WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley recently spoke with TMZ Sports and revealed that, decades later, he still hasn’t repaired his famously-torn right ear. For those who don’t know the story in 1994 Foley was wrestling a match against Vader in Munich, Germany during a WCW European tour. The ring ropes were particularly tight that evening, so when Foley wound up tangled in the ropes he found that he was unable to break free. When he finally did, the rop managed to badly split Foley’s ear. As Foley explained, the referee picked up the missing piece of Foley’s ear but doctors were unable to stitch it back on.
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“I got my head caught up in the ropes,” Foley explained. “I wedged my way out, but my ear did not make the journey with me. And I want it stated for the record, we finished the match. Like, it was a non-televised house show, [but] we finished the match.”
“Gary Michael Cappetta (a WCW ring announcer) retrieved it from French referee who couldn’t speak English, couldn’t tell us he had the ear,” he added. “So when I got to the back, they had it with tape around it. I asked Gary what it looked like, he said it looked like a piece of uncooked chicken with tape on it. They could not save it, and I didn’t know the German word for formaldehyde.”
And before you ask, no Foley does not still have the missing piece.
“No, no, you know what that would be worth on Ebay, though?” Foley joked.
The former WWE Champion wrestled his entire WWE career with his damaged right ear, but managed to hide it thanks to his Mankind Mask and his long hair.
Foley has popped up on WWE television a handful of times throughout 2019, including back in May when he debuted the WWE 24/7 Championship. Despite the fact that the title became wildly popular on WWE television, it wasn’t well-received when Foley first unveiled it. He explained what went wrong during an interview at Starrcast III in August.
“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.”
