Mick Foley Cuts Ties With WWE, Citing ‘Cruel’ Comments & Their Association With President Donald Trump
Mick Foley made a career out of taking punishment that would send a normal human to the emergency room just by looking at it. We are talking about a man who lost an ear in Germany, took 11 unprotected chair shots from The Rock, and famously plummeted 16 feet off the top of a cage in Pittsburgh. He has a threshold for pain that borders on the superhuman.
But apparently, even the Hardcore Legend has a limit on how much toxicity he can stomach—and that limit was reached this week. In a move that feels less like a wrestling storyline and more like a fever dream of 2025 politics, Foley announced he is officially done with WWE.
Mick Foley Takes a Stand Against the Machine
The catalyst for this departure wasn’t a bad booking decision or a royalty dispute. It was a social media post from the Oval Office. After the tragic deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife, President Trump took to his platform not to offer condolences, but to blame the tragedy on “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
For Foley, a man often cited as the “nicest guy in wrestling,” this was the breaking point. Taking to Instagram, he didn’t mince words. He cited the administration’s treatment of immigrants and the “march toward autocracy” as lingering issues, but called the comments about Reiner “the final straw.”
“I no longer wish to represent a company that coddles a man so seemingly void of compassion,” Foley wrote. It is a heavy statement coming from a guy who usually spends his retirement wearing Santa Claus suits and raising money for charity. When the guy who played Mankind is telling you that your moral compass is broken, it might be time to look in the mirror.
The Deep Roots Between WWE and Trump
To understand why Foley feels the need to walk away, you have to look at just how intertwined the DNA of WWE and Trump has become. This isn’t just a case of a company having a conservative CEO. The ties here are thicker than the blood in a First Blood match.
Linda McMahon, the former CEO of WWE and wife of Vince McMahon, is the current Secretary of Education. We have seen Triple H, Paul Levesque, at the White House while executive orders are being signed regarding physical fitness. Trump himself is a member of the WWE Hall of Fame, a distinction he shares with the likes of Stone Cold Steve Austin and, ironically, Foley.
For decades, Trump was a fun, peripheral character in the wrestling world, hosting WrestleMania IV and V at Trump Plaza and shaving Vince McMahon’s head at WrestleMania 23. But for Foley, the fun stopped when the policies started.
What This Means For The Wrestling Landscape
In the grand scheme of sports entertainment, one retired wrestler leaving might not seem like a shifting of the tectonic plates. But Foley carries weight. He is one of the most beloved figures in the industry history. He isn’t a controversial figure looking for clout; he is a three-time champion who helped turn the tide of the Monday Night Wars.
By refusing to sign a new Legends deal when his expires in June, Foley is leaving money on the table. These deals are generally considered the “golden parachute” for retired grapplers—easy money for video game likenesses, t-shirt sales, and the occasional wave to the crowd at WrestleMania. Walking away from that requires conviction.
It also raises the question of whether other stars will follow suit. The locker room has always been a mixed bag of political ideologies, but few have been as vocal or as principled as Foley.
