During his “20 Years of Hell” tour, Mick Foley recalled lying to Vince McMahon before his Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker in 1998.
Mick Foley was choke-slammed by the Undertaker through the top of the cage in their iconic 1998 Hell in a Cell match. Foley landed badly and knocked a tooth loose when a chair hit his face. While recalling his Hell in a Cell match, Foley said,
“It’s literally the match that changed my life, physically and emotionally. I realized I could not continue to do the things I had been doing to connect with audiences. I had to find a different way.”
“Had I gone up there for a walk-through, I would have realized that getting thrown off was a terrible idea”
Foley admitted that the “Hell in a Cell” match changed his life both physically and emotionally. That match was the reason behind the kinder and gentler Mankind he portrayed afterwards. The 2013 Hall of Fame made the decision considering his health.
“It was that that made me finally believe in my own mortality. That cleared the way for a very different Mankind character who feuded with and later teamed with The Rock.”
Mick Foley was asked to climb the “Hell in a Cell” cage before his match to make sure everything went according to p plan. The Hardcore legend had performed several risky moves before. However, this was something he had never tried prior.
Even the Undertaker was worried about Mick’s health and talked about how dangerous the match was. He said he wanted to go down to check whether Mick Foley was breathing or not. The Undertaker relived the 1998 Hell in a cell match with Stone Cold at The Broken Skull Sessions.
After Mick Foley realized he may not be able to perform the stunt: he lied.
Foley realized that he might end up having second thoughts if he climbs the 15-foot cage before the match. This thought led to Mick Foley lying to Vince McMahon about his encounter with the Undertaker. He said,
“I told Mr McMahon two of the biggest lies of my life that day. I told him I had been on top of the cell earlier that afternoon, and I told him that I felt completely comfortable up there. Had I gone up there for a walk-through, there would be no twentieth anniversary because I would have realized that getting thrown off was a terrible idea.”
The passion and fearlessness of Foley and Undertaker gave us one of the best Hell in a Cell matches in the history of WWE.
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