First of all, I wanna apologize. I'd like to apologize to all my fans over in Germany. I'd like to apologize to all my fans over in Great Britain. Actually, I like to apologize to all my fans all over Europe. All over Japan and the far east. I like to apologize to my fans in the middle east. All the way as far down as South Africa. And I especially like to apologize for all my great fans in Canada.
“Unfinished Business” · Season 1, Episode 15
In this episode: Dean Winchester (940), Damon Salvatore (715), Sam Winchester (665), Olivia Benson (637), Stephen Fry (608), Narrator (554), Clark Kent (523), Nate (486)
And to you, my great fans across the United States of America...to you, I apologize for nothing! You know, it seems real strange to me that no matter how much I try that when I beat Stone Cold Steve Austin to a bloody pulp, I thought to myself, no matter how much I win, when I walked back to the dressing room. The way you American fans treat me across the United States of America, I feel like I lost. I mean I took a gutless creep like Stone Cold Steve Austin and beat him to a bloody pulp, even though he knows, and you all know that he lost, you cheer him on the way back to the dressing room like he won!
You know it didn't just start right here. Let's go back to WrestleMania last year when I was the World Wrestling Federation Champion. When that belt was around my waist and where it belonged. You cheered on a pretty boy like Shawn Michaels and you allowed him to screw me out of the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt. I found myself sitting at home watching the WWF on TV in Canada and saying to myself, "The World Wrestling Federation needs a hero, they need a role model. They need someone to look up to." Not somebody who has earrings all over himself and tattoos. Not somebody who poses for girly magazines. By the way, I don't think it was a girly magazine, I think it was a gay magazine! So I felt this calling to come back to set the record straight and clean up the World Wrestling Federation. So I came back in the Survivor Series and I beat Stone Cold Steve Austin there and I think I garnered a little bit of respect. Then I found myself stepping in the ring with Sycho Sid and your hero, your pride and joy Shawn Michaels costs me the World Wrestling Federation championship belt. Nobody cared! Nobody did anything about it! You people didn't do anything about it.
They say "Oh, don't worry about that. You can get in line with 29 other guys and you can go in the Royal Rumble." So being the man that I am, I got no problem fighting 29 other guys. So I went in the Royal Rumble, and I won. I was the last legal man standing in the Royal Rumble. But again, everyone just turns their back on it. You somehow justify in your minds that Stone Cold Steve Austin won. You know, a better man would've quit. Maybe I should have quit and gone home.
You did Bret, that's what you threatened.
I got Gorilla Monsoon and Vince McMahon on their hands and knees begging me to come back. "Don't quit! Think of your fans." Well, I thought of my fans and I came back. And they come up with this idea for the Final Four. The winner of the Final Four will get a World Wrestling Federation title fight at WrestleMania 13. That sounds good to me. So I accept, I came back. Then all of a sudden, your champion, your hero, Shawn Michaels comes up with this life ending, career ending knee injury and he forfeits the title so he can go home and find his smile. But that's okay, you people think that that's just fine. I see people in the audience crying for that. You talk about me crying. So I go into the Final Four with the outcome now being that whoever wins the Final Four will now be the World Wrestling Federation Champion. And who won the Final Four? I did. Right in the middle of the ring, I defeated three other guys in one night. I defeated Vader, I defeated Stone Cold Steve Austin, and I defeated the Undertaker, and I became the World Wrestling Federation Champion for a fourth time. Then they come up to me and go "Well wait a minute! You don't get to rest even though you fought three other guys, even though you're beat up and sore. You got to go in the ring and fight 6'9" Sycho Sid, and defend the title." Do you think I ran and hid? Do you think and found me forfeiting any titles? NO! I put the title on the line and I took Sycho Sid and I tied him in a big knot right in the middle of the ring. There he was in the Sharpshooter after being booed all the way through the match by my American wrestling fans, you somehow justify, only in America you can do this, Stone Cold Steve Austin climbs into the ring and whacks me in the back of the head with a chair. Somehow, you justify that that's okay, that's acceptable in America.
So I ask, or as you see it, I cried to Gorilla Monsoon. I asked and I begged and I pleaded and I said "Give me Stone Cold Steve Austin. Give me a match with this guy who seems to be making my life a miserable hell." So I got Stone Cold Steve Austin and they agree to a match, a submission match. And then they go, "Wait, we have some even better news for you. We will give you Sycho Sid in a 15-foot high steel cage match and no one will be able to interfere in that and you will have your shot at the World Wrestling Federation championship belt because we respect you." Well in that match, outside interference played a big factor again and somehow for some reason, The Undertaker is out there and he finds himself slamming my head in the door and he costs me the World Wrestling Federation Championship belt for the 5th time.
So I got one thing on my mind. After being screwed over by everybody in the World Wrestling Federation, after being abandoned by all you good fans right here in the United States of America, I decide that I'm going to go into this submission match with Stone Cold Steve Austin and give him every bit of what he deserves, just a good old fashioned ass whipping. And so when I do it, when I actually take that lousy stinking hyena Stone Cold Steve Austin and beat him to a bloody pulp, you somehow find it in your hearts to abandon me and cheer for him.
