Mick Foley On His Goal To Put Randy Orton Over In Backlash 2004 Match, How It Impacted Orton’s Career In WWE

On a recent edition of Foley Is Pod, Mick Foley discussed his match against Randy Orton at Backlash 2004, his goal to put Orton over, and much more. You can read his comments below.

Mick Foley on his match against Randy Orton at Backlash 2004 and his goal to put Orton over: “For me, if the guy I was working with wasn’t better off after he worked with me, then the matches weren’t a complete success no matter how good they were, especially if somebody was less valuable than they were. By and large, I felt like almost everybody that had worked with me, it had been beneficial to them. In the case of Randy, it had been so pronounced.”

On how the match impacted Orton’s career in WWE: “I had driven and had a red-eye flight out of Edmonton. I dropped all that weight and I was gonna reward myself with a couple of Tim Horton’s donuts, but before I could go in, I threw up in the parking lot probably because I had a concussion from taking the back bump on the ramp. I catch my flight and fly to Toronto where my bags are lost and I have to wait for four hours. Now, I get back and my son Hughie is in the hospital for dehydration. I go to the hospital for three or four hours and spend time with the little fella there. I go back to watch Raw, and Randy Orton might as well be a different human because he is treated that way by the crowd in Calgary that night. It dawned on me what we had done.

“Having a great match and that post-match glow, but to see that it had done exactly what I had hoped it would do and then some, that was the really gratifying part. Within a couple of weeks, Randy was being cheered, and they put his face turn into play which I thought was way too early. But the fact that you had this guy people weren’t fully behind and the respect wasn’t there – to know that match played such a role, and Randy as a 16-time champion who at least a few years ago thought of that match as the best one of his career, I’d be hard-pressed to come up with anything I’ve ever done. I was really, really proud of what we had done in the ring and what we had done to build it.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Foley Is Pod with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.