Stone Cold Podcast Report: Mick Foley Talks New WWE Network Show, Hell in a Cell, More

-WrestleMania week continues here on 411mania with a live edition of the Stone Cold Podcast on the WWE Network. The special guest this time is WWE Hall of Famer, Mick Foley. So follow along just after SmackDown goes off the air, or for those watching the WWE Network, after WreslteMania Rewind (HHH/Taker II) goes off the air.

-We are live from Texas at WresteMania Axess in front of a crowd as Corey Graves welcomes us and introduces Stone Cold Steve Austin. It looks like this is happening in the ring where NXT Takeover will be taking place. Austin fires up the crowd and tells the crowd he started his career many years ago in Dallas, Texas. We get a bunch of “What” chants during Austin’s introduction of Mick Foley.

-Mick gets a tremendous response from the crowd including a “Holy Shit” chant. Next we get a “Yes” chant and Foley says the audience is pretty easy with giving these chants. Austin again welcomes everyone to the podcast as he admits he sometimes messes up cues and he isn’t a pro broadcaster, but an ex wrestler with a podcast. Foley then gives us a cheap pop as he mentions Dallas, TX. It actually doesn’t get the kind of response one would expect.

-Foley says that he saw Austin for the first time in Dallas many years ago. Foley needed time off so Eric Embry hit him with a cowbell to write him out for a few days. He decided to hide in the Crow’s Next because he didn’t the fans to see him leave the building. He stayed and watched Chris Adams with his first wrestling class and included in that group was Steve Austin. Foley knew Austin was going to be something and says that Austin did ok for himself.

-Austin thanks Foley for the plug and tells him he is looking great. He asks Foley what he has been doing and Mick says he is officially down 50 lbs. He won’t give away his secret, but he will just say “Bang” and the crowd starts chanting DDP. He says he started working 5 months ago and he incorporated DDP Yoga in with swimming. He isn’t the type of guy to hit the weights so he is working in other areas. He says it is the lightest he has been since his match with Orton at Backlash 2004.

-Austin brings up how Foley is notorious for being cheap and saving his money. He was brought up with Akbar and people like that he beat into his head that it isn’t what you make, but what you saved. Foley and Owen Hart had several contests to see how far they could stretch $20 and Owen tapped out after a few weeks.

-Switching topics to Dude Love being Foley’s initial goal and how he ended up as Cactus Jack. Foley felt more comfortable being Dude Love than being himself. He decided to go with Cactus Jack as a tribute to his dad and he embraced being Cactus when he realized his looks weren’t going to change. He took Funk’s advice that if you can’t look better people, then you need to be different and work harder.

-Foley tells the story of Denucci calling the AWA to try to get Foley a shot. They asked about his look and all Dominic could keep saying was that he was tall. Foley then got pro photos done with baby oil and doing curls. He was booked on the way they thought he looked in Memphis as they thought he was a completely different person than the photos he submitted. He stayed in Memphis because they were happy with the matches. He goes into the story of Funk teaching him psychology and how the moves don’t mean anything without the crowd responding.

-Foley talks about Robert Fuller telling him he needed to work on getting rid of what was left of his New York accent. He was out one night and met a girl. He wasn’t sure if he needed to tell her his real name or let his real personality show. He opted not to, and he decided to just role with the character he had made. She eventually broke up with him, but saw that he was going to wrestle in a Scaffold Match with Embry and she begged him not to do it. He said he couldn’t tell the bookers he couldn’t do the match because his ex-girlfriend was scared. She was there in the front row and was crying, so he took it as a chance to ask her to take him back and she agreed.

-Austin wants to know what drove Foley to come up with his hardcore style. Foley says he took what he wanted to see as a fan and did that. He was influenced by Bruiser Brody (who he couldn’t be as wild as) and the Dynamite Kid (who he couldn’t be as good as) so he combined what he could from them into his own style. He wasn’t allowed to try things as much in Tennessee, but WCCW allowed him to do what he wanted. He started building up a name in Dallas and caught the eye of Jim Ross and Jim Cornette.

-They cover the story of The Dynamite Kid dislocating Foley’s jaw with a clothesline. Foley couldn’t eat solid food for 3 weeks and the jaw would often dislocate when he was hit the wrong way. From there they cover Japan and all the Death Matches. Austin asks Foley if he likes pain. Foley says he knew that if he was going to do these things he was going to have to accept pain. He never liked pain, but he had to become the character to get through things. As he got older he realized he probably shouldn’t have done some of the things. As he got older in the Attitude Era he did respond to some of the weapon shots to remind him that he was Cactus Jack.

-Foley wants to talk about Dean Ambrose and Austin says they will get there, but wants to go back to the Death Matches in Japan. He asks Foley if he was married at the time of those matches and when Foley says yes, he asks what she thought. He said that by that point his wife had already gotten the phone call from Germany about how he was coming home, but his ear was not coming with him. From there he went to the Death Match against Funk and they had to do crazy things to live to expectations they felt they fans had for the match. He realized after the match that he needed a great deal of medical attention. His arm was destroyed with the C4 explosive and by the time he got home the arm had turned color and the skin was starting to come off. His wife asked if he was on a smoking flight and he ended up showing her the arm.

