Mick Foley

Mick Foley
Born	June 7, 1965 Bloomington, Indiana
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Cactus Jack Cactus Jack Foley Cactus Jack Manson Dude Love Jack Foley Mankind Mick Foley Nick Foley Super Zodiac #2
Billed height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Billed weight	287 lb (130 kg)
Billed from	Truth or Consequences, New Mexico - As Cactus Jack; The Boiler Room- As Mankind; Long Island, New York - As Mick Foley
Trained by	Dominic DeNucci
Debut	June 24, 1985

Mick Foley Sr. (born Michael Francis Foley on June 7, 1965) is a American bestselling author and part-time professional wrestler. Foley is best known for his stint in the early days of World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment.

Early life

Foley was born in Bloomington, Indiana. Shortly after he was born, Foley's family moved to East Setauket, Long Island, New York, where Foley attended Ward Melville High School, and played lacrosse and wrestled. While a student at State University of New York at Cortland he hitchhiked to Madison Square Garden to see his favorite wrestler, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka in a steel cage match against Don Muraco. Foley has said that Snuka's flying body splash from the top of the cage inspired him to pursue a career in pro wrestling. (WWE has actual video showing Foley at the event, which it has aired from time to time.)

Early wrestling career

Foley formally trained at Dominic DeNucci's wrestling school in Erie, Pennsylvania and debuted in June 1985. In addition to appearing on DeNucci's cards, Foley and several other students also took part in some squash matches for WWF TV tapings.

After several years of wrestling in the independent circuit, Foley began receiving offers from various regional promotions. He joined Memphis-based CWA as Cactus Jack, where he teamed with Gary Young as part of the Stud Stable. Cactus and Young briefly held the CWA tag titles in late 1988. On November 20, Foley left CWA for Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling.

In WCCW Cactus Jack, billed as "Cactus Jack Manson", was a major part of Skandor Akbar's stable, feuding with top faces, including Eric Embry. Foley also won several titles, including the company's light heavyweight and tag team titles before leaving the company. He then briefly competed in Alabama's Continental Wrestling Federation before signing with Herb Abrams's Universal Wrestling Federation. , In UWF Foley teamed with Bob Orton to feud with Don Muraco, Sunny Beach, and Brian Blair. Foley amassed a cult following because of his growing repertoire of high-risk moves. During a match in July 1991, Foley debuted the Double-arm DDT, which he used as a finisher for years to follow.

He soon left UWF for Tri-State Wrestling, whose style of high impact and violent wrestling style fit Foley well. On one night, known as Tri-State's Summer Sizzler 1991, Cactus Jack and Eddie Gilbert had three matches in one night: Cactus won a Falls Count Anywhere Match, then lost a Stretcher Match, and then fought to a double disqualification in a Steel Cage Match. These matches caught the attention of World Championship Wrestling promoters, and after a brief stint working in GWF, he joined WCW.,

WCW 1991-1994

On September 5, 1991 Cactus Jack debuted as a heel and attacked Sting. After feuds with Van Hammer and Abdullah the Butcher, Cactus Jack faced Sting, then WCW champion, in a non-title Falls Count Anywhere Match at Beach Blast 1992 that Sting won. For a long time, Foley considered this the best match he ever worked.

Cactus Jack first wrestled Vader on April 6, 1993. Foley and Leon White wanted an intense match, so they agreed that Vader would hit Cactus with a series of heavy blows to the face. WCW edited the match heavily because it was against their policies to show the bleeding that resulted. Foley suffered a broken nose, a dislocated jaw and needed 27 stitches, but Cactus won the match via countout. Because the title did not change hands on a countout, WCW booked a rematch. However, Foley wanted some time off to be with his newborn daughter and get surgery to repair a knee injury. As a result, in the rematch with Vader on April 23, the two executed a dangerous spot to sell a storyline injury. Vader removed the protective mats at ringside and power-bombed Cactus onto the exposed concrete floor, causing a legitimate concussion and causing Foley to temporarily lose sensation in his left foot and hand.

While Foley was away, WCW ran an angle where Cactus Jack's absence was explained with a farcical comedy storyline in which he went crazy, was institutionalized, escaped, and developed amnesia. Foley had wanted the injury storyline to be very serious and generate genuine sympathy for him before his return. The comedy vignettes that WCW produced instead were so bad that Foley jokes in Have a Nice Day that they were the brainchild of WCW executives who regarded a surefire moneymaking feud as a problem that needed to be solved.

