Best Mick Foley gimmick

[DaBadGuy]

There's alot of things we can say and remember about Mick Foley but 2 things inparticular. 1 the fact that he's one of the most hardcore wrestlers that ever lived and 2 he's gimmicks. Right now were going to focus on his gimmicks. Foley's 3 most famous gimmicks are Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love and I'm going to go into detail with each of them and pick which one I feel is the best.

Cactus Jack- Alot of people may like Cactus Jack better and I can understand why he's the true definition of Hardcore and Extreme. Cactus Jack is pretty much the gimmick that made Foley as popular as he was in wrestling. I believe he was one of the few to start the kind of Hardcore type wrestling style in WCW. He had a great match with Sting over the WCW Championship at Beach Blast and won WCW tag team gold with Kevin Sullivan. He later came to ECW in 1994-1996 a very fitting place for Foley to go under his Cactus Jack persona winning tag team championships with Mikey Whipwreak. And he had a few short run's as Cactus Jack in WWF when tagging with Chainsaw Charlie a.k.a Terry Funk. He wrestled as Cactus Jack during his fued in Triple H in early 2000 had great matches with him in a Hell in a Cell and Street Fight match. Also had a fued against Randy Orton at Backlash 2004 in another Street Fight Match I believe. Overall I did like Foley as Cactus Jack but it wasn't my favorite character but another thing I can say I liked about Cactus Jack was the promo's he cut.

Mankind- Living in Boiler rooms, having rats for friends, enjoyed pain, schizophrenic, and wore a mask yeah I would definitely have to say that Mankind by far is Mick Foley's best character IMO. Sure Cactus Jack got him noticed but as Mankind he did so many memroble things. For one lets start with him actually winning his first World title from the Rock this match pretty much turned the ratings around in WWF's favor during the Monday Night War also this is one of the most underrated fueds of all time if you ask me. How about all his fueds with Taker from the time he and Taker were beating the hell out of each other in a Boiler Room to the time the were fighting on top of a Cell and Taker through Mankind off of and through the Cell. Also at the same time he had many funny moments as Mankind like the time he debut Mr. Socko while visiting and annoying an injured Vince McMahon, and lets not forget the Rock 'N' Sock Connection.

Dude Love- Dude Love was mine and I'm pretty sure many's least favorite Foley character of them all. Their's really not to much I can say about Dude Love being that this was the charcter that Mick Foley was the least but I'll do my best. Dude Love was basically an old persona of Foley's that he used do his home wrestling video's and made it into a WWF character. Mick Foley debut as Dude Love as a partner for Stone Cold Steve Austin in a tag team match as a replacment for the injured Shawn Michaels with against Owen Hart and The British Bulldog. As Mankind he wanted to replace HBK, but Austin said he wanted "nothing to do with a freak" and decided to take on Hart and the Bulldog alone but halfway through the match Foley came in as Dude Love and helped Austin take the win and becoming the new Tag Team Champions. However after Austin neck injury against Owen Hart at SummerSlam the team was forced to vacate the titles. Afterwards under the Dude Love persona he had a short fued with Triple H and in mid 1998 he revived the gimmick to have a fued against his former tag team partner Stone Cold Steve Austin over the WWF Championship.

So thats my opinon what do the rest of you think, whats he's best gimmick?

 

[Chicago1989]

Well I gotta say that of all the Mick Foley gimmicks, I gotta go with Mankind. Not the "happy-go-lucky" Mankind; I'm talking about the deranged, psychotic, unpredictable Mankind from '96-'97. Believe me, many guys have played the "Psychopath' gimmick a million times, but nobody and I mean NOBODY played the deranged madman better than Mankind.

I mean the guy played the gimmick so well...he was pulling his hair out, mutilated himself, cutted believable promos (Check that interview he had with J.R.), played with rats, made squealish sounds....I can just go on man, I'm telling you.

