By: Thom Fain
This interview with Mick Foley about his time in Japan all started organically: friend (and MP contributor) Ciarán Hayward elicited a response from Foley on Twitter about his match versus the incomparable Toshiaki Kawada in the now-defunct HUSTLE promotion in Japan. As luck would have it, Foley let me in on scoring “Bill Goldberg Money” on a bum knee in ’04 – right after a brutal, brutal match at Backlash versus Randy Orton.
I arrived in Japan for this match in a wheelchair, and left Japan in a wheelchair – but I did the match!
This was my last appearance in Japan – 17 years ago, today.
I’d love to go back to Japan for a convention sometime. https://t.co/FUc22Pv18R
— Mick Foley (@foleyispod) May 8, 2021
So, we’ve got some extra details for you.
“The King of Hardcore” was kind enough to use some downtime between comedy acts for his 2021 Nice Day Tour in order to relive some memories wrestling with The Four Pillars of All Japan, and much much more. Edited only for clarity, here’s what Mick Foley had to say about wrestling in Japan.
Monthly Puroresu:
Let’s get started! So, you’re clearly still invested in the industry and younger talents – has anybody coming up over in Japan especially caught your eye?
Mick Foley:
Oh man, I have to be honest. I have not had my finger on the pulse of the Japanese wrestling scene in a number of years – I think I watched as much Japanese wrestling as you’re allotted in a lifetime over the course of, like, a 5-year period between 1987 and probably 1991. There were times I would spend 12 hours a day just watching Japanese wrestling on a 13″ TV + VCR combo. I was eager to find anything I could! I enjoyed the matches, and I was looking for maybe one or two moves I could pick up.
Monthly Puroresu:
And you did! You ended up doing that. Before all the crazy bumps in WCW that got people talking about Mick Foley, and getting thrown into a brown jumpsuit by an unconvinced Vince McMahon, you were wrestling in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW)! Do you have any highlight memories from that time in early ’90s AJPW?
Mick Foley:
Yeah, well, unfortunately there was a low light for me injuring Johnny Ace. And after roughing up Ace, I was kind of walking on eggshells for the last half of that tour in All Japan back in 1991. (Editor’s Note: Johnny Ace [John Laurinaitis] would be a future coach of Kenny Omega in Deep South, eventually steering him to Japan).
Monthly Puroresu:
Oh, no. How did it happen?
Mick Foley:
I think I dislocated his elbow doing a move off the second rope. I went to for a back suplex – I think Johnny Ace was going for a moonsault, and I knocked him down, then went for a back suplex off-the-second rope. But he reversed into a cross body, and I had my chin so tightly clamped in preparation for the bump that he couldn’t get his arm out of there. And so, the last half of the AJPW tour, my main concern was not hurting anybody.
Mick Foley:
So, that was a lowlight. I’d say the highlight for me was working in a tag match with Stan Hansen at Korakuen Hall, I think on the final day of the tour. It was the day after the Budokan. And, man, Stan liked me. He saw something in me, and I kicked out of everything in the match, except for the big clothesline. And, so it was his own way of making me look good to the media and sounding off a little alarm that I was somebody people should keep their eye on.
Monthly Puroresu:
Amazing! And that it happened in Korakuen Hall, a place with such a rich legacy. Can you tell us about wrestling in Korakuen Hall? And, while we’re at it, can you recall your first encounter with Toshiaki Kawada?
Mick Foley:
I was lucky! I mean, those were the GUYS. That core group of All Japan wrestlers who kind of held down the fort after so many people left for NOAH. And, so AJPW was left with no other recourse but to elevate those guys [The Four Pillars] probably quicker than they would have. And, they all rose to the occasion. So Kawada and Misawa and Kobashi – and, I’m going to say Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, even though he wasn’t really a top guy. And, Jumbo Tsuruta was still healthy and he was having amazing matches. So, it was really a great time to be a fan and a chance to wrestle every one of those guys – with the exception of maybe Misawa, I wrestled every other top name.
