Mick Foley has never been afraid to speak his mind.
The Hardcore Icon will always make his voice heard, and that’s why so many wrestling fans across the world love him.
However, Foley hasn’t been seen on WWE TV for quite some time now, and that’s due to the fact he’s distanced himself from the company.
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Speaking to Ariel Helwani, the former WWE Champion revealed that his decision to distance himself from WWE was driven by concerns over the company’s perceived relationship with Donald Trump.
After more than three decades associated with WWE, Foley decided it was best he cut ties, for now, due to the links between TKO and the current President of the United States.
For better or for worse, politics and wrestling have often gone hand-in-hand.
There was the infamous Hillary Clinton vs Barack Obama match on Raw at one point, while Donald Trump himself was a key part of WrestleMania 23.
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Trump recently bought a hefty share of stock in TKO, and given his long-running links to WWE, Foley decided to leave the company after Trump’s comments on Rob Reiner after he was murdered.
Speaking about his decision, Foley explained:
“So for me, it was the comments about Rob Reiner, just heartless and unbelievably cruel comments coming from the most powerful man in the world finding joy in how somebody died.
“I don’t want to paraphrase, but belittling the man who just died, somehow tying it into his own death, into, you know, Reiner’s dislike of Donald Trump. And for me, that was the ball-peen hammer tap that broke the windshield.
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“And I just think WWE had a very cozy relationship where there was definitely the illusion of a relationship there, the perception rather. I think when 5 different people are posing in the Oval Office and they’ve all received Stone Cold Stunners, that’s a little cozy. And Ariel, I felt like even though I wasn’t technically employed by the company, but because I had a Legends deal, because my name’s been associated with WWE for over 30 years, that I was complicit in my silence and so I did speak up.
“I made the move that I felt was right for me. I love that company. I’m not going to disparage them, but it didn’t seem like a good fit. Didn’t seem like a fit that would allow me to look at myself in the mirror before I went to bed.
“I didn’t close the door forever. As long as this man is in office, I think more and more people are realizing that some of the things he’s doing are just cruelty for the sake of cruelty and enriching himself.
“I’m not here to talk politics, let’s skip this after here, but it is the reason I left WWE.”
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Rob Reiner was a filmmaker famous for work on movies such as This is Spinal Tap, Misery and A Few Good Men.
Sadly, Reiner and his wife were killed last year, and following that news, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social the following message:
“A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS,” Trump wrote.
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“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Foley, and, since then, he’s decided he no longer wants to be associated with WWE for as long as Trump is in office.