You know, I've proven myself so many times in the World Wrestling Federation and I've tried to be everything that you wanted me to be that it seems to me that you don't understand. You don't understand what it means to have dignity, to have poise, to bring prestige to the World Wrestling Federation, to be a man that brings a little class. Because you rather cheer for heroes like Charles Manson and O.J Simpson. Nobody glorifies criminal conduct like the Americans do and all the countries around the world, they still respect what's right and what's wrong. Respect. Now that we made everything real clear with ourselves tonight, it's obvious to me that all you wrestling fans coast to coast, you don't respect me. Well the fact is, I don't respect you. You don't deserve it. So from here on in, the American wrestling fans coast to coast can KISS MY ASS!!
[Shawn Michaels comes out to the ring]
Yo, Hitman! Let's get one thing perfectly straight. You can come out here and say whatever you want about me. Everyone does. And you don't have to explain to me or the World Wrestling Federation that you would never give up the WWF title because no one knows better than me or the WWF that it takes a hand written note from the lord almighty to take that belt from you. But Bret, what you don't understand is just because I come out here and choose to live my life openly and freely instead of putting a facade like you does not make a you a better man Bret. I am well aware of my faults. I can admit them up and down the line. And as far as Steve Austin is concerned, Bret, I was there last night. He didn't give up, alright? Now I'm no fan of Steve Austin but he passed out and even you have to admit somewhere in there, there's gotta be some of the old Hit Man left, even you have to admit that he is one tough S.O.B. Now Bret, I have tried and tried and tried to take the high road and I am in no shape to wrestle and I know, you're tougher than me blahblahblah, whole thing. I admit that, that's fine. I don't have to be number one Bret. I don't obsess like you do. I do it because I like it. You do this because in your mind, marked man, you really think that all of this is yours! Now what you need to understand is that every time they reach into their pocket to watch you, me or anybody else is that they have the right to cheer or boo anybody that they want! Now, hey, you don't have to tell me "They're cheering me now." But they've booed me before. But you didn't see me getting all bent out of shape about it. You wanna know why Bret? It's because in this country, we something that's called the first amendment. And that amendment allows us to live our lives as we sit fit as long as it's causing harm to no one. If that guy there wants to stick a belly button piercing through his navel he can do it whether you like it or not! If that girl over there chooses to go out with someone you don't you approve of, "Tough kitty" said the kittie if she's going to do it! Now I'm going to get on my high and mighty roller coaster Bret. But you my friend, you gotta look at this, I'm in no shape to go. But if you want to go? What the hell? Let's go now.
Don't tell me. Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. Shawn is in no condition to wrestle here.
Then what's he doing out there?
Because he's got more guts than brains.
Right.
Do you know something? We've got a saying in the United States in American and it's called "America, Love it or Leave it!"
Shawn Michaels, Boy Toy, I think you should go back to the dressing room, get the hell out of my face.
You know me, Bret, I'm not real good with authority. By the way, how did you know I was in that girly magazine? You couldn't help yourself, could you? You had to flip through the pages just a little bit!
[Bret attacks Shawn in the injured knee and puts him in the figure four around the ring post.]
[Bret comes back out to do commentary during the Rocky Maivia/Leif Cassidy match-up]
What has made you snap, Bret Hart?
I haven't snapped, I just opened my eyes.
What?!
I call it opening my eyes! Why don't you open yours? Everybody in this building, they sit here and they cheer on Stone Cold Steve Austin, all these guys that set no example for anybody anywhere. And they have the nerve to actually cheer these guys on? Undertaker, there's a great role model. You know, I've had it up to here; I think people should open their eyes. I was the guy going to the ring every night wearing a white hat, trying to be a good person. Trying to be someone they could look up to.
[As Shawn Michaels is shown being carried to an ambulance.] There's a good person. Look what you just did, Shawn Michaels.
Hey, I didn't ask him to come to the ring! I was trying to make a point and that is the point right there. Look at the screen, that is the point. I've had it up to here! Understand? Very simple.
I think we do. But again, I don't understand the logic. I don't understand why you're throwing away your legacy! You're throwing it away! You're flushing your legacy down the toilet, Bret!
I didn't flush any legacy down any toilet. My toilet was flushed by all these people right here in this building. Not just in this building, but every building that I've wrestled in in the last three or four months. The only place I went to where I got a little respect was in Germany or England. Everywhere else-- or Canada. But in the United States of America, little kids holding up signs going "You suck!" You know what? I don't suck, they do!
It's almost as if you're at war with yourself.
No, I'm not at war. Hey I feel like I got a million pounds off my chest. You want to see bad? I'll show you bad. Bad is something that you have never seen the likes of. You want to talk about wickedly bad? I'll show you wickedly bad! [runs into the ring and attacks Rocky Maivia]
What do you think the biggest misconceptions are that the WWF fans have as it relates to Mankind?
That I'm a... bad person. Jimmy, there's plenty of good reasons to hate me. I just don't want people to hate me for untruths, impartial truths, and rumors. You see, when I was a kid, I played Cowboys and Indians. Now who were the good guys? The cowboys coming over the hill, to rape, pillage innocent women and children. I was always the Indian, Jimmy. I always stood for the underdog. If that makes me a bad person, standing up for what I believe in, then I guess you got me dead to rights, I'm a bad man.
