Friday, March 29, 2024
NewsVince McMahon Needed To Be Convinced For Mick Foley's WWE Title Win

Vince McMahon Needed To Be Convinced For Mick Foley’s WWE Title Win

3,072 views

TRENDING

Back in 1999 WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley had one of the greatest moments in Monday Night RAW history. He defeated The Rock for the WWE Championship on a pre-taped episode of RAW. Former WWE executive Bruce Prichard took to his podcast, “Something To Wrestle,” to shed some light on the historic moment. Here are the highlights:

Why WWE decided to have Foley’s WWE Title win on a pre-taped RAW instead of live: “I think it worked, first of all,” Prichard said. “We were looking at being as competitive as we could. We were in a war [with WCW Nitro], so everything that we did I would dare say that Vince McMahon looked at every single show and wanted to pull out all of the stops.

“This was an opportunity to do just that. Whether it was this week, next week or the week after, Vince McMahon looked at it as an opportunity to do everything we can every week and whatever we do this week we have to top it next week.”

Vince McMahon needing convincing to put the title on Foley: “First of all, the [Mankind] mask thing was a combination of Jim Ross and myself to soften that pitch to Vince McMahon a little bit since he didn’t like Mick Foley’s face,” said Prichard. “So, we thought, okay, we can cover up the face, that’s easy to do, but the bell rang and you saw every single night Mankind was going out there and stealing the show no matter the opponent.

“Vince McMahon had seen how Mick worked with The Undertaker and how he worked with Shawn Michaels, and no matter what situation you put him in he would excel. So, it was, again, here was Mankind, and having that s**t about Dad with Steve Austin prior to this, the audience loved him and fell in love with him. They kind of felt that he is not the stereotypical guy, it was perfect.

“If you were to ask in a poll with everybody in the locker room who did you think was more deserving to have that championship, I think everybody in that locker room would say that Mick Foley was, and the audience felt the same way.”

If WCW spoiling Foley’s WWE Title win marked the beginning of the end for WCW: “I believe it was,” said Prichard. “The end was coming anyway. It was all a downhill slope regardless at that time. They just weren’t doing anything to get the momentum back any other way. When you look at all those decisions at the time, Eric Bischoff has to take it all.

“If he was the one who was making the decisions, and was the one who was making the final approval for whatever matches were going on, and if he was the one making the decision to have Tony Schiavone spoil the finish, it was a note sent by Eric Bischoff and it was said by Tony. If Tony had the leeway with how he was going to deliver it, then maybe it wasn’t the best decision of how he delivered it.”

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcriptions

- Advertisment -

LATEST NEWS

- Advertisment -

Related Articles