Mankind or Cactus Jack?

[CM Steel]

I'm on the west coast. But did anybody watch the show "Celebrity Wife Swap" tonight with Mick Foley in it?

Mick Foley started out his wrestling career as Cactus Jack in WCCW, Japan, WCW, and in ECW. Where he has had some of the most brutal matches in wrestling history. Then in 1996 Mick Foley came to the WWF as the charactor Mankind. Where in two and a half years the in the WWF, Mick Foley would win his first world title as Mankind.

Mick Foley has won more WWF/E world championship(s) since then. But who will we remember the most of the Mick Foley charactors? Mankind or Cactus Jack?? Everytime that Mick Foley would leave the WWF/E for awhile, he would leave as Cactus Jack.

Cactus Jack vs Triple H in 2000
Cactus Jack vs Randy Orton 2004
Cactus Jack vs Edge 2006
Cactus Jack vs Ric Flair 2006

But Mankind brought us Mr. Socko, and the birth of the Rock n' Sock connection, as well as other things.

Please forgive me if I left out former WWF tag team champion Dude Love. He had a credible run.

 

[JWGunslinger]

I'll always remember him for his time in ECW as Cactus Jack, both characters were important to his career but Cactus Jack is the hardcore bruiser that Foley will always be remembered for. Cactus Jack is part of what made ECW and one of the first names you think of in relation to the brand, Mankind was big but he never had as big of an impact or prescence in my opinion. Mankind was cool and one of my favorites from that time but Cactus Jack was the guy I looked up to and the guy I marveled at in hardcore matches.

 

[GameOver]

Mankind for me, he was just so bizarre and cut some of the best promo's of all time.

no doubt the nod would go to Cactus Jack if you were talking WCW or ECW since Mankind never existed there.

Well really all 4 faces of Mick Foley are memorable, even Dude Love
but yeah til Mankind hit WWF the only times i'd seen Mick were in some early 90's WCW PPV's. Halloween Havoc and SuperBrawl 91 i think.

Both times he was pretty much just completely out of his mind and having a on and off love/hatefest with Abdulah The Butcher.

Good times

 

[satanklaw]

i have to go with Cactus, for one there wouldnt be a Mankind without a little Cactus Jack in there. And his promos in ECW before he left were better than anything Mankind ever did. But Mankind was great cause as soon as he came into the WWE he destroyed The Undertaker. If there wasnt a legend of Cactus jack I doubt he would have gotten that push right out of the gate.

 

[Police Penis Sucking Goat Fucker]

thats a hard one I always really liked Dude Love but I was also a huge Mankind fan. Mankind was just out of his mind. I loved how he had an entrance theme and a victory theme. I was always a fan of his victory theme

 

[justinept]

Enjoyable thread with no real wrong answer. Both Mankind and Cactus Jack would've made Mick Foley a HOF'er on their own merits and accomplishments. And that's really what gave Foley such a special career: I can't think of one other star in the past 25 years to have two successful "gimmicks" that were completely independent of one another - in that, I mean, they weren't billed as the same person with a new "twist" on the character.

If I had to pick just one, I'd go with Mankind because he proved to be more versatile and in depth than Cactus Jack. Initially, Mankind was the same bruiser as Cactus Jack - offering a brute offense with a willingness to put his body through hell to win a match. After years of watching Mankind wrestle The Undertaker in such contests as Boiler Room Brawls and Buried Alive Matches, we were eventually given a back story for Mankind.

Now, of course, that back story was simply the life story of Mick Foley. He had a dream to be a wrestler from a young age. He hitchhiked to MSG to see Jimmy Snuka jump off the steel cage. He made videos of himself wrestling as Dude Love. He slept in a car while going through wrestling school. As these stories were told through the Mankind character, it added an entirely new dimension to the monster we'd known. It gave him a more human touch, and the audience was really able to relate to his desire to put his body through hell just to achieve those dreams he had as a kid.

As is necessary in pro wrestling, characters do have to change over time or run the risk of becoming stale. And that's what Mankind did. He changed. In 1998-99, went from being the hardcore bruiser ... to being a naive corporate lackey ... to being a sympathetic figure ... to being a World Champion ... to being a comedy act. Because the Mankind character eventually became known as the "guy with the sock," he wasn't seen as a real threat to the title by the end.