Foley returned in the fall of 1993 to save the British Bulldog from an attack by Vader. He then proceeded to feud with Vader and other wrestlers managed by Harley Race, Jack's former manager. In one of WCW's most brutal matches of all time, Cactus faced Vader in a Texas Death Match at Halloween Havoc. Race won the match for Vader by using a cattle prod on Cactus, knocking him out for over 10 seconds. The level of violence involved in this feud caused WCW to refuse to ever again book Cactus Jack against Vader on a PPV.

On March 16 1994, during a WCW European tour, Foley and Vader had one of the most infamous matches in wrestling history in Munich, Germany. Foley began a hangman, a spot where a wrestler's head is tangled between the top two ring ropes. The spot is usually painful but safe. However, unbeknownst to Foley, a wrestler (2 Cold Scorpio) had earlier complained that the ropes were too loose, resulting in the ring staff tightening the ropes to the maximum. As Foley struggled to pull himself out, he tore his ear off completely. He underwent surgery later that day to reattach the cartilage from the ear to his head, so that a total reconstruction would be possible in the future. Later that year, Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan were scheduled to win the tag team titles at Slamboree 1994. Foley had to choose between reattaching his ear or wrestling in the PPV and winning the titles. Foley chose to wrestle and won his only championship in WCW. Foley has said several times that he was frustrated by WCW's reluctance to work a storyline around losing his ear.

At Bash at the Beach 1994, Cactus Jack and Sullivan lost the tag team titles to Paul Orndorff and Paul Roma, and Sullivan then blamed Cactus for the loss. Cactus Jack officially turned heel when he attacked Kevin's (kayfabe) brother Dave Sullivan - however, as Foley states in Have a Nice Day, the Sullivan brothers aroused so little sympathy from viewers that the fans reacted as though Cactus were the face. Cactus and Kevin Sullivan engaged in a summer-long feud, which culminated in a Loser Leaves Town match at Fall Brawl 1994, which Cactus lost, ending his WCW career. After losing, Cactus decided to split his wrestling between SMW, ECW, and Japan.

ECW, SMW, and Japan 1994-1996

After leaving WCW, Mick decided to bank on the success and popularity of his violent, brutal matches by making them his specialty. He went to the newly formed Extreme Championship Wrestling, and began a feud with a man as noted for "insanity" as he was: Sabu. Cactus Jack had a brutal, bloody feud with Sabu creating some memorable matches.

Jack then began working the ECW tag team division on teams with Terry Funk, Mikey Whipwreck and Kevin Sullivan.

At the tail end of 1994, Foley joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling as Cactus Jack, causing Boo Bradley to lose the TV Title. Cactus Jack then began a crusade to rid Bradley of his valet Tammy Sytch. He ignited a feud between Chris Candido and Bradley when he accused Candido of having sexual relations with Sytch. Cactus Jack left SMW before the feud was resolved.

In 1995 Foley went to Japan and wrestled in IWA, where he engaged in brutal feuds with Terry Funk and Shoji Nakamaki. However, Foley soon returned to ECW to feud with The Sandman. Terry Funk returned to team up with Sandman, and during a particularly violent spot, the pair hit Cactus with a Singapore cane 46 times. Cactus Jack then defeated Terry Funk at Hostile City Showdown 1995. Later, he fought Sandman for the ECW championship. During the match, Cactus Jack knocked Sandman unconscious and was declared the winner. However, referee Bill Alfonso reversed his decision on the grounds that the title cannot change hands by knockout. Cactus Jack also faced Sandman in a barbed wire match.

Returning to the IWA, Cactus Jack began a feud with Leatherface, whom he had betrayed during a tag team match. Foley also continued to wrestle in independent circuits, winning championships on the Ozark Mountain and Steel City circuits.

On August 20 1995, IWA organized a "King of the Death Match" tournament. Each level of the tournament featured a new and deadly gimmick: Cactus Jack's first round was a barbed-wire baseball bat, thumbtack death match, in which he defeated Terry Gordy; the second round was a barbed-wire board, bed of nails match where Cactus Jack defeated Shoji Nakamaki. The final, against Terry Funk, was a barbed-wire rope, barbed-wire and C4 board, time-bomb death match, which Cactus Jack won with help from Tiger Jeet Singh. After the match, both men were ravaged by the wire, and burned by the C4 explosions. Foley later said on his Greatest Hits and Misses: A Life in Wrestling DVD that he only received $300 for the entire night. After the tournament, he teamed with Tracy Smothers for a quick run with the IWA tag team titles.

