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Mick Foley Talks Impact Wrestling

Posted: May 19th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Last Thursday, hardcore wrestling icon Mick Foley returned to TNA Impact as part of the "network mole" storyline and announced that TNA's weekly show was now going to be called Impact Wrestling. And so while the WWE has chosen to remove the words "wrestling" and "wrestler" from their corporate speak, TNA has chosen to embrace the words, along with the new motto: "Wrestling Matters Here."

IGN had a chance to speak to Mick Foley this afternoon to get the lowdown on Impact Wrestling and ask Foley about safety in the ring, the difference between Wrestling and Sports Entertainment and, of course, why wrestling matters to him.

IGN: First off, TNA's weekly show is now called Impact Wrestling. Your thoughts?

Mick Foley: I love it. For example, I am proudly wearing my Impact Wrestling shirt right now during my publicity day. I'll probably change it tomorrow just out of necessity, but if I has a second clean one I'd wear it. Not that I wasn't proud of TNA, but it was confusing and people didn't always know what it meant. But now Impact Wrestling is pretty self-explanatory. It's wrestling and hopefully it's impactful. So I love the name change and I'm embracing it. And I think our fans will embrace it as well.

IGN: But it's just the weekly show that's changing its name, right? The letters "TNA" are still being used on the site and such. How does it all work? Will the titles change their names?

Foley: I'm still having all those details explained to me too. I think for corporate reasons, for business reasons, they can't just make a name change that quickly. But the Impact Zone is now the Impact Wrestling Zone. Impact Wrestling is what we say now when we're talking about the show. Some of the other things I'll have to see how they play out. But I for one am going to say the word Impact followed by the word Wrestling as often as I can.

IGN: The big company motto now is "Wrestling Matters Here." Why does wrestling matter to you? Aside from the fact that you've had a successful wrestling career of course.

Foley: Wrestling mattered to me even before I got into wrestling. You can ask a hundred different people why wrestling matters and they'll have a hundred different reasons. The two events I'm probably best known for are the Hell in a Cell match and having a birthday party in the ring for The Rock. One of them was one of the most extreme form of physicality a match could have and the other was the most extreme form of ridiculousness imaginable. And wrestling can be anything between those two extremes. For me, I would say that wrestling was the first show that I'd rather watch with my dad than by myself. Like, when I was a teenager and didn't think my dad was cool. I think for a lot of people wrestling matters specifically because they have great family memories tied up in it. For other people it matters because they love the skill of the guys in the ring. For others, it's because it made them laugh or because they thought something was funny. Or some sort of combination of all those things. But the subject does deserve the time spent talking about it. It's not just something that happens to be in a certain timeslot on a certain network. It's an important show. On an important network. In an important timeslot.

IGN: Fandom has changed so much over the years, thanks to the internet. And people choose to experience wrestling in different ways. Does that make wrestling critique proof or is there still room for analysis?

Foley: No, it means everybody can find something to fault with it. And now not only do people have the forum, but there are so many aspects to wrestling. It's tough to compete with so many different channels and so many different shows. It used to infuriate me when all the old school guys would say, "Well back in '73 we were doing this rating." Yeah, that's because there weren't that many channels. Movie theaters were parking lots. Things change. There are no drive-ins anymore. Cable TV has split everything up. There's so much more competition. So people look at the show's ratings, whether it be ours or whether it be RAW's and they say "Hey, wrestling's down 50%." But worldwide it's bigger than it's ever been. I mean people would be surprised that we have more Impact Wrestling fans in India than we do here. And if you added up all the views we get on YouTube and things of that nature then probably wrestling is playing as big a role in people's lives as it ever has. It's just not reflected correctly by straight ratings.

IGN: What do you think of the WWE's choice to eliminate the word wrestling from their rhetoric?

Foley: That's been an on-going issue for them for years. I remember I would be reprimanded after doing an interview because I called myself a wrestler. I always considered myself a wrestler and I still do. I don't fault them for distancing themselves because they feel there is a stigma attach to it. But at the same time there are a ton of people who still love the traditions attached to wrestling and who don't consider the business anything other than "professional wrestling." So I think if the WWE is going to distance themselves then we are going to embrace it. I never saw it as being that big of an issue though. The Rock would always talk about "Sports Entertainment" and I always liked to call myself a wrestler, but clearly when we got in the ring together those two styles worked. So I never thought there was that much of a difference there. But then again I love the fact that wrestling is in our name now. We are entertainment, but wrestling is such a unique form of entertainment that I think it deserves its own title. Pro-wrestling.

IGN: What kind of change and growth have you seen in TNA-slash-Impact Wrestling since you joined up back in 2008?

Foley: Internationally we've definitely seen the growth. But sometimes, you know, every time we take a step forward we also take a step backwards. We have the same ratings that we had two and a half years ago. People sometimes get angry with the company because there's no one else out there and they say, "Oh that's a little group with limited talent and they're living up to their potential." I think the truth is that we have not lived up to our potential. And sometimes fans expect more out of us. And hopefully this name change will be the boost, the kick in the butt that makes us get more out of it.

IGN: Do you have a sort of mentorship role with any of the boys?

Foley: Hopefully the guys always know they can talk to me. I mean, I get a few guys every taping who want to ask me about certain things. Whether it be about wrestling or promos. Some even ask me about writing. And lots and lots of guys approach me about advice with women. So I do the best I can to help out anyone who wants help. [laughs]

IGN: You're also famous because of a very intense "I Quit" match with The Rock. The WWE is running an "I Quit" match this weekend and some have been guessing that there's a chance they might swipe the ending from your match. Can finishes that famous get re-used?

Foley: I checked with the legal system and I think the statue of limitations is up on that. It's the same way I checked to see if Terry Funk's gimmick was up. And when I saw that it was up I stole it. Yeah, I think that if they do anything in the match that makes people think of me then, in the end, that's not a bad thing. [laughs]

IGN: The word "wrestling" might be in the name of the weekly show now, but so is the word "impact," which carries its own weight. A few months back you were a part of TNA's concussion storyline. What are the safety measures like in the company? Is it a priority for them?

Foley: I think they're addressing it. I'm not sure what their exact position on chairs is, but people really got into a dangerous position years ago when, especially in ECW, where if they wanted a reaction they'd go right to the unprotected chairshot. So we've really backed off from that. I don't know if it's been outright banned or not, but I know it's been greatly reduced. But I think the most important thing we did with that storyline was bring some awareness to the fact that when these injuries occur ? and they're just going to. I mean, most concussion are not caused by chairshots but are caused by bumps to back of the head . Which are an inevitability with pro-wresting. But when they do occur I think people are more open to admitting they're injured and to taking the time off that's necessary. I think there's a greater acceptance among the guys for someone who admits they're hurt and needs time off. And that by doing that they're being more courageous than the guy who pretends he's okay and tries to get back too quickly because he's worried about his job. It takes a lot of guts to admit that you're down and that you need some time off.

IGN: Looking back, are there times that you should have taken time off but didn't?

Foley: Well I didn't know how to recognize concussions like they do now. I thought a concussion was just like when you were knocked unconscious. Or you're throwing up. And I've had several of those in my career. But then there were other times where I saw stars where I probably could have taken some time off and just didn't know. But I did leave at one point. You know, I left pro-wrestling in 2000. I didn't have a single match from WrestleMania 2000 through 2004. And I haven't found myself wrestling with an injury since then.