Forgotten Favorites 01.22.09: Royal Rumble 1999 – Mankind vs. The Rock

Well, since 411 hasn’t canned me yet and negative feedback hasn’t completely ruined my self esteem, I am back yet again to remember the matches that have slipped through WWE’s historical cracks. My job is to help fans relive some legendary encounters while also enlightening some younger fans on matches they may have never known existed. I’m not one for wasting your time, so let’s get right down to it for this week.

Sometimes two wrestlers will have a blood feud that lasts for several weeks or months. Over the course of their feud, several wars will be waged inside the ring, the goal being to up the ante a bit more with each match. Because of this, some matches, despite their high entertainment value, get lost in the shuffle. Sometimes history will look fondly on one or two encounters between rivals, while others end up lost in time. In late ’98 and early ’99, two guys had a hell of a feud over the World Wrestling Federation Championship. They battled at four consecutive PPVs, had several televised matches, and exchanged the WWF Title multiple times. But one of their matches, arguably their best, has not gotten the recognition it deserves from WWE.

Royal Rumble – January 24, 1999
World Wrestling Federation Championship
I Quit
Mankind vs. The Rock

HOW IT WENT DOWN

For most of 1998, Stone Cold Steve Austin was the man in the World Wrestling Federation. He rose to a level of popularity unseen by any other wrestler while plowing through any obstacle thrown in his way by evil bossman Mr. McMahon. Vince’s dream to get the WWF Title off of Austin was realized at September’s Breakdown PPV, when a screwy finish to a Triple Threat involving Austin, Kane, and Undertaker resulted in a vacated title. Two months later at Survivor Series, a tournament was held to crown a new champion. Heading into the PPV, it seemed as if McMahon’s handpicked winner was a slightly out-of-touch Mankind. At the time, Foley was the gullible innocent goofball who only wanted to impress his, uh, “Dad.” And while McMahon and Mankind didn’t really have much in common, Vince could at least control Mrs. Foley’s baby boy if he were to win the WWF Title. He was a far better candidate for a corporate champion than rebellious McMahon-haters like Stone Cold or The Rock. But wait … what’s that up ahead? Is that a …. SWERVE?

The tournament came down to Mankind and The Rock in the finals. In a spot that refuses to leave pro wrestling, Rock turned Mankind over for the Sharpshooter and Vince McMahon immediately called for the bell. The Rock had sold his soul in order to win his first WWF Championship, and he no longer cared about the people. People’s Elbow? Funk that. How about Corporate Elbow? The Rock became the centerpiece of The Corporation, McMahon’s personal army, consisting of guys like Ken Shamrock, The Big Bossman, and The Punisher Andrew Martin. McMahon had led Mankind to the slaughter at Survivor Series, knowing full well that the plan was to make The Rock the new “corporate” champion. Mankind was understandably not happy about this, and a rematch was scheduled for December’s Rock Bottom PPV. A No Contest led to yet another title match on Raw, when Foley finally won his first WWF Title. Mankind would only agree to a rematch held under “I Quit” rules, a match he felt that he couldn’t lose and Rock couldn’t win. The Rock, willing to do anything to reclaim the gold, accepted. The match was signed for the Royal Rumble PPV in January.

I Quit promo package and a badass Rock interview

The match itself was, er, violent. They start throwing punches before the bell even sounds, and then it’s a game of who can bludgeon the other with more foreign objects. They battle around ringside, using microphones, steel chairs, and the ring bell. Mr. Socko makes a brief appearance, but Foley soon realizes the worthlessness of the move, since an unconscious Rock can’t say “I Quit.”

Later on, both men get owned by the Spanish announce table when Rock sets Foley up for a Rock Bottom … and the table gives out underneath them! Soon the fight moves up the ramp and towards the stage. Rocky manages to find a ladder and climbs up to the row of fans’ seats just above the wrestler’s entrance. Foley follows him up, but Rock is able to gain the advantage with a low blow. A couple of seconds later, Rock smacks the yellow off Foley’s teeth, and FOLEY FLIES!