I was eight years old, at Minnesauke Elementary School, playing a game of "kill the guy with the ball," which may even be an Olympic sport these days. And in chasing one of the other students, I made a leap for his legs, and the back of his foot kicked me in the lip. And I didn't know what happened. I knew it hurt, Jimmy, I knew it hurt bad. But all of a sudden, people started looking at me in a different way, like there was something wrong with me. I looked down at my Chicago Bears, back in the days when they were two and twelve in the waning days of Dick Butkus, and my Chicago Bears white sweatshirt, it suddenly turned red. And children were running from me, scared. I was bleeding, I was in pain... and I was loving it, because I felt like I'd finally found something in my life that I could better than everybody else, handle pain.
Someone said "Ah, that's just vampire blood," and then saw the open wound from which the blood was flowing. I've still got that shirt, Jimmy, and I remember thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could do something in my life where I could do this all the time?" Get that attention every night... stockbrokers can't do it... teachers can't do it... the President of the United States can't bleed for a living... but pro wrestlers can. It's the first time that I realized that I had a calling in my life, and I followed it right down the line. That's all I wanted to do. My brother and I watched them all. Chief Jay Strongbow... Bruno Sammartino... the Valiant Brothers, that's what we wanted to be. Then I broke his nose by backdropping him into his bedroom wall, and mom said "no more wrestling." But she didn't say "no more dreaming."
You know, I wanna tell my son, when he gets to be fifteen, not to be the guy who eats strange things. I never exactly brought it upon myself. Other people and their cliques, for lack of a better word, they would gang up on me because I was different, because I acted different, looked different. They were throwing worms at me, Jimmy. Little wiggly worms they were throwing at me. Bending down in athletic class, doing my hurdler's stretch, and there was a bombardment of worms being thrown at me. So what do you do to retaliate? Do you throw the worm back, at seven or eight people? It's not the fact they were hurting me, they were wounding my pride. They were looking at me like I was garbage. So I picked up the largest specimen, Jimmy, and I sucked it down! To show them that their attempt to hurt my pride would not be successful... I thought, Jimmy, that I had shown them. But then sure enough, the story became exaggerated as everything in life does, and it no longer became, "Well, Mickey Foley ate one worm because some kids were picking on him." It became, "Mickey Foley eats a plateful of worms every day." Do you think I got many dates after that, Jimmy?
Probably not.
Do you think girls wanted to kiss a boy who had worms on his breath? I'm a good kisser, but I never got the chance to show it! What am I gonna do, practice on myself, Jimmy?! I never had the chance to show the world that I could love and could be loved, because they ruled me out because I had a strange appetite for strange things! I'm not gonna say I didn't accept money to eat other strange things, but the fact is the damage had been done, and I went through my entire high school days without date number one! You don't think that scarred my soul?! Well, maybe you're not looking deep enough!
It was 1983, and upstate New York, with its endless rolling fields, might be a nice place for a lot of boys. But not when Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco were in a cage in October in Madison Square Garden, that's where I wanted to be! I didn't wanna ride horses along a field, I didn't wanna fish for trout in a stream, I wanted to be where the blood and guts were, Jimmy. So I put out my thumb, Jimmy, and it took me sixteen or seventeen hours, but I made my way up to the Garden. It took just about all the money I had in the world, but I got a front row seat. And I saw the move that would change my life, when Jimmy Snuka came off the top of the cage, and I saw people stand up, and I saw people cheer, and I know I wasn't the only person who's life was changed in that arena. And I realized, Jimmy... that I wanted to do the same thing. I wanted to hear people cheer for me because of some act of bravery that I committed. I wanted to hear and see people's emotions, I wanted to see children cry out of-- out of love for me, the things I could do inside a ring. That's my first time in Madison Square Garden, and my parents weren't there. I did it just like I've done just about everything else in my life, all by myself.
I made a movie when I was eighteen, about myself, maybe as a type of escape, where I was a wrestler. And it's strange, the first time I ever met Shawn Michaels... you know him?
Oh, yeah. Very well.
He looked at my scarred and battered body. He didn't know me, but he knew the legend of who I was before. And he said, "Is this the way you always envision yourself?" Looking somewhat down on me. And I said, "No. You know, the strange thing is I always imagined myself being you." And he said, "You mean the champ?" I said, "No. I mean, the girls... jewelry... the tattoos... the love." So in my movie, I was not Mick Foley, I sure as hell wasn't Mankind, I was Dude Love.
[footage of "Dude Love" is shown]
DLDude Love
We are gonna tear this rotten apple to its stinking New York core! And while we're here, we're here for only one reason, one reason only! Fame, honor, fortune, glory, to destruct, to destroy, and to take that WWF championship belt, that World Wrestling Federation championship belt...
And during the course of the movie, dating back to my experience at Madison Square Garden, I decided I was going to do something heroic. I was going to do something that would make people cheer for me. So, I ascended up onto my friend's roof, and I dove off.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's Criminal Minds pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.