Mick Foley Chucked Off Hell in the Cell 14 Years On

“With that one move, everything I had accomplished in my 13 years of wrestling had instantly become obsolete.”- Mick Foley from his ‘Greatest Hits and Misses’ DVD.

_________________________________________________

This article you’re reading today is conjured up on the 14th anniversary of the most infamous match in WWE history.

It occurred at the 1998 King of the Ring at The Igloo in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Mick Foley as Mankind took on The Undertaker inside and outside of Hell in the Cell.

It’s one of those matches that most everyone loves because of the sheer bravery put forth by both men. Not just Foley, but both men.

And to think, this match shouldn’t have happened in the first place…

_________________________________________________

In his initial autobiography ‘Have a Nice Day’, Foley described the events leading up to KOTR 1998 in great detail.

If you don’t own the book, then you MUST purchase this.

For the rest of you, this will be a summary of how this all played out.

_________________________________________________

Mick was led to believe that his hot program with Steve Austin would continue on another month. It was supposed to be Austin fighting Foley inside the Cell with Mick being the Dude Love alter-ego.

A booking change led to Mickster getting a ring on the telephone. Instead of Foley getting another crack at Austin, it would be Kane getting the nod in a First Blood encounter. As a consolation prize, Mankind would face Undertaker.

Again.

Mick had numerous programs with Undertaker by this point, with as many matches on PPV to show for it. To Foley, this seemed like a rehash of an already past due occurrence. Add in Undertaker’s unhealed broken foot, and there was even more dread abound.

Foley in addition had the unfortunate luck to have Terry Funk as his travelling buddy. In a brainstorm of what to do in order to top the magnificent HBK/Taker match from the year before (read the recap of that sucker here), Funk gave Foley the idea to be chucked off the Cell.

Even Undertaker didn’t want to do this!!!

However, when the time came to calling, Undertaker and his broken foot scaled that Cell faster than the slowest man in Ward Melville High School.

In this opening sequence, a DANGEROUS piece of foreshadowing occurred as while walking on top of the Cell, both men nearly fell through because the ceiling gave. This got a loud gasp in Pittsburgh. None the wiser, both men went on truckin’.

_________________________________________________

“What’s gonna happen here?”

“Undertaker’s fightin’ back, he’s fightin’ back! No doubt about it folks, and I don’t like it a damn bit!”

Jim Ross, with that as his expository, then utters the greatest call in wrestling history as Mick Foley made his leap of faith.

“GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, THAT KILLED HIM! WITH GOD AS MY WITNESS, HE IS BROKEN IN HALF!”

The Igloo is hot with excitement, then went cold as ice when they realize, “Gee, the guy isn’t moving!”

It takes a while before Mankind’s wheels start to turn again. Meanwhile the crazy monster wants to go back up!

AND SO HE DOES!

Undertaker is more than happy to deliver some more punishment.

Only this time, the crescendo of this tightrope action leads to a climax of a chokeslam…

THROUGH THE FUCKING CAGE!

“WILL SOMEONE STOP THE DAMN MATCH,” cries Ross, who may or may not have suffered multiple heart attacks.

Terry Funk, as Terry Funk (and not Chainsaw Charlie), comes down to try to end this, but Undertaker chokes the Funker right out of his sneakers!

From this point on, everything else feels supplementary.

Undertaker blades, and this is hardly a footnote in this damn match.

Mankind gets a shiny present in the form of multiple thumbtack drops, but even THAT doesn’t deliver the initial shock value those two big bumps did.

Undertaker Tombstones Mankind into the canvas, and wins the war. Not a match or wrestling contest, but a WAR!

This is a match EVERYONE knows of and remembers. The shock value alone ranks it up there, but then the gall of these two to plow through the match with more injuries than multiple foreign disputes is a miracle in and of itself.

Leaving here today, I just want to thank Mick Foley and Undertaker for putting on a show that no one shall never dare to duplicate. It truly left a mark on this business, a mark that will never be touched.

Now for a moment of zen: the new Hall of Famer with the blogger himself!

 

Technorati Tags: wwe,wwf,attitude era,king of the ring,undertaker,mick foley,mankind,terry funk,jim ross,14 years on,wrestling,sports entertainment,the igloo,pittsburgh,pennsylvania,professional wrestling,marks,freakin' awesome network,bruce springsteen,staind

That Crippling Crossface: Chris Benoit Five Years On

 

 

 

 

Notice there's no picture here. There won't be any YouTube videos or other miscellany links. There's nothing to celebrate or make fun of in this what is sure to be somber blog post.

Instead of making a passé entry on what happened, I'll take you on a journey of my life through a five day span. Starting on June 22nd, 2007, and ending on the 26^th, you'll see how this unspeakable tragedy unfolded as if this was a horrible remake of 'Ragtime'.