And that's why Foley ALWAYS had to go back to Cactus Jack. Because the character came and went every so often, the Jack character never had to change. He was always the same stagnant character --- the hardcore icon. Even when Mankind was no longer a threat - Jack WAS.

Again. Both characters were great. But to me, Jack just proved to have too little depth while Mankind was able to evolve through time. The incredible thing about Foley, though, is that I could see someone taking my EXACT same argument and saying that's why they preferred Cactus Jack.

 

[thebarber]

WWE will have you believe that cactus Jack was just a side giommick to Mankind. I personally felt Mankind is what got Mick Foley mainstream and the best exposure. But Cactus Jack is Foleys bread and butter, and the reputation he got from his many years of crazy bump taking as Jack is what got him to the WWE in 1996. Mankind will always be the best known as he is WWE creation and pushed down the throat of wrestlnig fans

 

[GameOver]

WWE will have you believe that cactus Jack was just a side giommick to Mankind. I personally felt Mankind is what got Mick Foley mainstream and the best exposure. But Cactus Jack is Foleys bread and butter, and the reputation he got from his many years of crazy bump taking as Jack is what got him to the WWE in 1996. Mankind will always be the best known as he is WWE creation and pushed down the throat of wrestlnig fans

Well since Mankind was born in the WWF it's a no brainer that they would mention that incarnation more then any other for years but i'd have to say

Um no.

They always commented about all his alter ego's as they were introduced. once Mankind was humanised as really an incarnation of Mick Foley, Dude Love was later introduced as the original incarnation of Mick Foley which is the truth and lastly Cactus Jack as the hardcore icon that created a legacy for Mick Foley

but everytime Cactus Jack was reintroduced it was sold as OMG not this character, any of them but this one. So how is that a bad sell by WWE?

all were important in there own right and they made mention of them in kind.

Dude Love was the only short term one though it's what he created for himself initially and a self professed lady's man, recreating the Heartbreak Kid's talk show skit with Dude's Love Shack.

Mankind was a deranged character born in WWF.

Cactus Jack was the hardcore icon.

 

[ccotreau1]

I never got to see Foley as Cactus Jack until he used the character in the WWE and I enjoyed all of Foley's characters. I am gonna say Cactus Jack only because he was able to re-create the character in a successful way as he got older, much like Kane/Taker have with their characters

 

[mb47]

All of them.

Each gimmick, each character Foley created had a different aspect, a different edge about them.

Everyone so far has said different reasons but it seems unanimous that each gimmick gave something different and something new while elements of each still got infused in to each gimmick.

Mankind originally showed a lot of Cactus Jack in the willingness to take big bumps and never quit. Dude Love was a more humanized character and eventually we saw that in Mankind.

I believe all 4 are equally important and vital for how Foley's career has panned out and what he's accomplished. He is and always will be in my top 3 of all time, purely because he is an incredibly talented guy. No he may not be the best wrestler or even close but he had a real underdog feel and the bumps he's taken and the brutality he's dished out just further enhance that feeling. No Foley doesn't look like your typical guy, he doesn't wrestle like your typical guy, he's unique, he's a one of a kind type guy.

My personal pick though would have to be Mankind but I guess that's because I was young when Mankind debuted, I was still marking out and seeing these crazy bumps and this dude doing things that no matter how much preparation and safety procedures are in place, he could seriously hurt himself or have even died a few times. Mankind helped cement me in to a life long fan and his feuding against The Rock was amazing and in my opinion it really helped develop The Rock's character as well.

All in all, Foley is God.

 

[boozinjedi]

I'm going Cactus Jack on this one.It is by far his most famous persona.

Case in point,I remember when he was feuding with HHH in the 90's,They had a RAW at MSG,there was a street fight match scheduled with HHH,We go to the titantron and we first see Dude Love talking about the match,then the Dude brings out Mankind talks some more then Mankind says someone else will fight HHH tonight and out comes Cactus Jack....the place goes nuts!!!
I think it blew the speakers out on my TV!!

 

[JacobTrinchera]

I've got to go with Mankind. Mankind was part of what turned wrestling around in the 90's. His character could still be crazy like Cactus Jack, but also had the ability to be hilarious.

I still think his brief run as Dude Love was pretty awesome as well. The tag match with Austin and then the two matches against Austin after that were great.

