Dark Side Of The Ring S06 E01 - March 25th 2025 Full Show | WWE Dark Side Of The Ring Season 6 - Episode 1
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00:01Hell is in Pittsburgh tonight in this match.
00:05On June 28, 1998, at WWF's King of the Ring pay-per-view,
00:10one match would earn its place as one of the most shocking in wrestling history.
00:14Undertaker vs. Mankind in Hell in a Cell.
00:18Hell in a Cell hits you like a mallet to the consciousness.
00:21Uh-oh, here we go!
00:23I knew it was gonna be crazy, but I didn't know it was gonna be that crazy.
00:27Oh, my God, look at this, it broke through!
00:29We had two talents out there that liked to really push that envelope until it fell over the edge.
00:34Oh, wrestling's fake. You can't fake gravity.
00:42I've been frightened by a lot of things in pro wrestling. Nothing frightened me as much as that did.
00:46Until later on in the match, anyway.
00:50What left fans stunned was the unrelenting punishment Mick Foley endured.
00:55Until you saw it, you didn't believe that a person could physically do this and live.
01:02This match was real. The pain was real. The drama was real.
01:06I was cursing and screaming and calling him an effin' idiot. Why are you doing this?
01:14One of wrestling's most infamous matches, Hell in a Cell's legacy persists as both an epic success and a cautionary tale.
01:22I think we dodged bullets that day. Not just one, but several.
01:25It's really crazy to think that they would allow someone to go unconscious and then just continue the match.
01:32The collateral damage that ensued is another story.
01:36When does it stop? When's it enough?
01:38You pay all day long for the decisions you make in your 15 minutes in the spotlight.
01:44It was a dangerously crazy masterpiece.
01:47But all of us need to ask ourselves the question, was it worth it?
01:51Everyone who gets into wrestling is looking for something that they find missing in their own lives.
02:14For me, I mean, I was teased a lot, so I had an overwhelming need to be liked.
02:24And to take that WWF championship belt.
02:28For example, I remember being in college as a sophomore.
02:32I took a swig of red food coloring and I did a superfly leap off a bed onto a stuffed atom on a concrete floor.
02:40And when I hit the floor, I spit that blood concoction out.
02:45Everybody in the dorm was there watching.
02:48And I heard one of the girls yell out, that's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen.
02:53And I felt that power.
02:55So I thought, if I can't make people love me, perhaps I can disgust them.
03:01I just needed to get reactions.
03:04My name is Mick Foley.
03:06I am known as the hardcore legend and I survived Hell in a Cell.
03:12I think Hell in a Cell is a perfect gateway.
03:15So many people have said, that's the first match I was shown and now I'm a huge fan.
03:20And my follow up question is always like, did you expect all the matches to be like that?
03:25It's like, because they're not.
03:31A normal Mick Foley match is quite hardcore, brutal, probably blood, bum tax, fire, barbed wire.
03:48Getting exploded by C4 explosives in Japan.
03:53Getting speared through a table of fire.
03:55Taking like bumps on the concrete.
03:57Oh God, run out of the concrete!
03:59I mean, he just put his body through so much.
04:02I'm Mick Foley and my dad is the hardcore legend Mick Foley.
04:06I think he just really loves getting like an, oh my God, or gross, or nasty type of pop.
04:13Oh my God!
04:14I'm Noelle Foley and I'm the daughter of Mick Foley.
04:17Realism was a big tool.
04:19I didn't think I was having a good match unless I had trouble getting back to my hotel room.
04:24I did not enjoy the pain.
04:26I enjoyed the fact that I could take it and sell it in a way that was fun.
04:36I just had to really ask myself, do you want to get mixed up with this?
04:41I'm Colette Foley and I've known Mick Foley for over 35 years.
04:48When I met Mick, I noticed his eyes.
04:52I noticed that he was a gentle, nice person.
04:57But his corny jokes and terrible humor, that's what really made me fall in love with him.
05:04Our wedding song was actually Beauty and the Beast.
05:09We were a good team.
05:11She understood, she understood my commitment, like she really did.
05:15When that adrenaline was pumping, he just wanted people to leave talking about how great a show it was at his own risk.
05:28And that was his drive to keep going and get more crazy along the way.
05:34He developed a personality called Cactus Jack.
05:37You can't stop Cactus Jack!
05:39He was a wild and crazy guy.
