12 Most Memorable Mick Foley Opponents Of All-Time
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Cactus Jack. Mankind. Dude Love. Mick Foley wore many faces throughout his career and each and every one of them created amazing memories. Sometimes he'd make you laugh as a big cuddly teddy bear of a man, and other times he was scaring you with some of the most intense promos and bumps wrestling had ever seen. No matter the name or the location, he was always entertaining you as few others could. It didn't matter what his character was, or if he was a hero or villain, Foley was consistently one of the most fun parts of whatever promotion he was in. A true hall of fame talent.
What better way to look over the hardcore icon's career than with a look at his most memorable opponents? Along the way we'll make stops in WCW, ECW, WWE, and even briefly touch on Japan and TNA. One thing we think you'll end up noticing is how so many people on this list had their absolute best matches and most legendary moments against Foley. It's fitting for a man that gave more to wrestling than he took to have a list where so many of his most memorable opponents probably owe more to Mick than he does to them. But the people who he gave the most to, as we think you'll be reminded of by the time we're through, are the fans.
Sting
A couple of years into the '90s, WCW had reached a problem with their top babyface star, Sting. History had shown that Sting's best matches came against super workers who could sell big for him, but his great muscular physique and super intensity often tempted bookers to match him against giant monsters who couldn't or wouldn't do that for him. Enter Mick Foley. Cactus Jack allowed Sting to have his cake and eat it too, an opponent that could bump like a Ric Flair but be as intimidating in his own way as a Sid Vicious. Sting now had an opponent who could be viewed as a physical threat to him that would still deliver in the ring.
The two men would face off against each other before WCW's 1992 Beach Blast PPV, and many years later they'd even rematch in TNA, but it was at that event where they hit their high note. In a wild falls count anywhere match, Foley paid a heavy physical price over and over again, taking some hefty punishment in and out of the ring. The end result was a match that Foley himself called a perfect bout. Sting is a wrestler who often has matches as good or as bad as his opponent's talent level, and against Cactus Jack, the sky was the limit.
Vader
So after the Sting feud, how in the world could a crazy, frightening, sadistic character like Cactus Jack become a hero? You put him up against someone even more frightening and sadistic. Vader was the man for the job, his ability to dole out some legitimate punishment meshing beautifully with Foley's ability to take it. A couple of matches between the two men on "WCW Saturday Night" set a new bar for wrestling brutality, the first seeing Vader legitimately breaking Foley's nose. It was a match so violent it could only be aired in heavily edited form. Those two matches then set up a long injury angle where Foley would have temporary amnesia. The less said about this, the better.
When Cactus Jack finally did return, the blow-off came at Halloween Havoc 1993, with a fantastic Texas Death Match being the stipulation decided by the spin of a wheel. Jack lost, but not before taking yet another savage beating. Ironically, despite all the carnage between these two men that made it to air in one form or another, the most insane moment between the two men came at a German house show in 1994, with Vader being Foley's opponent the night he lost an ear. More than any other wrestler on this list, Vader left a mark on Mick ... literally.
The Nasty Boys
The latter days of Foley's WCW career went out with a bang when he encountered The Nasty Boys. While the feud he would have with the team would not quite be the final thing he did in the promotion (The would be a "Loser Leaves Town" match with Kevin Sullivan), it was the last truly memorable feud Cactus Jack would ever have there. Knobbs and Saggs were known to be a little stiff, sometimes bordering on reckless, and here was Mick, yet again, a glutton for punishment, ready to turn that possible negative into a really exciting positive.
Foley wrestled the Boys numerous times on TV in 1994, but the matches that people remember, that get the team on this list, are a pair of PPV wars. The first saw him team with Maxx Payne to take on the Nasties in a Chicago Street Fight at Spring Stampede, and the second saw him switch his partner to Kevin Sullivan for a rematch at Slamboree in a Broad Street Bully match. Those two matches were about as violent as wrestling got in a mainstream promotion, and stand as two of the best wild brawls of the decade. The feud also allowed Mick to realize one last WCW milestone, finally becoming a champion in the promotion when he and Sullivan won the tag team titles.
The Undertaker
Everyone remembers the 1998 Hell in a Cell match between Mankind and The Undertaker, or more specifically, Mankind being thrown off the top of said cell. It's one of the most replayed wrestling moments of its generation. It should be, too — the entire match is one of the craziest spectacles the business has ever seen. At the same time, that one night has sadly overshadowed the fact that before that match even happened, Mankind had already cemented his place as one of 'Taker's greatest opponents, and vice versa. Before Mankind, Undertaker had been booked largely against a series of fairly immobile monsters, men that were either very tall or very round. Much like with Sting, Foley was able to be a monster who could wrestle.
