Mick Foley walking away from WWE over the company’s ties to Donald Trump is still getting people talking, and now Val Venis has thrown his two cents into the mix. He says he still loves Foley, but he thinks the WWE Hall of Famer made a mistake by letting politics end a business relationship.
Speaking on Monty & The Pharaoh, Venis laughed off the idea that he hates Foley just because they disagree politically. In fact, he said the complete opposite, making it clear he still has nothing but respect for the guy despite believing they’re worlds apart on a lot of issues.
“You know, everybody thinks I hate Mick. I don’t hate Mick. I love the man. I truly love the man. I love the time that I worked with him. He’s a really good dude, but he holds a lot of leftist ideologies, and I disagree with him deeply on a lot of the leftist ideologies that he holds. But that doesn’t mean I hate him. And that’s one thing with the leftists. They look at my disagreement with, like, say, Mick Foley, and they think I hate him. I don’t hate Mick Foley. I love the man.”
That goodwill only went so far, though. Once the conversation turned to Foley dropping his WWE Legends deal, Venis said he thinks Foley handled the whole thing the wrong way. His argument was simple: you don’t have to agree with someone politically to keep doing business with them.
“Yeah. Yeah, I really do. I think Mick Foley was wrong for doing that. You know, business is business. It’s one thing to hold your position, but if you have that position, then engage in dialogue, debate with the people. It’s one of those things where you can constantly push your agenda. I mean, if you can advocate for it properly, you should be able to, professionally, while maintaining a business relationship, talk to people and say, ‘Hey, I don’t agree with this. You know, maybe we should go in this direction or that direction,’ and let those adults have those conversations.”
Then Venis really got rolling. He argued that Mick Foley’s politics leave no room for debate, claiming the WWE Hall of Famer simply decided to cut WWE off instead of having those conversations.
“The problem is Mick Foley has been infected with the leftist ideology. So, if you don’t agree with him, there is no debate. You are evil. You are wrong, and he will cut you off. And so I think that’s what he did to WWE. He doesn’t like Donald Trump, and he just cut them off. There was no rational debate. There were no discussions. There was nothing. And yeah, I think that what Mick Foley did to WWE, to me, is typical of people that harbor leftist ideology, and they’ll demonize the people they disagree with and cut them off, and then they’ll just slander them.”
To be fair, Val Venis did admit Foley never went out of his way to trash WWE after leaving. He just thinks the Hall of Famer should’ve kept the relationship intact instead of walking away over politics.
“Now, Mick Foley hasn’t slandered WWE. He basically just said, ‘I don’t agree with them. I’m cutting them off.’ So he didn’t go as far as to slander them. You’ve got to remember, not all leftists are as left as one another.”
It’s the latest chapter in a story that’s been going since Foley revealed he willingly gave up about 25 percent of his income by ending his Legends deal. Foley says he’d do it again in a heartbeat. Venis says he never should’ve done it in the first place.
What do you think? Was Mick Foley right to stick to his principles, or does Val Venis have a point that business and politics should stay separate? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
