Rock/Foley Royal Rumble

You might be interested in watching Beyond the Mat (if you haven't already). That match took place while Foley was being filmed for the documentary so it has behind the scenes footage and comments regarding the Royal Rumble match from Mick.

Be warned, the documentary pulls no punches and can be quite depressing if you don't want to see the human failings of our in ring heroes.

It was something along the lines of they agreed on 4 chairshots to the head, but Rock kept on hitting him and tallied up 9 total shots. Brutal.

And in Mick's book, he indeed confirms that in the locker room area the Rock was nowhere to be found and didn't come and apologise after the match. Foley was quite upset by this because he considered them great friends at that point. Apparently the Rock did apologise to him a few months later and acknowledged he should have done so straight away.

It's one of the few matches that I can't sit through. It's pure brutality, no idea what was going through Rocky's head that night.

If I remember correctly, the whole scenario was supposed to be 4 chair shots total, with the idea being they would be brutal, but the anticipation would be even more brutal between each shot, with a few minutes between each to build the tension, and the original ending was Foley to be given the last one in front of his wife and kids at ringside, where upon seeing their distress and pain he would finally say "I Quit". However, they got told the day of the event that they had to drop that ending because USA Network was coming down hard on them about violence, and a guy getting smashed in the head in front of his kids would be bad for relaions, so Foley and Russo came up with the ending we got with the taped words being played.

Problem was, both guys went off script. Foley said the first chair shot hurt him more than expected, and when he was met with a 2nd one mere seconds later rather than the agreed upon couple minutes, he got pissed, and went "into the zone" where the Rock legitimately hurt him, and in his pissed off state he started daring the Rock to try and hurt him again, which Rocky unfortunately was willing to oblige. At that point the match got completely out of hand, with both guys forgetting they were Mick Foley and Dwayne Johnson, and went total kayfabe and were Mankind and The Rock for real. Even the ending was a bit botched, as Foley said he had enough, and gave Rock the agreed-upon non-verbal cue to end the match with a shot to the back of the head by standing in the aisle and leaning over with his back to the Rock. Instead, Rocky walked around Foley and gave him another shot to the face, before finally giving Mankind the knock out blow to the back of the head.

Foley did say in his book that everyone came to check on him but Rocky, and it was a bone of contention for awhile, as rather than confront The Rock, Foley didn't say anything and let it fester in him for awhile. When they finally hashed it out, Rocky's excuse was he was new to being a heel, and didn't know what to do and was worried it would reflect badly on his heel character if he checked on him. Which I find an utterly BS excuse. First off, rocky was a heel for a long time before his Corporate Champ run. Secondly, he was in the business for years at that point, he knew the proper protocols and how the boys dealt with each other. Personally, I think The Rock at that point was too full of himself, and felt it was "below" him somehow to come and apologize to Mick. It's the only thing that makes sense, because the only other options are he was stupid and didn't pay attention to any of the wrestler's codes of conduct, or he didn't care about them .

Jesus, I never heard this detailed version of it. Just always heard Rock never apologized. I'm honestly surprised Mick was able to hold in that aggression for so long and Rock not apologizing for going off script. Like Joker stated, Austin reprimanding him was the right call, not only as the top guy, but as a friend to Mick for so many years. I don't know how anyone was able to sit backstage and let this fester for so long. Vince was out to check on Mick at the King of the Ring in 98 after the fall. But dozen chair shots didn't bring anyone out during the match to stop it.

I literally just watched that part of the documentary, and Rock did NOT come to check on him. He got a standing ovation from some of the boys, Droz came to check on him, Vince was concerned when they met, but that was it. Foley and Rocky were talking for a bit backstage BEFORE the match, but Rock made no appearances after the match.

How did Austin reprimand the Rock?

I never knew this...I was astonished that the 'This Is Your Life' segment was in essence a long-winded gag, again with no real payoff...

yep, you're right! for some reason, the full length movie on Youtube that I watched actually omits this scene. It goes from Foley laying there to walking in and talking to Vince in his office. So, I apologize. He did say in the chapter covering the match though that one guy who didn't come in and see him was The Rock. Only thing I can think of then is that he meant the Rock didn't physically come and see him while he was getting patched up, as much as it was they ran into each other in the hallway?


EDIT - okay, I found out, this scene wasn't part of the original release, Foley and Rock in the hallway, but was later put in the extended, unrated director's cut DVD. That's why I never saw it before. Again, weird Foley says the Rock never came and talked to him, unless like I said he means that he didn't come to the room after the match when he was getting sewn up.