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Mick Foley lends helping hand to charity with drawing for WrestleMania vacation

Posted: Mar 15th 2016 By: Brian Fritz - SportingNews.com

He has been pierced with barbed wire, blown up inside a wrestling ring and fallen 20 feet off the top of a steel cage.

But that's just one side of Mick Foley. He has a childlike love for Santa Claus, even dedicating a room in his house to Saint Nick and his favorite holiday. The WWE Hall of Famer is also helping raise money for RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network), a charity that helps in the fight against sexual violence.

For the fourth year in a row, Foley is teaming up with RAINN for the WrestleMania Dream Vacation Sweepstakes, with all of proceeds going to the foundation. The raffle has raised more than $400,000 since its inception. You can enter at WrestleManiaDreamVacation.org.

The winner will receive quite a haul: a round-trip flight to Arlington, Texas, for WrestleMania weekend; two ringside tickets to WrestleMania 32; tickets to the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, "Monday Night Raw" and NXT; a trip to Disney World; and a bevy of other goodies including dinner with the Hardcore Legend himself.

Sporting News spoke with Foley about his work with RAINN and his thoughts about WrestleMania, Shane McMahon's return to WWE and the status of the women's movement in the company.

SPORTING NEWS: This is the fourth year you've done the WrestleMania Dream Vacation Sweepstakes with money going to help RAINN.

MICK FOLEY: It's a tough subject and a tough thing to raise money for because there's not corporations who are going to get involved and you don't have golf tournaments. Most of the ways that big money is raised is not available. We've found this way that makes a really tough subject a little more palatable and we raise not only money but awareness. What I love about it is people are on Twitter and Facebook and they're sharing the links even though by doing that they decrease their own chances of winning. Every year, thousands of people step up and I think it makes them feel good. I know it makes me feel good.

SN: It's WrestleMania season and I think everyone is getting pretty excited about it. It seems like just a few weeks ago, people were still wondering what was going to happen at WrestleMania, maybe not as amped up for it as past years. It sure feels like that has changed with Shane McMahon coming back.

MF: Yeah, I think that's been the trend the last few years. A couple of years ago, I was pretty upset at what happened at the Royal Rumble and the one thing that stopped me from going any further ... social media is great but it allows you to express your feelings at the touch of a button. Sometimes that's not the healthiest thing in the world for your relationships. In the back of my mind, I was like, I've got the RAINN fundraiser, I need WWE. Oddly enough, I ended up being part of that show, one of the pregame and postgame show guests, so I had my family with me. They came down and watched the last two matches with me and the show really shaped up. Even the people who were down on The Undertaker's streak, I think it was a really exciting show. Then last year, I didn't know what to expect and WWE, I thought, really delivered the goods and people left thrilled for the most part. You can't satisfy everybody. If you do, you're probably doing something wrong. This year, things are shaping up to where the same people who were doing the #CancelWrestleMania are coming around and getting into it.

SN: What was your reaction when you watched "Raw" a few weeks ago and the music hits and out comes Shane McMahon?

MF: I had said from time to time it would be great to see Shane McMahon back, but I had no idea if that would ever happen. I knew Shane would get a good reaction. I didn't know he would get that kind of reaction. That was amazing. For the story lines, someone said. "Didn't they reveal that too quickly?" Maybe, maybe they could have played it out a little bit. I think the interaction between the McMahons is great. The idea of Shane-O-Mac possibly doing something death-defying inside or on top of that cell is definitely there and it's a great story line. I don't know how they proceed with it but I think given their track record at WrestleMania the past few years, you have to give them some freedom to tell that story.

SN: Because of your history with Hell in a Cell, do you cringe when it gets used, especially for somebody who is willing to take some risks?

MF: Yeah, sure. It's a dangerous thing. Shane's a grown man. One of the keys is he's just having one match. He won't do what's outside his comfort zone but his comfort zone if pretty vast. He looked completely at ease falling from some dizzying heights in the late '90s. I think he feels like he needs to do something really spectacular and I think he will.

SN: I've always heard that Shane is a really good guy, likes to perform and is sincerely crazy when it comes to what he is willing to do.

MF: (laughs) Yeah, he looks great. Some people remember Shane as being slightly pudgy in the late '90s and he was in his '20s at the time and now he's a 44-year-old man and he's in phenomenal shape. I think, if anything, he'll be a better athlete than he was. He doesn't have the same wear and tear that a guy who had been in there all the time would at 44.

