Mick Foley was the latest guest on The Stone Cold Podcast, which aired live on March 31st from WrestleMania Axxess in Dallas, Texas. The show opened with Corey Graves in the ring, as he introduced Stone Cold Steve Austin who came out and asked the crowd for a few Hell Yeah’s. Austin talked about starting his career at the Sportatorium in Dallas and then introduced Mick Foley.
Foley came out and embraced Austin as the crowd chanted “Holy shit”, to which Austin wondered if you can say those words on his podcast. Foley said that he is honored to be Austin’s guest. Austin talked about helping to kick off the WrestleMania 32 festivities and thanked everybody for showing up for the festivities this week and demanded that Foley go for the cheap pop, to which Foley obliged to. Foley said that it was in Dallas where he first met Austin and talked about wanting to take time off from World Class after getting beat up by Eric Embry and talked about wanting to wait for all the crowds to leave after show, but then watching Chris Adams’ pro wrestling school after the show, which is where he first saw Austin and said that he believed that Austin had something back then and that he proved himself right by saying he would be something. Austin talked about training in the gym with Foley back in the day and said that Foley looked bad about a year ago, to which Foley noted that he has lost about 50lbs in the last year and put over DDP Yoga and said that his doctors told him that he was screwed because of all the damage that was done to his spine during his wrestling career and then talked about how DDP Yoga and swimming have helped him to feel better.
Austin then talked about travelling with Foley and the cheap hotels that they used to say at during their time on the road. Foley talked about how General Akbar and the others told him about saving his money and talked about how he is trying to pass on what he learned about saving money to the newer generation of stars and then discussed a time when he and Owen Hart had a contest to see who can spend no more than $20 in a month and that Owen lost the contest after about two weeks. Austin then commented on Foley transitioning from Dude Love to Cactus Jack, to which Foley mentioned that the Dude Love character was the one he always wanted to be and said that he became Cactus Jack first, as a tribute to his father, but then embraced the character because his body was not right for what he had in mind for Dude Love. Foley then talked about how nobody was looking to hire someone who had a body like his in the 1980’s, but then his trainer contacted the American Wrestling Alliance (AWA) about a spot for him there and talked about how he sent out pictures of himself to all the promotions in the United States and how Jerry Jarrett first saw him and did not believe the pictures were of the same person. Foley then talked about how Terry Funk taught him how to be an aggressive person, despite the fact that Foley was not an aggressive person. Austin then asked Foley to tell a story about a time that he met a certain women in Dallas during his time in World Class, to which Foley talked about how he had to first work on his accent and that he tried it out at a roadhouse, where he met a lady while staying in character and questioned whether she liked him or the wrestling persona, before declaring that she loved his character and not the man himself. Foley said that the women never found out about his true self and said that she contacted him after they broke up, because she did not want him to compete in a Scaffold Match against Eric Embry and talked about how he fractured his wrist while falling off the scaffold, but then they got back together after the match happened.
Austin asked Foley to talk about the influence of Eric Embry and developing his wrestling style, to which Foley said that he thought about what the fans themselves would like and would then do it in the ring and said that his other influences were Bruiser Brody and The Dynamite Kid and that he started patterning himself after them in some ways and said that Eric Embry and General Akbar would tell him to try and do whatever he wanted in the ring and said that the guy who ran the Sportatorium was worried that he would do his diving elbow and fall through the arena floor. Austin then put over how fun it was to work with Foley in the ring, before Foley told a story about how the Dynamite Kid dislocated his jaw with a clothesline and how he could not chew food for weeks after. Austin then talked about Foley’s time competing in deathmatches in Japan and asked Foley about competing in the King of the Deathmatch Tournament back in 1993. Foley said that early on in his career, he quickly accepted that he would be in a lot of pain if he wanted to be a professional wrestler and said that for a long time, he could not tell the difference between himself and the character he was portraying and talked about how the same thing would happen to a lot of wrestlers who were part of the Attitude Era. Austin then talked further about the Japanese Deathmatches and Foley’s wife’s reaction, to which Foley said that his wife already dealt with the fact that he had lost an ear in Germany and said that he was in rough shape when his Dad picked him up at the airport after the tournament. Foley said that he was in really bad shape and that Terry Funk was taken away in an ambulance after the tournament and talked about how it was not until hours later after the tournament concluded that he realized how bad he looked and talked about how his wife could not take the smell of his burnt skin when he returned home and that some of his skin fell off while working an event.
