Mick Foley
Michael Francis "Mick" Foley (born June 7, 1965) is an American professional wrestler. He has wrestled under the names Cactus Jack, Dude Love, Mankind and Mick Foley.
Foley was noted for his hardcore matches, which frequently involved some kind of injury. These include at least six concussions, part of his ear being ripped off, and over 300 stitches. One of his most famous matches happened during the World Wrestling Federation's King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1998. Foley, in his Mankind persona, was wrestling The Undertaker when he was choke-slammed through a steel cage into the wrestling ring, a 16-foot fall which knocked him unconscious for several minutes. Nonetheless, he continued the match after coming to.
In 1995, he won the Japanese IWA King of the Death Match Tournament (as Cactus Jack). This is where he received the scars on his arms, burns from concussive explosives.
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." [1]
He has written several books, including the autobiographies Have a Nice Day! (2000), Foley Is Good (2002) and the novel Tietam Brown (2003), all of which have received favourable reviews. Despite his autobiographies going to number 1 in the American bestsellers list, many reviewers refused to review his novel because it was written by a professional wrestler.
On December 1, 2003, Foley returned to WWE television in a non-wrestling role. In a new storyline, he replaced Stone Cold Steve Austin as co-general manager of RAW. Two weeks later, he was scheduled to wrestle Randy Orton, but did not work the match. As part of the angle, he walked out of the arena without wrestling. He later made a surprise appearance at the 2004 Royal Rumble, eliminating Orton from the main event battle royal. He then immediately eliminated himself from the Royal Rumble to "fight" Orton as the two exited the ring.
Foley and Orton then were booked in a feud that led to a 3-on-2 tag team match at WrestleMania XX, in which Orton's team of "Evolution" (himself, Ric Flair, and Batista) defeated "The Rock and Sock Connection" (The Rock and Foley). This result, however, did not end the Foley-Orton feud; the two worked a one-on-one match at the subsequent Backlash pay-per-view, with Foley resurrecting his Cactus Jack persona for the event. Orton won the match; much of the smark community considered this match one of the best of 2004. Many smarks also believe that Foley's work in putting Orton over in these two matches has put Orton on the track to superstardom.