05:41You thought he might be insane.
05:43Are you kidding me?
05:44He had charisma.
05:46You couldn't take your eyes off this guy.
05:48He was different.
05:49He was unusual.
05:50I'm Jim Cornette.
05:51And at the time of the Hell in a Cell match, I was working as an agent and a producer for the WWF.
05:57Mick was excellent with psychology in his matches.
06:01He knew that the fans liked people that were out of control.
06:05He's biting them.
06:06Someone who was going against the script.
06:09Cactus is going next!
06:10He could take those people on that ride with him and elicit the response that he wanted to get.
06:17Then the attention would be on him and his reputation would grow.
06:22Our bedroom furniture consisted of a mattress on the floor with a black and white television with a VCR that barely worked.
06:31And in that VCR was Japanese wrestling tapes.
06:36I would sometimes watch 12 hours of Japanese wrestling a day.
06:42I liked the realism, the storytelling.
06:45It's not just man versus man.
06:47You have to defeat the surroundings, you know?
06:50I thought Japan was likely to be where I made my living.
06:55They were looking for a foreigner who could feud with Terry Funk.
06:59Terry Funk was the greatest of all time for his ability to make people suspend disbelief in a second.
07:09Terry Funk became somewhat of a mentor to Mick.
07:15And they started working together in these explosive, bloody, violent, fiery death matches in Japan.
07:24I was always drawn to the wild stuff.
07:30So I would literally be in my hands and knees.
07:33And I thought that was proof that I had done something special.
07:36This is a place I can make myself stand out.
07:39So I never saw myself being a WWE guy.
07:43In WWE at the time, it wasn't a PG era. It was a G-rated era.
07:50Very bland. And for someone like Mick, his style didn't really gel with what WWF was selling.
08:02My name is Al Snow. I'm a former WWE superstar.
08:06I was Mick Foley's travel partner and, dare I say, probably his best friend.
08:12Eh, probably his only friend.
08:14I'm just kidding.
08:16Vince McMahon did not want Mick Foley.
08:20Didn't think that he was marketable.
08:22Didn't think he was attractive.
08:24How I convinced Mick Mann to hire Mick was to give me a chance on my observations of talent.
08:33Because I see something in this guy.
08:35I'm Jim Ross.
08:37And at the time of the Hell in a Cell, I was Vice President of Talent Relations.
08:42I needed to make sure that we had dancing partners for the top guys.
08:46Undertaker was one of the biggest stars in the history of wrestling.
08:50Long live The Undertaker!
08:52Vince kept trying to go with giants to face The Undertaker, which was boring and dull.
08:58What you needed was a lunatic.
09:01I'd heard a story about Vince slamming his hand down on the table and said,
09:05All right, I'll bring him in, but I'm covering up his face.
09:10We don't know who he is. We don't know nothing about him.
09:12Well, he's nobody. He's nothing.
09:14That's Vince's perception of Mick Foley.
09:17Hey, everybody, I'm Gerald Briscoe, better known as Jerry Briscoe.
09:20The WWE Hall of Famer and Chickasaw Nation Hall of Famer.
09:24Vince was like, man, it was like, okay, now you guys go build a character around nothing.
09:29So we come down, mankind. What the hell, mankind?
09:34Yes, here it comes, mankind!
09:38This bogus bullshit wouldn't have worked with anybody but Mick Foley.
09:42He's pulling his own hair out!
09:44Without a connection to the audience, without character, everything else is meaningless.
09:49I think fans can sense the commitment.
09:52My goal for Mick was that he was going to be a great opponent for The Undertaker.
09:56Here they go!
09:57He was willing to try anything.
10:00As my granny would say, he didn't turn nothing down but the covers.
10:03Oh, my God!
10:05So now I've got this big challenge to not let him kill himself.
10:09Uh-oh!
10:11The Undertaker and I were laying quite a foundation.
10:14Seven pay-per-view matches, ten TV matches.
10:17We'd been around the globe together.
10:20Yeah!
10:21But my character had kind of plateaued.
10:24I knew I had to do something.
10:26Something that would add to instead of detract from our legacy.
10:31For 1998's King of the Ring pay-per-view, WWF producers planned to reignite the mankind-Undertaker feud with a recently developed concept, Hell in a Cell.
10:43The way that they did cage matches in the WWF was you had to either get out by either climbing over the cage or leaving through the door.
