At the 1999 Royal Rumble, The Rock and Mankind battled for the WWE Championship in an I Quit Match, which is mostly remembered for its physical brutality, death-defying spots, and Mick Foley taking 11 chair shots to the head. The Rock would end up winning the world title after he infamously played a pre-recorded audio clip of Foley’s voice saying “I Quit” on the arena’s sound system while “The Hardcore Legend” was laid out unconscious. Although it created one of the most memorable conclusions to any match throughout the Attitude Era, Foley revealed during a recent interview on “Insight” that the finish of the contest was originally going to be much more emotional.
“The original finish which was supposed to be the camera sees my family crying. I see my family crying and I quit. I don’t want them to do that. Now, if you go through history, it was like within two weeks Triple H did the same thing that I wanted to do with Chyna, but it was just done so quickly. … That was the original idea and my worry was that I’d spent their whole lives telling them that I was just playing and that dad couldn’t be hurt. And I thought they’d come over to the kids, they’d be like reading. I didn’t know they’d crying.”
Despite suffering from 11 chair shots, Foley shared that he remembers the entire match with The Rock and claimed that he’s never lost memory from any of the head injuries that he sustained.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Insight” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