 

[bigbootydaddyV]

i think there is a 4th Mick Foley character... that being Mrs Foley's baby boy... Mick Foley... yea that was just him playing himself but its been the only "character" he's played recently... It may be just him but its definitely a character since it's him with the volume turned up such as the big suck up foley naming everyone town he's in haha... but yea of the 4 characters my favorite was cactus jack.. i have to agree with everything you said about mankind, but something about hte jack character caught my attention... maybe because it did a good job of being on the borderline of being real/made up. Granted I was younger, but at times i couldn't tell if the guy was nuts or what... and he did some insane stuff as jack.. moreso than he did as mankind... cactus jack even lost his freakin ear in a match... INSANE! So whenever i think of mick foley i always hope that we'll see cactus jack one more time more than any other character

 

[Poɘt]

Hmm, well my favorite has to be Heeeeeeeeeey, hey hey hey, wooooo, heeeeeey. The Dudester, Dude Love. From the theme to the attire, he was hilarious. I'd like to see a wrestler have a similar gimmick to that today.

The most successful is probably Mankind or Cactus Jack. I wasn't a big fan of Mankind actually. I became a fan again when he just started being Mick Foley.

 

[gunslinger72]

Yeah...the EARLY Mankind was...wow! Never before or since have I seen such a well done character. Mick was pure genius here. Naturally of course, McMan ruined it by turning him to Doink part two.

Second...Cactus freaking Jack. That guy was amazing to watch.

Dude Love....I think Mick was in the dog house for something and Vinnie forced him to do this stupid gimmick

 

[The Brain]

Foley was great in all his roles, but I have to go with Mankind. Specifically Mankind from the beginning in 1996. That was a unique character. He really captured the imagination and really got your attention. Mankind was basically a normal kid, but he wasn’t accepted by the other children and his insecurities turned him into the tortured sole. I remember the promo about him playing the piano for his mother. He played beautifully and it brought his mother to tears. We knew that his mother was crying because she was proud of her son and moved by his talent. Mankind didn’t see it that way. To him tears were only brought on by pain. He thought he caused his mother pain with his music so he smashed his own fingers with a hammer so he wouldn’t be able to play the piano again. He had some great lines. “On the 8th day God created Mankind. Why was he having such a bad day?” Those were some of the best vignettes that were ever produced.

It’s a common misconception that Mankind loved pain. He didn’t love pain. He thought he deserved pain. That’s how messed up in the head he was.

I also loved his music. He came out to some spooky deranged music that you would expect a guy like him to come out to. His music after a victory was different. It was classical piano music. After a win he would sit next to his fallen opponent and rock back and forth to the peaceful music.

The vignettes, the music, the pulling out the hair, the screeching, the mandible claw, the mask, and just the brilliant portrayal of the character by Foley make the Mankind of 1996 one of my all time favorite characters.

 

[mister_b1LL]

I don't think I've ever seen the portrayal of a character done with such dedication and attention to detail as Mankind. Foley wore that mask in and out of the ring. It was also in this persona I think Foley had his best matches, Hell in a Cell, Buried Alive, Boiler Room Brawl. Cactus Jack may have been the most hardcore and maybe the most dangerous and Dude Love was...meh...but I don't think there was a persona of Foley's that fully kept our attention on him as Mankind.

 

[P. Nut Butters]

Only one man could've pulled off three personas at once and also kept his own self as a wrestler. That man is Mick Foley.

Even though Mankind is the most successful, and I originally loved the Mankind idea, in the end it's Cactus Jack who takes the cake for me. The promos Cactus cut in ECW sold me on his character - (not to take away from any promo that Mick did, because they all ruled) - but those 'He's Hardcore!' promos from the original ECW were absolutely mesmerizing! The deal with the WCW/ECW dream-match against Sabu... that whole thing enthralled me too.

Without Cactus there would've been no Mankind or Dude Love, and perhaps, Mick Foley wouldn't be where he is today. He [Cactus Jack] was the genesis of the Mick Foley legacy.

I also loved the Cactus Jack Comeback around the beginning of 2000, and the No Way Out HIAC with Triple-H is one of, if not the favourite HIAC for me.

 

[NoDamnMercy]

When I first started watching wrestling it was when Mankind was around. It was early Mankind, the insane one not the goofy one. And I was hooked on him. Everything he did was magic.

The very little Catus Jack that I saw was amazing, especially the 2nd rope moonsault he used to do(anyone else know what I'm talking about?), but he was too...*sigh*...whats the right word....I can't think of the right wording for it, but something about him just didn't click with me.

I never saw any Dude Love, so can't pass judgement there.