Hell in a Cell was simply the cherry on top of a storied blood feud. By then the two had already wrestled on many PPVs, with gimmicks like a Boiler Room Brawl. Foley even buried Undertaker alive. When Paul Bearer turned on The Dead Man, it was to align himself with Mankind. When it was all said and done, Undertaker came away with some of the best matches of his career, and in return Foley got his WWF run to a hot start, with a long showcase feud against one of its biggest stars.
Shawn Michaels
Most of the wrestlers on this list have either had lengthy feuds with Foley, multiple high profile matches against him, or both. Shawn Michaels is an outlier here, he's on this list entirely due to just one single night, one match. If you're going to be one of Foley's most memorable opponents on that slim a resume, that match better be good. Luckily for Shawn, the match he had against Mankind at In Your House: Mind Games, is amazing. In fact, in his first autobiography, "Have a Nice Day," Foley himself called the bout "undoubtedly the finest match of my career."
What made it so great? Well, Foley's weight and physical health fluctuated over his career, and at Mind Games in 1996, Mick was in a real good place. This allowed him to match the pace of Michaels, one of the most athletic top stars the WWF had ever known, for over 26 minutes. Shawn turned in a classic mid-'90s HBK performance in response, going all out, even doing a big table break spot. It's a match so good that even a weak run-in DQ finish can't tarnish it too much. It was Foley's peak as an athlete and maybe simply his peak, period. They'd have a rematch a year later on "Raw," but sadly, in terms of big-time moments between the two, this is all we got.
The Rock
In The Rock, Mick Foley found his perfect opposite. A third-generation star with literal movie star good looks and a great physique, "The Great One" was earmarked for success the second he started in wrestling. Foley, meanwhile, did not fit the template of what many felt a main eventer should look like. As a result, he had to scratch and claw his way to stardom. At the 1998 Survivor Series, it made for the perfect story, with Vince McMahon turning on Foley in order to anoint The Rock as his "Corporate" champion. Over the next few months, Rock and Foley would trade the WWF Title back and forth a whopping five times.
Their feud is one of the most memorable not just of Foley's career, but of the entire late '90s. We got to see Mick win his first world title in a pretaped "Raw" match against Rock that WCW had Tony Schiavone spoil on "Nitro." We saw their infamous I Quit match at the Royal Rumble, featuring a reckless barrage of chair shots to the head. We even got to see the two go at it in an empty arena for a match taking place at the WWF's first "Halftime Heat" show, airing opposite the Super Bowl. Before these two were ever The Rock 'n' Sock Connection, they were a classic rivalry.
Steve Austin
Maybe all of Rock's abuse was just karma for Mick, because before their feud Foley did many of the same things to the other top star in the WWF, Steve Austin. Before "Rock and Sock", Foley had a similar dynamic with Austin, being the lovable goofball partner that could make his badass teammate reluctantly crack and burst into laughter. With Austin though, Foley played the role Rock had against him, turning heel and going corporate by aligning with Vince McMahon. Mick would even at one point "clean up" his image for Vince, tossing on a suit and glasses, as well as false teeth to fill his trademark gap.
The pair of PPV matches Austin had with Foley are a couple of his very best during the height of his stardom. In particular, their match at 1998's Over the Edge was a standout, a classic piece of Attitude Era storytelling where Vince McMahon and his stooges changed the stipulations of the match multiple times on the fly in an attempt to get Mick the win. Foley would never unseat Austin for the title, but their feud proved to WWF brass that he could be a main eventer beyond just working with the Undertaker. After their story finished, Mick wasn't just someone who worked with top WWF stars, he was one himself.
Triple H
While "The Game" might be one of Foley's most memorable opponents, Mick in turn might be Triple H's most important one. As Mankind in 1997, Mick gave Triple H one of his first really successful feuds, losing to him in the finals of that year's King of the Ring and then winning a steel cage rematch at SummerSlam. Two years later they'd main event that same PPV along with Steve Austin in a three-way, Foley claiming the WWF Title that night only to become the man Triple H defeated the next day at Raw to begin his first reign with that belt.
