WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley recently spoke with Sky Sports for an interview and spoke at length about his first-ever WWE World Championship victory over The Rock in January of 1999.
“The Hardcore Legend” recalled the infamous segment on WCW Monday Nitro where announcer Tony Schiavone tried to spoil his title victory by revealing that Foley was about to win the WWE Championship on the live Nitro broadcast moments before it aired on the taped RAW broadcast that was airing head-to-head.
“It meant so much to me on a personal level and I think I’m right in saying the fans have voted it the best ever Raw moment,” Foley said. “I’m excited to have been part of so many big matches on Raw. But I saw me as champion as a mistake. I didn’t think it was a good idea. I always thought the challenger should be chasing the champion, and The Rock was a great champion. But it turned out to be the best thing for everybody. We were going up against a massive live WCW show at the Georgia Dome in front of 40,000 people and nobody thought we’d be celebrating a big victory that night.”
Mick Foley went on to talk about how he knew the evening was going to be a memorable one in terms of his own career, but that he didn’t realize that the evening would essentially be the turning point for WWE in their Monday Night Wars against WCW.
“It was not seen as a big moment at the time,” Foley said. “I saw it as a big moment for myself because I’d never dreamed of being champion, but we all thought it had been an exciting conclusion to a good show. We didn’t realize the force of the show until the ratings were revealed the next day.”
Check out the complete Mick Foley interview at SkySports.com.