Foley then returned to ECW to team with Tommy Dreamer. At this time he began a "anti-hardcore" gimmick, which aggravated his partner. This lasted until August 5, 1995. During a match between himself and Tommy Dreamer against the Pitbulls, Cactus Jack DDT'ed his partner and joined Raven's Nest, as he wished to serve Raven's "higher purpose." He would remain one of Raven's top henchmen for the remainder of his time in ECW. On August 28, 1995, he defeated the previously undefeated 911. For Foley's heel gimmick, he began praising WWF and WCW on ECW television. This infuriated WWF hater Shane Douglas, as well as the fans, and the two met in a match that ended when Cactus Jack was put into a figure four leglock and hit repeatedly with a chair by Mikey Whipwreck. Foley's last ECW match was against Whipwreck in April 1996. Foley later said that this was his favorite moment of his career. Although he had been playing a heel, he received enormous support during the match from the crowd.

World Wrestling Federation 1996-2001, 2003-Present

Multiple Personalities

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Mankind

Foley arrived in the WWF in 1996 with a new gimmick: Mankind, a tortured soul who lived in a boiler room, spoke to a rat, pulled out his hair during matches and wore a Hannibal Lecter-inspired mask in the ring. Mankind debuted the day after WrestleMania XII, quickly moving into a feud with The Undertaker. This feud continued through King of the Ring 1996, Mankind's WWF pay-per-view debut. During the match, the Undertaker's manager Paul Bearer "accidentally" struck him with the urn, allowing Mankind to apply the Mandible Claw for the win. The two then began interfering in each other's matches until they were booked in a Boiler Room Brawl Match, in which the goal was to escape the arena's boiler room and reach the ring to take the urn from Paul Bearer. The Undertaker appeared to have won, but Paul Bearer refused to hand him the urn, allowing Mankind to win.

Mankind then earned #1 contendership to the WWF World Championship versus Shawn Michaels at In Your House: Mind Games 1996. Michaels won by disqualification via interference by Vader and The Undertaker. Foley considers this match his best ever, saying "Sure, at 280 pounds I still looked like hell, but after a brutal cardiovascular training regimen, I was able to go full-tilt for twenty-seven minutes with a smaller, quicker, better athlete than me."

The Mankind-Undertaker feud continued with a Buried Alive match at In Your House: Buried Alive 1996. Undertaker won the match, but Paul Bearer, Terry Gordy, Mankind and other heels attacked 'Taker and buried him alive. Afterward, he challenged Mankind to a match at Survivor Series 1996, which he won. The feud ended after one more match at In Your House: Revenge of the Taker 1997 for the WWF Championship (which Undertaker had won at WrestleMania 13). Undertaker won the match and Bearer took a leave of absence, ending the feud.

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Dude Love

Jim Ross began conducting a series of interviews with Mankind. During the interviews, Ross brought up the topic of Foley's home videos and the character he played in them, Dude Love. Around this time, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels won the WWF Tag Team Championships from Owen Hart and the British Bulldog, but Michaels was injured and could no longer compete. Mankind tried to replace him, but Austin said he wanted "nothing to do with a freak" and resigned himself to facing Hart and the Bulldog alone the next week. Halfway into the match, however, Dude Love suddenly appeared and helped Austin take the victory. Dude Love and Austin became the new Tag Team Champions.

Austin and Dude vacated their tag team titles when Austin suffered a serious neck injury at SummerSlam 1997. Dude Love feuded with Hunter Hearst Helmsley, as the two competed in a Falls Count Anywhere Match. One of Foley's best vignettes aired before the match began, in which Dude Love and Mankind discussed who should wrestle the upcoming match. Eventually, "they" decided that it should be Cactus Jack, and Foley's old character made his WWF debut. Jack won the match with a piledriver through a table. Shortly thereafter, Terry Funk joined the Federation as "Chainsaw Charlie", and he and Jack defeated the New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania XIV to win the tag team titles. The next night, however, Vince McMahon stripped them of the belts and scheduled a rematch in a steel cage, which the Outlaws won with help from their new allies, D-Generation X.

On April 6, 1998, Foley turned heel when Cactus Jack explained the fans would not see him anymore because they didn't appreciate him and only cared about Stone Cold Steve Austin. Vince McMahon explained to Austin the next week that he would face a "mystery" opponent at Unforgiven 1998. That opponent turned out to be Dude Love, and the two wrestled to a no contest. Vince, displeased with the outcome, required Foley to prove he deserved another shot at Austin's title with a #1 Contendership match against his former partner, Terry Funk. The match was both the WWF's first ever "Hardcore Match" and the first time that Foley wrestled under his own name. Foley won, and after the match, a proud Mr. McMahon came out to Dude Love's music and presented Foley with the Dude Love costume. At Over the Edge 1998 Dude Love took on Austin for the title. McMahon designated his subordinates as the timekeeper and ring announcer and made himself the special referee. Despite McMahon's support, Dude Love lost and was "fired" by McMahon the next night.