All of that would be enough to put Triple H on this list, but it's not even the best part. No, that would the year 2000. In one of the more selfless acts a major star has done in modern times, Foley would end the full-timer era of his career by losing to Triple H twice in matches he was well known for, an excellent hardcore streetfight at the Royal Rumble, and a wild Hell in a Cell match with a retirement stip at No Way Out. It played a huge part in finally making Hunter accepted as a true main event-level talent by the fans, and everything Mick did during the feud seemed designed to help him achieve that end.
Randy Orton
Just a few short years after HHH retired Foley, he made his in-ring return with a feud designed to elevate another rising young star, Randy Orton. The story was a new one for Mick, one that played against his image, starting off with him actually chickening out of a match with Orton. For the first time, Mick was plagued with fear and self-doubt, wondering if he could still be what he once was. Over time Foley regained his confidence, eliminating Orton at the Royal Rumble, wrestling him in a tag match at WrestleMania, and cutting some promos that ranked among the best of his career.
Everything culminated at the 2004 Backlash PPV in a hardcore match between the two. Much like how the 1996 Shawn Michaels match unseated Foley's '92 Sting match as his personal favorite, it was this night that became Mick's new peak, the man himself remarking many times how this is now what he considers his finest hour. The biggest surprise of the match was that for once, Foley's opponent took hardcore punishment themselves, the key spot of the match being a bloody Orton falling into a pile of thumbtacks. To this day, we'd say this was the best match of not just Mick's career, but of Orton's as well, a night where he served notice that he was going to be a true star.
Edge
By 2006, Mick Foley had seen and done nearly everything a wrestler could want to achieve, but he had yet to really have a classic WrestleMania moment. Yes, he had appeared at a few, even been in the main event of one, but he never had a high-profile singles match there, let alone the kind of real classic back and forth epic that 'Mania's history is filled with. Thanks to Edge, Foley finally got to check off that empty box on his resume. The start to their feud was simple enough, Edge being frustrated about a match of his that Mick guest refereed, attacking him as a result.
While the initial spark that started the feud wasn't anything special, the match it resulted it in was a blazing inferno. Literally. While the match is great end to end, the enduring memory most fans have of it is both men going through a flaming table at ringside. WWE matches rarely employ the use of fire, and certainly not to as severe an outcome as seen here, both Edge and Foley suffering legitimate burns from the spot. We have to think both men would tell you the pain was worth it, as it ended up being one of the most memorable visuals of both men's careers.
Ric Flair
Before they ever had their high-profile feud in WWE, Ric Flair and Mick Foley were legendary opponents in ink and paper. In his autobiographies, Mick praised Flair as a wrestler but criticized his work as a booker, particularly when it came to how Flair handled his career. When it came time for Flair to write a book of his own, he responded with a harsh receipt, calling Foley a glorified stuntman who hadn't earned the career he had been given. The two would end up having a legitimate backstage altercation at a WWE event as tempers boiled over, Flair actually punching Mick. At the time many wondered if the bad blood would prevent the two from ever working together in the ring.
Eventually, fences were mended enough for the two to work a fictional feud based on their real-life history, Flair going so far as to restate the criticisms of Mick that he had made in his book. The two had multiple matches on PPV, with the most memorable being at SummerSlam, featuring Flair, after spending so long criticizing Foley's hardcore matches, working an I Quit match featuring thumbtacks and barbed wire.
At the end of the day, these two legends were able to make amends for real, to the degree that Mick was front row for Flair's final match in 2022.
Terry Funk
If one wrestler has been a throughline in Mick Foley's career, it has to be Terry Funk. A friend and mentor outside the ring and a partner and enemy at different times within it, Funk's roots with Mick go back to the days of WCW when he would commentate some of Foley's TV matches and offer advice. When Mick left the promotion, Terry was waiting to continue his education hands-on, having a classic feud with him in ECW and legendary death matches against him overseas in Japan. When Mick proved his hardcore stripes by becoming the King of the Deathmatch, it was Terry who he beat in the tournament final to truly earn that moniker.
Even in the WWF, Foley couldn't escape The Funker. He formed a tag team with his "Chainsaw Charlie" gimmick, and the two battled The New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania XIV. The two men would still have one big last battle against each other in them, facing off on opposite sides of a tag match at ECW One Night Stand 2006. The build for that match played off their entire history, with promos acknowledging their almost father and son type relationship. It only made sense that it ended up being one of the last truly great highlights of Mick's career, making magic one more time with someone that had never strayed too far from wherever wrestling took him.