Monthly Puroresu:
It’s always amazing for us fans who grew up on WWF to remember these amazing matches you had in ‘96, ‘97, and then think only a few years before you’re kind of cutting your teeth or learning things in Japan. But during that time, were there any guys in particular who made an impact on you – the Four Pillars – or, any of those who wore the AJPW Triple Crown Championship and made it special?
Mick Foley:
Well, all of those guys were great wrestlers, I think for the most part, I was not in a situation where I could even see my opponent before the show, even TV. You know, I didn’t even see Jumbo Tsuruta before we did the TV match. So for instance, I ended up sending out an idea through a referee who really liked it. And, he liked my idea, but it ended up breaking three of my ribs! I still worked, but I wore a flack jacket for awhile. Even when I got to WCW in September of 1991, I still kept my ribs wrapped – which we know now is a terrible thing for them. It can really bring out pneumonia because your lungs are expanding! But, that was the science of the day was that you kept them wrapped to try to encourage the healing of the bones.
Monthly Puroresu:
Of course, the ribs would not stop your legendary career in the WWF and WWE, and little less so WCW. Sonny Onoo told me that Eric Bischoff hated to have to let you go, you were well liked. But anyhow you faced Kawada in ’91, but let’s fast forward to that second time in 2004. You mentioned to our friend Ciarán that you rolled into match in a wheelchair, and rolled out of the match in a wheelchair! What was that like, wrestling in that condition… compared to your first match versus Kawada in 1991?
Mick Foley:
So, in ’91 in the Champion Carnival, it was a house show. I don’t think I spoke to him or saw him before the match. I think it was a solid match, but probably nothing to write home about. The second time around, I had just finished my Backlash match with Randy Orton in May of 2004. And a day or two later I was with my youngest back at home, he had been hospitalized with dehydration when I wrestled Randy. So, it was probably three days later and I was watching him play, went to stand up and I just couldn’t – something snapped that had been holding on by a thread, in my knee. One of my ligaments just, you know, completely tore. And I could not stand.
Mick Foley:
I told my manager about it. And, he called me back a few days later and he said, how’s that knee man? I said, look it’s pretty bad. He said, ‘Can you stand?’ I said, ‘No.’ And he said… Look, Bill Goldberg got hurt and he can’t make his show for HUSTLE in Japan and I think I can get you Bill Goldberg money. My ears perked up and I said, ‘Barry, I might not be able to walk – but I’ll get in that ring and wrestle.’ And that’s essentially what I did, I had some kind of numbing agent or shot that no doubt wasn’t good for me. And yeah, I wasn’t able to, I still wasn’t able to walk when I got to Japan.
Monthly Puroresu:
Did you hear what made you second in line behind Goldberg? Like what made you like the next guy?
Mick Foley:
Bill and I were both represented by Barry Bloom, and he said to the booker ‘What about Cactus Jack, Mick Foley?’ And, I guess they thought highly enough of me to give me the same money. I just had to figure out a way that I could stand up and you know, not embarrass myself. You’re not shooting for the moon when that’s your goal. I just wanted to be able to stand up and not embarrass myself, that was my goal when I got to Japan in ’04.
Monthly Puroresu:
And what do you remember of that match? So what, you get the shot in your knee, just hit your knee a few times with your fist – like maybe pull a Mankind and beat on it a little bit?
Mick Foley:
It wasn’t going to make Kawada’s greatest hits DVD or mine, but I thought it was pretty solid. He had a style at that time. Kawada always worked a very realistic style. Later on in HUSTLE, I think he lightened up a lot to the point where he became a character. But at that point there was nothing you did with him that involved hitting the ropes. It all was based in a very realistic style. Kicks were really hard. I just couldn’t do much. I never had big offense. I never had great offensive moves anyway. And that’s kind of a drawback when you’re in Japan and it’s not a death match type of environment. I attempted to sneak a barbwire bat in! I basically did what I had to do to get through the match.
Monthly Puroresu:
Speaking of barbed wire bats, Atsushi Onita is reviving FMW, another Japanese promotion you wrestled for. What are your thoughts of the old FMW and what do you think about him bringing the company back in 2021?
