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MORNING THOUGHTS: LOOKING AT MICK FOLEY'S HOMERUN FIRST EFFORT AS A WWE BROADCASTER, THREE MATCHES THAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE NEW RIC FLAIR DVD & MORE

GO FOLEY GO!

For the first time since he was feuding with Randy Orton, Mick Foley appeared on WWE programming with a purpose last night, doing one hell of a job as Smackdown's new color commentator.

For whatever reason, Foley's appearances on WWE programming had lost all passion and flair in recent years.  He was trotted out so often it was like watching a broken down race horse.  Gone were the passionate promos that made fans stand up and take notice, replaced by a cheesy thumb and an homage to whatever town WWE was taping in.  Gone were the insane bumps and great brawling, replaced by an older, slower book-whoring Foley who seemed as befuddled as the viewers as to why he was out on camera.  

While die-hard Foley fans always had small glimmers of hope (his pre-One Night Stand PPV promo on Terry Funk and ECW, the Edge match at Wrestlemania 22), for the most part Foley was treated like a castoff by WWE creative, which one could only theorize was done by design as punishment for daring to flirt with the idea of going to TNA Wrestling several years ago.  

While WWE signed Foley up to keep him on board, Foley was never again really treated like a major part of the company history when he semi-regularly popped up.  Compare his meaningless Cyber Sunday battle with the dreaded Carlito to Steve Austin's TV returns from time to time.  One was a major deal with a big pop and the other was, "Oh, let's throw him out there." before a crowd that cared less and less with each return appearance.

That was never more evident than this past January's Royal Rumble PPV, where Foley, in his hometown of New York City in the most famous arena in the world, got outshined by the likes of Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka in both pops and performances, and they were only in the ring two minutes, tops while Foley engaged in meaningless back and forth punches for far longer with the WWE roster.  

Foley was a man without an Island within WWE, the guy who was sort of there but never really a focused commodity of the company. Mick Foley, who made his name with his passion for the business, was suddenly the most unimportant star on the WWE roster, something especially insulting considering he was a three-time former WWF champion.

That all changed last night.

Mick Foley returned to WWE TV with a purpose, playing the role of former wrestler as color analyst.  He knew the storylines and the motivations of the talents.  He brought up past important moments in Baltimore wrestling history. He explained what it was like to battle The Undertaker.  He put over the moves and what they did to you.

In three short hours, Mick Foley accomplished more than Mike Adamle has since January.  It was one hell of a debut for a guy the company had seemingly written off and quite honestly, it was the best Mick Foley has come across on television in forever.

That's not to say Foley will always do as well as he did at Backlash.  Let's not forget Joey Styles was making great calls on PPV and Raw before WWE decided his style needed to be tailored to their liking.  In doing so, they gave him an announcer's lobotomy, deleting everything that made Styles stand out as unique.   Despite Foley's great work last night, there's always the chance that the shadow of Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn will loom overhead and exorcize what they didn't like from Foley's work, creatively castrating him as they have so many announcers and talents before. 

That's certainly within the realm of reason, but I am hoping that isn't the case.  Foley's work was second to none last night and far better than his ECW 2005 PPV broadcasting appearance.  He brought Michael Cole up a level and had a purpose as the modern day Gorilla Monsoon.  

Let's hope this is the start of a long broadcasting career for Mick, who has given so much to the business and deserves to be seen by today's fans as someone important and credible, not just some guy who gets endlessly shoved into meaningless, forgettable matches and situations, destroying the legacy he gave his blood, his body, indeed his ear for.  

Last night's Backlash could be remembered at the night Mick Foley started to rescue his falling legacy in the eyes of the same die-hard wrestling fans that originally sang his praises.  Time will tell. 

THE DEFINITIVE FLAIR: PART ONE

Last Friday, word came out that the 7/8 WWE Ric Flair DVD will be titled the "Definitive Ric Flair Collection" and will be another three DVD set dedicated to the greatest living professional wrestler today.  

WWE's previous Flair collection (The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection) was among the greatest wrestling DVD sets ever produced anywhere.  A set dedicated to the Four Horsemen was a solid outing, but was the Phantom Menace to the first DVD's Star Wars.  It just couldn't follow the act.

Every day this week, I'll take a look at three matches I'd personally love to see included in the set, so 15 matches total.  On with the show.

Ric Flair vs. Vader: Starrcade '93 (12/27/93): As insane as this sounds, Starrcade was supposed to be Sid Vicious winning the WCW World title from Vader while Flair was going be mired in a meaningless undercard match, even though the PPV was emanating from Flair's hometown of Charlotte, NC.  Then the infamous Arn Anderson-Vicious UK scissors incident happened and Vicious went from World champ material to unemployed.  As has happened so many times before, Flair was sent to save the day, with the storyline being that he would put his career on the line against the gargantuan Vader, who was in the midst of having his career year.  This was one for the ages with the Charlotte fans chanting for Flair the entire time, believing in the angle, Flair and Vader beating the living hell out of each other and Flair bleeding heavily from the mouth to the point crimson stained his teeth.  This was one of Flair's best babyface performances and it stands up there as one of the best Vader bouts as well.

Ric Flair vs. Brian Pillman: WCW Saturday Night (2/17/90): Ric Flair had just turned heel on Sting (the first of many times THAT would happen) and Brian Pillman, the upstart babyface was defending the honor of his injured friend, who went down to a torn ACL during the angle.  In an era before wrestling companies lived and died by the quarter hour breakdowns, WCW threw out the World champion against one of the most gifted athletes in the company.  It wasn't a match designed to be a classic, yet it's become a match that those who have seen it rave about it to this day and those who have only heard about it second-hand wonder why it hasn't made it to DVD yet.  WWE needs this match to be included because it's vintage heel Flair and honestly, one of Pillman's best babyface performances of all time.

Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage: Wrestlemania VIII (4/5/92): Ric Flair, fittingly, made his Wrestlemania debut as the WWF champion, against one of the top WWF babyfaces at the time, Randy Savage.  With a great back-story of Flair claiming that Elizabeth was his before she was Savage's (and imagine the vignettes that would have come about if that angle was created today), you had Savage as a man possessed looking not just to get the gold, but revenge for his lady.  Add in a bloody Ric Flair (one who was reamed out for blading after the match by Vince McMahon), Curt Hennig doing a great job as Flair's advisor, 60 thousand fans in the Indianapolis Hoosier Dome and the greatest of all time trying to steal the biggest show of the year and you've got a forgotten classic.  No matter how WWE management feels about Savage, you can't tell the story of Ric Flair without this match.

For Ric Flair's autobiography and previous WWE Flair-related DVDs, visit our friends at www.highspots.com.

Mike Johnson can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com.

 

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