One of WWE’s most notorious moments in company history remains the Hell in a Cell match between The Undertaker and Mankind (Mick Foley) during the 1998 King of the Ring pay-per-view. That bout saw “The Deadman” throw Foley off the roof of the Cell into the commentary table below, then chokeslammed him through the roof down to the mat below. Both Undertaker and Foley have spoken about that match and the physical toll it took numerous times, but during the latest A&E Biography episode on Foley WWE Chairman Vince McMahon finally revealed how he reacted to the match.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“Everyone was freaked out, including me,” McMahon said (h/t Fightful). “This was too far. This was like, wait a minute. You’ve set yourself on fire in Japan or whatever he did, but this was moreover on my watch.”
Foley then recalled McMahon thanking him for everything he had given to the business after the match, then asked him never to do something like that again. But fans of Foley are well aware of how many more hardcore moments the former WWE Champion would endure before finally retiring.
“The Hardcore Legend” spoke with ComicBook last year and gave some insight into why so many wrestlers struggle with the concept of retirement. He then admitted he wishes he had stopped wrestling much sooner.
“I think because success is subjective in our business,” Foley said. “It’s not like you can gauge it based on a batting average. In baseball, if a guy can’t get around on the fastball, his career is done. Whereas, in sports entertainment, you are often at your peak years after your physical peak ends. In that you understand more about crowd psychology, you connect more with the fans, and you find ways to have better matches even though your prime physical years are over. I think there’s a fine line between self-confidence and delusion. I think some of us, myself included, when we get older tiptoe over that line and still believe we have that one last match left in us.”
“I should have stopped sooner,” he added. “I did stop in 2000, wrestling full time. I was out for a full four years and I had a great two matches. One had [Cactus] Jack teaming with The Rock at WrestleMania [XX], and then another singles match with Randy Orton. I should have called it a career then, but definitely should have called it a career after Edge and I, we had an incredible match at WrestleMania [22]. Followed it up with some great stuff with Nature Boy, Ric Flair. So 2006 probably should have been for me. I went a little longer than I should have, for sure.”
