Mick Foley: Encyclopedia II - Mick Foley - Wrestling career

Mick Foley - Wrestling career

Foley, who became a professional wrestler in 1983, was noted for his hardcore matches, which frequently left him injured. These injuries included eight concussions, part of his ear being ripped off, second degree burns from a C-4 explosion, and over 300 stitches. While he is admittedly not one of the most physically gifted wrestlers of all time, Foley gained notoriety for his thoughtful and intense promos, in-ring tenacity, and willingness to put his body on the line for many dangerous spots. He was also known for having three distinct gimmicks as a wrestler: Cactus Jack, a maniacal and bloodthirsty Western outlaw, Mankind, a tortured soul who hid behind a leather mask and inflicted pain on others to ease his memories of his dark past, and Dude Love, a swinging "hip cat" who loved to shimmy and shake. In addition to these, he occasionally also wrestled as "Mick Foley."

Foley first wrestled and gained popularity in Japan, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Cactus Jack throughout the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s. In 1995, he won the IWA Japan King of the Death Match Tournament by beating Terry Funk in a no rope, exploding barbwire board death match. He achieved his highest success, however, in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) as Mankind, arriving in 1996 and winning the WWF Championship on an episode of RAW which aired on January 4th, 1999. On the night Foley's title win was to be broadcast, WCW announcer Tony Schiavone announced on WCW's competing Monday Nitro that Foley would win his first championship, which WCW knew because the WWF's Raw had been taped previously and Nitro was live. He then added the sarcastic remark, "That'll put a lot of butts in the seats." This proved to be a mistake on the part of WCW, as Nielsen ratings showed that over half a million viewers switched from Nitro to Raw almost immediately, despite the Hogan vs. Nash main event which led to the reformation of the nWo. Foley later stated that he took great personal pride from this, and "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat" signs were seen in arenas for years afterward.

One of his most famous matches occurred during the WWF King of the Ring PPV in 1998, when Foley faced The Undertaker in the second ever Hell in a Cell match. Foley received numerous injuries in the course of the match, including minor kidney damage, and took two dangerous and highly influential bumps. Both wrestlers received a standing ovation for the match (which Foley lost), and the event is often said to have jump-started Foley's main event career. Many future matches attempted to replicate some of the spots from this match (a detailed description of the match is available in the Hell in a Cell article). In his autobiography Have a Nice Day! A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Foley remarks that he couldn't remember half of what happened in the match, and that, while writing the book, he had to go back and watch the match again.

In 1998 Mick Foley was a contender for the TIME Magazine Man of the Year title, which was to be decided by an online vote. A huge turnout of wrestling fans gave Foley over 50% of the vote. However, before the final count Time removed him from the competition. "I was told that Time magazine did not feel that I had done anything to make me worthy of being man of the year."

After retiring from active competition, Foley served as storyline WWE Commissioner and later replaced Stone Cold Steve Austin as co-general manager of RAW. He eventually tired of the day-to-day travel and left his full-time duties to write and spend time with his family.

Throughout his career, and under all of his aliases, Foley has proved extremely popular to his fans, even when he wrestled as a heel. Foley has always been accessible to his fans and will spend long periods of time with them signing autographs and posing for pictures. His hard work is often credited with helping to re-establish pro wrestling's popularity after the steroid and sex scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Foley has made numerous appearances in the independent promotion Ring of Honor. He first appeared in ROH in September 2004 at Glory by Honor III and cut a promo calling ROH - "Ring of Hardcore". Later that night, he came to the aid of BJ Whitmer and Dan Maff, spraying the ROH wrestlers with a fire extinguisher. During his time in ROH, he has been involved in feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Samoa Joe and The Embassy. He made his last ROH appearance on September 17, 2005 at Glory by Honor IV, and was in the corner of AJ Styles.

He made run in apperance at Shane Douglas's Hardcore Homecoming as a Guest Ref for Main Event.

He also appeared as a color commentator at WWE's ECW One Night Stand PPV, which aired on 12 June 2005 and would later begin negotiations with WWE Creative regarding a storyline for his return.

Foley has the reputation of "putting over" younger wrestlers, losing to them in order to solidify their place as main eventers.

Mick Foley - Aliases

Foley most famously wrestled as Cactus Jack in the independent circuit, at times billed as Cactus Jack Manson during those early years. He was just Cactus Jack when later wrestling in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, WCW, and ECW, however. When he joined the WWF he debuted as the heel gimmick of Mankind in March 1996, later turning face and becoming Dude Love, his former teenage alter ego and then the babyface gimmick of Mankind with his "friend" Mr. Socko in early 1998, and finally bringing back Cactus Jack in a match against Triple H in Madison Square Garden on September 22, 1997.

Dude Love first appeared on July 14, 1997 on an episode of Raw Is War. He came to the aid of Stone Cold Steve Austin in a match against Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. The Dude Love character was actually created by Foley when he was a teenager growing up in Long Island, New York. A big fan of pro wrestling, Dude Love was Foley's wrestling alter ego among his friends, and Foley appeared as the Dude in home movies, portions of which were later shown on WWF television. He admitted that Dude Love was not his favorite character to play. The Dude Love persona was different from his other characters. Foley last appeared as Dude Love in 1998, but recently appeared as Dude Love on a October 2005 episode of RAW hyping a match "Pick the face of Foley" with Carlito at Taboo Tuesday 2005.

Only on six occasions has Foley wrestled under his own name, a victory versus Terry Funk in a no holds barred falls count anywhere match on May 4, 1998; versus Triple H, The Rock and The Big Show in a fatal four way elimination match for Triple H's WWE Championship at WrestleMania 2000, being the second man eliminated; a forfeit loss to Randy Orton in December 2003; as the 21st entrant into the 2004 Royal Rumble match, eliminating himself and Orton; in a loss while teaming with Rock in a handicap tag match at WrestleMania XX against Orton, Batista and Ric Flair in which he was pinned by Orton; and in a 8 Man Tag Team Match where Foley, Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit and Shelton Benjamin defeated Triple H, Ric Flair, Batista and Randy Orton on the April 12, 2004 episode of WWE RAW.

As Cactus Jack, he lost a Hardcore match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship against defending champion Randy Orton at Backlash 2004. Foley brought out a bat covered in barbed wire, affectionately called "Barby", and lost when Orton used his finisher on Foley onto "Barby". He faced Carlito at Taboo Tuesday 2005 in a match where fans were able to vote on which persona he would appear as: Mankind, Dude Love, or Cactus Jack. The fans voted for "Mankind", and Foley went on to win the match with the Mandible Claw (Foley added an afro to Mr. Socko in an attempt to mock Carlito, who has an afro).

At the 1998 Royal Rumble Foley entered at number 1 as Cactus Jack, he was then eliminated number 2 by Chainsaw Charlie, then Mankind entered at number 16, before being eliminated number 7 by Goldust and finally Dude Love entered number 28 and was eliminated number 27 by Faarooq.

On the December 5, 2005 edition of WWE RAW, Foley was the prosecutor in the Trial of Eric Bischoff. He won the case, and Bischoff was thrown in the back of a garbage truck by Vince McMahon.

At the RAW "Tribute to the Troops" on December 19, 2005 Foley, dressed as Santa Claus, defeated John Bradshaw Layfield with the Mandible Claw.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Wrestling career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki