Mick Foley knows a thing or two about exploding barbed wire death matches.
“The Hardcore Legend” competed in one of the brutal bouts many years before Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley introduced the stipulation to a new audience at AEW Revolution.
During an appearance on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox, Foley described how his explosive match with Terry Funk included a similar botch as the infamous spot that concluded the AEW Revolution pay-per-view. Foley also recalled how, once the supposed explosion didn’t pan out, he and Funk tried to deliver a match that would satiate the fans’ thirst for violence.
“FMW had done an exploding ring on two different occasions,” said Foley. “And my goodness, it was really convincing. For someone to live through it and continue a wrestling match…. And there was, I think on both occasions there was that dramatic scene where the opponent would be covering his opponent that night, and there was a feeling of mutual respect because of what they had gone through. So that’s what Terry Funk and I are expecting, although on this occasion I bailed out of the ring to leave Terry alone.”
“[When it was time for the explosion,] everyone covered their ears, and we witnessed what appeared to be four Roman candles, one in each corner, going “woosh.” And people had been expecting this phenomenal explosion. And the words Terry said to me [were], ‘We better get them back.’ And at that point, the injuries starting piling up. We were calling stuff on the fly, and it resulted in 14 stitches, almost the loss of my left ear.”
Though the two matches took different approaches to the anticlimactic explosion, Foley expressed his sympathy for Omega and Moxley, two stars who did everything they could to deliver a great main event.
“So I did feel for those guys when things did not go their way,” Foley explained. “Sometimes things are out of your control. And I know people will look back on that match and pan it, even though the guys did everything possible to make it memorable during the part of the match that they had control over.”
The full interview is available here:
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