Hell in a Cell

Main article: Hell in a Cell

Foley then reverted to his Mankind character, who began wearing an untucked shirt with a loose necktie and feuding with The Undertaker. At King of the Ring 1998, the two competed in the second-ever Hell in a Cell match. The match became one of his most famous of all time, as Foley received numerous injuries and took two extremely dangerous and highly influential bumps. The first one came as both wrestlers were brawling on top of the cell, and Undertaker threw Mankind from a height of twenty six feet and sent him crashing through the Spanish announcers' table. This fall was planned. According to Foley in Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses, the second was accidental. With both men back on the top of the cell, Undertaker chokeslammed Mankind, and a section of the cage gave way. Foley fell through and hit the ring hard. A chair that had been atop the cage also slammed Foley's head and knocked out a tooth as he hit the canvas. He was also knocked unconscious for a few moments from the impact, but he finished the match after waking up. Although Mankind lost, both wrestlers received a standing ovation for the match, 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. In his autobiography Have a Nice Day! A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Foley wrote that he couldn't remember much of what happened, and he had to watch a tape of the match to write about it. The match was voted Pro Wrestling Illustrated's Match of the Year for 1998. Although many fans regard the match as a classic, it has generated controversy as well. Critics charge that the falls in the match were so extreme and they set the bar for further bumps so high that the inevitable attempts to equal or surpass them would be unsafe for the wrestlers involved. Additionally, in his autobiography, Terry Funk states that both falls, including the second one through the cage, were planned. Some sources, including Power Slam magazine and Pro Wrestling Torch, have claimed Foley denied planning this bump to placate his wife, who was furious with him after the match. Foley said in his first book that his wife cried during a post match phone conversation between the two, and this made Foley strongly consider retiring from wrestling. He also said that after the match, Vince McMahon thanked him for all he had done for the company, but made Foley promise to "never do anything like that again."

WWF Championship and Retirement

Although conventional wisdom holds that the Hell in a Cell match was responsible for Foley's rise to main event status, live television crowds did not initially get behind Mankind because of the match. Foley decided that crowds might respond better if Mankind were more of a comedy character, and so he became less of a tortured soul and more of a goofy, broken down oaf.

While Vince McMahon was in a hospital nursing wounds suffered at the hands of Undertaker and Kane, Mankind arrived to cheer him up. He succeeded only in irritating McMahon, at which point he unveiled a sock puppet named Mr. Socko. Intended to be a one-time joke, Socko became an overnight sensation, with Mankind even putting Socko on his hand before applying his finisher, the Mandible claw.

McMahon manipulated Mankind, who saw the WWF owner as a father figure, into doing his bidding. McMahon created the Hardcore Championship for Mankind and creating a new division of hardcore wrestlers. McMahon awarded Mankind the Hardcore Championship making him the first-ever champion in the hardcore division. Mankind was then pushed as the favorite to win the WWF Championship at Survivor Series 1998. He and The Rock both reached the finals, where McMahon turned on Mankind. As The Rock placed Mankind in the Sharpshooter, McMahon ordered the timekeeper to ring the bell even though Mankind did not give up, a reference to the Montreal Screwjob from the year before. After McMahon's betrayal, Mankind became the #2 babyface in the company behind Steve Austin.

After weeks of trying to get his hands on Mr. McMahon's new faction, the Corporation, Mankind received a title shot with The Rock at In Your House 1998. Mankind dominated, knocking The Rock out with the Mandible Claw, but McMahon ruled that the title would not change hands because The Rock never gave up. After several weeks of going after the Corporation, Mankind had his big night on December 29, 1998, where Mankind defeated The Rock and won his first WWF championship. The taped show would be broadcast on January 4, 1999 — the latter being the official date of his first championship run.

Having title changes on broadcast television rather than pay-per-view was uncommon in professional wrestling. However, because of the Monday Night Wars, TV ratings became more important. The rival WCW, attempting to take advantage of the fact that their show Monday Nitro aired live while Mankind's title victory was taped the week before, had announcer Tony Schiavone reveal the ending of the Mankind-Rock match before it aired. He then added sarcastically, "That'll put a lot of butts in the seats." The move backfired for 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 took great personal pride from this, and "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat" signs began showing up at WWF events.

