Mick Foley has made history on a number of occasions but one of his most memorable moments came on a January 1999 edition of RAW. WCW was winning in terms of ratings at the time and announcer Tony Schiavone actually spoiled the pre-taped ending of RAW which featured Foley beating The Rock to become WWE Champion. However, that backfired on the company.
Wrestling fans ended up tuning in to see Foley's victory and despite the fact it helped turn the tide for WWE, Foley has now revealed that he believes his title win was a big mistake.
"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."
On a personal level, Foley reveals that he didn't realise it was such a huge deal until the ratings came out and that he was shocked by WCW's decision to actually spoil RAW's ending.
"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. I did watch Nitro later that night and the 'Fingerpoke of Doom' was a dreadful creative decision, but the even worse decision was to give away the ending to our show. It obviously backfired. It's interesting to talk to Eric Bischoff these days and he says he was doing what he thought he had to do to make his show better. He miscalculated and ended up kind of giving us a huge victory."
The WWE Hall of Famer's career would have been legendary with or without this moment but it's fair to say that this win helped fans embrace him in a big way and was worth it for that alone.
Do you agree with Foley's assessment about this historic moment in RAW history? As always, be sure to let us know your thoughts on this news in the comments section below.