WWE Exec Bruce Prichard Explains Why Vince McMahon Didn't Want To Meet Mick Foley

Given Vince McMahon's preference for buffed-up strongman types, Mick Foley faced an uphill battle to get to the WWE. The story has always been that McMahon was reluctant to even take a meeting with the stocky, one-eared combatant, especially given Foley's reputation as a wrestler who would put his body through hell for no reason. On "Something to Wrestle," Bruce Prichard talked about why McMahon held that prejudice and how he eventually came around. 

"Vince didn't want to meet Mick," Prichard recalled. "Told me, literally, 'Keep him away from me. I don't want to meet him.' Because Vince didn't think he was very bright because of the way that he worked with the dangerous, unnecessary bumps. And when you talk to Mick, you find out very quickly that a picture does not necessarily represent what is behind that person. Mick is an extremely intelligent individual... Mick had a passion, and I had actually seen that, and I thought, we can harness this. We can make this work."

Prichard said he believed a rapport would naturally develop between McMahon and Foley if he could simply get them conversing with each other.

"All we wanted to do was get them in the same room," Prichard said. "If they get in the same room, I guarantee they're going to start talking, and they're going to find a similar, commonplace, and the rest will be history. And that's exactly what happened...Vince got into that head of Mick Foley and realized, 'Boy, this could be fun.'"

Although he debuted in 1996, it's said that Foley's work didn't truly impress McMahon until his series of sit-down interviews with J.R. in which he revealed more of his true self. Foley later participated in several highly-rated "WWE Raw" segments that were instrumental in reversing the company's momentum against the more popular "WCW Nitro."