-They get into the fact that Mick is going to be having a family show on the WWE Network and that leads him to introducing is daughter, Noelle Foley. Austin welcomes her to the show and she says she is doing well. Austin says that he would never guess Mick was her dad as she is 6’0″, blonde, and beautiful. The name of their show is “Holy Foley.” Foley jumps into the story of Vince hearing about the Dude Love and seeing the videos and that is what got him on board. The same happened when he saw video of Foley interacting with his daughter and he got the idea for the show. Apparently Vince didn’t think Foley liked him that much and Dunn told Foley he should tell Vince. That is what got them working together again and that lead to the new show. Noelle says that she dreams of being a WWE Diva and she wants to train to be in the ring. Mick had hoped that the way he walks would keep people from being a wrestler, but if she is dead set then he is going to make sure she gets the correct training and has a shot.

-Noelle says she probably won’t follow her dad’s style because she doesn’t want to end up walking like him. Austin asks her about growing up with her dad being a wrestler. She was ok with Mick missing out on some of the bigger moments because he always did the best he could. He made sure they got to go on the Wrestle Vessel Cruise, and they would get autographs.

-They start filming the show in two weeks and Noelle says they are ready to show people the real them. She calls their family “weird normal.” They are a normal family, but they have a weird dad. She says that she is just as frugal as her dad in that sense that while she shops, she does get the best deals she can. With that they say goodbye to Noelle Foley after that plug for the new show.

-Austin wants to know about the Mankind character and who came up with the idea. Foley says he never got the invite to the house like other new signees did and Austin says he did get invited to the house. Austin calls the WWE the major leagues back then and still today (even calls it the only game in town today so take that TNA I guess). Foley says that they were pitching ideas for a mask for Taker to wear when he broke his face. Vince finally agreed to bring Foley in, but said only if they covered Mick’s face. Wow! Austin says Vince was against bringing Mick into the WWE and told Austin he didn’t like Foley’s style. He went from a man that Vince didn’t see anything in before he got to the WWE, but Mick says that it quickly changed. The night he attacked Taker and he credits Taker for being so good to him and that is what helped get him on the map with Vince. Apparently Vince asked around and Ross, Taker, and Nash all put good words in for Foley about a feud with Taker.

-Austin wants to know if Mick every confused the 3 Faces of Foley and if all 3 were a reflection of Mick. He felt Dude helped usher in the Commissioner Foley era. He talks about being Mankind and how he would spend hours under the ring and spend time in the boiler room to get into character. He says that the early Mankind was a stretch for him and he had to get into character and Austin compares him to Daniel Day Lewis. Foley says Vince became sold on him with the sit down interviews with JR. Vince told him the work was outstanding and that was the night that brought him to his side.

-Next we cover King of the Ring 1998 and the Hell in a Cell Match. We get the story of Foley talking to Funk before the Cell match. He was watching Michaels/Taker Cell Match (Foley calls it still the greatest cell match ever) and he didn’t know what he could do, so Funk joked he should start the match on the roof. Funk then tried to talk him out of it, but Foley was already visualizing in his head what he could do. Austin says everyone who sent him questions on twitter wanted to know about the bump off the top of the cell. Foley says he is thankful to Jericho for saying in his book that when he was on the cell he said the fans looked like ants. It terrified Foley when he was on top and thought about how sad it would look if he crawled back down. Foley says that he smiled at Steph after the match as it was the first time he ever saw her. He also hugged Pat because he had a personal tragedy, and then he had to go back out to interfere in Austin’s match. They show Foley hobbling back to the ring with a chair to interfere in the Kane/Austin match. Austin says he didn’t think Foley was all there so he didn’t know what all to do and Foley says he doesn’t remember a thing from that match.

-Austin finally gets back to Dean Ambrose and you can see Foley’s eyes light up. He told Vince that he would come back once or twice a year, but just wanted to make sure it was with force. He didn’t want to create waves, but also wanted to do the best he could for Dean Ambrose. The initial setup for the backstage segment came off as too humorous and Mick wanted it to mean more. He is thankful they did the promo live and it wasn’t prerecorded. He still gets emotional talking about promos and the key for him was the “this is what I do” line. He felt it was one of the best things he has done and still gives him goosebumps.

-Austin says they have about 3 minutes left and wants a few Freebirds or Stan Hansen stories since they are going in the Hall of Fame. He calls Hayes one of the most influential guys ever on the mic or in the ring. Foley says he nearly named his Dewey after Stan Hansen because of his influence. He jokes that giving a nearly blind guy a clothesline as a finisher was crazy. He went up to Hansen and wanted to go over spots when they were tagging and Hansen told him he doesn’t do spots.

-They talk about Mania and Foley basically covers every single match. He is looking forward to the entire card and makes sure to mention the 3 way match for the Divas Match. He says every guy needs to go out there and try to steal the show and he thinks they all want their Mania moment.

-They talk about the progression of Mania and Foley ends the show with his Vince impression saying “WrestleMania: Bigger, Better, Badder.”

-Austin wraps up the show by having the crowd give one final “Hell Yeah” if they are ready for WrestleMania.

-Thanks for following along and remember to join me live Saturday night for Hall of Fame coverage, right here, on 411Mania.