By Pete Barrington and Sean Favager
I can’t… I feel like a bad dad, and I’ve never felt like that ever before.
“I felt very guilty all of a sudden. Like… really like, uh, you know, my priorities were out of order. I can’t… I feel like a bad dad, and I’ve never felt like that ever before. Right then I just felt like… like… like I was a bad person. And I don’t… I don’t ever want to see my children like that again.” – Mick Foley (After re-watching the footage from Beyond the Mat.)
In 1999 wrestling was a different kettle of fish to what we are watching now. This is often the cause of many arguments between fans all over the globe. It may also be an argument that will never go away “Was wrestling better in the Attitude Era then it is now?”, in my opinion maybe it is because I’m a lot older now but I prefer the Modern Era now. Yes a lot can be changed and maybe mimicked from the Attitude Era but one thing I am glad that is gone away is the sheer brutality of what wrestling was in the years ’97 – ’01. In the midst of the Attitude Era I will admit I enjoyed every second of it, ok maybe not all of it, there were some really bad, bad gimmicks but its entertainment there must be something for everyone. I did have a plan to write a blog titled “Attitude Era vs. the Modern Era!” but that got shelved for the time being because of one match. This one match I will say is probably the most graphic and hard to watch “Beating” the WWF/E has produced. It wasn’t until I was playing WWE 13 I realised how hard to watch this match was. If like me you have played the game you relive the Attitude Era and one of the matches is the now Infamous “I Quit” WWF Championship match between the Rock & Mankind. During that match you have to complete real life challenges one being “Hit Mankind 13 times with a steel chair!”, I laughed at first and just got on with it but it then made me think about this match and I just had to dig it out and rewatch it again.
“No… No… No… No nothing. That son of a bitch will scream I Quit & I’ll be dammed if he doesn’t” – The Rock (During the “I Quit” Match)
If like me you have played the game you relive the Attitude Era and one of the matches is the now Infamous “I Quit” WWF Championship match between the Rock & Mankind.
As this match starts it is your bog standard Attitude hardcore match, with both men going out of there way to destroy each other. It is nothing at the time we were not used to and it only made it more enjoyable as the microphone was introduced. This was a genius idea because during this time The Rock was one of the best to ever touch a microphone. If he wanted you to love him or down right despise him he used that microphone to get the job done. That being said Mick Foley will also go down as being one of the best talkers in the business forever. The way he made you care is why everyone at the time chanted “Foley is God!”, the pair talking and insulting each other telling the other man to quit is a real stand out. Then something happens during this match, in my opinion it loses the term match and just turns into straight “Thuggery!” (thank you JBL). Yes I as well as everyone on planet earth knows wrestling is scripted so before the bout Mick and the Rock briefly bumped heads about their plans on how the match will unfold. One of their ideas involved the Rock handcuffing Mankind’s hands behind his back and to proceed to place a beating. In my understanding the point of this feud was to build the Rock up as the big heel in the company and it was Micks job to make that happen. It made sense because we at that time worshiped the ground Mick Foley walked on, hell even when WCW announced Foley was to win the WWF Championship live on Nitro 600,000 people switched Nitro off for Raw and never looked back. So the plan was to make Rock look strong and in a match where the outcome of Mick Foley even muttering the words “I Quit!” it felt impossible for the Great One to win. We know the outcome now but how they came about with that outcome is what is really hard to watch.
“This has gone too far…. The Rock has taken it too far… Sure there are no rules, sure there’s no DQ, no count-outs but now he is handcuffing a man who is semi-conscious in the middle of the damn ring! Have some human decency Rock…” – Michael Cole (During the “I Quit” Match)
As this match starts it is your bog standard Attitude hardcore match, with both men going out of there way to destroy each other.
I said before the plan for this match was to make Rock a monster bad guy and it did work. WWF was planning to do Stone Cold & the Rock at Wrestlemania 15 so Rocky had to be a believable threat. But somewhere during this match it is as if the Rock becomes this bad guy character for real. A lot of factors have to be taken into account being in the situation they were in and the adrenaline and doing a memorable job are the mains ones I blame for what the Rock did next. After landing a (at the time) Corporate Elbow onto the steel chair which was resting on Micks unprotected face he asked Mankind if he was to quit. The response delayed but through the heavy breathing a pain filled voice replied “go to hell Rock!”. The referee at this time, senior referee Earl Hebner can now be seen pleading with Mick to give it up as Rock utters back my favourite quote in this match “the Rock maybe going to hell, but your Candy Ass is going first…”. Now the Rock starts stalking his prey steel chair in hand as he waits for Mick to get to his feet, slowly but surely he does but not for long as the Rock smacks him in the head with the chair sending Mick to his knees, then winds up connecting again putting him down. As far as unprotected head shots go these two clearly do not look harsh even now. You get the sense the Rock is holding back but none the less they are still going to hurt. As the camera pans in on Micks face, blood pouring down from an open wound on his head the heel commentator Jerry “the King” Lawler shouts out that’s enough as the Rock grabs the microphone once more “Say I Quit!”… breathing even heavier than before Mick responds once again “You’re going to have to kill me!” that is just exactly what I as a fan thought was going to happen. Once again Mankind gets to his feet and once again he is met with that steel chair another three times before crashing to the floor. It is here Mankind rolls out the ring as both Michael Cole & Jerry Lawler are both agreeing that this match should now be stopped as the Rock stalks Mankind connecting with yet another shot to the unprotected skull off Mick Foley.
