a referee sitting there, I thought to myself, ‘Okay, I’m going to take some flack for a little while. But if you don’t like that, you’re not lying to me, you’re lying to yourself,’” Foley said. “And I knew right away what it would do. It would give people a chance to shine, give a little spotlight [to people] that weren’t normally on the show, always great to see.”
The former WWF Champion listed Jinder Mahal’s championship victory on a golf course and Drake Maverick getting pinned by Truth at his own wedding as two of his favorite title changes. Since winning that title on its first night, Truth has utterly dominated its record books with 61 combined days as champion across 13 reigns.