Mankind first lost the WWF title to The Rock in a brutal I Quit Match at Royal Rumble 1999. During the match Foley took several impressive and dangerous bumps, including eleven unprotected chairshots. This match is featured on Barry Blaustein's documentary Beyond the Mat, which shows the impact the match had on Foley and his family at ringside. The match ended after Mankind lost consciousness and The Rock's allies played a recording of Mankind saying "I Quit" from an earlier interview. The match led to some legitimate tension between Foley and The Rock for a time, because in the planning for the match, far fewer chairshots were to have been used. The match was also voted 1999's Match of the Year by the readers of Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

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Mick Foley as Mankind in Beyond the Mat

Mankind won the title back at a rematch on Halftime Heat 1999, which aired during halftime at Super Bowl XXXIII, in the WWF's first ever Empty Arena Match. The two then competed in a brutal Last Man Standing match at St. Valentines Day Massacre, which ended without a winner, meaning that Mankind retained the title. The next night, Mr. McMahon booked a ladder match for the championship, which The Rock won with help from The Big Show.

Later in the year, Foley and The Rock patched up their friendship, and teamed up to form a comedy team called the Rock 'n' Sock Connection, becoming one of the most popular teams during that time. The pair won the tag team titles on three occasions.

Foley returned from knee surgery as Mankind to win the WWF Championship for the third time at SummerSlam 1999 in a triple threat match against Steve Austin and Triple H. It is believed that Mankind was booked to win the championship that night because Austin refused to lose it to Triple H. , Triple H defeated Mankind and won the title the next night on Raw.

As 1999 neared its end, Foley told Vince McMahon that he had to retire because his body was giving way. However, with stars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin and the Undertaker out with injuries, Foley decided to postpone his retirement out of loyalty to the company. A major feud developed between Mankind and the McMahon-Helmsley regime, led by Triple H, in late 1999. It led to Mankind's reverting to his Cactus Jack persona and then facing Triple H for the WWF Championship at Royal Rumble 2000 in a street fight. Cactus used barbed wire and thumbtacks, trademark weapons from his pre-WWF days, but Triple H won the match after delivering two pedigrees, the second onto a pile of tacks. This feud culminated with a rematch at No Way Out 2000 in a Hell in a Cell match, where stipulations held that if Cactus Jack did not win the title, Mick Foley would retire from wrestling. Triple H won, ostensibly ending Foley's career.

Foley left for a few weeks but returned at the request of Linda McMahon to wrestle for the title at WrestleMania 2000 against Triple H, The Rock, and The Big Show. Triple H won, and Foley did not wrestle again for four years. Foley stated many times that it was his dream to headline a WrestleMania PPV and many believe that this was a thank you from the company for all he had given to the business.

WWF Commissioner 2000-2001

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Mick Foley as Cactus Jack on the DVD cover of Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses: A Life in Wrestling

After retiring from active competition, Foley served as storyline WWF Commissioner. Foley has said that he intended for his Commissioner Foley character to be a "role model for nerds", cracking lame jokes and making no attempt to appear tough or scary. Foley turned getting cheap pops into something of a catchphrase, as he shamelessly declared at each WWF show that he was thrilled to be "right here in (whatever city he was preforming in)!". During this time, Commissioner Foley engaged in rivalries with Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian, and Vince McMahon without actually wrestling them. He left the position in December 2000 after being "fired" on screen by Vince McMahon.

Foley would make a surprise return to the edition of Monday Night Raw just prior to WrestleMania X-7, telling Mr. McMahon that he (Foley) would be the special guest referee in the match between Mr. McMahon and his son Shane at WrestleMania. Foley was hit with a chair by McMahon during the match in Houston, but later exacted revenge on the WWF Chairman during the match by assaulting Mr. McMahon, which contributed to Shane winning the match. Foley made sporadic WWF TV appearances throughout that spring and summer, at one point introducing Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura during a taping of RAW in the state as a foil to Mr. McMahon.

Foley returned as commissioner in October 2001, near the end of the infamous WCW Invasion angle. During this brief tenure, Foley had the opportunity to shoot on the WWF's direction and how dissatisfied he was with it. Saying that there were far too many championships in the company, he booked unification matches prior to the final PPV of the storyline, Survivor Series. After Survivor Series, he ended his commissionership at Vince McMahon's request and left the company. Foley and McMahon supposedly had a falling out with each other at the time, and Foley was absent from the WWE for almost two years.

Sporadic appearances and a new contract 2003-Present

Foley returned in 2003 to referee the Hell In A Cell Match between Triple H and Kevin Nash at Bad Blood. On June 23, 2003, during a Raw broadcast in Madison Square Garden, he was honored for his achievements in the ring and presented with the retired WWE Hardcore Championship belt. The evening ended with Foley taking a beating and kicked down stairs by Randy Orton and Ric Flair.

In December 2003, Foley returned to replace Steve Austin as co-general manager of Raw. He soon grew tired of the day-to-day travel and left his full-time duties to write and spend time with his family. In the storyline, Foley was afraid to wrestle a match with Intercontinental Champion Randy Orton and walked out of the arena rather than face him.

