WWE HOFer Mick Foley Explains Why Mr. Socko Got Over

Mick Foley is the Lon Chaney of WWE, a man of 1,000 faces, known for pushing his body to its physical limits in the name of a performance. However one of Foley's most memorable faces isn't his own, but the face of a sock puppet named Mr. Socko. Foley stated in the "Foley Is Pod" podcast that he can't even take credit for the idea.

"Al [Snow] said, 'How about a sock puppet?'" Foley recounted. The WWE Hall of Famer was initially hesitant but Snow persisted and said, "'People hate sock puppets.'"

The Hall of Famer prepared a sock puppet, just one of many presents he was set to deliver to an injured Vince McMahon, but he didn't plan on using it until the birthday clown that he'd brought to the scene began upstaging him. "Nobody likes to have scenes stolen from them, especially an outsider on our show," Foley admitted.

The former WWE Champion thinks that his inability to make a realistic puppet actually helped get Mr. Socko over in WWE. "It was just that horrible ventriloquist act," Foley said. "If I'd been an actual ventriloquist, it wouldn't have worked!"

The next week at "Raw," then WWE writer Vince Russo is said to have asked Foley if he still had the sock puppet with him, such was the crowd's lust for Mr. Socko, and a legend was born. WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin has said that there was no other performer who could've made Mr. Socko work like Foley did.