Felix Upton on April 9, 2023
Donald Trump is huge name in politics, but even before he worked at the White House, he was a massive name in culture. His experiences with WWE, and friendship with Vince McMahon, saw him inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame’s class of 2013. That was quite a night to remember, but Mick Foley might disagree a little.
During a recent episode of Foley is Pod, the WWE Hall of Famer discussed his own 2013 induction. He shared a class with some big names, including Donald Trump. This caused a bit of an issue for Foley later on.
When the big night came to air the amended WWE Hall of Fame on the USA Network, some edits needed to be made for time. Since they couldn’t cut Donald Trump’s speech, Mick Foley’s hit the cutting room floor.
“There was a little bit of a controversy in 2013 that almost derailed or at least greatly affected my attitude in what I was going to say. What brought me back from that brink was remembering when I was in Impact. I got a (203) text message. It’s WWE asking if I would mind if they promote my book, which was an Impact Wrestling book, on their show. You want to promote my book on your show? They said, ‘Yea, Mr. McMahon thinks it’s the right thing to do.’”
“So at that time, for one year, we had this beautiful condo in Florida and they actually had like a movie room, so we reserved it for that night. I sat there with my family, and the moment I heard Michael Cole say, ‘Hey, our good friend, Mick Foley has a new book out’, and they really put it over. I made a little promise to myself. I don’t think I said it out loud, but a promise is still a promise. The promise was, if I’m ever asked to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, I’m going to say absolutely yes with no conditions placed on it. I’m not going to say I need to go last. I’m not going to say I need X amount of time.”
“Then I found myself feeling left out. USA I guess made the decision, or at least I’d heard they made the decision that they were going to edit the show. In order to show Donald Trump’s speech, they ixnay the Foley speech, and I let it get to me. It really hurt my feelings to the point where I remember calling up my wife and saying. ‘I don’t want anyone from my family coming to the Hall of Fame. I don’t want it to be important enough to bother me.’ Then I would visualize my speech just being, ‘Hey, thank you’ and throwing my ring out to the crowd and walking away with the worst Hall of Fame speech ever. Then I remembered that promise I made to myself. I’d gone on Twitter, I think and kabetched, I guess probably be a good term, a kind term for it. But I remembered that promise and that changed things for me.”
“I went into Mr. McMahon’s office and Hunter was in there, Stephanie was in there, and Kevin Dunn, and I just said, ‘Look, I’m sorry, It’s a great honor to be in here. I’m going to enjoy every moment of it.’ Kevin said, ‘Mick, why didn’t you just come to us’ and that’s what I should have done instead of complaining and taking my case to social media.”
Mick Foley had other moments at the WWE Hall of Fame. He was just on hand alongside Torrie Wilson to induct Stacy Keiber.
The 2013 WWE Hall of Fame class included Mick Foley, Bob Backlund, Trish Stratus, Booker T, Bruno Sammartino, and Donald Trump. Those are some huge names, and they were all inducted on the weekend before WrestleMania 29. It’s been a decade since that night went down, but Mick Foley is still a bit sore over losing time to the future POTUS.
Would you cut Mick Foley’s WWE Hall of Fame Speech for Donald Trump? Did USA Network make the right move? Sound off in the comments!
April 9, 2023 2:47 pm
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