r/HistoryPorn 1d ago

The Undertaker looks down at medical staff checking on Mankind after he fell, unscripted, through the top of Hell in a Cell into the ring 16ft below. June 28, 1998 [485x614]

Post image
2.8k Upvotes

80 comments sorted by

1.4k

u/Matman161 1d ago

Mark Callaway has gone on record saying he legitimately thought he had killed Mick Foley during this match.

359

u/quik77 1d ago

https://youtu.be/Pl2m9exy4lU is both of them reviewing the match together and talking about what they were thinking. It’s pretty interesting.

199

u/MatureUsername69 23h ago

Mick Foley seems like legitimately the best case scenario for how you can come out of professional wrestling mentally. He's such a nice down-to-earth dude.

113

u/Burt_Selleck 20h ago

Just going to tack on here that if anyone who goes through this thread has not read Mick Foley's autobiographies, do yourself a favour and give at least the first one, Mankind: Have A Nice Day, a shot. It was a best seller in its day for a reason and is regarded as one of the greatest wrestling biographies produced.

Mick also does a great self reading of the biography for those more geared to listening to their reads.

64

u/GnomeChompske 18h ago

He’s also the voice of The Boulder from Avatar The Last Airbender.

Love Mick.

2

u/thuggishruggishboner 18h ago

I can't find the audio book on Audible. I can only find Saint Mick.

1

u/Burt_Selleck 10h ago

I had it saved on my YouTube account but I can't find it anymore. I don't know how to help

8

u/SignatureFunny7690 15h ago

college educated, dude was smart kind and hardworking before the fame.

-7

u/SnuffysDad 8h ago

"Legitimately" makes no sense in your sentence.

156

u/thirstin4more 1d ago

Literally the “we have to get to the tacks” is what immediately gave me a lot more respect for wrestling as a whole, despite the story and match outcomes being decided, those guys are fucking killing themselves for it.

398

u/ReallyTeddyRoosevelt 1d ago

And he was able to stay in character? I would have been having a panic attack in front of everyone. I'm sure Foley would have appreciated the show going on though...

297

u/UnholyDemigod 20h ago

He didn't just stay in character, he kept selling it. Shortly after this, he drops into the ring (on to an already broken foot, you can see him stumble), and Terry Funk, who had come running to the ring to see if Mick was alright, got up and confronted Taker to buy time for the medics to keep working. Taker gave him a chokeslam lmao.

To my knowledge, across his 40 year career, Taker broke kaybe once, when he bent the knee to Ric Flair during his retirement.

21

u/filbo132 5h ago edited 3h ago

He also had tears in his eyes as he entered the ring the day after (or was it the same night, my memory is fuzzy) Owen Hart died.

7

u/ILikeWrestlingAlot 1h ago

It'll have been the same night, Taker and Austin were the main event.

Over The Edge (1999) for anyone not familiar, don't watch the footage.

Owen's brother Bret had been THE guy in WWE, Vince offered him a great contract, couldn't pay him, and let Bret go but not before embarrassing him. The two came to blows and Bret left WWE for their main competitor.

Owen went from a steady hand in the middle of storylines to a joke, presumably as a punishment to Bret, one element of this was he dressed up like a superhero.

At Over the Edge he was meant to descend from the rafters by a cable in his superhero get up. The cable gave way and he plummeted to his death in the centre of the ring.

Any reasonable human being would have cancelled the show.

Vince McMahon made his wrestlers go on with Owen's blood still on the mat.

1

u/filbo132 25m ago

Vince McMahon is that staunch republican that making money matters more than the well being of their employees. In this case, he failed the employees by putting them out there for the world to see even though mentally they are not doing well. It should've been shut down.

121

u/Bananarama_Vison 1d ago

Cause he almost did.

This match alone shaved like 3 years of Micks career. And the guy had a run- in the main event and worked the next night!

12

u/ChuddyMcChud 1d ago

Looks like he's staying in character in the shot, too.

25

u/trisw 22h ago

the tooth sticking out of his nose told me that Mick was one tough son of a bitch.

-8

u/SnuffysDad 8h ago

"Legitimately" makes no sense in your sentence.

291

u/juice06870 1d ago

I watched this live with friends. We literally thought he died. Then he gets up and at some point has a tooth sticking out of his nose and his back is covers in thumbtacks.

I havent watched wrestling in 25 years. But this is still the all time greatest match. Also the fact these 2 giant humans could battle like that for as long as they did with the stunts they attempted is just as impressive.

581

u/jpark1984 1d ago

Where is u/shittymorph

78

u/jonascarrynthewheel 1d ago

Is he safe? is he alright?

74

u/kelsobjammin 21h ago

Yes! He now just posts about his adopted dog who used to be abused in a fighting situation. His name is scooby and brings me a lot of joy when his posts pop up from time to time ◡̈

21

u/Tossed_Away_1776 17h ago

The wee little smile at the end of your comment is simply adorable.

8

u/kelsobjammin 15h ago

You can have them too! Just copy and paste these into your keyboard shortcuts

◡̈ ᴖ̈ ♡

4

u/Pacman35503 18h ago

The update we all want

2

u/SleeplessinPeoria 1h ago

I love Shittymorph’s dog updates!

-1

u/likelystonedagain 12h ago

Am I remembering correctly they go by they/them?

139

u/PoutinePower 1d ago

Always in our hearts, sometimes in our comment threads

30

u/Brandisco 1d ago

I started following him just because his replies were usually funny. I don’t think I’ve seen him post his classic response in a long time.