10:51I asked Vince McMahon, I said, what about if this cage match is different?
10:57What about if we put a roof on the cage?
11:00Both go in, only one's coming out.
11:03And that's where we came up with Hell in a Cell.
11:06Undertaker and Shawn Michaels had the first Hell in a Cell and it was a mile marker.
11:12Well, the Michaels-Undertaker match, technically, to me, it's still the best one.
11:19I just looked at this match open-jawed.
11:22I literally can't do any of the things that these guys are doing.
11:27Some nine months later, they're going to do it again, this time the Undertaker and mankind.
11:33And then I asked Terry Funk, what are we going to do?
11:37And he started laughing.
11:39You know what would be funny is, what if you actually started the match on top of the Cell?
11:45And what if you were thrown off?
11:47He's saying it as a joke.
11:49He stopped laughing and I looked at him and I said, I think I could do that.
11:54I could not get the idea out of my head.
11:57I pitched the Undertaker and Mr. McMahon, the idea of being thrown off into a casual conversation.
12:04It was a great Cell job.
12:06I wasn't on board, really, for throwing Mick off the Cell.
12:11And, you know, he was dead set.
12:14And then, you know, we got Vince on board with him and I was like, well, okay.
12:19I was not looking at this match as like a second act in my career.
12:24I was just looking at it as a way to try to keep my head above water.
12:28I thought, when this run is done, I am too.
12:33Did you know going into this what Mick had planned?
12:36Yes.
12:37He told me the high spots that he was going to be all right.
12:42Welcome, everybody, to the King of the Ring!
12:45If he can see it, he can do it.
12:48And I trust that.
12:49We've only seen one Hell in a Cell matchup in WWF history.
12:53And it was the most unbelievable match that I think I've ever witnessed, JR.
12:57I remember specifically thinking to myself, I need to come out with everything I've got.
13:02Just eyes on the prize.
13:04This match has so much riding on it, JR.
13:08That the loser may not even stop at the hospital.
13:10They may go straight to the morgue.
13:13There's that old saying, be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
13:22Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is the Hell in the Cell match!
13:30On June 28, 1998, at Pittsburgh Civic Arena, a packed house eagerly awaits the Hell in a Cell showdown between Undertaker and Mankind.
13:40Yeah, you've got to imagine the pressure that Mick's probably feeling as he's walking to the ring, you know?
13:46Knowing that the last time an audience saw this match, it was Shawn and Taker.
13:52Knowing that he's got to outdo that.
13:55Poor Mick is not exactly the most nimble guy in the world, either.
13:59My name is Jimmy Corderas.
14:01At the time of Hell in a Cell, I was part of the ring crew and also a referee.
14:05I was backstage watching on the monitors, and Gerald Briscoe was the one who produces there.
14:11I had the best seat in the house, sat right in front of about ten monitors watching everything.
14:17So you were, like, basically sitting in the captain's seat during Hell in a Cell?
14:21I was the pilot, baby.
14:24This is probably the first time in 20 years that I've watched this match.
14:28No one knew what to anticipate, and I don't think anyone could have ever imagined what they were going to see.
14:34Hello again, everybody. I'm Jim Ross alongside Jerry the King Lawler.
14:38I was as much in the dark as a fan watching at home.
14:42I did want to start the match in a way nobody had ever started a match before, and to do something no one had ever done.
14:48I think there's a little bit of shock on everybody's face, like, he's going up now?
15:00He's going up at the beginning of the match?
15:02He's supposed to start out inside the cage, isn't he?
15:04What next?
15:06He's not very logical. I mean, he needs therapy.
15:10I had not been on top of the cell.
15:12I assured Mr. McMahon of The Undertaker,
15:14Oh, yeah, I've been up there. It's fine.
15:16But the truth is, when I got up there, I was terrified.
15:18I'm actually not good with heights.
15:20Whoa! It's totally dark in here! He may fall off that cell!
15:25The entire time The Undertaker's music is playing, I'm thinking to myself,
15:29how can I gracefully climb down this cell without ruining my career?
15:36Wait a minute. Do you think he's daring The Undertaker to start this match up there?
15:41I thought it was a hell of a way to start.
15:43Apparently, Hell in a Cell match is officially underway.
15:47It created a theater of the mind that one could not get past.
15:51He's there! He's there!
15:53Something's gonna happen. What's gonna happen?
