Mick Foley Recalls Edge Getting Their WrestleMania 22 Match Changed
WWE Hall of Famer and author Mick Foley joined The Bump this week. The topic turned to his famous WrestleMania 22 hardcore match with Edge, which occurred 22 years ago today. The match will be the subject of an upcoming WWE Untold episode.
"I didn't know what I had in the gas tank," Foley said. "I knew what we wanted to accomplish, but I really wasn't sure. Then within 90 seconds it became pretty clear to me that I was in there with a master in Edge. And if I was going to have a shot to do something memorable and capture that elusive WrestleMania moment, it would be with him."
Foley later talked about how he felt the match with Edge was his WrestleMania moment. He also credited a fellow WWE Hall of Famer for making him strive to have such a moment.
"I blame Shawn Michaels," Foley joked. "Before Shawn started talking about being Mr. WrestleMania, you didn't need a magical Mania moment to be considered a legend. But he set the new standard and that whole term 'WrestleMania moment' became something fans and even wrestlers believed in. So in the front of my mind I knew I needed that.
"I had good matches at WrestleMania. But nothing I'd ever consider memorable or historic. I really felt I needed to come up with something. So this match with Edge lived up to my hopes. Even more so that people list it among their favorite WrestleMania matches of all time."
The match is regarded, as Kayla Braxton noted, as one of the most violent matches in WrestleMania history. According to Foley, it was a bit of a struggle to get that.
"I should point out that at a certain point, had it not been for Edge, it would've just been a regular match," Foley stated. "Because Mr. McMahon and Shawn Michaels had an anything goes match. Edge went in to talk to Vince. It was a loud volume conversation, I could hear it through the walls. He really stood up for what we'd been told, I don't want to say promised, but we were told it be an anything goes match.
"I think at a certain point they wanted to put it in a cage instead too. And Edge really stood up for what he thought the match should be. In fairness to Shawn and Vince, they had a fun match. But it's not a match we're revisiting fifteen years after the fact. So I don't think anyone minded there were two similar matches.
"They were completely different matches. One was a lot of fun and the other was a historic battle between me and Edge."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE's The Bump and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription