Mick Foley signed with WWE in 1996 and went on to become a fan favourite and a Hall of Famer. However, Vince McMahon wasn't always sold on Mick Foley and had to be convinced by Bruce Prichard to sign him.
Bruce Prichard on how he convinced Vince McMahon to sign Mick Foley
On a recent edition of Something To Wrestle, WWE executive Bruce Prichard opened up about Mick Foley first signing with the promotion. Prichard revealed that Mr. McMahon was not a big fan of the crazy bumps Foley took, which he considered to be dangerous. Instead, Bruce Prichard said that he had to show Mick Foley's human side to convince Vince McMahon to sign him:
You have to look at how you sell someone, know your audience – Vince wasn’t into the gore, Vince wasn’t into some of those crazy bumps. Don’t sell that part – sell the part of the intelligence and psychology of Cactus and what he did and the human being behind that, Mick Foley. I didn’t know Mick personally. I had met him before and talked to him and I was a big fan of his work, but everyone I knew that did know Mick spoke very highly of Mick Foley and just what a wonderful human being that there was behind that character. So, you sell the human being and the rest will come. Also during this time, Jack was doing a character in ECW that he was anti-hardcore or he was hardcore – the stuff that I loved and that I was able to show Vince a different side of Cactus was he was riding the merry go round with his daughter chanting ‘I’m hardcore!’ and then riding around in the little train in the amusement park and sitting in a side headlock for 15 minutes in a match and chanting ‘I’m hardcore!’ H.T: 411Mania
Mick Foley went on to establish himself as a WWE legend and a multiple time world champion. Clearly, signing him was the correct decision and it looks like we can thank Bruce Prichard for his role in making it happen.