15:57They had attached the top section of the cage with zip ties.
16:03But there's 600 pounds of human beings up there.
16:08The Undertaker and I both take a step, and that mesh goes down by about a foot.
16:13Oh, my gosh! Look at this! It broke through!
16:15And I literally hear zip ties springing.
16:19They're destroying the Hell in the Cell!
16:21When those zip ties were popping off, I thought, oh, boy, this is not good.
16:26I attempt to suplex The Undertaker on top of that mesh.
16:30He cut that off knowing that, you know, there was a decent chance we were both going to go through it.
16:36Undertaker fighting back!
16:37They're throwing punches, and they got towards the edge of the cage where the announce tables were.
16:41I thought when they got close to the edge, there's just no way in hell that Nick's gonna take a tumble off the top of the cage.
16:48That's too dangerous. That's too iffy.
16:52There's very little margin for error.
16:54I look at this incredibly small table, like a little dollhouse.
17:00I don't know how in the world it's gonna work out.
17:03And lo and behold, the closer they got to the edge of the cage,
17:09the more I became convinced that something big is gonna happen here momentarily.
17:15And it did.
17:21Then all of a sudden...
17:23Here's Jim Ross, and here's Jerry Lawler, as well as the Spanish announcers.
17:31And they're looking up, and a 300-pound human being is flung at them from almost 20 feet above them.
17:39And he's coming at them fast.
17:41As strange as it sounds, it felt like it was going by in slow motion.
17:45It also went by in the blink of an eye.
17:48All of a sudden, you hear this...
17:55God, just crash.
17:57Oh, my God.
17:58He is broken in half.
18:01Holy shit, did we just see what we thought we saw?
18:04The sound of Nick going through the announcer table was scary as hell.
18:09Everyone that was in the back, we just exploded in concern.
18:14Look at that. Look at this.
18:15Give me a break.
18:16It was like witnessing a car accident.
18:19Ooh, you will.
18:20Thought he was dead.
18:21We need doctors out here.
18:23Folks, we apologize.
18:25This man just stopped dead in his tracks.
18:27In a business filled with crazy, strange things,
18:30nobody had ever tried to do something like this before.
18:35It blew everybody's mind.
18:37And I thought, my God, this is over.
18:39There's no way he's gonna get back up.
18:41There was an audible gasp where everyone went, no!
18:50We had two young children at the time, and they didn't know what to think of it.
19:03All I kept saying was, oh, it's fake just to soothe them.
19:09Yet in the back of my mind, I'm freaking out.
19:12It's tough to know when it really, really, really is real.
19:18Someone get out of here, really.
19:19But it had to have hurt him.
19:21And it was believable.
19:24If The Undertaker threw him just a little too far or a little too short, that's falling
19:28from God knows how high onto concrete, or could have even landed on fans.
19:33The pain would come later.
19:35I'm kind of flying high on adrenaline, and I've pulled off this pretty lofty goal.
19:42I mean, going through the table could not have gone better.
19:45He saw it in his head, and in midair, he turned in such a way that he was able to land
19:51flat on that announced desk to cushion that fall and not kill him.
19:56And when it did happen, you should have heard the voices back there.
20:00Replay that.
20:01Then you go into business mode where you're trying to get every great shot that you had
20:05with it.
20:06Hugo Sabinovich, the Spanish commentator, bailed out of his chair instead of getting flattened.
20:11It was pretty, pretty traumatic, to be honest.
20:16Because it was my friend out there and being torn with the rule that you don't step in,
20:23you don't interfere with whatever Nick was trying to construct.
20:27The fans were literally having this guy laying at their feet,
20:32and they're looking at all the attendants and the referees.
20:35There's Terry Funk!
20:37Terry Funk was the first one to get there.
20:39I asked Terry, is he conscious? Right there.
20:42Now we're trying to make room for Dr. Francois to get there.
20:45So I was in my medical room, and suddenly I hear,
20:49right now, come right now, big fell from the top of the cell.
20:54And I say, what?
20:56I'm Dr. Francois Petit, a.k.a. Chien Petit.
20:58I used to be the doctor for WWF for about four and a half, five years on the road,
21:03and before that for about eight, nine years in Los Angeles.
21:07Francois was kind of like the French army knight.
21:10Francois was a black belt in karate.
21:13He was Sub-Zero in the first Mortal Kombat movie.
