A former WWE star has revealed the reason they were “scared” to face a particular opponent in the wrestling ring.
WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley retired from in-ring competition in August 2012 following a return to the company that had started the previous year.
Before he returned, he was a fixture in the TNA roster between 2008 and 2011 and held the TNA World Championship in 2009.
During the championship run, Foley faced Kurt Angle and recently reflected on his fears for the program on the Foley is Pod podcast, saying:
“I was scared to wrestle him because of the cardio aspect.
“I was having a lot of trouble [wrestling] more than one or two minutes.”
Foley would explain that a back injury sustained in 2006 had made the last years of his in-ring career a difficult time and have gone on to complicate things in his post-retirement life.
He would explain the challenge that the high bar of facing Kurt Angle would set, revealing:
“You don’t pull off a great match with Kurt Angle with just smoke and mirrors…
“I did not think that I could get through a Kurt Angle match without getting badly exposed.”
During his TNA title run, Foley’s physical condition was a concerning factor for the hardcore legend, who went on to say:
“I was really nervous about stinking the place up… I no longer believed that my strengths could make up for my weaknesses.”
Foley was set to face Dean Ambrose in 2012 at SummerSlam, with the pair building up a feud over the months before the August 19 event.
He would discuss the dark place that the feud took him to in an interview from December 2021.
The match, however, wouldn’t transpire as Foley couldn’t get medically cleared, leading to his retirement shortly thereafter.
Mick Foley was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2013.
Transcript from Wrestling Inc.
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