Open Mike Eagle Won His First-Ever Pro Wrestling Match Last Night, And Mick Foley Congratulated Him
For years, Open Mike Eagle has been one of the sharpest, most unique voices on the rap underground. But now he’s branching out into other art forms, as well. Mike Eagle has always been a huge and vocal pro wrestling fan. He co-hosts a wrestling podcast and occasionally uses the performative sport as a metaphor for certain aspect of the human condition. And now Mike Eagle has done things that few wrestling fans could dream about. He’s wrestled a real match. He’s had a legend in his corner. And he’s won.
Last night, Mike made his in-ring debut, working for Ohio Valley Wrestling in Louisville. He took on Shiloh Jonze, a wrestler whose gimmick is that he’s a rapper. Their issue has been building for a while. Last month, Jonze issued an open challenge for a rap battle, daring any rapper to come at him. On Twitter, Mike scoffed at it:
man…on behalf of rap and wrestling fans
this is f*cking embarrassing https://t.co/kIAR1LBZam
— Open Mike Eagle (@Mike_Eagle) September 13, 2018
I will. https://t.co/2w5t4eYUge
— Open Mike Eagle (@Mike_Eagle) September 19, 2018
Soon afterward, Mike Eagle went to an OVW show and sat in the front row. This led to an impromptu battle with Jonze, and Mike won decisively.
he did not handle my appearance well. pic.twitter.com/ZBhx3dJw5q
— Open Mike Eagle (@Mike_Eagle) September 20, 2018
Jonze responded to this devastating defeat by challenging Mike to a match, something he did while rapping in a supermarket aisle:
And last night, the match went down. In his corner, Mike had someone special: Mick Foley, the WWE Hall Of Famer and three-time WWE Champion who used to wrestle as Mankind, Cactus Jack, and Dude Love. He also had Ken Anderson, who wrestled in WWE as Mr. Kennedy. And Mike won! There’s not much video of the match online, at least not that I could find, but apparently he did a hurricanrana! That is a very difficult move to pull off!
UPDATE: Looks like Foley didn’t just raise Mike’s hand. He also participated in the match, coming to Mike’s aid:
nah he helped me win https://t.co/moqNFYlL0o
— Open Mike Eagle (@Mike_Eagle) October 11, 2018
Here’s what I can find of Mike’s in-ring debut:
@Mike_Eagle makes his wrestling entrance. I’m dead 😂 😂 pic.twitter.com/C3S0d7ppmY
— Young Toastmaster (@GY312) October 11, 2018
Also a blurry picture of Open Mike Eagle's victory, featuring Mick Foley and Mr. Anderson. pic.twitter.com/g9Bjc68L8W
— Freaky! Outie! (@seramarlowe) October 11, 2018
holy shit that hurt
— Open Mike Eagle (@Mike_Eagle) October 11, 2018
As he was preparing for his match, Mike also made a lyric video for his extremely good new single “Relatable (peak OME).” Here’s that:
Mike’s new album What Happens When I Try To Relax is coming soon.