Mick Foley Explains How He Lied to Convince Vince McMahon to Let Him Take the Bumps in the 1998 Hell in a Cell

– Chris Jericho recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley for the Talk Is Jericho Podcast. Foley discussed some of the behind the scenes details for his infamous Hell in a Cell match from King of the Ring 1998. Below are some highlights (transcript via WrestlingInc.com).

Foley on how Jim Ross had to sell Vince McMahon on Foley in WWE in 1996: “Vince, he’s a gut player. I mean, he gets a gut feeling and didn’t think I looked like a star. And Bruce told me, in retrospect, years later, he goes, ‘remember when I saw you LaGuardia [Airport] when you were with WCW. I was like, ‘yeah.’ He goes, ‘did you know Vince was right there?’ and I said, ‘no.’ He was nowhere to be seen. I said, ‘where was he?’ He goes, ‘well, I said, ‘hey, there’s Cactus Jack. Would you like to say, ‘hello’?’ and [McMahon] says, ‘I don’t think I ever want to meet him.’ So in a way, maybe he was sold on the character too. But I would like to think I struck a blow for the unlikely guy.”

Foley on not getting invited to Vince’s house: “If you go to the house, they’ve got big plans for you. Office? You might be okay. And then, if you meet with an assistant… I met at the office, so I think it was indicative of the push I was supposed to get. I mean, there were other guys coming in that were… and I’m not picking on Marc Mero. I made my peace with Marc. It wasn’t his fault that he got a great contract, but Vince would give more attention to the guys he thought were going to be the backbone of the company. And so, you had guys like me, ‘Stone Cold’ [Steve Austin], who were not.” Foley added, “to this day, I have not been to his house. Vince!”

Foley on how he convinced Vince to let him do the bumps at the infamous Hell in a Cell match: “I told a couple of the biggest lies of my life that day.” Foley recalled, “I said, ‘hey, what if I came off the top?’ and Vince [replied], ‘absolutely not.’ And I went into sell mode and I said, ‘well, if I was going to drop an elbow off there and somebody’s going to move, you’d probably let me do that, right?’. It’s leading questions and he goes, ‘I guess.’ ‘Well, it’s the same thing. I’m in total control.'”

Foley on why he didn’t climb down: “If I could’ve thought of a way to climb back down without destroying my career, I would’ve done it.”

Foley on not knowing the cell would break for the chokeslam spot: “People have speculated that I knew the cage was going to break the second time. And the truth is, that’s way too dangerous! To go into the cage from a chokeslam like that is… Yeah, yeah, it was supposed to tear. It was going to tear a little bit. And then, Taker was going to stuff me through the hole. The big visual to me was I was going to be hanging upside down. Like my arms and flailing and this. And the bump itself, ‘alright, I just have to be able to rotate, land on my hands and knees, maybe we’ll risk your wrist, your knee, but nothing real major.’ And I got approval for that.

On what Vince told him after the match: “Vince came up to me after the show and he said, and I do remember this, he said, ‘you have no idea how much I appreciate what you’ve just done for this company, but I never want to see anything like that again. And I think that’s pretty telling. Vince, I think, gets a bad rap for… I honestly believe I would be in far worse shape if a) I’d been allowed to do what I wanted to do and b) and he hadn’t that day, ‘I’m going to place a governor on you.'”