Bruce Prichard Recalls Mick Foley Retiring in 2000, Foley Intending It To Be His Only Retirement

– On the latest Something to Wrestle, Bruce Prichard recalled Mick Foley’s retirement from WWE in 2000 and how he was wanting it to be his true retirement. Foley retired from in-ring competition in early 2000, working what was ostensibly his last match at WrestleMania 2000. He would of course return to the ring, first in May of 2004 at the Mark Curtis Memorial Show and then eventually for WWE, then TNA and WWE again before he hung up the boots for good in 2012.

Prichard recalled how Foley was the person who wanted to step away in 2000 and how he did honestly intend it to be the end for himself. You can see highlights and the full podcast below:

On whether Foley wanted to retire or the office was asking him to slow it down: “My recollection was, it came from Mick. And Mick was looking at looking at slowing down. And Mick was — you know, he’d done his book, very successful with that. But it was also a point of, every day getting up was a little more difficult.”

On Foley only wanting to retire once: “I have to chuckle, because Mick did have that feeling. Mick only wanted to retire one time. And when he was done, he was done. And — because I believe even I made the comment to Mick about his retirement, going, ‘Yeah, well by God, we’ll have the Terry Funk Come Out of Retirement Tour #23. [laughs] You’ve got at least 18 in you, Mick.’ And he’s just ‘No, no, no man. I’m gonna call it quits, man. I really wanna just call it quits.’ And that was, I believe that that was all very genuine. But he was also the first one after he retired … not as soon as he retired, but very soon after he retired, coming back with ways to use him, and implement him. And ‘Hey! Maybe if I could just come back, and I do this one little spot here.’ So that’s the — you just have to get a chuckle whenever you hear a guy say that, you know, ‘I’m done, I’m done, I’m done,’ and you’re not done. You’re never done! It brings you back, man. I thought I was done!”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Something to Wrestle with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.