Wrestling icon Mick Foley has revealed why Donald Trump's response to the killings of director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, led him to distance himself from WWE due to its association with the president.
Foley's Final Straw
"Belittling the man who just died, somehow tying it into Reiner's dislike of Donald Trump — for me, that was the ball-peen hammer tap that broke the windshield," said Foley on Tuesday's episode of "The Ariel Helwani Show."
Foley, a Trump critic known for personas like Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love during his WWE Hall of Fame career, declared that he would no longer make appearances for the company while Trump remains in office. He called the president's reaction to the Reiners' killings the "final straw" in a social media statement last year.
"Just heartless, unbelievably cruel comments coming from the most powerful man in the world finding joy in how somebody died," said Foley of Trump in his interview with Helwani.
WWE's Relationship with Trump
Foley pointed to WWE's "very cozy" relationship with Trump, who was also inducted into its Hall of Fame, and noted that several people associated with the company surrounded the president in the Oval Office last year.
Foley went on to note that, though he wasn't "technically employed" by WWE, his name had been associated with the company for three decades, and he had a "legends deal" — a contract for retired talent.
"I felt like... I was complicit in my silence. So I did speak up," said Foley, who has decided not to renew the deal that expires at the end of June.
Personal Sacrifice
Foley said that he has given up "two really easy, very high-paying jobs" during WrestleMania week, the company's premier event, to instead work 24 hours on his own to make what he could have made in six hours. He stressed that he is at peace with his decision.
"Everyone, I think, has to make a decision that's right for them and, in my case, I just didn't want to be in the position where my grandchildren are asking what their grandfather was doing when things were really tough," he continued. "I made the move that I felt was right for me and I love that company. I'm not going to disparage them. But it didn't seem like a good fit. It didn't seem like a fit that would allow me to look at myself in the mirror before I went to bed."
