Mick Foley Names The Most Painful Injury Of His Hardcore Career
During the latest video on Dr. Beau Hightower's YouTube channel Mick Foley appeared to receive some intense spinal adjustments, and share stories of his career.
The Hardcore Legend is well known for taking some huge bumps throughout his career, which led to him suffering many serious injuries. He recalled the five most painful that he dealt with, starting with him losing his ear.
"Well, the most grizzly would be the right ear, you can see it doesn't look like the left ear. Lost that bad boy in Munich, Germany, 28 years ago," he added. "That's why I asked you the question about Steve-O and the cauliflower, some people just don't get it. Because I've probably had, not the same injury to the extent, but stitched up in emergency rooms probably five or six times. But despite that, never had developed a cauliflower ear. Then when I lost it, that would probably be the number one injury.
"Most painful was a torn abdominal muscle. I was ashamed when I found out I hadn't broken my pelvis, because that's what it felt like to me, so I did not know at the time that torn abdominal muscles end careers for football or hockey. Because you lose the ability to explode from the mid-section. But luckily in wrestling, we can work around injuries, arms, legs, we find whatever we need to work around the core. I did that for many months, but that hurt me for a couple of years, so that's two."
Two other injuries that Mick Foley dealt with throughout his career were with his hip and knee, which have left him with walking issues. Foley admitted that he had been told early on he would suffer a hip problem due to him diving off the ring apron.
"You know what, my hip," was another of his worst injuries. "I had been told early on, by virtue of jumping, of the fact I was jumping off ring aprons onto the concrete, that I was going to pay a price. I'll be honest, had I known it was going to be that severe, wow. Probably from 2004 through 2017 it was really a pretty difficult existence.
"I would get on a plane, and I would ask for a bottle of water right away, and I would put the bottle of water full underneath my hamstring, and I would roll it just to try to get the nerves firing up. So, I would say the right hip, then the right knee, which was awful. It was locked I think at 18 degrees, maybe 27, I don't know.
"But anyway, what happens with that is you stop walking correctly, between the right leg locked out, and the hip giving me so much trouble, you end up walking side to side to eliminate the pain in the nerves. Then you are basically waddling without realizing you're waddling, so that's four."
Mick Foley added his final injury, which he suffered during a barbed wire deathmatch in Japan. This was a situation where the former WWE Champion was fortunate because he almost lost both of his pinkies.
"Five, we will just go with almost losing my pinkies, both of them in a match in 1985," he revealed. "It was my first ever no rope, barbed wire Japanese deathmatch, and they're definitely into the real stuff in Japan. You can't fake them out by trying to fake them out. I tried that same move that cost me my ear.
"Looking back, maybe I should have taken that item off the menu after losing the ear, but I did it with barbed wire. The wire didn't hold my weight, and it ended up snagging me by the pinkies. So, when I went down there is a photo of me on the floor with both my pinkies caught up with the wire.
"That's one of those things where it's just, 'oh man,' it almost does away with your small fingers. It was a deep hole, comparatively it seems like a minor injury, but it was pretty graphic at the time."
While Mick Foley is notorious for being careful with his money, he did admit that nowadays he is flying in business class. This is simply down to all of the injuries he has suffered in his career.
"I am not a coach flying son of a gun anymore, I have bumped up," he said. "I realized, you know what it is? The thinking about just being all squashed into that coach seat will affect me for weeks at a time, and greatly reduce the chance that I will go out on the road again.
"Now, once I fly to an area I like to get a rental car, a minivan, and drive that bad boy, but I've got to get there. These flights can be really tough on a guy whose been patched up and is carrying several more lbs than he should be. So, I do fly business or first these days, occasionally Delta comfort."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Dr. Beau Hightower with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.