21:18He was probably a secret agent and, you know, investment banker.
21:22Francois was what they, I think they call them bone crackers.
21:25He could fix you.
21:27You probably wouldn't enjoy it.
21:29But he could, he could put you back in place.
21:34No matter what the malady was.
21:36Hey, baby, I fixed you. I fixed you, baby. It'll be okay.
21:40You're gonna have to put it back.
21:42Mid for it, of course.
21:43He was my number one patient.
21:45If I can't say something like that.
21:47Dr. Francois Petit.
21:51Well, hell, this is nuts what he did.
21:54He fell on his back badly.
21:57And on top of that, on the dislocated shoulder.
22:00The EMT people have no idea how to get the gurney down there.
22:04And it turns out the gurney wouldn't fit.
22:06So now they've got to raise the cell with the undertaker on it.
22:09Is he gonna jump down here?
22:11He was putting on that gurney like that was real.
22:14They were gonna take him to the hospital.
22:16We thought the damn thing was over with.
22:18I mean, what else can they do, you know?
22:20But we found out, you know?
22:23I realized that the longer I'm on there,
22:26the more fully the audience is engaged.
22:30I've never seen anything like that in my life.
22:33Well, I'm not. Yeah.
22:34But, uh, I've got a feeling that I'm going to be able to continue.
22:43Everybody was trying to tell him,
22:44no, Mick, you're done. Stop.
22:46You're kidding me!
22:48The hell is he standing? Oh, my God.
22:50What are you doing? Where are you going?
22:51Why are you doing this? Just stay down.
22:54He's got a smile on his face, for God's sakes.
22:57Holy shit, he's coming back for more?
23:00Are you kidding me?
23:01That man is going back down.
23:04No way!
23:05And so is the Undertaker.
23:06No way!
23:07I'm thinking this gotta be the craziest, dumbest SOB in our business.
23:11How can he climb? How can his body?
23:13At this point, I do not know how I'm going to do this and live.
23:16But I have pledged to do it, and I'm going to do it.
23:19This is absolutely amazing.
23:22Absolutely amazing here!
23:25I'm thinking to myself, you're insane, you're an idiot.
23:28But at the same time that I'm thinking that, I'm thinking,
23:30that was the moment that really made him a star.
23:34By then, backstage was packed, because they know shit's going on.
23:39I stayed back where I was, because I knew something else was going to happen.
23:43I knew!
23:44I guess at the end of the day, I'm glad that they went back up,
23:47because it created another moment.
23:49It added to the storyline.
23:51But sometimes you can storyline yourself right to the hospital.
23:56The next spot in the storyline, pitched by Nick Foley, was far less concerning.
24:01A headbutt by the Undertaker, and a right hand!
24:04At least, at first.
24:06We had already agreed on the one chokeslam, which we thought would cause the mash to gradually give way.
24:13And the big visual was going to be Undertaker, like, stuffing me down.
24:18But that did not happen.
24:20He throws him off on the other side!
24:22Oh!
24:23Good God!
24:24Good God!
24:25Good God!
24:26And now, Houston, we got a problem.
24:29Oh, that's it! He's dead!
24:31I thought that the destruction of the Foley body was well in hand.
24:36Somebody stop the damn match!
24:39Enough's enough!
24:40It was a completely different situation than when he got thrown off the top.
24:45You just, you just know.
24:47I was screaming at the TV set.
24:50I am cursing!
24:52I was, like, trying to get the company on the phone.
24:57And I couldn't get through to anybody. I couldn't get through to anybody.
25:00Like, how do you tell your children, oh, daddy's acting?
25:04Laying there lifeless, motionless.
25:08This was not expected at all.
25:11I thought that was the end of him.
25:13Now, Houston, if he throws him off on the other side, there's...
25:24When he hit that solid mat...
25:28That ring is like concrete!
25:31The mat doesn't do it justice.
25:33It's more like hitting the cement.
25:36As he's falling, that metal, heavy, solid folding chair...
25:43Came right behind him.
25:44You can see when he lands that chair...
25:47Boom! There's a chair on his face. Boom!
25:50He could have very easily died.
25:51I mean, my mom thought he was dead also.
25:54I was shocked. I was screaming. I was furious.
25:59Because I thought he betrayed me by not telling me the truth that there was another spot.
26:06There we go. Joke slam. Oh!