In 2004, Foley returned briefly to wrestling, competing in the Royal Rumble and eliminating both Randy Orton and himself with a clothesline. He and The Rock reunited as the Rock 'n' Sock Connection and lost a handicap match to Evolution at WrestleMania XX when Randy Orton pinned Foley. The two continued to feud, culminating in a hardcore match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship at Backlash 2004, where Orton defeated Cactus Jack to retain the title.

Foley appeared as a color commentator at WWE's ECW One Night Stand 2005 PPV, which aired on June 12, 2005 and subsequently renewed his contract with WWE. In an interview with "Between The Ropes" on August 31, 2005, Foley acknowledged that prior to signing with WWE he had been negotiating a deal with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. Foley returned in 2005 in a match where fans were able to vote on which persona he would appear as—Mankind, Dude Love, or Cactus Jack—against Carlito at Taboo Tuesday 2005. Foley cut promos for each character and an online vote was held. The fans voted for Mankind, who went on to win the match with the mandible claw.

On the February 16, 2006 Raw, Foley returned to referee the WWE championship match between Edge and John Cena. After Cena won, Edge attacked Foley, and the following week, Edge challenged Foley to a match at WrestleMania 22, where Edge defeated Foley. In the weeks after the match, Foley turned heel and allied himself with Edge against the newly rejuvenated ECW. At ECW One Night Stand 2006, Foley, Edge and Lita defeated Terry Funk, Tommy Dreamer and Beulah after Edge speared Beulah for the win.

Foley then recently engaged in a storyline rivalry with Ric Flair, inspired by real-life animosity between the two. In Have a Nice Day!, Foley wrote that Flair was "every bit as bad on the booking side of things as he was great on the wrestling side of it". In response, Flair wrote in his autobiography that Foley was "a glorified stuntman" and that he was able to climb the ladder in the WWF only because he was friends with the bookers. The two had a backstage confrontation at a Raw event in 2003, but Foley has said that they have largely reconciled. To spark the feud, Flair again called Foley a "glorified stuntman" and Foley called Flair a "washed up piece of crap" and challenged him to a match. The result was a 2 out of 3 Falls Match at Vengeance 2006, where Flair beat Foley in two straight falls. The two then wrestled an I Quit match at SummerSlam 2006, which Flair won when he forced Foley to quit by threatening Melina. On the August 21, 2006 edition of Raw, Mick Foley literally kissed Vince McMahon's ass after he threatened to fire Melina. Shortly thereafter, Melina betrayed Foley and subsequently announced that he was fired. To further sell the storyline, he was taken off WWE.com's roster.

Freelance wrestler

Outside of WWE during his time of sporadic appearances, Foley would partially retire from in-ring competition; making more guest appearances and cutting promos rather than actually wrestling. However, Foley would still occasionally compete and made several notable appearances in independent promotions; including Ring of Honor, where he feuded with the likes of Ricky Steamboat, Samoa Joe, CM Punk, and The Embassy. During this time, Foley would be known for making appearances at several supershows like International Showdown, Hardcore Homecoming, WrestleReunion, Ballpark Brawl and the Night of Appreciation for Sabu.

Legacy

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 is also seen as a pioneer of hardcore wrestling. The hardcore match became a staple of WWF programing after Foley had several memorable hardcore-style matches.

Outside wrestling

Writing career

Throughout 1999, Foley wrote his autobiography (without the aid of a ghostwriter, he proudly noted in the introduction) in almost 800 pages of longhand. The book, Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, became hugely popular and topped the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks. The follow-up, Foley is Good: And The Real World is Faker Than Wrestling , was published in 2001 and debuted at #1 on the Times list. Foley has also written three children's books, Mick Foley's Halloween Hijinx, Mick Foley's Christmas Chaos, and Tales from Wrescal Lane. He has also authored Tietam Brown, a coming-of-age story which was nominated for the WHSmith People's Choice Award in 2004. Foley's second novel, Scooter, was published in August 2005. His writing has generally received favorable reviews. Currently Foley is said to be writing the third part of his autobiography called "The Hardcore Diaries" this should highlight his 2004 feud with Randy Orton and his match and later partnership with Edge in 2006.

Foley was writing "Foley is Blog" on WWE's website. These blogs focused on Foley's stories and travels in pro wrestling, however, the blog has not been updated since May 2006.

Film, television and radio

One of Foley's earliest acting roles was in 1996. Shortly before he left for Stamford, Foley appeared in Atlanta filmmakers Barry Norman and Michael Williams' short subject Deadbeats as "Bird", an armed robber turned debt collector. One of Foley's first TV guest appearances was as a wrestler on USA Network's short-lived action-comedy G vs. E. He also featured prominently in the documentary Beyond the Mat. He also appeared in Big Money Hustlas as Cactus Sac, which was basically the same character as his Cactus Jack persona. In the late 1990's, Foley hosted a series of Robot Wars dubbed "Extreme Warriors". He also provided a guest voice for one episode of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, in which he portrayed a satirical earthbending wrestler, and provided the voice for Gorrath in the pilot episode of Megas XLR. Foley appeared in an episode of Boy Meets World as Mankind, giving poster advice to Eric Matthews before giving Eric the mandible claw and a helicopter spin. Mick Foley was also a voice in an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch where he's an animated version of Mankind doing a stunt from the ceiling.

Foley has frequently appeared on Air America Radio's Morning Sedition, including several stints as a guest host. He also hosted WWE's radio show, which was held in WWF New York.

Personal life

Mick Foley has participated in numerous Make-A-Wish Foundation events, made surprise visits to children in hospitals and worked with the Christian Children's Fund. Foley has also visited schools and libraries, talking to students about the value of education and the importance of reading and traveled to various military bases and military hospitals to visit U.S. troops.

Foley is a registered Democrat and is a critic of Republican President George W. Bush. In the summer of 2004, Mick Foley spoke at the College Democrats of America Convention in Boston. He also opposed conservative John Layfield in a special debate on Raw prior to the 2004 presidential election.

Mick Foley is married to Collette Foley, née Colette Christie. The couple has three sons, Dewey Francis (born in 1992), Michael Francis, Jr. (born in 2001), a third son Huey (born in 2003), who was mentioned on the August 21, 2006 episode of Raw and a daughter, Noelle Margaret (born in 1993).

Wrestling facts

File:Mankindmandibleclaw.jpg

Foley (as Mankind) applies the Mandible claw to The Rock.

• Finishing and signature moves

• Mandible Claw / Mr. Socko / Love Handle
• Cactus Elbow (Running diving elbow drop from the ring apron down to the floor)
• Double arm DDT
• Cactus Clothesline
• Cactus Jack Crack Smash (Diving senton splash)
• Stump-Puller Piledriver (Piledriver to a bent opponent)
• Sweet Shin Music (Superkick to the shin, parodying Shawn Michaels' Sweet Chin Music)
• Cactus Knee Lift (Running knee to the opponent in the corner)
• Swinging neckbreaker
• Sunset flip
• Low angle double ax handle to the opponent's face while they are hung in the Tree of Woe

• Signature foreign objects

• Mr. Socko (a sock puppet worn by Foley while performing the Mandible Claw) - not considered an illegal object, though it has been known to be wrapped in barbed wire
• Barbie Bat (a wooden baseball bat or two by four wrapped in barbed wire)
• Thumbtacks
• Fire Chair - A steel chair wrapped with a towel covered in lighter fluid and then set ablaze
• Two by four
• Barbed wire

• Theme music

• In Extreme Championship Wrestling Cactus Jack used "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf as his entrance music.
• The Mankind gimmick started with two different pieces of theme music. His entrance music was a classical string piece in a minor key, and after winning a match, he would exit to a soft piano concerto named "Ode to Freud". After the Mankind character began to take off in 1998, he began using a faster version of the strings entrance music, with a drumbeat added.
• After his first WWF title win, Mankind entered and exited to a Federation-produced hard rock song that began with the sound of screeching brakes and finally a collision (called "Wreck"). Foley used the theme during his post-retirement appearances and during his return to wrestling.
• In the WWF, Cactus Jack used a stock rock song with a Western feel. Foley has said that the music has also been used in pornographic movies.
• Dude Love's theme music was a disco song. Foley wrote in Have a Nice Day that he was confused about why a 1960s hippie would use 1970s disco music.
• According to Foley in Have a Nice Day, his theme music during his participation in the King of the Death Match tournament in Japan was a song by thrash-metal band Megadeth. He also commented that the Japanese have a knack for picking cool theme music.

