During the latest “Foley is Pod” podcast on AdFreeShows.com, WWE Hall of Famer Foley said wrestlers need to take out high risks like the German suplex.
“I’ll probably take some criticism for this being the guy who did a lot of risky stuff, but you noticed there’s no scar on my neck. You would think I would have been one of the first guys that would be in line for that surgery. I did not let people throw me backwards very often. There would be a time a guy like Rick Steiner would throw me, whether or not I wanted to go, but I generally had a plan B. I don’t like German suplexes. I think that over time, they shorten careers and they destroy the quality of life, so people can attack me for that. Over time, it’s gonna wear you out.”
“You couldn’t show the match that [Daniel] Garcia had with [Wheeler] Yuta to any reasonable orthopedic guy who would say that what those guys were doing was not going to lend itself to a poor quality of life. I just think there’s things we can create with illusions. That back suplex, it used to be a back suplex, now it’s a German suplex, I would jump up out of my easy chair when I was watching All Japan wrestling when I would see Dr. Death. I asked Doc and he said, ‘Brother, they’re lining up to take it in Japan. They wanted to take it. Each one wants to take it successively higher. In that case, I’m seeing the full arm go up. But this is like alright, here’s the Foley block of the chair, boom, and you know what? If I don’t get the four fingers up there in time, I’m going to take a heck of a jolt, it’s gonna cause a concussion, but it’s not going to paralyze me. Whereas this, if you don’t do everything right, I just can’t see those things being good for long term health, and not everybody’s going to make a lot of money.”
“These guys are great workers. I just think they could do without that move. I remember taking a beating when I said, Man, I hated seeing Sasha Banks doing the tope because it was the one move that seemed to lend itself to injury almost every time she was doing it. It’s like, take it off the menu. Here’s one of the most astonishing workers of our generation. You don’t need that. You do not need that. If you think you need a dive, come up with something that’s not going to have the boys and men and women jumping out of their chairs.”
“As crazy as it sounds being the guy that took all that stuff, I don’t want to see any of us in wheelchairs. I don’t want to see any of us needing long-term care and petitioning Cauliflower Alley Club for quality of life care. There’s just other ways around it. And for God’s sake, lighten up on the forearms at the house shows. There’s only so many brain cells to go around.”
“I know I’m opening myself up for a flood criticism. You see I go to bat when one of our guys is down. I try to raise money. But if you feel in your heart what we’re doing is going to wear people out and is going to put them in a bad way as they age, then let’s try to come up with something else.”
“We eliminated chair shots to the point where now you see a chair shot to the head, especially on the Indies and that’s just flat out stupid. I’ll argue that I blocked the ones to the side. I willingly took the ones to the top of my head because that’s what we did back then, but we know better, and I just wonder what it’s going to take for people to say let’s take the German off the menu. You see when Brock’s with Taker or somebody, it’s a much different German than the one that some of the other guys will take. I think you got to treat everybody like they are Taker. If you’re doing a German suplex, you got to put that guy flat. I don’t care if the pop is not as big. Those people will find something else to pop about.”
“You’ve only got that one life. Be really careful with it, one bump card as they say. There’s a big difference between the hobbling and having trouble getting around and being in a wheelchair. There’s a big difference. You see I still got this, you know, I still got the motion. If you see, I’m always stretching this thing out. There were maybe 10 to 20 times, this is something I talk about in some of my one man shows, and I don’t go there that often because it’s really personal. There’s probably two dozen times where I felt like okay, I’m just throwing caution to the wind and I’m gonna hope for the best, and probably out of those two dozen times, four or five times when I landed, I was like, I have to wiggle this finger. I have to try to wiggle this toe. Can I move? That’s a scary, scary feeling.”
“We’ve got this long line of wrestlers with the scar on their neck. Steve Edge, Kurt, on and on. I think we need to do what we can to avoid those surgeries in the future and those are surgeries by one of the best in the business. Not everybody has access to that. There’s still a lot of guys who are going to pretend they’re not hurt when they are. They’re going to feel a need to continue to do these things, especially at house shows in order to come up on the star level, when in my mind, it’s not about the stars. It’s about sending people home with a feeling, especially a feeling that they want to return. Sometimes we can overdo it so much with the matches that I think we’re giving people such a crash course that they’re like, that was amazing, but I’m good for the year and not, when are they coming to town? I need to be there. I think we need to do more things that create beloved characters, so that every single thing that character goes through means something as opposed to just trying to get guys over by pushing the bar further and further.”
Foley said part of the problem of NXT coming to the main roster was that the WWE writers never watched NXT:
“When my son was a writer for six years, he said part of the problem was that none of the writers watched NXT. It’s like, you know what? Why don’t we tack that on as part of the job requirement? See what makes the character special so that when they get called up, you’re not doing a characterization of the caricature of the character. It’s just common sense.
This week’s episode cover’s Foley singing with TNA. Click below to listen to the podcast.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit AdFreeShows.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