Mick Foley:
This is my first time hearing of it. I only wrestled two matches for FMW; I wrestled at two of the anniversary shows – one against W*ING Kanemura, and then one in 10-man tag team match that Onita and Terry Funk and others were involved in. I liked it. I enjoyed being over there, wrestling Kanemura. I enjoyed having that chance to work with Onita, and I really appreciated WWE on consecutive years letting me go over there. You know, they didn’t need to do that as I was under contract at that time. And so that was nice.
Monthly Puroresu:
And back to Kawada, how stiff are those kicks? Do you remember?
Mick Foley:
Yeah. He brought the kicks no question about it. I remember yelling “no problem” in Japanese! Actually – it was a big problem because I wasn’t in a position where I could do very much at all. Not to belabor the point, but my goal was just to get out of there, in one piece without embarrassing myself.
Monthly Puroresu:
One thing you did do is pull out… Mr. Socko. Were you surprised that the overseas crowd recognized that spot and appreciated it?
Mick Foley:
Yeah! I think over the years, to the Japanese wrestling fans, on the one hand, I’m still “The King of the Deathmatch” over there. On the other hand, I think they recognize me as a big part of the Attitude Era. And so they were definitely familiar with Mr. Socko.
Monthly Puroresu:
And you nailed “The Holy Emperor” Taichi with your barbed wire bat! I know you haven’t watched a whole lot of Japanese wrestling recently, but this was the young guy who was in Kawada’s corner during that match. And he’s now a pretty big deal in New Japan. Do you remember what it was like working with a young Taichi, and have you seen any of his recent work at all?
Mick Foley:
I wasn’t even aware that he had gone on to do so well. I believe I knew him previously. I don’t know where?
Monthly Puroresu:
You hit him with the bat and he said “one day, one day.” He did end up making a good deal out of himself there. And he’s up there with upper midcard and fighting for the IC title. So I was just wondering if you remembered that. Because he was pretty young. He’s about 40 now.
Mick Foley:
I always went out of my way to be really good to the young boys. There were a few guys who went on to become big stars who would tell you that I was pretty good to them. One of those guys… Oh man! He went on to do really well as a great character, but for some reason I can’t remember his name now. But, he really enjoyed that I would work him into my matches, especially at the house shows. There was a guy named Tortuga, I got a kick out of him to the point where we did twin magic! It’s as ridiculous as it sounds. So, yeah, I always enjoyed incorporating the younger guys into my matches.
https://twitter.com/judekilgour/status/939220831422599170
Monthly Puroresu:
That’s what it’s all about! It was 2004, and that HUSTLE – I don’t think they were around much past that. They went on a few years after that.
Mick Foley:
Right, right… Monster was a group in HUSTLE.
Monthly Puroresu:
HUSTLE was the name of the promotion, only around until about 2009. They did some of the shoot wrestling, some of the realistic stuff – but they also had a lot of sports-entertainment oriented stuff. Fumi Saito told me their promotion wasn’t run so very well, it was by some MMA businesspeople, so it folded. Anyhow, puroresu fans have called your last match in Japan with Kawada a hidden gem. Have you gone back and watched it?
Mick Foley:
No! I very rarely watch anything I did anyway. I’ve seen a couple of highlights. I saw a one minute video package online, and I mean I thought it looked pretty good. I’m of the belief that it was a pretty good match – and I don’t want to watch anything that would prove otherwise.
Monthly Puroresu:
Last question, if you could wrestle anyone in a Japanese ring today – if you were in ring shape – who would you pick and why?
Mick Foley:
Oh man. I wish I knew more of the top names over there now. But, I think I could have a great match with Kazuchika Okada.
Monthly Puroresu:
Rainmaker Okada’s definitely a transcendent talent, and would be my choice as well. Anyhow I wanted to thank you for everything you do for the fans, for inspiring us, and for giving us a glimpse into Mick Foley’s career in Japan.
Mick Foley:
You’re very welcome. And have a nice day!
Date:
September 6, 2021