 

[WunNightStan619]

For me it really depends on which mankind your talking about. I've always like the originaly deranged mankind with the brown outfit. He was just soooo interesting to watch cut a promo and he seemingly did things to hurt himself on purpose just for the hell of it. The more family friendly mankind was a little cheesy for me but it still worked for him. I've alway been a fan of the cactus jack persona as it was used most when the WWE was trying to build him as a legitimate threat to whoever he was up against. Plus Cactus had a mean streak that neither version of mankind had. Its just really cool how he was able to play all the characters he did...

 

[HBsam31]

I had only seen Cactus Jack in WCW when he was introduced as Mankind and man he creeped me out as much as any 15 or 16 year old could be. His promos were very good and different for that time, and he immediately came in and destroyed the Undertaker. I also loved his match against HBK at mind games. I think that while Cactus Jack is the Hardcore icon Mankind did the most to elevate Mick''s career. Mankind was my personal favorite as well. The mandible claw was just crazy to me as nothing else was really seen like that in WWE. He put undertaker down with it multiple time which also was not seen to often if at all. All three gimmicks were great, but for me Mankind sticks out the most

 

[Police Penis Sucking Goat Fucker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EROJk8tD218

His victory theme I loved this song so much I thought it was so cool he was the only wrestler to use a different theme when he won. It fit really well with his character. I've been looking for a Dude Love Cactus Jack Mankind shirt on ebay for a while and I can never find any there either never in my size or way to expensive

 

[Ken_Shamrock]

I'm going to say Mankind. One of the first Raw's I got to see after we got Sky installed at home was the one where he won the title for the first time so that holds a special memory for me I guess.

Then I started buying videos to cover the period where I drifted out of being a WWF fan - 95 onwards really - and some of his early promos were insane. His fued with the Taker, and am no fan of the Taker, was pretty cool and you need look no further than the spots in the Hell in the Cell as evidence of that.

Yeah Cactus Jack had some great great matches but for me, and for personal reasons, it's the Mankind character that wins this one.

 

[beastman]

Only a fan of the original mankind from 1996 & part of 1998. He was one scary dude, truly began to rival The Undertaker as the scariest at one point. Great speeches and interesting idea.

Didn't like Mankind in the later years. It reminded me of a clown that played puppets all day to grab everyone's laughter. He didn't scare anybody, mankind wasn't really mankind.

The other gimmicks were good, Cactus Jack & Dude Love I liked because he stayed true to the character.

 

[P. Nut Butters]

I'm going to disagree with the guy who said that Cactus Jack is Mick's most famous persona. While both are very "up there" in legacy, it is the Mankind character who I think is the most famous and will ultimately prove the most memorable as time progresses.

Back on track, Cactus was always my personal favourite. I was introduced to Mick with Mankind but I have always felt like the Mankind character was missing something [no pun intended] that Cactus had.

I think where Mankind was more the fictional-type of madman, Cactus Jack seemed legitimately whacko and that gave him more of an intense, down and dirty aura that I think many people prefer over the Mankind character.

Also, in-terms of matches, it seems that I personally get more enjoyment out of a Cactus Jack match, (even the later Cactus matches from the early and mid-2000s) over almost every Mankind match. It's very easy in my opinion, to pick out classic Cactus matches but not so easy to do with either Mankind (or Dude Love for that matter.)

Sure Mankind had the classic battle with The Undertaker, which will likely be the reason that Mick goes down in history on a larger scale if we are completely honest; and also Mankind's classic battles with The Rock, but aside those two scenarios, the only other true 'classic' Mankind encounter in my opinion is his match with Shawn Michaels at In Your House.

Cactus had the classics with the Funker and I also really enjoyed Cactus Jack's Japan work in general. Cactus' work with Sting is some of the best in my opinion, but I'm glad that Mick got out of WCW when he did.

In the WWF, there is obviously his work with Triple-H (which I would venture to say is the best in Foley's entire WWF run), but I really wasn't too hung up on the Cactus Jack/Chainsaw Charlie deal.

So while I think that anybody who contends Cactus is going to be the more remembered face of Foley in the long-term as opposed to Mankind is lying to themselves, Cactus certainly gave us a more iconic body of work and is my favourite of the two. While both deserve to be recognized equally, it will be the WWE-created 'Mankind' who will stand the test of time.