Special Look At Mick Foley – Star Maker

Mick Foley is a legend. A man who can consider himself among the icons of pro-wrestling. He’s a man of many aliases – the Hardcore Legend, Cactus Jack, Dude Love, Mankind, Mrs Foley’s Baby Boy. He can legitimately claim to be another: Mick Foley – Star Maker.

Throughout his career, Foley has either helped to enhance, or establish, the legacy of countless legends – the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Kane, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Edge and Randy Orton are all men who have benefitted from working with Foley. And looking at just those names on paper, that’s a world-class array of some of the best wrestlers of the last two decades.

By the time Foley rocked up in the WWF back in ’96, he’d been around for several years – honing his craft in the territories and wrestling in all of the major promotions in the world.  Make no mistake about it. Foley didn’t appear to be, and wasn’t, a bodybuilder. He looked real. Like a guy who you’d see in a bar. A tough guy. A man who could completely kick your ass, and not feel bad about it.

It was his first WWF PPV match that really stuck with me – at 1996’s King of the Ring. Having been out of the loop for a while, Foley’s appearance really stood out to me.

In a world full of outlandish almost cartoon-like characters, there stood this vicious, snarling, creepy guy – Mankind. With his leather mask and his penchant for brutality, he was completely different to everything else on the show. He was captivating. He’d screech and wail his way through matches, while dishing out some severe punishment along the way.

It wasn’t often that you’d see anyone beat the Undertaker, much less get him to pass out/submit. But that’s exactly what Foley did that night, thanks to an assist from the late Paul Bearer.

Undertaker was undoubtedly Foley’s best opponent. You believed they hated, and wanted to kick the crap out of, each other every time they stepped in the ring. And every time they did, it was like they captured lightning in a bottle. Each match took it to a whole new level, from that match at the 1996 King of the Ring, to their Boiler Room Brawl at SummerSlam to their iconic bloodbath inside Hell in a Cell at the 1998 King of the Ring.

That match is bittersweet for a lot of us, and hard to watch back now.

At the time, you got swept up in the drama and emotion of it all. You ooh’d and aah’d your way through it as Taker and Mick went toe-to-toe in a battle that will go down as one of the greatest pro-wrestling spectacles of all-time. But now…looking back at it (and knowing what happens), you wince at every bump. Every punch. Every time they get near the edge of the roof. It’s scary. Just plain scary.

As much credit as Taker and Mick have to take for not only putting themselves through it, but just GETTING through it, JR and Jerry Lawler captured the action perfectly for those of us watching at home. JR sounded like a man genuinely concerned for his friend, and he was. Even Lawler was dumbfounded by the end of it, at a loss to explain how both men had truly survived Hell in a Cell.

There’s no question that Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin were already stars by the time they worked with Foley. But everyone remembers their matches with him because they were captivating. They drew you in. They were authentic. Crucially, they were real and you believed them.

It’s Foley’s influence on guys like the Rock, HHH, Edge and Orton that can’t be underestimated – Rock in particular.

Looking back at it, we all knew that Rock was destined for greatness. He was the total package. He had the X-factor. Charismatic, marketable, personable. You name it, Rock had/has it.

But…on the cusp of the main-event, he’d never truly been tested. So what did the WWF do? They paired him with Foley and as is typical of both men, magic ensued.

People had to believe that Rock could handle himself in a fight. They knew he could talk the talk (and by God could he!), but could he walk the walk? His feud with Foley for the WWF Title from late ’98 to early ’99 produced unforgettable moments – the perfectly executed double-turn at Survivor Series ’98 and their hellacious I Quit match at the ’99 Rumble are just 2 examples – summed up expertly by the night that Mick Foley turned the Monday Night Wars on their head.

On an episode of Raw taped in late December of ’98, Rock and Foley (Mankind) went at it in a Lumberjack match for the WWF Title. Against all the odds, a man who never thought in his wildest dreams that he’d be the WWF Champion, pinned the Rock and won the title. We’ve all seen the footage, but here it is:

Just listen, LISTEN, to that crowd pop when Earl Hebner counts the 3. It’s monstrous. In what seemed completely unlikely from the time he debuted, Foley had risen to the top of the tree and become the WWF Champion. A staggering achievement and a true underdog story if ever there was one.