Foley could fly long before Shane Helms had Hurripowers

He falls from the stands down onto a heap of electrical equipment! WE HAVE SPARKS, PEOPLE. WE HAVE NO ARENA LIGHTS! A spotlight shines down on a laid-out Foley, and now Shane O’Mac is out to try and stop the fight. But Rock has none of it! “No, nothing! That son of a bitch will scream I Quit and I’ll be damned if he doesn’t!”

Rock leads Foley back to the ring, and here is where the Corporate Champ reveals that he in fact has no soul. He HANDCUFFS Foley BEHIND HIS BACK and begins to stomp the shit out of him. Foley is able to mount a small come back with a low blow and an attempt at biting Rock’s face off, but once Rocky grabs a steel chair all of Foley’s hopes are gone. Rock lays the chair across the face of a downed Foley, then hits the ropes and lands the Corporate Elbow on the chair! Foley manages to get back up to his feet, and with his hands still cuffed behind his back, gets BLASTED with a chair to the face! Foley drops to his knees and receives ANOTHER CHAIRSHOT TO THE FACE! The Rock grabs the microphone, ordering Mankind to quit, but Foley only mutters, “You’ll have to kill me.”

When Mankind is back up, he gets ANOTHER CHAIRSHOT. But he’s still standing! ANOTHER CHAIRSHOT! Still standing! ANOTHER! And Foley goes down!

Mankind rolls out of the ring and tries to escape up the ramp, but Rock is in hot pursuit. ANOTHER CHAIRSHOT! Foley struggles to get to his feet, barely limping up the ramp. ANOTHER CHAIRSHOT! AND ANOTHER! Foley’s hair, face, and mask are now soaked in blood. When he gets back up, he takes yet ANOTHER chairshot to the face! He tries stumbling away, but Rock BLASTS him in the BACK OF THE FUCKING HEAD! FOLEY GOES DOWN! The Rock has a microphone, and he says he guaranteed he’d make Mankind scream I Quit. And when he brings the mic down to Foley’s seemingly unconscious body, Mankind is heard screaming, “I quit! I quit! I quit!” The bell sounds and The Rock is declared the new World Wrestling Federation Champion.

In a sidenote, Mankind did not actually quit. On Raw it was revealed that The Corporation were involved in some dirty monkey business, playing a recording of Foley’s voice over the arena’s speaker system. The match stands as awesome on its own, but the screwy finish makes it even better, showing off a shade of clever that WWE hasn’t seemed to possess for a long time.

WHY IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED

It’s strange to look back at times when these guys weren’t yet icons. It’s even stranger to look at a match like this in particular, where each guy is right on the cusp of entering legendary territory. These are the kinds of matches that cement careers. The Rock had just risen to main event status a couple of months prior to the Rumble, and while he was damn over, he was not yet as insanely MEGA over as he would become. His list of memorable matches up to this point had been mid-card battles with Triple H and Ken Shamrock over the Intercontinental Title. This was really the first time The Rock was able to truly SHINE on PPV. He’d proven himself plenty already in the promo department, but this was the first time he made a serious impact inside the ring. His complete dominance of Foley put Rock over big time as a legit tough guy, making him as serious a threat in the ring as on the microphone. The ensuing Rock-Austin WrestleMania main event would’ve been huge regardless of the I Quit Match, but there’s no doubt that it boosted Rock’s credibility before the showdown.

And while this wasn’t the match that made Foley’s career — that honor likely going to his HIAC with Undertaker several months prior — it damn sure helped secure his spot in history. It was also the first in a long line of matches over the next several years years where Foley got his ass handed to him in the name of establishing the next big heel. The Rock, Triple H, Randy Orton, and Edge all owe a serious debt to Mick Foley for helping them to reach their full potential in the ring and with the audience. He may not be the best technical wrestler, but I’ll be damned if the dude hasn’t sacrificed his well being for the business at an extreme level.