26:09That was the first time in his career that he'd been legitimately knocked out cold.
26:13We all flooded the cage, Dr. Francois, Terry Funk.
26:17The guys that went out there were thinking, this might be the end.
26:21He was really not responsive at that point.
26:23I turn around and look at Undertaker.
26:28And I say, okay, that's enough.
26:30Because I saw his eyes not answering.
26:33Man, he'd landed in such a funky way.
26:37I didn't know that he was going to get up.
26:40I was legit scared for what the results were going to be.
26:42The Undertaker, he looked at Terry and said, see if he's alive.
26:48Terry reports back, he's still breathing.
26:52There were so many times where I'd seen stars.
26:55But I'd never been out for more than a couple seconds.
26:58And this time, there's 42 seconds that I don't recall.
27:02Undertaker, Kevin, stop it!
27:03Terry Funk took it into his own hands and walked up to Undertaker and said, hit me.
27:07Terry Funk trying to help Nick Foles!
27:08So he could take the focus away from Mick a little bit so everybody could tend to him.
27:13It's all ad lib, it's all at the moment.
27:17And Terry gets into the chokeslam!
27:20If I'd ever seen a match that should have been stopped, that was probably the one.
27:25But he just didn't do it back then.
27:28He just got chokeslammed out of his shoes!
27:30We didn't stop matches, we bought time.
27:33And I needed every second that I could get.
27:35When I came to and I immediately saw Terry Funk's shoes, I then realized I'm in this match.
27:44And that's where I try to stand.
27:46How is he still standing up? I don't have a damn clue.
27:49Oh my God, he is a freaking mess.
27:53It's really crazy to think that they would allow this to happen.
27:57Just like someone go unconscious and then continue the match.
28:01As the clouds began to clear, I was all about trying to create an image for TV.
28:08I've got a massive wound underneath my lip, and if I can find a way to take my tongue, stick it through that massive wound, it's going to make for a great TV moment.
28:17Oh my! And he's smiling!
28:18There's the tooth. There's the tooth.
28:20How do you get hit in the face with a chair and it knocks your tooth out and it ends up in your nostril?
28:28One of the doctors said that it went into his throat, but because he was breathing so heavily that he had sucked it up the other way and came down through his nasal passage.
28:37What's that sticking out of his nose? Maybe a tooth?
28:40This match was real. The pain was real. The drama was real. The expressions on everybody's face were real. Real concern.
28:48You can look in his eyes and tell you there was nobody home. And I'm trying to talk to him. All he wanted to do is we've got to get to the tax.
28:56This was their first appearance in WWE. I felt like I should be the guy to bring him over.
29:17And Nick's purposely rolling around to make sure he gets all the thumbtacks on him as much as possible.
29:26When the adrenaline is taking over, you don't realize the pain anymore. You're part of the pain. You're pushing so far, you don't even know you're doing it.
29:35Mick is very big about, hell or high water, whatever it is, he will see it through.
29:43Finally, the 17-minute match comes to an end with The Undertaker defeating mankind.
29:49What a spectacle it was. In that Pittsburgh Civic Arena, 16,000 people. We've never seen anything like this before.
29:58They brought the stretcher up because we thought it was needed for sure. But he waved it off. And that crowd went absolutely insane.
30:09This was real as a heart attack. And the people could tell. That puts the fans in the corner of this guy who just cannot be stopped. And that's the kind of shit that gets over.
30:24An audience has invested their time, their money and their effort in one single thing. And that is the belief in you.
30:35He knew and understood that risking his well-being allows them to more thoroughly believe in him and the experience.
30:44Thank God this is over. We kept taking these chances. And another chance. And another chance. And for why?
30:54As long as I live, I will never forget what we just witnessed right there, folks.
30:59He would always call and check in with me. Let me know that he's okay.
31:03And now here comes the one pay-per-view where she really needs to know. And there's no phone call.
31:08I had to wait and wait and wait and wait. It made me worry. And that anger came back. And a few hours later, Mick calls me.
31:19She was screaming at me. Your children thought you were dead.
31:23I think prior to the cell, she prepared by trusting that I wasn't going to do anything to jeopardize the family.
31:33After that, she became a big concern.
31:40Now at SmartAsset.com
31:45When Mick came back through the curtain, I mean, everybody rushed up and wanted to check on him and make sure he was as okay as he could possibly be.