Championships and accomplishments

• Championship Wrestling Association

• CWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Gary Young

• Extreme Championship Wrestling

• ECW World Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Mikey Whipwreck

• Great Lakes Championship Wrestling

• GLCW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• International Wrestling Association (Japan)

• IWA Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Tracy Smothers
• King of the Death Match (1995)

• Music City Wrestling

• MCW North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• National Wrestling League

• NWL Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Ozark Mountain Wrestling

• OMW North American Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Steel City Wrestling

• SCW Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with The Blue Meanie

• World Championship Wrestling

• WCW World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with Kevin Sullivan

• World Class Wrestling Association

• WCWA Light Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
• WCWA Tag Team Championship (2 times) - with Scott Braddock (1) and Gary Young (1)

• World Wrestling Federation

• WWF Championship (3 times)
• WWF Hardcore Championship (1 time, first ever)
• WWF World Tag Team Championship (8 times) - with Stone Cold Steve Austin (1), Chainsaw Charlie (1), Kane (2), Al Snow (1), and The Rock (3)

• Other Titles

• OPWO (UK) World Championship (1 time)
• NAW Heavyweight Championship (1 time)

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him # 46 of the 500 best singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003
• PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler (1993)
• PWI Match of the Year (1998-1999)

^{versus The Undertaker (Hell in a Cell) in 1998}

^{versus The Rock in 1999}

• Wrestling Observer Newsletter

• WON Hall of Fame (inducted in 2000)
• 1991 Best Brawler (as Cactus Jack)
• 1992 Best Brawler (as Cactus Jack)
• 1993 Best Brawler (as Cactus Jack)
• 1994 Best Brawler (as Cactus Jack)
• 1995 Best on Interviews
• 1995 Best Brawler (as Cactus Jack)
• 1996 Best Brawler (as Mankind)
• 1997 Best Brawler (as Mankind)
• 1998 Best Brawler (as Mankind)
• 1999 Best Brawler (as Mankind)
• 1999 Best Brawler {as Mick Foley)
• 2000 Feud of the Year – versus Triple H
• 2000 Best Brawler (as Mick Foley)
• 2004 Best on Interviews
• 2006 Best on Interviews

Trivia

• Foley took his trademark catchphrase "Bang, Bang!" from the B-52's song "Love Shack." The song was running through his head at the end of a match, and he held his fingers up like pistols while reciting the "bang bang bang on the door..." verse.
• At the 1998 Royal Rumble Foley appeared as Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love, the only time in which one performer appeared in the Rumble under multiple gimmicks.
• Foley was leading the online poll for Time Magazine's Man of the Year honor in 1998 before being removed as a candidate.
• Mick Foley helped WWF Raw achieve its highest ratings ever with a segment featuring himself (as Mankind) and The Rock. The "This is Your Life" segment aired on September 27 1999, and received an 8.4 rating.
• Mick Foley is a huge fan and collector of Christmas memorabilia such as ornaments, figurines, music, decorations and the like.

See also

• Mick Foley's Greatest Hits And Misses

Books

• Foley, Mick (1999) Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-039299-1.
• Foley, Mick (2000) Mick Foley's Christmas Chaos. ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-039414-5.
• Foley, Mick (2001) Mick Foley's Halloween Hijinx. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-000251-4.
• Foley, Mick (2001) Foley Is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling. ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-103241-7.
• Foley, Mick (2003) Tietam Brown. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-41550-5.
• Foley, Mick (2004) Tales From Wrescal Lane. World Wrestling Entertainment. ISBN 0-7434-6634-9.
• Foley, Mick (2005) Scooter. Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4414-6.
• Foley, Mick (2007) The Hardcore Diaries (set to be released in March of 2007)

References

Books

• Foley, Mick (1999) Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-039299-1.
• Foley, Mick (2002) Foley Is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling. ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-103241-7.

Video

• Foley, Mick (Subject) (2000). WWE - Mick Foley - Hard Knocks & Cheap Pops (DVD). World Wrestling Entertainment. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Foley, Mick (Subject) (2003). WWE - Mick Foley's Greatest Hits and Misses: A Life in Wrestling (DVD). World Wrestling Entertainment. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
• McMahon, Vince (Subject); Bishcoff, Eric (Subject) (2004). The Monday Night War - WWE Raw vs. WCW Nitro (DVD). World Wrestling Entertainment. {{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

External links

• "Biography of Mick Foley's Wrestling Career". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• Clark, Ryan. "Wrestlezone Article Detailing Mick Foley-Ric Flair Backstage Altercation". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "IMDB Mick Foley Trivia". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "General Wrestling Trivia". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "Larry King Interviews Mick Foley and Other WWE Wrestlers". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "List of Mick Foley's Career Injuries". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• Powell, John. "SLAM! Wrestling: Mick Foley Wins WWF World Title, Dedicates Match to his Children". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "Profile and Title History of Mick Foley". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "Profile and Point Biography of Mick Foley". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "Profile and Event History of Mick Foley's Wrestling Career". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "Solie's Title Histories". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "Title History and Match History of Mick Foley". Retrieved 2006-08-23.
• "Trivia at TV.com". Retrieved 2006-08-23.