Another reason this match needs to be remembered is because it was the peak of one hell of a feud. WWE hasn’t completely forgotten the Mankind/Rock feud, but it gets nowhere near the credit it deserves. The reason for this is the feud basically existed in order to keep Rock and Austin away from each other before WrestleMania. After dropping the belt, Stone Cold had to work his way through a series of McMahon-created challenges in order to finally earn a title shot at WrestleMania. During this time period, WWE had to establish The Rock as the new top heel champion, and that’s where Mick Foley came in. Stone Cold vs. The Rock was the inevitable WM main event, but The Rock needed that extra bit of starpower before the match. His blood feud with Mick Foley is what undoubtedly put The Rock over the top as the guy to beat in WWE, and it made Austin’s eventual title victory that much more important.

WHY IT ISN’T REMEMBERED

Retrospective DVDs have been released for each of these guys, and yet while each DVD covers their storied feud, neither contains this classic match. 2004’s Mick Foley’s Greatest Hits and Misses understandably opts for Mankind’s Raw title victory. The Rock’s 2008 DVD features three, yes, THREE matches with Mankind, and yet their Royal Rumble encounter is nowhere to be found. While their Survivor Series, Last Man Standing, and Ladder matches were all great stuff, their I Quit match easily stands as their best work together. So what the hell, bro? Why no I Quit love on these DVDs?

The better question might be, Why no I Quit love in WWE these days? Last Man Standing and Ladder matches have been whored our repeatedly over the past few years. Steel Cage and Hell in a Cell matches are just as common. And yet the I Quit match, which has produced some of the most emotional moments in wrestling history, has been put to the side and ignored. The last classic I Quit was a hell of a match between Ric Flair and Mick Foley at SummerSlam 2006 (a potential future article), but what about before that? A meaningless Chavo/Mystero match on SmackDown a couple years ago? Cena/JBL in a damned bloody but ultimately forgettable title bout? Again I ask: What the hell, bro?

The I Quit match is storytelling at its finest. Two men hate each other so much that they’re willing to beat the shit out of each other until one man surrenders. Or in the case of Rumble ’99, until one man seemingly surrenders. Foley’s dubbed “I Quit” added yet another dimension to the story of the match, as Rocky came out looking not just like a violent douche, but a sneaky trickster as well. And everybody likes to see a violent, douchey trickster get his comeuppance. But shenanigans can’t be pulled at the end of every I Quit match, and I think this is one of the reasons we don’t see too many of them. In order for the match to end, one dude has to clearly say into a microphone that he gives up. Tapping out is one thing; 20,000 people hearing you say “I Quit” is another entirely. I don’t know if the I Quit drop-off is a case of the wrestlers protecting themselves, Vince not wanting to damage his talent’s reputation, or a combination of both. But with less I Quit matches taking place now, there’s little reason to go back and revisit some of the classics, at least as far as WWE is concerned. And this, kids, is a damn shame. Rock and Mankind had one hell of a fight at the Rumble, and their match deserves its proper place in wrestling history.

WILL IT BE REMEMBERED?

Eventually. Foley will eventually return to WWE, and when that happens he’ll receive another DVD release. His Greatest Hits and Misses is a quality DVD, but two discs for his entire career is kind of selling the dude short. Whenever he decides to come back and make nice with Vince, I wouldn’t be surprised to see another DVD release with this match on it. A new Rock DVD probably won’t come around for a long time, but yo has got to come back and get inducted into the Hall of Fame eventually. Both Rock and Foley have kind of faded from historical significance the past few years as far as WWE is concerned, and it has everything to do with their personal career choices. It sounds unfair that Vince would bastardize a legend’s legacy based on a particular guy’s choice to move on from WWE, but that’s the way of things nowadays.

But no matter what, The Rock and Mick Foley are WWE legends. They are sure fire Hall of Famers, and both will be back on WWE television someday in some capacity. When Vince can get over the fact that two of his biggest stars have moved on, that’s when these two guys will get the true respect they deserve. And hopefully respect for their classic I Quit match will follow.

What do you guys think? Was this the best Rock vs. Mankind? Did it belong on either of their DVDs, or were their other matches superior? Keep discussing, keep throwing out ideas, and I’ll keep trying to be somewhat entertaining.

Until next time, you know the drill. Stay safe and out of jail.