Vince Russo Talks Undertaker - Mick Foley HIAC Match, Crazy Question Foley Asked Him Afterwards
On last week's installment of Vince Russo's Nuclear Heat right here on Wrestling Inc., which you can watch above, the former professional wrestling writer, producer, and performer looked back at the legendary Hell In A Cell match between Mankind and the Undertaker from WWE King of the Ring 1998.
Russo said he was watching the match backstage from the 'gorilla' position in disbelief. Russo stated that he does not know whether anyone else in the world could have endured the bumps Mick Foley took that night and expressed deep concern for Foley's health and well being.
"When I watched that monitor, I mean, I was flabbergasted. I was in awe. I was in shock. I was in fear. I mean, forget about wrestling being a work, put all that aside. I was so concerned that Mick was going to lay it all out there, literally, that nothing was going to be left."
According to Russo, Foley told him that starting the match on the top of the cell was Terry Funk's idea. Also, Russo claimed that Foley's only concern after that grueling match was whether it was better than Shawn Michaels' Hell In A Cell match against the Undertaker at Badd Blood: In Your House the year before.
"I was by his side [as Foley laid on a gurney backstage after the match] and he was kind of out of it and I remember him looking up at me and he said to me, with a smile on his face, he said, 'Vince, was the match better than Shawn's?' and my knee jerk reaction was, I said to Mick, 'are you out of your freaking mind?' because all I could think about was Mick's beautiful wife, Mick's beautiful family, his kids who [were] very young at the time." Russo continued, "he could have literally crippled himself, paralyzed himself that night, and, at the end of the day, the performer that he was, with the pride he had, his only concern was 'was the match better than Shawn's?'. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about Mick Foley, well, quite frankly, I don't know what else to say."
In addition to talking about the Mankind vs. The Undertaker Hell In A Cell match, Russo discussed how he would book the upcoming WWE Hell In A Cell and much more. You can check out this episode in the video above.
You can also check out this week's episode below. In the episode, Russo takes an inside look at the working relationship between talent and writer based on his years of having worked for three major wrestling organizations. From there, Russo dissects how the lack of trust may be what's hampering many young talents from reaching their ultimate potential at the WWE. Following that, Russo talks candidly about why he reached out to Vince McMahon in offering to help his faltering product. You can also download the episode directly by clicking here. If you want to subscribe to the Wrestling Inc. audio channel, you can do so through iTunes and Stitcher as well as our RSS feed, which you can use this to subscribe through any podcast app. If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and rate us on iTunes!