Mick Foley Talks Some Of The Difficulties He Faced With Being WWE RAW General Manager
After retiring from in-ring competition in 2012, Mick Foley made sporadic appearances in WWE before making his return as RAW general manager in 2016. His run ended after eight months, and he discussed his firing on a recent episode of the Not Sam Wrestling podcast.
As general manager, Foley was a fan-favorite who catered to babyfaces and challenged authority, namely Stephanie McMahon and Triple H. Foley said he needed some time off, so he was happy to end his run the way he did. He had an explosive confrontation with Triple H that saw him bring out Mr. Socko and shove it down Triple H's throat. The following week, Foley was fired by McMahon after a scathing promo, and Foley said he wouldn't have had it any other way.
"I definitely needed some weeks off, and let's just say in the interim period, let's just say Mr. McMahon found a shinier toy [Kurt Angle] and I was no longer needed in that spot, but I had a great eight months, and the only thing you can ask for is a good send off, and instead of a soap opera where I would be killed off, I had a glorious firing by Stephanie McMahon," Foley said. "It really was. The week before when I had the face to face confrontation with Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, it was one of the best moments that I had in the past 10 years in the business. I had that post pay-per-view rush that I hadn't had in a long time, which was all I could ask for."
Foley admitted he struggled at times with his role as GM. He was surprised by the vitriol he received from fans on social media over some of the decisions he would make. He revealed that at times he would approach Vince McMahon to request more freedom with his promos. All in all, Foley said he enjoyed his run.
"It was a tough job, and the strange thing about it was the unparalleled negativity from the fan base on social media, who apparently thought WWE really allowed a 53-year-old with a fanny pack to run a billion-dollar corporation," he said. "Most of the comments will be negative, and I did have some say in certain instances, and part of that job was to see which battles to fight and why. There would be times when I would talk to Mr. McMahon and say that I would like to handle this on my own. I had some words, and how I say something is more important than what I say. If I had left six or seven lasting impressions in the eight-month span then that is a pretty good track record."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Not Sam Wrestling with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Not Sam Wrestling
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.