[2006-08-20-WWE-Summerslam] Ric Flair vs Mick Foley ('I Quit')

[Microstatistics]

This is one of my favorite WWE matches ever and one I feel is really underrated.

 

First of all, the hate is off the charts. I am talking almost Tully-Magnum levels. They really managed to convey the feeling that they wanted to kill each other. Secondly, the mic verbals were actually great. I usually hate when guys spend half the match on the mic telling the other guy to quit and constantly disrupt the flow. But stuff like "you're gonna suffer" and "I will tear out your heart" were fresh and incorporated at appropriate times in the match. So they turned what is usually the flaw of I Quit matches into something positive.

 

The body of the match is excellent with incredible violence, creative and unique spots, limb psychology of all things (Foley's shoulder) and strong transitions. Finish is a little bit of a cop out but a smart way to protect Foley and get across the fact the intensity of the feud and match had caused Flair to snap and go to any lengths. JR and Lawler also did a brilliant job on commentary. **** 1/4

[Victator]

I remember watching this and thinking it had an ugliness and violence you rarely see in mainstream wrestling. The only thing I can compare it to is something like Sabu vs Terry Funk Born to be Wired or Funk vs Lawler Empty Arena Match. The violence makes you feel uncomfortable.

This sort of violence is always within Mick Foley. Even as friendly Mankind, you can sense Cactus Jack ready to emerge. Flair you can't necessarily say that about. But as his career wound down you could see Flair becoming more twisted. Starting with the series between him and Triple H.

The Foley feud was the culmination of this. I would have been fine with this being Flair's retirement match. Flair defeating a man he considered the antithesis of everything he stood for. Even though Flair had to compromise his own ethics to do it.

If you look into it Flair meandered for the next year until the retirement angle started.

[Kadaveri]

Really agree this match is underrated having just watched it. This is one of the most brutal WWE matches I've ever seen, not just in terms of what they do to each other but how vicious and hate-filled everything feels. It's uncomfortable to watch but I appreciate that's the tone they were going for, the announcers are pushing the angle that this has gone too far talking about how Flair seems to totally snap at the end. The match is a story of how destructive hatred can be, nobody came out of it a hero.

 

****1/4

[kid dracula]

What a sick match. Hateful and psychotically violent, and the fact that it's a 60-year-old all-time legend in there savaging a dude with barbed wire adds a surreal element that I found totally captivating. The finish was kind of lame, but what are ya gonna do. I love Flair yelling "This ain't a lay down on your ass match!" at Foley. I don't know how to rate it but this would make my top 50 WWE matches for sure. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Interesting that they turned Foley's backstage heat with Flair in '94 into a match twelve years later, but I guess it was part of wrestling lore after Mick's booked was released. On the surface, this was a lite version of Foley's match with Orton and similar to his match against Edge, but I'll be damned if Ric didn't go completely overboard with his bladejob and taking the thumbtacks. I never really got what Dylan was talking about when he compared old man Ric to Onita but here it was. He did an awesome job of snapping. The finish was edgy. Incredibly violent for a WWE match. 

[Superstar Sleeze]

Ric Flair vs Mick Foley - Summerslam 2006 I Quit

I attended this match live in Boston headed into my senior year of high school and I remember thinking it was so violent it was unsettling. Finally watching it back and this is one of the most violent WWE matches of all time. I should have promoted Old Man Flair as Death Match Flair maybe he would have kept #1 spot for GWE. 
 

Flair’s punches are unreal in this match. They look so damn good. He has always had a good punch but damn. I didn’t love how the match started but after the Testicular Claw after the first Mr Socko this was gold. Chopping Foley with a Barbed Wire Mr Socko ruled. The 2006 weapon of choice the Barbed Wire rears its ugly head. Flair taps a gusher. His TLC Match against Edge was another level of blood but this was a lot. The thumb tacks and barbed wire bat. Loved telling Foley kiss my ass on the mic. The Ol Carlos Colon Ball shot and then goes wild with the Barbed Wire Bat! No one does unhinged like the Nature Boy. Sickening Nestea Plunge. The trainer tries to call off the match but Flair gets the line of the decade in with “This is not a lay on your ass match, this is an I Quit Match”. He goes for the eyes with the Barbed Wire Bat. I thought it was weird in 2006 and it is even weirder now is the whole Foley/Melina angle friendship, romance, perversion who knows? Melina throws in the towel and verbal says I Quit but Thats not good enough. When it looks like Flair was going to take the Barbed Wire Baseball Bat to Melina only then did Foley say I Quit. 
 

You always book yourself into a corner with an I Quit match unless it is a smarmy chicken shit heel like Tully or MJF who can survive or in fact thrive by saying those words. Flair and Foley are far too proud to say them thus the clusterfuck finish. It was better off being a Street Fight or Last Man Standing. The Melina shit was weird and I am pretty sure Foley just leaves. 2006 was a weird booking year in general. The feud felt random then And didnt really belong or advance the company forward But it was a helluva match. Another awesome 2006 Flair performance! The finish holds back from a full 4, *** 3/4