411’s WWE Untold Report: Mick Foley & Edge On Their WrestleMania 22 Match

411’s WWE Untold: ‘Edge vs Foley: WrestleMania 22’ Report

-The Untold series returns with an interesting entry as they will cover the classic Hardcore Match between Mick Foley and Edge from WrestleMania 22. This series has been great and I am happy to see it make it’s return. This should be fun, so let’s get to it.

-Original Air Date: 04.04.21
-Run Time: 44:14

-Opening with Edge and Mick Foley being wired for sound to be able to speak with the producers of the show. Each talks about their thoughts heading into the match and what they wanted to accomplish. Edge feels it is the most violent match in the history of WrestleMania. This is WWE Untold: Edge vs Foley: WrestleMania 22.

-Mick Foley starts and is asked what is the power of the WrestleMania Moment. Foley says all of this is Shawn Michaels fault as he put a lot of emphasis on having great WrestleMania moments. Foley could hear the whispers that he never had a WrestleMania Moment and it is something he badly needed.

-David Shoemaker is our next talking head as he discusses the idea of WrestleMania moments. He basically says it was an abstract idea that wrestling nerds talked about and morphed into wrestlers openly talking about when they had a mic in their hand come WrestleMania season. Man has a point!

-We go back to WrestleMania VI as Edge tells us the story of him being in the crowd (and the camera did catch him on screen which is shown here). He says feeling the electricity that day was static and it was something you could almost see and he wanted a moment like that.

-WrestleMania XIV: Austin Era is born is shown as Edge continues to talk about the importance of WrestleMania moments and how they are shown forever. We get a rundown of a few of the greatest ones: Hogan slamming and pinning Andre (still biggest moment ever), Shawn’s “I’m sorry. I Love you,” before ending Flair’s career.

-Edge talks about reading about Cactus Jack in PWI Magazines as there was no internet then. He didn’t know what to make of the guy but he was intrigued by the promos he cut and then was blown away by what he did inside and outside the ring. That leads to a package of Foley’s crazy moments in ECW.

-The producer asks Foley about Death Matches. Foley says that in Japan he is known still as King of the Death Matches. They show still photos of those matches from Japan and hey look, an actual ring that looks like it exploded (I kid). The WWE obviously wasn’t featuring matches like that when he arrived and he hoped he ushered Hardcore into the mainstream. They show highlights from The Boiler Room Brawl (an early example of a cinematic match actually) and things like him jumping off cages, and the Tron. Edge says that inside Mick is a bit of Bruiser Brody, Terry Funk, and Abdullah. There is only one Mick Foley. This wouldn’t be a Mick feature without Hell in a Cell 98 as they show the bumps off and through the cell.

-Foley talks about watching Edge improve week by week and everyone in the back knew he would be a player in a major way. That leads to No Mercy 1999 with the first Tag Team Ladder Match where The Hardy Boyz and Edge and Christian stole the show with what is a forgotten classic because of everything they did after with TLC matches. Edge relates the story that Foley told all 4 of them after the match that they were now major players in the company.

-Edge and Foley talk about their friendship and how they clicked. Edge says that neither every fill grew up and luckily they found a job where it is probably best that you don’t. They enjoy riding roller coasters together.

-Foley talks about his return in 2004 as he teamed with Rock against Evolution at WrestleMania XX. Foley was not happy with his performance, but puts over what the other 4 guys did in the match. It was a great match with a hot crowd and you could tell Flair and Rock were having a blast against each other. They have footage of a sad Foley after the match talking about how he will watch the tape to see if he should be disappointed.

-That’s when Foley started to hear the murmurs that he never had a WrestleMania moment. Edge had heard those and thought back and now took it is a challenge to give Mick that moment. Edge talks about how Edge’s star had taken off. They show Edge winning MITB I at WrestleMania 21 (probably still the best MITB match) and Edge talks about cashing in at New Year’s Revolution 2006. Great moment! Edge says you could feel that night that something had happened and the next night ratings went up. He felt this had to be changing some minds and Lita pops up to say the same thing, but well, that’s not what happened as Cena reclaimed the WWE Title just a few weeks later. Edge admits that made him mad and made him motivated. Foley was also motivated to get a WrestleMania moment and motivated to help Edge. Shoemaker says there was a perception that Edge was still a pretty boy and Foley says the same. The ladder and table matches should have proved his toughness, but there were still questions. When you need someone to prove a guy is tough call call Foley as he did it was Michaels (Mind Games) and Orton (Backlash).