31:53One of the first people to greet Mick at the curtain was Vince McMahon. He said, Mick, I want to thank you for what you've done for my company. And I want you to promise me that you will never do anything like it again. And pull those thumbtacks out of him.
32:08I'm going backstage and I overheard Mick say to Taker, did we do the thumbtack spot? He doesn't realize that the doctor is just plucking him out of him right now.
32:19When you love somebody and you respect them as much as I did Mick, my first thought was, are you okay? Are you really okay?
32:26I don't think he truly anticipated how severe that was going to be. Like that night, I had to help him get undressed and then into bed. You know, he was messed up on that one.
32:40I think it was 15 stitches underneath the lip. Lost these two teeth. I don't even know if I was treated for a concussion. I had a bruised kidney for about six weeks. My jaw was dislocated. I can't remember which shoulder was dislocated. But you know what? That match changed the way people felt about me. And that's what really sparked the career renaissance.
33:05With what you did at Hell in a Cell. And I want to publicly thank you. Going from Vince not wanting to see him in a WWF ring to six months after that match, he was world champion.
33:23The reaction, the pop, the adrenaline, the rush, the more he did, the more risks he took. It made me worry. The bar kept just going up because it was never good.
33:35It was never good enough.
33:36I think he felt like he had to live up to being the hardcore legend, continuing things that he probably shouldn't have.
33:44Mick at that point was about what are the limits of physical human endurance. He felt like he owed it to the guy he was working with. He owed it to the people to do something that they hadn't seen before.
33:57I remember not a scolding, but a warning. If you continue to try to do these type things, it's going to catch up with you. He understood, but he didn't agree with me.
34:13Just seven months later, Mick Foley again pushes his limits, this time in a brutal showdown with The Rock in the infamous I quit match.
34:23No stopping the match or excessive blood loss.
34:30I told Mick that's a horrible idea, but he was going to do what he needed to do and what he wanted to do. I mean, he's riding the big tidal waves.
34:41Well, I also think it had something to do with my way of making it seem like everything is going to be all right.
34:48He was one of the worst days of my life.
34:50I had both children with me. It was super brutal from the beginning.
34:57Oh, man!
34:58I got carried away with The Rock. I had told him, lay it in.
35:03Mick Foley is barely moving, and now The Rock has handcuffs. What the hell is he going to do now?
35:08He did.
35:11But instead of taking five shots, I took 11 shots.
35:15No! What the hell is Mick Foley doing?
35:18His kids were not old enough at that point to really ascertain what was fact and what was fiction.
35:27But also, in the middle of this fiction, it was a fact.
35:31He got brain damage for a wrestling angle on television.
35:37Where does it end? What does it take now to put you down?
35:41Please, Mick, say I quit!
35:44So this sounds pretty bizarre, but I don't have one singular memory of my dad ever wrestling.
35:52Part of me thinks it's because it was very traumatic to me.
35:57Like, how could these 11 shots change my dad's health?
36:04Like, if you were to get 11 headshots, a normal person probably could have died.
36:10It's sickening, honestly.
36:12I really, really hate the I Quit match.
36:15Mick always wanted to over-deliver.
36:17And somewhere down the road, all of us need to ask ourselves the question, was it worth it?
36:25I understood that the style I chose was going to result in great discomfort.
36:31There were so many times when I could have made a move less painful, but I chose not to because I thought it would look better.
36:40There were a handful of doctors saying that you need to stop now.
36:45If you continue wrestling, you'll wind up crippled.
36:49Do you think that stopped him?
36:51I still thought I had one good match left of me.
36:55Stay down!
36:57And so I set about trying to delay the inevitable.
37:01There were times when he should not have been wrestling, he shouldn't have been cleared.
37:10He'd drive around and not remember where he lived.
37:16It's concussion on top of concussion on top of concussion.
37:19My appointment with the WWE neurologist had not gone particularly well.
37:26So I booked an appointment independent of WWE.
37:29I'll never forget what he told me.
37:30He said, Mr. Foley, if you want to try to find another neurologist to clear you, that's up to you.
37:35But I'm telling you, you should never wrestle again.
37:38If you've pushed those physical limits like Mick has, yeah, you're definitely going to pay a price.
37:46And sadly, Mick is paying that price right now.
37:50Working with Gusto.
37:54Tony Holm, a.k.a. Ludwig Borga, from Finland.
