Mick Foley Talks About The Toll Of An Intense Career, Wrestling Detractors

Former WWE champion and hardcore legend Mick Foley was interviewed by 95.7FM The Game and touched upon a couple of interesting topics. Here are some of the highlights:

On how he's doing now, physically, after such an intense professional career: "You're wondering if all that stuff I did had any effect? [Laughs.] Next time we get together, try to watch me walk down a flight of stairs. It's a little bit ugly. But I started doing that stuff at 19 and I knew that I was going to be physical and there would be a price to pay. I'm paying it."

On whether or not the "wrestling is all fake" crowd still upsets him: "You know what? It's not nearly as bad as it was 20 years ago. Because back then, the question was always, 'Hey, is that wrestling stuff fake?' Now, I think people are much more able to appreciate the athleticism and the artistry without trying to figure out whether it's real or fake.

"We get a lot of respect, even back in the day, from the real athletes. Hardly a WWE Raw goes by where we go to a city and we don't have at least, like, one or two hockey, baseball, basketball, football players (in the crowd). So, they've always appreciated it.

"So, that's my answer to people who think it's not a sport and we're not athletes. It's, 'Hey, the guys that you look up to as athletes do look at us like we're athletes."

You can check out the interview by clicking here.

Jason Juarez contributed to this article.