-Lita remembers that the match with Foley excited Edge and if he wasn’t going to be the Champion, this was the next best thing. Foley and Edge had ideas and they wanted to make sure Vince was okay with them. The feud started due to Foley being a special ref for Edge/Cena. It almost didn’t happen due to a blizzard and Foley had to be flown in on Vince’s private jet to make the show. Foley catches Edge with his feet on the ropes and Edge gets in his face. That leads to a shove and then Cena hitting his finishing moves to retain. Lita hits Foley in the junk and then Edge hits a spear and a feud is born. So simple and yet we don’t get stuff like this around Mania time anymore. Edge: “sometimes stories don’t have to be convoluted. They can be a simple thing.”

-Edge challenges Foley to a match at WrestleMania 22 and Foley raises the stakes by challenging him to a hardcore match. Edge was excited about the build as he wanted to have a war of words with Mick. Edge laughs as they remind him that he called Foley a muppet. Foley agrees that his character had softened since the Mankind days. They gave us a tease on Saturday Night’s Main Event with a flaming table between them and then Foley ending up in thumbtacks. I mean, if that is the teaser you kind of have to deliver more. Foley brings up a promo he cut that had a line in it about his blood now tasting like Chinese food, which was apparently written by Stephanie McMahon. Foley says Steph always got his character and the line resonated with what he was trying to get across. Foley says the visual of him chewing on his barbed wire bat (Barbie) was legit as he will take the pain of chewing on barbed wire to get a visual.

-Foley says the match almost never happened as Shawn and Vince were booked for a no DQ match and they were reluctant to have two similar brawls on the same show. The idea was to have Edge and Foley inside a cage which Foley admits he was okay with, but Edge put his foot down and had a one on one meeting with Vince. Edge says it was this time he realized he couldn’t just be nice Adam all the time and Vince approved the Hardcore Match.

-Rosemont Horizon: Foley talks about the electricity in that building going back to his WCW days and how the Chicago crowd had always been fans of Cactus Jack. Edge tells a funny story of getting to the arena and needing to take a piss. He sets his phone beside and it goes off causing it to vibrate and it falls into the toilet. The phone was toast as he was pissing on it and all he could think was he had no way to call his mom and she was going to be upset by the match as it was and not being able to call her after would only make it worse. Wonderful story and rest in peace again to Edge’s mom.

-Edge remembers standing in catering and knowing what he would be doing in a few hours. Foley talks about his pre-match ritual where he would listen to Tori Amos’ song, “Winter.” The song would always put him in a trance and other guys would joke that it takes a special kind of wrestler to get that zoned in listening to Tori Amos. He then went to Edge and Lita and felt they should all say a prayer because of what they were going to do out there.

-I forget sometimes that Joey Styles was bumped from Mania and then added back just for this match. Foley had some concerns, but needed someone to remind him of who he was. He had to be reminded he was Cactus Jack and it was a cookie sheet to the face from Edge that woke him up and he was “Mick F’n Foley.” The match is just a brutal classic that was my Match of the Year for 2006.

-They discuss the brilliant spot where Edge speared Mick and injured himself because Mick had barbed wire wrapped around his stomach. Foley gives credit for the spot to Bret as he saw him do it (with a steel plate) with Goldberg. Props to Mick there for giving Bret credit.

-Foley: “For me Barbie wasn’t weapon…it was friend. An object of my affection.” Foley says the most dangerous part of the match was where he hit the Cactus clothesline to the floor with Lita on his back. Lita says she wasn’t thinking about her safety and more about how great of a WrestleMania moment it would be.

-They discuss the crowd reaction and how they could feel they were pushing them past their comfort zone. Foley admits that there are times you just have to do things and you just grin and bear it. This isn’t something you would do on a house show, but this is WrestleMania. Foley is crazy as he talks about how sure the barbed wire would leave marks on his head, but the reactions will be great.

