Former tag team star B. Brian Blair recently spoke about how Mick Foley raised the bar with high-risk moves in WWE.
Mrs. Foley's Baby Boy chartered a Hall of Fame career for himself with his willingness to put his body on the line. With his alter-ego, Cactus Jack, Foley earned a reputation for contesting gruesome matches, including a bout in Germany where part of his ear was torn off.
Despite the odds being stacked against him, Foley went on to have an incredibly successful career and even became a three-time WWE Champion,
On the latest episode of UnSKripted, Blair credited Mick Foley for coming up with dangerous high spots during matches. He added that a few years later, ECW also revolutionized the business with their brand of high-risk wrestling. He mentioned that the former Paul Heyman-led promotion still influences the business.
New Champs in WWE! More RIGHT HERE
"Mick Foley was the one that started raising the bar as far as high-risk moves. Then ECW came. Those guys were doing some off-the-wall crazy stuff. A lot of that is still blended in the business." [31:14 - 31:30]
You can watch the full video here:
B. Brian Blair discusses how WWE has changed over the years
During the conversation, the former WWE star spoke about how the business has changed over the years. He detailed that there is a lot of padding at ringside now compared to his active years in the industry. He attributed much of this change to the modern, fast-paced version of sports entertainment.
"If you've noticed, the rings are padded around, you've got padding everywhere. We always had concrete. We didn't have padding to run into. We had steel to run into, solid posts with no padding on them. So, big difference." [31:31 - 31:47]
Blair also mentioned that with the onset of video games, the old-school brand of wrestling had waned off. He added Vince McMahon advocated for more action-packed matches inside the squared circle.
What do you think of the current WWE product? Let us know in the comments section below.
If you use any quotes from this article, please embed the YouTube video and add a H/T to Sportskeeda for the transcription.