Mick Foley isn’t one to shy away from a sickening bump, but a ‘Nestea Plunge’ wasn’t his only concern at Spring Stampede 1994.
There’s a fine reason why Mick Foley won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Best Brawler award every year from 1991 until 2000; he simply was the best at his craft.
Some of his most famous bumps are also the most noteworthy in all of wrestling history. From being thrown off the Hell In A Cell structure by The Undertaker to being Punted down a flight of stairs by Randy Orton, ‘The Hardcore Legend’ earned every plaudit sent his way.
At WCW Spring Stampede 1994, however, Mick Foley was on the receiving end of an unplanned spot. Discussing his Street Fight with Maxx Payne vs. The Nasty Boys during a watch along on the latest Foley Is Pod episode, the then-Cactus Jack was forced to call a spot on the fly after a table collapsed prematurely:
“There’s not enough room for me to take this bump, the Nestea Plunge, properly. So I end up doing great damage to my shoulder because I gotta rotate mid-air. I personally thought the Nestea Plunge was enough for the fall, but Sags had other ideas.”
The Nesta Plunge was a spot in which Mick Foley took a nasty fall off the stage, landing on the venue’s hard floor. Because of the compact space available, it resulted in Foley landing awkwardly, before then being hit with a shovel to the side of the head by Jerry Sags. He elaborated on the spot with co-host Conrad Thompson:
“None of that was [planned], because the only thing we knew was the finish. And again, maybe I’m looking back through this with rose-coloured glasses, but my recollection – and I think that’s consistent with what I wrote in 1999 – is that I didn’t have anything planned. Maybe Maxx and those guys did, but I was already, in my head, out of the company and getting surgery.”
At this stage, Mick Foley had grown frustrated with WCW management and, specifically, with Eric Bischoff, citing Bischoff’s hesitancy to book a storyline between him and Vader surrounding Foley losing an ear. The Street Fight against The Nasty Boys was officially Foley’s last under WCW contract, though his actual last match occurred that September.