“Come on Mick… NO… Say I quit Mick… Mick Say it….” – Michael Cole (During the “I Quit” Match)
Breathing even heavier than before Mick responds once again “You’re going to have to kill me!” that is just exactly what I as a fan thought was going to happen.
What really stands out here is the fact Mick Foley is offering the Rock a clear shot to his back. It is obvious the seven chair shots to the head are really starting to take their toll and the rapid succession they are arriving in too. The way Mick is trying to move his head out the way is on plan view but yet again the Rock takes aim and connects with an even harder shot then before. Watching this part now is quite disturbing as a handcuffed Mick Foley now slowly tries to walk away from the Rock who yet again hurls that chair harder and faster at Micks head two more times. All the while the Rock screams down the microphone “Say I Quit!” with Earl Hebner following begging the Rock to pack it in. Mick manages to get a tiny bit more distance turning his back to the Rock but it last for a couple of seconds as the Rock with all the power he has swings and blasts Mick in the back of the head with one of the worst chair shots I have ever seen in my life and hopefully never have to see happen in a wrestling ring again. It is this final chair shot, this eleventh chair shot to the unprotected head of Mick Foley that sends him crashing down to the concrete floor knocking him unconscious. The Rock finally throws the chair down and asks Mankind once again to utter the words “I Quit” shoving the microphone into the knocked out Foley finally the match is stopped as Mick screams “I Quit!” which we would find out on Raw the next night was a tape recording. Finally this mugging, this hideous beating was over. Rock left WWF Champion, Mankind left a bloody mess.
“Now the Rock guaran-damn-teed to the millions & millions of the Rocks fans that he was going to make that son of a bitch scream I quit… Mankind your monkey ass says I Quit…” – The Rock (During the “I Quit” Match)
The Rock finally throws the chair down and asks Mankind once again to utter the words “I Quit” shoving the microphone into the knocked out Foley finally the match is stopped as Mick screams “I Quit!”
Now if you have seen the documentary Beyond the Mat you will have another view of this match and that is of Mick Foleys wife & children at ringside in tears watching their husband & father getting beating to a bloody pulp. It is extremely hard to watch, yes we know wrestling is fake and scripted but how do you fake unprotected chair shots to the skull? Also if you have ever read Mick Foleys second autobiography “Foley is Good” he goes on to talk about this match and how he wasn’t best pleased with that many chair shots the Rock dished out. Apparently the Rock was only meant to deliver four or five yet he proceeded to attack eleven times, each shot harder than the last. Was the Rock caught up in the moment? In 1999 he was still though being a third generation superstar new to the main event scene so maybe that was to blame. That doesn’t account for the fact the Rock never went to check up on Mick once the match was finished. It was Mick who went to go find the Rock to see if he was ok. The two have patched things up since then but a short while after Mick wasn’t a huge fan of the Rock as a person for this. Taking the time out to read into this match leads me to believe why Vince McMahon never stopped it earlier because as soon as Mick rolls out of the ring with Rock following him it stops being a wrestling match. It straight turns into an attack on a defenceless man. I understand a lot of people will question Mick being crazy and being able to take a huge amount of pain (see King of the Ring 98 for an example) but even Mick can be seen in actual pain with these chair shots. I am glad wrestling has moved on from this hardcore time to where it is now. This Modern Era, yes it is PG but all that means is you have to rely on a lot more then bloody beat downs and chair shots to get over. You have to focus on what you can bring skill wise into the squared circle. You take a look at Dolph Ziggler for example and CM Punk. These are two guys who are really working their asses off without bleeding or swearing. Times change for the better and a chair shot to the head being illegal is a better thing. The “I Quit” match between the Rock & Mankind will forever go down as an infamous match, yes it tells a terrific story about the hardcore legend who refuses to die and the up-and-coming trash talking, arrogant bad guy who is hell bent on making him do just that. This match drags you in from the get go and then leaves you disturbed by the outcome. Should it have been booked better? I’d say yes but it happened 14 years ago and what was acceptable then is completely different now…..
You can follow Sean on Twitter at @seanfav1 and Pete on Twitter at @pete_the_red or catch them on their official wRasslin twitter account at @wRasslinAsylum
Posted on February 17th, 2013
Category: NEWS & VIEWS, THE WRASSLIN’ ASYLUM
Tags: I quit match, Mankind, Mick Foley, Royal Rumble 1999, Sean Favager, The Rock, Wrasslin Asylum