RAW General Manager Mick Foley recently appeared on Jim Ross’ Ross Report podcast and spoke at length about the passing of “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka and the impact Snuka had on his career.
“I came around to what Bruce Springsteen had said, which was trust the art, not the artist. And so, by doing that, you allow yourself to watch the films of an actor who may have been abusive to children. And he was a kind and gentle man. I mean, ultimately, there is a harsher judge, I really believe, than the internet. And if Jimmy did what was alleged, you hope the kindness he showed towards people for decades and the love he had for his family outweigh that incident in the final picture.”
Foley said he likely wouldn’t be a wrestler if not for Snuka’s inspiration.
“Without Jimmy, there’s no me. There’s a me, there’s a Mick Foley, doing something somewhere, but that feeling being brought out of me, being in the Garden and feeling the emotion. And then, having this moment in time captured that I remember as clearly today as when it took place over 30 years ago. And know that I wanted to make people feel that same way, I don’t know if, as much as I loved the [professional] wrestling business or just the wrestling show, I didn’t know it was a business at the time, I don’t know if there’s anything else that would have made me feel that way.”
Tamina thanked Mick for talking about seeing Snuka leap from the top of the steel cage at Madison Square Garden during his interview as Mankind with ‘J.R.’.
“It was ’97 when [Ross] and I did that interview that changed things around for me, especially in the way Mr. McMahon saw me in the company. And that was when I got to talk publicly about that match and what it meant for me. And WWE went and found the footage of me as an 18 year old in the audience. And I believe, that was the first time I would meet Tamina shortly after that. She thanked me because they felt that it had done a lot for her dad in terms of bookings, in terms of, yeah, awareness, and getting that buzz.”
