Foley recounts his talks with the former WWE CEO before going to TNA.
An episode of ‘Foley Is Pod’ with Mick Foley centered around Mick’s decision to join TNA Wrestling in 2008. He dove into the verbiage that former WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon used while speaking to him as Mick was doing commentary for WWE which took him to that point of wanting to go away.
Mick would recap the final conversations he had with McMahon before opting to join TNA. McMahon asked Foley to stick around and gut it out. Foley mentioned that if he sticks around and gets better, is McMahon gonna treat him any better than he treated Jim Ross.
That led to McMahon getting into Foley’s face and asking if he thinks his treatment of J.R. had been bad. Foley responded by telling him that he’s made Ross’ life more difficult than it needs to be.
I had my kids with me. This was Nassau Coliseum which is about 30 minutes from my house at the time and they saw the craft table, right? They make a beeline and the craft table at the Coliseum was right in front of Mr. McMahon’s office and he walked out, ‘Mick, I know you don’t like me but I’m asking you to gut this one out’ and I was like, ‘This is not about guts. This is about being treated in a way that I think a human being should be treated’ and so I’d given my notice and… I officially gave notice. I had made it really clear that if that was part of the job, I didn’t want any part of it and Vince, he tried to… this is where I’m hesitant because Vince, you know, he’s — imagine going through a tough time. I tried to text him for his birthday and that’s the WWE number so it’s not working anymore. But I said, ‘Vince, what’s the end game here? If I work hard at this for ten years and I get as good as I can possibly be that you’ll treat me the way you treat J.R.?’ And then he gets about this close, he goes, ‘You think I’ve been bad to him?’ I said, ‘I think you’ve made his life a lot more difficult than it needed to be’ and that was real. It was tense, right? And the next time I talked to Vince was when Barry Bloom had told me, ‘Hey, word has gotten out that Vince knows you’re going to TNA’ and right before I call Vince, John Laurinaitis called me. ‘Hey Mick! It’s Johnny. Just want you to know, no hard feelings, you know? No bridges burned’ and, ‘Thank you Johnny’ and I called up Vince and I really had tears in my eyes. I went downstairs in the basement and I said, ‘Vince, I just want you to know you’re one of the most important men… most important people in my entire life’ and I always told him I consider him to be on the level of Presidents. ‘Oh, I appreciate that Mick’ and then we didn’t talk for another year-and-a-half. But I was off and embarking on a new adventure.
On the commentary front, Foley recalled telling one of the producers at WWE that it was the least important thing he’s ever done in his life. Foley said it felt meaningless.
You give all of yourself whether it’s in a relationship or an announcing job and you get spurned, that’s really much more painful than if you don’t present the best side of yourself. So I just remember saying to… one of the producers said, ‘How’s it going?’ I said, ‘This is the least important thing I have ever done in my life.’ It just really felt meaningless.
Vince McMahon retired from his role as Chairman and CEO amidst the sexual misconduct and hush money allegations that hovered over him. Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan are now co-CEOs.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Foley Is Pod with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
