Is it possible for a wrestler to do what Mick Foley did?

[FlexAmerican Dynamite]

Mick Foley had a gimmick within the WWF/E in which I believe he had multiple personalities. For example Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind. Now I can't remember exactly wheather or not being bi-polar was apart of the gimmick but here's my question.

Do any of you think it's possible for a wrestler in the WWE or even TNA to get over having multiple gimmick's or personality?

 

[Harthan]

Yes. It's been done, in fact. In CHIKARA, Dasher Hatfield has had four personalities - Create-A-Wrestler, a play on the generic CAW from your average wrestling game, MosCow the Communist Bovine, which I think explains itself, Ultimo Breakfast, whose gimmick was, er, breakfast, and Dasher Hatfield, a play on old time baseball. He switched between these personalities once a year since his debut, until the Dasher Hatfield gimmick caught fire (and was in a tag team). In a match where he reverted to CAW, he ran through all his gimmicks and eventually became Dasher Hatfield for good, in one match, very similar to Mick Foley's triple Royal Rumble appearance. So, yes, it most certainly can be done. It takes a very special set of circumstances and a very talented wrestler to pull it off, but it can be done.

As for if it could happen on the mainstream scale, i.e., WWE or TNA...it would be difficult. I think the important thing would be not to force it. Mick Foley's multiple personalities were never forced, they emerged organically as the situation demanded. If anyone went in with the plan of creating a guy with multiple personalities, it probably wouldn't work. Although, that was always the intent behind the Dasher Hatfield character, and it worked out, so perhaps it could. Perhaps the most important element is not rushing it, which neither Foley or Hatfield did. I think perhaps being too heavy handed, pushing it, and switching too rapidly would doom the gimmick.

I could see it being done again, though, and while it would certainly have to be seen as referential to Foley, I think it could be done without being a blatant rip off. R-Truth strikes me as an obvious candidate, since he's already crazy. Mayhaps a guy like Brodus Clay might pull it off. Funkasaurus, and monster, and, I don't know, professional golfer, or something. I worry primarily that the WWE would blow their wad on it way too early, have everyone talk about it constantly, and kill it. TNA would probably wander off in the middle of it and forget who they were pushing too begin with, but again, they could do it. Eric Young already has a ton of previous personalities he could draw off. Someone like Robbie E who desperately needs to find relevance again could try it. Again, I worry about TNA's ability to maintain it long term.

So, could it be done? Sure. Get the right guy, the right set of personalities, and get the timing and execution down, and it would probably work brilliantly. I worry about the feasibility of those options coming together, however, in the mainstream wrestling companies of today.

 

[Psyclone]

I don't think it could be done anymore sadly... I think the WWE(F) only was able to pull it off with foley because he legitimately HAD those 3 characters once he joined WWF... I mean He had always been Cactus Jack from his earliest days and through WCW before joining WWF. Dude Love was his "Ideal character" from his college days play wrestling with friends... Mankind was the person that Vince wanted him to play... They were only able to pull it off because Mankind was such an odd character, was someone who was troubled mentally and was disturbed seemingly... So when "mankind was fired" a different person erupted and Dude Love or Cactus Jack would come out...

Essentially I don't think that in the landscape of the WWE currently, with a more "reality" based booking... I doubt that fans would buy into multiple personalities appearing on a single show...

 

[shattered dreams]

Multiple gimmicks isn't necessarily that uncommon but it is rare to acknowledge those gimmicks at the same time intermittently (multiple personalities). I think you could make a decent case that Sting has a few different personalities he brings out, especially since he has developed this joker character extensively at this point. There is no reason it can't be done in WWE or TNA. I doubt they would want to do it with a main eventer but that doesn't stop the rest of the roster from doing it.

The one roadblock might be that most wrestlers don't have distinctive looks anymore. It goes back to the what is the difference between heel or face HHH, Orton or many others? You can't sell the multiple gimmicks just on actions. To do it you need distinct appearance differences that really stand out. That seems to greatly reduce the potential candidates for such a character in present wrestling. It also doesn't help that it is tough enough to get one midcard character truly over today, now you need at least two different ones before you can even really work the gimmick.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I think it can be pulled off in only two circumstances. One is if the wrestler debuts with such a type of a character and the second option is to go the Mick Foley way ie using all the gimmicks that you have played till date under different circumstances.

You have got to ask yourself if the second situation can really happen. Mick Foley was a guy who played three outrageous gimmicks. How many wrestlers portray outrageous gimmicks these days? Most gimmicks involve the wrestler being a cocky heel, the hardworking babyface or other generic stuff like that. The reason why Foley's faces worked was that all the three faces were very novel, very entertaining and very much different from each other.

Then there is talent. A wrestler finds it difficult to carry off even one character, how do you expect to carry off three different ones? Different outfits, different way of speaking, possibly even different wrestling styles( Foley did not do that) and find a way to make it entertaining as well. There is also the changing between the gimmicks which is something that needs to be handled effectively as well. You need to provide the guy the circumstances to do that and yet it should not be done in rapid succession. There are too many factors involved here.

I guess you can try to debut a wrestler that way but again it's too huge a risk to take to give someone new a baton like that.

 

[Dagger Dias]

It can definitely be done, althbough it depends on a couple of factors. The wrestler who will be portraying more than one onscreen personality will need to be skilled at multiple styles of promos, so that their characters do not resemble each other too much. I think it would be cool to see something like Foley's various personalities again in either WWE or TNA, as it would be something refreshing at this point. If it works out well for the wrestler involved then it could lead to a great push for them. The best case scenario would see more than one of the wrestler's personalites getting a push.

The federation's creative team would come into play too though. They would need to work with the wrestler to come up with good characters, promos, and angles to get both/all of these characters over at the same time. WWE had Santino playing both himself and his "sister" at the same time. While that angle was pure torture to watch, it's an example of this idea at work. Santino is a candidate to pull this off, but if they do it again I hope it's nothing like the Santina storyline. If creative offers ideas that are dumb then it's not even worth it, and perhaps that is why we have not seen many multiple personality wrestlers since Foley.