June 22^nd: Finally, this day was my HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION! Conquering through special education to ending up being a regular mainstream student, I received my New York Regents diploma. With dress rehearsals starting at nine in the morning, the ceremony at 6, and then the all-night graduation party, damn am I tired! Sadly the footage is lost, but there is a frame on the video my parents recorded of a house principal doing a face palm as my diploma was accepted. I think the guy had a headache, but the proof is in the pudding!

June 23^rd: I'm getting ready to go. NHRA's in town for the annual extravaganza at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. What a better way to celebrate being done with school than going to see 7,000 horsepower freaks of nature burn some rubber on a drag strip?

June 24^th: Yee-haw, just got home from the festivities! Not that hot of a day, and it was pretty damn fast. Don Prudhomme scored two wins in Larry Dixon (Top Fuel) and Tommy Johnson Jr. (Funny Car), while Andrew Hines won Pro Stock Motorcycle, and Greg Anderson shook off 'The Curse”* to win Pro Stock Car. Juan Montoya won the Cup race out in Sonoma, a nice little surprise. Wait, a Dodge winning a fuel mileage race? THAT'S GARBAGE!

(Goes to lordsofpain.net. I's want to know backstage newz dammit!)

Um.... what in the living hell?

Chris Benoit isn't at the Vengeance (ahem, Night of Champions) event? They say it's a family emergency, so it's gotta be just a one night absence, right?!?!?!?

Johnny Nitro has been named as Benoit's substitute against CM Punk for the ECW Championship. Nitro won the championship, but that's not the big story. That would be: what happened to Benoit and/or his family?

June 25^th: Haven't heard any new rumors yet this particular morning, I think thankfully. Tonight's RAW is supposed to be about who blew up Vince's limo. 3 hours in length, oh boy is THIS gonna suck. June of 2007 wasn't a good month at all to be a wrestling fan, as every PPV and TV show between WWE and TNA has been drizzling shits so far.

Around 4PMish, I pop the Chris Benoit DVD into my brand new laptop, a Toshiba Satellite A205-S4577. It's the fifth or sixth time I watched this documentary in total, mainly because it's a feel good story about a kid who overcame the odds to make his dreams come true...

5:00PM Lordsofpain.net confirmed it.

Then WWE.com confirmed it.

I told my sister who had started work at IBM that day, and she was dumbfounded. That's not a word to describe her at all.

“CHRIS BENOIT DEAD AT 38”

I was steadfast in silence, as I started to read the details.

Nancy and Daniel, wife and son of the grappler, were also found deceased.

In a stunning turn of events, everyone who had tickets for the night's RAW had been turned away. The opening segment of RAW saw Vince, in uncomfortably casual attire, standing dead center of the ring explaining how tonight should have been centered on his 'demise'. Instead, it will be a tribute show to someone who has actually passed on. Since this was a 3 hour RAW, the program started at 8 PM on the East Coast.

As 9:30 rolled around, disturbing details came in about the crime scene. Apparently, it was figured out that Chris killed Daniel, Nancy, then himself. Since the show was already balls deep into the airwaves, WWE didn't have time to yank or apologize for the images. This wasn't the first time WWE had bad timing concerning programming, as an angle with Muhammad Hassan and Undertaker in 2005 aired the same day as the London bombings. Just 3 days before that monstrosity of a Great American Bash...

I digress.

I had the unfortunate responsibility of posting a new thread in the WrestleCrap forums, under the sub-forum 'ASK RD (Reynolds) & BLADE (Braxton)”. It roared to nine pages within a couple of hours. Then the forum moderator, Madison Carter, made probably the smartest move that night of shutting down the whole works temporarily. That being said, I thought at the time to sleep it off, thinking I misread something.

June 26^th: The shit hit the fan.

Every media outlet, from CBS to CNN, from FOX to FOX NEWS, and from NBC to MS(C)NBC had this story as a top-leading headline. “PRO WRESTLER KILLED HIS FAMILY”. Professional Wrestling as a whole was coming under attack during this media hailstorm. Nancy Grace wanted the WWE as a company dead, and so did many others.

Hell, I even questioned my loyalty as a fan. The programming shown lately was atrocious, and quite frankly, this may have been the final straw. A grizzly scene, and worse yet, a grim prognosis for the WWE.

While more angles to the murders were drawn out (like the texts to Chavo Guerrero and the fact that the murders happened on Saturday), it seemed as if WWE was getting blasted from all angles. Some rightfully so, and some not rightfully so.

