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.

Biography

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 both thrown off of the "Hell in a Cell" (which is similar to a steel cage but with a mesh ceiling as well) and onto an announcing table, which broke under his weight and left him unconscious (a fall of approximately sixteen feet), and subsequently, after doggedly continuing the match after coming to, choke-slammed through the ceiling into the wrestling ring, an even more devastating "bump", as a chair followed him downwards, landing on his face and knocking out a tooth. Foley still cannot clearly recollect this entire match.

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] (http://www.nzpwi.co.nz/interviews/2003/mick.foley/index.shtml)

Foley presented TNN's Robot Wars for a period in 2003.

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.

Throughout his career, and under all of his aliases, Foley has proved extremely popular to his fans, even when he wrestled as a villain. Foley has always been accesible 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.

Author

He has written several books: two autobiographies, Have a Nice Day! (2000) and Foley Is Good (2002), three children's books, Mick Foley's Halloween Hijinx and Mick Foley's Christmas Chaos, Tietam Brown (2003) and recently written Tales from Wrescal Lane (2004), 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.

Aliases

Foley most famously wrestled as Cactus Jack in independent promotions, at times billed as Cactus Jack Manson during those early years. He was just Cactus Jack when later wrestling in WCW, Smoky Mountain Wrestling and ECW however. On September 13, 1986 he wrestled as simply Jack Foley for the WWE and when he later joined the company permanently he debuted as Mankind in March 1996, later developing Dude Love in early 1997, and finally bringing back Cactus Jack in a match against Hunter Hearst Helmsley in Madison Square Garden on September 22, 1997. Only on five 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; and in a loss while teaming with Rock in a handicap tag match at WrestleMania XX against Orton, Batista and Ric Flair where he was pinned by Orton.

Foley's final match was as Cactus Jack once more, losing a street fight for the WWE Intercontinental Championship against defending champ Randy Orton at WWE Backlash 2004.

Championship Lineage

External Links

• Official web site (http://www.mickfoley.com/)
• Mick Foley (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0284201/) at the Internet Movie Database
• an unofficial but reliable Mick Foley FAQ (http://www.angelfire.com/nj/jackepstein/cactus.html)