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Jim Ross Discusses Ric Flair Throwing A Punch At Mick Foley Backstage at RAW in 2004, Describes The Fight
On the latest edition of Grilling JR, Jim Ross talked about a backstage incident between Ric Flair and Mick Foley at RAW in 2004. According to the Pro-Wrestling Torch, Foley was not happy with Flair for taking shots at him in his book and calling him a glorified stuntman, which led to Foley taking shots at Flair in an ROH promo. The report continued that Flair approached Foley backstage and offered a handshake, but Foley told him he was not interested in shaking his hand but did give him a signed copy of his book for charity. Flair was not happy with Foley’s demeanor and threw a punch at him which landed but didn’t cause damage. Some believed that the two of them staged the incident to create heat for a match between them. Highlights are below.
On his memory of the fight between Flair and Foley: “I think it happened in catering. I think it happened in the catering room. I was in there when it happened, but it happened so quickly, that if you weren’t looking right at it, you missed everything. Unfortunately I was either having my back turned, but the bottomline, I was not looking at it, because I did not perceive that the issue between Ric and Mick was that serious, to be honest with you. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know that the promos weren’t building to a match. I would have no idea, and it could have happened in a variety of shapes and forms, I suppose. So I didn’t take it seriously, to be honest with you. And then there was a punch, I did see the punch was very awkward, because you’re looking at Ric doing these great precision working punches and this punch was totally non-Flair like. So that means he either was, it was a shoot punch or a very poorly worked punch. I think there was one blow struck. There was no blood that I can recall. There was nobody knocked down. There was no kicking and stomping. It was easily broken up. And the guys were more than accommodating in breaking it up. In other words, Ric and Mick didn’t do the obligatory pull apart where they pull away from all the guys holding them back and go leap at each other. That didn’t happen. That spot did not happen.
On how he handled Flair and Foley after: “And then you talk to both guys, I talked to both guys. ‘We can’t do this here. This is bullshit. You can’t do this here. It’s childish. And so we can’t have it, alright? Are you with me? You have my back on this deal?’ So both of them agreed, nothing more from them on this matter. And they didn’t have any more issues that I’m aware of. It was embarrassing. Two Hall of Fame guys. Two legends of the business. Letting a promo and what somebody wrote in a book influence their behavior to something unlike what they would normally do at all.”
If using any of the above quotes, please credit Grilling JR with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
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