In an episode of his podcast “Foley is Pod,” WWE Hall of Famer Mick 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.”
You can listen to the podcast below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