Chris, from what I have gathered, is that one guy who would perform through crippling endeavors. He had sustained concussion after concussion, but kept on trucking. After his autopsy, it was revealed that Benoit's brain was so badly deteriorated that it resembled an 81 year old man instead of a healthy nearly-40-year-old man he was.

The DVD I had playing in my laptop the day before? Every copy from every retailer was ordered to be yanked, and destroyed. Suddenly, a DVD not worth more than $19 brand new now commands three or four times the price.

Insanity was at a fever pitch, and wrestling as a whole has not still, and never will, recover from this.

_________________________________________________

Like terrorist attacks or major political shenanigans, this is one of those events where everyone knew where they were when they found out.

As a young man who graduated high school looking forward to the rest of his life, this was an extremely shaky way to start. It seemed like one of the few things I truly loved was under attack, and it was up to me to decide to say, “Should I stay or should I go?”

Time went on, and I stuck with it.

WWE was in a badly dark spot at this point. When you combine multiple injured big stars with the Benoit atrocities, the ratings plummeted and the faith in the company as a whole plunged almost as bad as a stock market crash.

I wanted to see WWE come out on the other end though, and by the time the 2008 Royal Rumble rolled around, I was seemingly convinced that WWE had overcome some of its demons.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this piece of literature. This was some sad therapy.

*: 'The Curse'. When I first when to E-Town in 2003, Greg Anderson was one of the first people I met. I took a picture with him, my then fourteen year-old self towered over this guy. Anderson, in Superman mode at the time, won a lot of races in 2003, but went out first round at that event from the first seed!

Technorati Tags: wwe,ecw,wcw,professional wrestling,sports entertainment,blog,bad booking,graduation,nhra,drag racing,englishtown,vengeance,night of champions,cm punk,chris benoit,johnny nitro,raw,smackdown,undertaker,muhammad hassan,murder,death,concussion,injury,news,news channel,fox,nbc,cbs,cnn,wrestlecrap,freakin' awesome network,five years on,toshiba,dvd,regret,decision,greg anderson,tommy johnson jr,larry dixon,andrew hines

Will ‘The Viper’ RKO Himself out of the WWE?

Randy Orton was suspended for 60 days as he violated the WWE’s Wellness Policy for a second time.

At the time of the drug test, he was found to have marijuana and Dianabol in his system. While marijuana only enforces a $2,500 fine under ‘Wellness’, Dianabol is a controlled substance banned by the United States Congress.

Orton is no stranger to being in trouble with the WWE.

A well-known muckraker backstage, Orton has been suspended many times in his tenure with the promotion.

One instance in 2006 saw him suspended for behavioral/drug problems. He was written out at the time by having him stay in Kurt Angle’s Angle Lock a big too long.

Another instance in 2007 saw Orton trash a hotel room during an overseas tour. Orton was sent home early from that tour. He also worked the next little while without pay.

Orton would also suffer his first strike with ‘Wellness’ that year by his involvement in the Signature Pharmacy scandal. As you may recall, Signature was an online pharmaceutical that distributed illegal anabolic steroids amongst other drugs to clients via the mail. Orton was one amongst many names leaked in the investigation.

This current suspension however is a very uncomfortable time for both WWE and Orton.

With the suspension, WWE is temporarily losing one of their biggest draws. On a roster thin of main event talent, this will allow somewhat-lower tier superstars to step up. The problem is that Orton is a big enough name where if the man was advertised, and he didn’t show up (even if the subject to change clause was enforced), refunds would be handed out. This happened with John Cena just over a year ago when he was injured for a short time, and many people walked out on Live events due to this inability to appear.

For Orton, it’s another in a long list of setbacks. After his first ‘Wellness’ violation, it seemed as if Orton was finally getting his act together. He had won multiple world championships with the organization, headlined Wrestlemania multiple times, and is even one of the more respected veterans in the locker room. In addition, Orton will not be paid during this down time, which has to affect his family back at home.

With news coming out about Orton’s future in the WWE being in jeopardy, it must be noted that this is the absolute definition of ‘a rock and a hard place’.

Randy is a top-drawing superstar in the WWE wherever they go. He consistently puts on top-tier matches, and gets the reactions to match. WWE on the other hand can’t trust a man who not only has had issues in the past, but only has one more strike until he is released per policy.

What do you think of this ‘venomous’ issue? Do you think Orton is done with WWE, or will he come back as if nothing ever happened? Comment below, or even bring the talk to Twitter or Facebook!

Technorati Tags: wwe,randy orton,professional wrestling,sports entertainment,world wrestling entertainment,wellness policy,violation,rko,viper,apex predator,wrestlemania,marijuana,dianabol,live,smackdown,raw,twitter,facebook,suspension,termination,voices in his head,cheese souffle