Mick Foley Recalls His Reaction To Vince McMahon Disliking Cactus Jack Character
One person who you should want to like you and your character if you want to succeed in WWE is Vince McMahon.
Foley has had multiple different personas throughout his pro wrestling career, some of which he performed while in WWE such as Mankind, Cactus Jack, and Dude Love. Foley came over to WWE as Cactus Jack, however, Foley explained on "Foley is Pod" why he didn't use that particular character in WWE right away.
"I did find out Vince wasn't a big fan. I lost [some sleep over that] ... I had to convince myself on the plane that I belonged there," Foley explained. "For the life of me, I still didn't see why I wasn't Cactus Jack."
Vince McMahon is the Chairman of the Board in WWE and creative decisions run through him. When Foley signed with WWE, Foley was stripped of the Cactus Jack gimmick he had while in ECW, IWA, and other various promotions, and was given the new name of character Mankind. Foley would have a dark persona with the character and wore a mask while he wrestled. Foley discussed his thoughts on the mask.
"I hated the mask," Foley revealed. "I was hoping what we did was strong enough that I could segway into a Cactus Jack run, but I realize what we had done was pretty substantial."
Foley won the WWE Tag Team Championships eight times with five different partners, those partners being Al Snow, Steve A, Chainsaw Charlie, Kane twice, and The Rock on three different occasions. Foley is also a former WWE Champion, a title he won three times. Despite holding the championship on multiple occasions, Foley only defended the title successfully two times over all three reigns.
Foley entered the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013, where he was inducted by Terry Funk. Foley last wrestled in 2012 as part of that year's Royal Rumble match where his Mr. Socko had a staredown with Santino Marella's Cobra.
Foley returned as a regular on-screen personality to WWE in 2016 when they decided to partake in a brand split, meaning certain wrestlers were on the "Raw" roster and certain wrestlers were on the "Smackdown" roster. With the brand split came General Managers for both brands, with Daniel Bryan taking over as GM on "Smackdown" and Foley on "Raw." Foley held this on-screen position from mid-2016 until early 2017.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Foley Is Pod" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.