37:57He was tall, he was muscular, he was badass.
38:00He looked like a villain, but unfortunately, in real life, he was a villain.
38:04He treated people horribly.
38:06When we finally realized he had the SS tattoo, things started going downhill from there.
38:10The police came and raided their house in bulletproof vests and shields.
38:14You don't know that story?
38:15Ludwig had a tremendous opportunity.
38:17The dream was over.
38:18Where do you go from here?
38:19Dark Side of the Ring.
38:20New episode next Tuesday at 10 on Vice.
38:23Someone to get out of here really.
38:25I made it.
38:27Back then, we didn't know the long-term effects of concussions.
38:31When guys take a bump, they have an impact in the ring.
38:36Similar to experiencing a 25-mile-per-hour car accident.
38:43I can only imagine the type of pain that Mick has to live with.
38:46Wait a minute, wait a minute.
38:47The referee's called for help.
38:48He's paid the price for all this fame.
38:51Mick is very special, and he's lucky he's still with us.
38:54He's done! He's done!
38:55CTE is a very scary disease.
38:58That is a long-term effect of repetitive concussions and brain trauma.
39:06We don't really know how my dad will be doing in 10, 20 years or so.
39:11If you're wondering if I'm worried about that, yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:16Really worried.
39:17Every day, I worry about that.
39:20The fallout from what I've done, I honestly, I don't see a way out of it.
39:25That's one of the most respected and beloved men to ever compete in our business.
39:32But I'm going to fight it.
39:33I'm going to try to be someone who continues to get sharper as they get older.
39:38And so I have these spoken word shows.
39:41It's like mental gymnastics for my mind.
39:44And I hear the crowd chanting,
39:46Undertaker.
39:49Putting on a show, having that stimulation from people, that keeps them going.
39:56I can either appreciate what I have or I could live in complete fear about the unknown.
40:01So I'm going to continue to enjoy myself.
40:06He lived his dream.
40:08He made his dream.
40:09He needs to feel accepted, especially around his legacy.
40:17I tell him, go, do the things you like to do, but don't push your luck.
40:24Colette knew that I was kind of my own worst enemy when I was in the ring.
40:28We dress up in wild costumes and engage in a fantasy form of combat that leaves a lot of us in worse condition than we arrived at.
40:39And we do it to earn the acceptance of total strangers.
40:46For me, it was all about reactions.
40:49The eyes lighting up.
40:51My desire to be authentic.
40:53I definitely wanted to be loved.
40:56All the sacrifices you put your physique through just for the roar of them.
41:06I like that roar.
41:09You can't say that's a fault without also admitting that it's responsible for my success.
41:14Mick Foley is known for many things.
41:19He's a multiple time champion.
41:21He's donated time and energies to charities.
41:24But what he's known for is Hell in a Cell.
41:27For years, I really harbored some resentment for that match.
41:38Because it was the only thing that I was known for.
41:41I was in a dark place for a while.
41:44On one hand, I knew I'd done a lot in wrestling.
41:47On the other hand, I felt like I'd accomplished nothing at all.
41:50How you doing, man?
41:51The Undertaker and I, we were reminiscing and he says, you know Jack, what we did that night will outlive us both.
41:59That was a major step in embracing that moment.
42:02That's what I got into wrestling for.
42:04To try to create moments like that.
42:06I think fans are going to remember him as a guy who gave his heart and soul to this business and appreciate him immensely for it.
42:17The audience is going to be in awe.
42:20Because few people in the world can put you in awe.
42:24And those people do.
42:26This is the beauty of it.
42:36Me and my dad, we were at the WWE warehouse and we came across the cell.
42:46My dad certainly wasn't expecting to see it.
42:50He touched it.
42:53And he just started tearing up and started crying.
43:00I've never seen my dad cry.
43:02For something to make him cry must have been really important and life-changing and also probably pretty scary.
43:16Like this could have, this could have been it.
43:23I'm lucky I'm here after that.
43:26There's no reward big enough to cover that risk.
43:29How can he, how can he stand?
43:32We did not know nearly as much about head injuries as we do now.
43:36But I can't tell you with certainty that I would have done things different if I had known that.
43:42I felt like the world had offered me this canvas to create surreal, sublime performance art.
43:50There were some bumps in the road, but it was a pretty magical way to make a living.
43:54On certain nights when things, it was one of the most powerful feelings in the world.