Mick Foley Discusses WWE Ribbing Him After Casket Match With Undertaker, How Company Gimmicked Grave For Buried Alive Match At In Your House 11

In an interview at an Inside the Ropes live show, Mick Foley discussed facing the Undertaker in a Casket Match, WWE playing a rib on him after all the matches, what it was like being buried alive at In Your House 11 in 1996, and much more. You can read his comments below.

On getting ribbed after his casket matches with The Undertaker: “On one level, I’m living out my dream. I’m enjoying more success than I ever thought possible. I’m shattering that glass ceiling. I’m working with one of the top guys in the history of the business. But at the same time, I’m going through a series of matches where I end up in a casket where the goal of the match is putting me in a casket. The Undertaker was king of the casket match, and every night I’d end up in that casket. And every night they would slam that thing shut, and every night I’d be hyperventilating. And I’m being rolled to the back and hand slamming on the casket, and every night without fail, I’d scream for someone to let me out. And every night they would keep me in for an additional five minutes as a rib. And then the next night I’d go ‘Don’t you dare keep me shut in that casket again!’ Every night they’d assure me they wouldn’t, and every night they did.”

On taking it a step further with the Buried Alive Match: “I’m thinking ‘How are in the world are we gonna pull this off?’ And I get there – Richie Posner, we called him the ‘Magic Man’ – he welcomes me to an underground lair. Almost like a small community has been built underneath the burial plot. You’ve got the legitimate grave in there, but everything else was like a hollowed-out village under there. You could have two or three people under there. And they had an oxygen tank under there, but the key was when I went under, I was chokeslammed and I go under there and Undertaker starts shoveling that on me. Man, I don’t care if they have a mask for breathing or not – it’s a scary feeling. And then I went scrambling, got this thing – a little plastic baggy. I’m breathing in that oxygen, and he’s covering me. I’m being buried alive. And then at a certain point my body is half covered, Terry Gordy clubbed the Undertaker with that shovel and pulled me out of that grave. I’m not acting when I come out of there. I’m gasping for breath.”

On how WWE gimmicked the grave to get Undertaker out safely: “So after 17 minutes of hard work and being buried alive, now we have to figure out ‘How do we fill a six feet by eight foot by four foot hole with earth in five minutes of TV time?’ There’s a reason every subsequent buried alive match has had a backhoe just push the earth in there. We’re three guys with shovels, and Bradshaw comes to help and Triple H as well. Slowly but surely we’re covering that and then at a certain point, they did a little magician’s switcheroo where the live body went into the underground lair and brought out a secondary shelve.”

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