SN: Are you going to be at WrestleMania either as an observer or possibly as a part of the show?

MF: I'll definitely be at the show. I hear rumors that I'll be part of the show. Not to lower anybody's expectations but technically the only year I wasn't part of the show was in 2011. I've been back for three Manias and last year I accompanied our winners to the show. In 2012 I did a thing with Santino and the guys with Deadliest Catch. In 2013, I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, which is a pretty big deal to go out there and receive the acknowledgements from all those people. In '14 I was part of the announce team, the pre- and post- announce team. I guess I'm playing a little role. I'm not exactly sure what it is, though.

SN: Do you see yourself being more active with the WWE, even this year with you wrapping up your comedy shows in just a few days?

MF: Yeah, I've got just a few shows left with Indianapolis my final one on Sunday night. I'm going to take at least the rest of 2016 off and then we'll play it by ear. I'm not doing that with the intention of doing more with WWE but it would be convenient if something opened up that we both were excited about doing. I have expressed interest in maybe playing a small role in creative for the women's division. I think they could use a seasoned veteran with a pretty good world view and a passion for what the women are doing. And I think the women would welcome it.

SN: Where do you feel the women are right now in WWE because you've been such a strong advocate for them? How do you feel they are be used right now?

MF: It's ultimately not how you get there but where you wind up. I think the road since the Divas Revolution has been a little rocky and probably rockier than it needed to be but I think we're on the verge of ending up in a really good place. My hope is that the people who are not interested ? there's some people who are just creatures of habit and for many years, WWE fans kind of learned that there wasn't that much importance placed on the women's match ? and if those people are predisposed to not being excited, I hope they have enough respect to sit back and let the other people enjoy it. I would just hate for a very small percentage of people chanting "boring" to create the illusion that the match isn't interesting. That's happened a few times on "Raw." I really wish for the women that it wouldn't happen and if it doesn't, if the atmosphere is good, I think potentially the women's match could be a show stealer.

SN: We've seen how good these women are in NXT and the reaction they receive there with the understanding that (it's) a smaller audience, but the fan following there is so tight. Then to go to the main roster, there's going to be a transition and an introduction to those fans. We've seen what they're capable of and how good they are. I'm going to be curious about that with Bayley because she's a tremendous performer and the way she connects with the audience but I wonder about her character when it comes to the "Raw" audience and how she translates.

MF: It's going to be very interesting. It could be a Cena-type reaction because I think one of the great things about Bayley is that she will bring in younger people and when that happens there's a tendency for the older, cooler fans to rebel against it. From what's I've seen of Bayley in NXT, those same guys, those rebellious fans, really embrace her. Deep down, everyone is a nerd. We all need the human touch and I think she could be huge and her character really plays well off some of the other established ladies in there. If and when they bring her up, she could be a huge star for a long time. You just have to point to the match that she and Sasha Banks had in Brooklyn to see the magic that was created at Full Sail University in front of four or five hundred people can be extended to 17,000. They told one of the most compelling stories I've ever seen to the point where grown men including veteran wrestlers were wiping tears from their eyes. It was was very touching, beautiful to watch.

SN: Obviously, WrestleMania is coming up and people are getting excited about it. I'm very interested in then seeing what's going to happen after WrestleMania and when this roster gets healthy. You'll have Seth Rollins back and John Cena and Randy Orton and Cesaro and who knows what call-ups from NXT might happen. The depth of talent is going to be pretty amazing. I don't think we've seen this kind of depth for a WWE roster probably in 10 years.

MF: Yeah, I think you're right. You have to go back maybe to the peak of the Attitude Era to see so many good people finding their way character-wise and wrestling-wise. People have really stepped up in the absence of big stars whether it's Shane-O-Mac filling a role, Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler having these great matches. Some people will say "Ah, not those guys again." C'mon, man, you're seeing a great match for free. Go back to the days of when the old WWF was on Channel 9 (in New York) at midnight after horse racing from Yonkers and we'd be lucky to see one good match in four weeks. Now we see them so regularly, we've kind of become immune to it. I think talent is really good. NXT developmental has been incredible helpful and someone like AJ (Styles) going immediately to the main roster is really good for other people who might think I've been working for 15 years, I'm not sure what I'm going to gain from a year or two in developmental.