WWE Legend Mick Foley Explains Why He Wanted To Do A Brutal I Quit Match With The Rock

Known to WWE fans as the "Hardcore Legend", Mick Foley played a massive part in exposing mainstream wrestling fans to the ultraviolent subgenre of the sport. Among the most brutal matches in his career was the I Quit bout he had against The Rock at Royal Rumble 1999, in which Foley — while being handcuffed — took eleven unprotected chair shots to the head. According to Foley himself, this infamous I Quit showdown was done with one goal in mind: getting Rock over as a heel.

On "Foley Is Pod", Foley revealed that the I Quit match at Royal Rumble 1999 was conceived of in fear of Rock eventually gaining the WWE audience's support due to his charisma. "It's inevitable people are going to cheer him," Foley said of Rock. "You just kinda try to hold off the inevitable until after WrestleMania. It's hard to really boo him because he's such a gifted entertainer, and he makes you smile [and] laugh. But if we could show a vicious, vindictive side [to him], we could hold off the inevitable for at least a few months."

Foley also revealed that the match would originally have had an added emotional layer to it. The "Hardcore Legend" said that he would have actually quit to spare his family — who were in attendance — from watching him suffer. However, television executives from the USA Network vetoed this idea due to it being too "emotionally powerful." The toll the match took on his family would later be shown in the documentary "Beyond the Mat."