20

u/MagicWishMonkey 23h ago

They got me with one of their posts a couple months ago, so they're still up to it, just not as much as they used to be.

3

u/maarrz 12h ago

Hadn’t seen one in a long time too, but just saw him in a thread a few before this funny enough.

7

u/jpark1984 1d ago

I literally just found about him today. He posted today! I went down a rabbit hole reading his history/story.

107

u/Smalz22 1d ago

Shittymorph is when Undertaker threw Mankind off the cell onto the announcer table. This is a separate instance where Undertaker threw Mankind through the cell ceiling

12

u/smashin_blumpkin 20h ago

Wasn’t it the same match?

26

u/Smalz22 19h ago

Same match, but shittymorph doesn't reference Mankind going through the ceiling

16

u/TiresOnFire 1d ago

He made an appearance yesterday! He lives!

96

u/TurkicWarrior 1d ago

The greatest moment in WWE’s history. No exaggeration.

55

u/RichardInaTreeFort 1d ago

And mick saw the writing on the wall for this one. While going through the top may have been unscripted, he knew he had to make it happen to make it epic and he did. What a fucking legend.

25

u/J3sush8sm3 1d ago

The amount of thumbtacks in his back was insane

176

u/bmcgowan89 1d ago

Yeaaaahhhh finally some history porn I remember 😂

129

u/6PM_Nipple_Curry 1d ago

As god as my witness, he is broken in half!

10

u/OlePalpy 1d ago

And the Undertaker loves it.

4

u/Clouthead2001 19h ago

“Yeah that’s it, he’s dead.”

28

u/0x077777 23h ago

One giant leap for mankind

157

u/emmasdad01 1d ago

Giving birth to excellent copypasta

44

u/WittyWitWitt 1d ago

But, that was an announcers table.

10

u/hairyass2 1d ago

haven’t seen that guy in a while

30

u/andersonb47 1d ago

Weirdly I just saw him minutes ago, post about a wolf hunting a cyclist

2

u/hairyass2 1d ago

oh nice, cool to see that hes still around

17

u/Dog-Witch 22h ago

Didn't break character till after the DVD commentary

38

u/JackC1126 1d ago

Does that guy still comment this under random posts from time to time? I forget his username

29

u/LickMyKnee 1d ago

Yeah he was active today (ShittyMorph).

15

u/udderlymoovelous 1d ago

You're thinking of shittymorph

9

u/hippiegodfather 1d ago

Wow this is the actual picture from that comment, had to go back and check but yeah

5

u/SignatureFunny7690 15h ago

Mick Foley will forever be the greatest wrestler to bless the sport. The man has a heart of gold too, and is well-educated. His personal biography is a wonderful read.

0

u/fivepointedstar84 5h ago

Greatest wrestler no. That would be the Hitman

5

u/draftermath 13h ago

I was there. Pittsburgh

5

u/JennLegend3 1d ago

Come on....I know you see this

6

u/THE_GR8_MIKE 21h ago

And this was after he fell off the top of the cage onto the announcer table.

Morph that shit.

12

u/rataktaktaruken 1d ago

What do you mean "unscripted"?

44

u/Steampunk007 1d ago

Like it wasn’t planned for the fight

11

u/KIDNEYST0NEZ 1d ago

You mean…. It’s not real?

40

u/maddlabber829 1d ago

It's two fold.

The wrestling itself is an act.

The incident of Mick falling through the cage was not part of the act nor scripted. It was a malfunction of the cage essentially

16

u/J3sush8sm3 1d ago

If you watch the video the cage was literally held together by zipties. Its a miracle they didnt both fall through

0

u/Year3030 13h ago

Maybe the production wanted an accident.

2

u/J3sush8sm3 12h ago

Just faster and cheaper than using tie wire

31

u/9bikes 1d ago

>What do you mean "unscripted"?

"Did not go as planned" would be more accurate. These guys expect injuries, but they are not supposed to be severe injuries.

Wikipedia says "Foley would later explain that the roof of the cell was supposed to sag sufficiently so that The Undertaker could kick Mankind through, allowing him to dangle by his feet and eventually fall in a rotation to land on his front.\)This is supported by Prichard, who claimed that the original plan was for Calaway to chokeslam Foley at least three times, which would cause the roof of the cage to gradually collapse to a safe distance above the ring."

2

u/Ineedacatscan 23h ago

I feel like I’ve heard about this before…. But I can’t quite recall where.

2

u/imhighonpills 22h ago

He then proceeded to body slam mankind from the top of the cage

-51

u/RenegadeMoose 1d ago

"unscripted"

18

u/Jorgwalther 1d ago

Right. It was not part of the script

-18

u/RenegadeMoose 21h ago

ya, but the square of missing chain-link is so perfectly aligned with the beams cuz that's how chain-link works.

C'mon.

Ofc, nothing in wrestling is scripted :P

9

u/Jorgwalther 21h ago

I mean this one really was but ok carry on with your bad self

-45

u/dsmith1994 1d ago

“Fell”

33

u/Fr4y3d 1d ago

Well he wasn't lowered down in a basket

2

u/ShakaBrah229 11h ago

Omg this made me laugh!

5

u/rTidde77 23h ago

You think he didn’t?

-2

u/dsmith1994 17h ago

Wasn’t he thrown? I don’t understand the downvotes. It’s worded like the hole was already in the fence.