Austin then put over that the Foley family will be part of an upcoming WWE Network series, before Foley introduced his daughter Noelle. Austin discussed how he has known her since she was a baby. Noelle said that the WWE Network series will be called Holy Foley. Foley then talked about how talking with Vince McMahon about how Noelle and him get along intrigued Vince, which led to a reality show and talked about how Vince thought that Foley did not like him, but that later changed when Foley admitted that he did. Noelle then talked about the show again and how she is training to become a WWE Diva and said that she will one day be stepping into a WWE ring to compete, to whicj Foley said that he will have a hand in her training as she prepares to become a wrestler. Austin then asked Noelle about her goals when she finally steps in the ring. Noelle said that she will not be wrestling the same way her father did and talked about great of a father her Dad was while being a professional wrestler and said that her father made up for missing some of the bigger moments in her life, to which Foley then talked about some of the stuff that the wrestling world did for his family. Noelle said that the show will begin filming in about 2 weeks time and that the whole world will be surprised by what they see and said that she is as frugal as her father is. Austin thanked her for coming on the podcast and then went back to talking to Foley.
Austin asked how the Mankind character was created, to which Foley talked about never getting to meet Vince McMahon at his house, like Austin did and talked about seeing a list of wrestlers who were supposed to carry the WWE in the future, but neither Austin nor Foley were on it and talked about seeing the original mask designs that Vince McMahon had done for him before his debut and talked about how Jim Ross pushed for him to finally get into the WWE and about how Vince wanted him to wear a mask because he felt that Foley was an ugly guy. Austin then said that Vince was originally against Foley coming to the WWE and asked Foley about how hard it was to overcome all of Vince McMahon’s predisposed notions about him, to which Foley talked about how helpful it was to have The Undertaker in his corner and said that it will be 20 years ago on April 1st that he made his WWE debut to feud with The Undertaker and talked about how talking to other wrestlers about him helped to change his mind about him and talked about how he and Austin pushed each other to work better and harder in the ring. Austin then talked about the 3 characters that Foley played in the WWE, to which Foley talked about how Dude Love eventually morphed into his Commissioner Foley role and said that he would have to find a way to become each character before he came through the curtain each night. Foley and Austin then talked about how hard they had to work into getting into a particular character before Foley then talked about how the interview with Jim Ross really helped to turn the Mankind character around.
Foley then talked about how he merged his real life frustrations into the Mankind character and how the interview with Jim Ross convinced Vince about him. Austin then talked about the infamous Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker, to which Foley talked about discussing the match with Terry Funk and how Funk suggested that he should start the match on the top of the cell and how challenging it was to visualize everything for the match leading up to it and said that the mistakes that he made in that match actually made his career. Austin then asked about being thrown off the top of the cell by The Undertaker, to which Foley said that he is thankful about what Chris Jericho wrote in his book about the spot and said that he was on the top of the cell before the crowd arrived and could not figure how to get down, which is why The Undertaker would wind up tossing him off the cell roof and talked about hugging Pat Patterson and smiling at Stephanie McMahon in the backstage area. Austin then said that he was shocked that Foley came back out during his match against Kane later in the evening. Foley said that he does not remember any of that, because he was so hurt from the Hell in a Cell match. Austin then let Foley talk about Dean Ambrose. Foley said that the one thing that people could take away from Ambrose is that Foley would only come back if it had force and that his recent appearance on WWE RAW was the force that he had wanted and said that he wanted to make sure that he portrays Dean in the best light possible and talked about changes that were made with the writers before he appeared on camera and about interacting with Dean before the cameras went live. Foley said that he felt waves after doing that segment with Dean, because he feels that something really important just happened.
Austin and Foley then discussed Dean facing Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 32 and this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class. Foley talked about how he has old photos of The Freebirds and their families and said that he almost named his son Dewey after Stan Hansen and talked about how Hansen was legally blind and how many people he hit with that patented lariat. Foley then talked about his interactions with Hansen when they teamed for a short time and about how Hansen would not discuss any spots before his matches. Austin then asked Foley about WrestleMania 32, to which Foley said that there are 3 or 4 matches at the event that should steal the show and talked about the WWE Divas Championship match at the event and about how the wrestlers will want to work hard to make their Mania the best of them all and talked about how big WrestleMania as become since it began over 30 years ago. The show then came to a close with Mick Foley doing a Vince McMahon impersonation.