Foley had become the measuring stick. Working with him was your proving ground. If you were paired up with Foley, it was a test. A test to see just how much you wanted it. And win or lose, you came out of it looking legit. You were a made man. Because Foley was a credible, proven attraction. Something he’d worked his entire career to become.

Rock wasn’t the only one who proved himself and became a made man after working with Mick.

Fast-forward 8-10 months down the line, and it was another potential main-event commodity who was paired with Foley – this time, it was HHH. More physical matches followed, brutality ensued and at the end of it, HHH will be known as the man who, for all intents and purposes, retired Foley as a full-time wrestler.

He may have been almost done in the ring, but Foley still had a lot to give. Having shown glimpses of his mischievous side towards the end of his run, Foley was able to go full-tilt during his time as WWF Commissioner.

As a wrestler, Foley had dished out brutality like almost no other. As Commissioner, Foley was dealing in something we all love – comedy. Laughs. And there were plenty to go round as Foley was part of some of the funniest things we’ve ever seen on WWF/E TV. Skits with Rock, Austin, HHH, Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian and Kurt Angle were hilarious and showed a whole other side to Foley.

We’d seen him as Cactus Jack and Mankind – Foley was a legitimate bad-ass. Someone you wouldn’t screw with. And if you did, you came out on the wrong end of an ass-kicking more often than not.

His time as the Commissioner showed Foley as the thing that we now know that he is – a down-to-earth, likeable, funny, humble, personable guy.

It tells you everything you need to know when two up-and-coming, future main-eventers in Edge and Randy Orton both worked with Foley once he’d retired and they proved their credibility. Foley’s matches with those guys are unforgettable. True pro-wrestling aggression and storytelling at its finest.

Rock, HHH, Edge and Randy Orton – 4 of the best wrestlers of the last 15-20 years. And all men who benefitted hugely from working with Mick Foley. Foley had an amazing career – he amassed championships, earned the respect of the fans and his peers, and get this Tony Schiavone – he DID put butts in seats.

In the world of pro-wrestling, men like Mick Foley are a dying breed. Foley will stand up for what he believes in and he’ll be true to himself. Sometimes to his own cost.

He’s also been able to do something that very few wrestlers can do – make a living away from the ring. Foley is a multi-time New York Times bestselling author and does incredible amounts of charity work, using his status to bring more eyes to the causes he supports. He’s also a successful live attraction in his own right, touring various countries with his one-man show.

Does Foley have regrets? Probably. He probably regrets that we didn’t quite get to see him go up against the Undertaker at WrestleMania – something that seemed to be a lock at one stage. He probably regrets the amount of bumps he took that are now catching up with him. But…there’s no way he’d change anything that’s happened. He’s lived his dream and done everything he could’ve hoped to do in wrestling.

Simply put, Foley’s not just a successful wrestler. He’s a successful man. And he deserves every bit of the success he’s had, because he’s earned it. Sometimes the hard way!

There are only a handful of wrestlers who have the relationship with their fans that Foley has. People love Mick Foley. Hell, there are still people who carry signs saying Foley is God. He’d likely play that down because that’s the kind of guy he is, but Foley can count himself among the greats of the industry that we all know and love. He’s a deserved member of the Hall of Fame and if there were more guys like Mick Foley in the world, it’d be a funnier, happier, better place.

You could argue that without Foley’s influence, the WWF might not even exist today. His work with the likes of Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Kane, Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, HHH and more, not to mention the night he won “the big one”, were all pivotal in the WWF turning its fortunes around.

The role Foley played for the WWF can’t be underestimated. Without him, would people have bought Rock/HHH/Edge/Orton as legitimate main-eventers? Thank God that we’ll never have to know the answer to that question.

The unassuming, everyman from Long Island is everything that a pro-wrestler, and a man, should be. He’s earned the right to be called legend, icon, Hall-of-Famer. He’s also the man responsible for legitimizing up-and coming talent to get the WWF to the next level.

Every wrestling fan will always be indebted to Mick Foley for what he put his body through to entertain us, and we’ll never be able to repay him. He’s given us unforgettable memories and we got to see him live his dream.

Thanks for everything so far Mick…and have a nice day!

What do you think? Comment below with your thoughts, opinions, feedback and anything else that was raised.