-Thumbtacks next as Mick says Wile E Coyote had a better success rate with Acme products than he did with thumbtacks, but on this night it was Edge who took the fall. Edge: “A lot of that match hurt in ways that wrestling usually doesn’t hurt.” He can’t explain what it was like to land in a bed of thumbtacks and says maybe jumping off a 30 foot cliff into the ocean while landing on your back may cover it. Props to Edge for taking that bump and doing so with no shirt covering him.

-Mr Socko: Foley mentions it was always a great pop, but it was momentary. This time they took it took another level as he wrapped barbed wire around Socko. Edge says there were a lot of fun elements on this match but they made them barbaric. Lita was a champ and took the move as well as she wanted to be one of the boys since she was out there as well. I forgot how much abuse took in this one. Edge: “Barbed wire is no fun.” No kidding! He admits the barbed wire bat to the stomach sucked. He says it hurt much less to the back and says Mick was a proponent that it had to be barbed wire. Basically saying they weren’t going to cheat us with the fake barbed wire.

-David Shoemaker talks about Holy Shit moments and that leads to the flaming table spot. Foley douses a table with lighter fluid, but gets hit in the balls by Lita with Barbie. Shoemaker puts over Lita’s role in this match and says that he wants nobody else other than her when it comes to hitting someone in the groin with a barbed wire bat.

-Lita talks about lighting the table and it being much hotter than she anticipated. She had to fight through what she was feeling inside as she was just hoping her friends would be okay. Edge describing the spot is hilarious as it dawned on him as he was running that Mick had a lot of clothes on and he didn’t. Awesome! He also tells us he had on flame resistant gel, but by this point his sweat had removed most of it. Foley says he is going backwards into the great unknown and Edge is getting it worse as he is going face first. Edge wanted to use as much of Foley to protect himself from the fire. “If my arms get burned that’s one thing, but I really don’t want to burn my face.” It is still spectacular to see and I want to jump out of my seat watching it again. The crowd reactions they show are fantastic!

-Edge talks about crawling over for the pin and it messed with his head to see his arm smoking. He whispered to Foley that he loved him as the ref counted the pin and Foley says he had a weight lift off his shoulders as he finally had his WrestleMania moment. Edge talks about getting his bearings as they are walking up the ramp and everything was yellow because of the blood in his eyes. Amy was pulling thumbtacks out his back and he knew he had to turn around for one last look. Foley gets a standing ovation from the fans and through the crimson mask he can’t help but smile. He tells us that was a legit smile because he knew what they had accomplished.

-We get some great footage of the aftermath and all Edge could think was to have someone get hold of his mom. Lita admits to feeling guilty as she watched both of them get checked out by the doctor and to that I say she is nuts as she did more than enough out there in that environment. Edge laughs as he recalls Mick’s wife being more concerned about him than her husband. Mick tells the same story as he called his wife expecting her to shower him with sympathy and her first words were “Is Edge okay?” That is amazing!

-More backstage footage as Foley gets his head sewn while talking about the boots he is wearing that were autographed by Pat Patterson. Foley gets 6 stitches in his head and is asked if he wants another one. “No, I’m not that vain.” Over to Edge as he has a second degree burn on his arm. Damn! Edge remembers running into Taker who shook his head and asked him if he was okay. Edge say yeah and Taker responded “okay.”

-Foley talks about how Mania season no longer comes with a cloud for him. He can look back on what they did 15 years ago and be proud. Edge says it is Mick’s fault that the WWE has been stuck with him. He thanks Mick for the match and for how giving he was to give Edge that moment. Yes, he wanted a moment for himself, but he wanted to give Edge that push. He talks about the bond they will share for the rest of their lives. Foley thanks Adam for being part of the “greatest hardcore match ever.”

-Roll credits and again, I appreciate they have included these with the documentaries as the men and women who work on these should be recognized.

-This was amazing and my favorite entry in this series. I love when they just take a match and let those involved dissect it. It is fascinating to hear what they were thinking heading into it and what it meant to them not only when it ended, but as it was happening as well. Again, I love this match and having this go along with it only adds to it. Definitely check this one out as it was give you insight to what crazy, motivated people will do to achieve a moment or get themselves to a place they feel they deserve. Great stuff all around and thanks for reading!