Mick Foley’s first WWE contract

Flex Luger

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In the latest video on Dr. Beau Hightower’s YouTube channel Mick Foley appeared to receive some intense spinal adjustments, and share stories of his career.

The Hall Of Famer recalled the details of his first WWE contract, revealing it was a locked five-year deal.

“The contract I signed for WWE, I was guaranteed five matches a year, at $150 a year, for five years,” he said. “So, if they’d chosen not to push me, I could have been in a position where I can’t go anywhere else, I’m locked in for five years. But this is the place to go, WWE.”

Mick Foley took a lot of crazy bumps throughout his career, but he always stayed away from his neck. This is why he never suffered injuries in that area like many of his peers. For Foley, he simply wasn’t comfortable taking bumps going backward.

“I’ve been stretching my neck for the last 35 years,” he said. “It looks like a tick because even when I’m driving, this, this, this, just keeping it. You know what, there’s a lot of my colleagues who’ve got a telltale scar from the surgery. These days they go in and move the voice box over. No, because I had my own litany of cool-looking things that I could do, so I wasn’t really comfortable going backward.

“Keep my chin tucked and as much safety as possible, but I was like, ‘man you should show some of these things to an orthopedic or neurologist, they’ll say you shouldn’t be walking.’ I thought the more I can do to stay away from that move, the better off I will be. Because there’s a lot of things that have very little margin for error.”

While he didn’t take many bumps going backward, Mick Foley recalled how he created some that looked devastating and, while they might have appeared that way, the reality was they were not high-risk.

“I developed some bumps as they say, that were high impact, but not necessarily high-risk,” Foley revealed. So I would hammer my thighs on the ring apron, I would take a back body drop outside, stuff that hurts, outside on the concrete. But I didn’t like my head going, I did get spiked on a piledriver, and it hurt me for about six months.

“The guy who did it had been drinking heavily. That was part of his character. But you shouldn’t have a guy upside down, because you’re really trusting your opponent in this case with your life.”
 

Pull Up the Roots

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$150 a year? Was that guaranteed or on a per match basis? Either way, that is fukking criminal.
 

AKM-95

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This. He came in around the same time as Pillman who I believe signed the first guaranteed deal with them around 300k.

Was it pillman or mero. I remember hearing a story on a shoot about the wild man having heat because he had a guarantee and Taker, Bret and the kliq were on those primitive WWWF contracts.
 

Reality Check

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Was it pillman or mero. I remember hearing a story on a shoot about the wild man having heat because he had a guarantee and Taker, Bret and the kliq were on those primitive WWWF contracts.

You're right, it was Mero.
 

itiswhatitis

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That was the guarantee if they didn’t use you at all. Hall and Nash going to WCW is what caused the guaranteed money deals. WWF wrestlers got an extra $50 or so per PPV appearance plus they used to bust down whatever the house brought in to the talent plus merch royalties.
 

FunkDoc1112

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Word? Pull the contract info up
That's what every wrestler got. A downside gurantee and then payouts for merch, gate, and buys of whatever show theyre booked on. Hell that's still the system now.

shyt before Mero and Pillman guys weren't even getting guarantees. They were ONLY paid off the show revenue which was why the WWF locker room used to be so cut throat. You weren't booked, you weren't making any money.

WCW didn't do it that way so guys got no cut of the shows but had bigger value contracts. Only Hogan got a cut of the revenue.
 

Carl Tethers

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That's what every wrestler got. A downside gurantee and then payouts for merch, gate, and buys of whatever show theyre booked on. Hell that's still the system now.

WCW didn't do it that way so guys got no cut of the shows but had bigger value contracts. Only Hogan got a cut of the revenue.

But they had to be booked, right?
 
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