Early career (1986–1989) Foley formally trained at
Dominic DeNucci's wrestling school in
Freedom, Pennsylvania, driving several hours weekly from his college campus in
Cortland, New York. He debuted on June 23, 1986, in
Clarksburg, West Virginia, under the ring name "Cactus Jack". In addition to appearing on DeNucci's cards, Foley and several other students also took part in some
squash matches as
jobbers for
World Wrestling Federation TV tapings of
Prime Time Wrestling,
WWF Wrestling Challenge and
Superstars of Wrestling, where Foley wrestled under the ring names "Jack Foley" and "Nick Foley." Notably, a
ring announcer once mispronounced Foley's last name as "Faley" before a match against
Kamala on a 1987 episode of
WWF Wrestling Challenge. In another match (the second episode of
Superstars), Foley and
Les Thornton faced the
British Bulldogs, during which the
Dynamite Kid (who had a long earned reputation as a
stiff worker in the ring) clotheslined Foley with such force that he was unable to eat solid food for several weeks. During these squash matches, Foley also faced other top-level talents at the time, such as
Hercules Hernandez. His run would not last long, as he had not signed a contract with the promotion at the time. During this run, he was also billed from different hometowns and at different weights. After two years of relative obscurity on the
independent circuit, Foley began receiving offers from various regional promotions, including
Bill Watts'
Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). In 1988, he joined the
Memphis, Tennessee–based
Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), where he teamed with Gary Young as part of the
Stud Stable. Cactus and Young briefly held the
CWA Tag Team Championship in late 1988. In November 1988, Foley left the CWA for the Texas-based
World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA). In the WCWA, "Cactus Jack", billed as "Cactus Jack Manson", was a major part of
Skandor Akbar's stable (the addition of "Manson" to Foley's name, due to its implied connection to
Charles Manson, made him uncomfortable). Foley also won several titles, including the
WCWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and
WCWA World Tag Team Championship. He left the company in August 1989 after losing a
loser leaves town match to
Eric Embry in nine seconds. He then briefly competed in Alabama's
Continental Wrestling Federation.
World Championship Wrestling (1989–1990) In November 1989, Foley began wrestling for
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as "Cactus Jack Manson". His debut match, which aired on
NWA World Championship Wrestling, saw him partnered with a one-time jobber named Rick Fargo to face the rising tag team of brothers
Rick Steiner and
Scott Steiner – two of the stiffest and toughest workers in wrestling at the time. After taking brutal bumps from both Steiner brothers and losing the match, Cactus then began fighting with Fargo, and then jumped nearly off the apron to elbow Fargo in the abdomen, per Kevin Sullivan's instructions. Lead WCW booker
Ric Flair, Sullivan, and other WCW executives were impressed with this to the point that they offered Foley a contract, and Foley finally found some financial stability after years of hardship. Over the following months, Cactus Jack would generally team with jobbers. When the jobber would lose the match for the team, Cactus Jack would attack his partner, throw them out of the ring, and deliver his infamous ring apron flying elbow drop onto the concrete floor. Later that month, he formed the villainous "
Sullivan's Slaughterhouse"
stable with Kevin Sullivan,
Bam Bam Bigelow, and
Buzz Sawyer and began a long feud with
Norman the Lunatic and
Mike Rotunda. At
WrestleWar '90: Wild Thing that month, Jack lost to Norman the Lunatic. At the
Capital Combat pay-per-view in May 1990, the Slaughterhouse lost to Norman the Lunatic and the
Road Warriors in a
six-man tag team match. It was during this period that Foley was involved in a car accident that resulted in the loss of his two front teeth, adding to the distinctive look for which he is famous. In March 1991, Foley (as Cactus Jack) made his first excursion to Japan, wrestling for
Giant Baba's
All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) promotion as part of its
Champion Carnival round-robin tournament. He scored zero points in the tournament, losing to
Jumbo Tsuruta,
Danny Spivey,
Johnny Smith,
Toshiaki Kawada,
Akira Taue, and
Danny Kroffat. In addition to competing in the tournament, Foley and
Texas Terminator Hoss wrestled several tag team matches, facing opponents including
André the Giant,
Dory Funk Jr.,
Terry Funk, and
Johnny Ace. These matches caught the attention of
World Championship Wrestling promoters, in large part due to widespread photo circulation, and in August 1991, Foley re-joined WCW. While Foley was away, WCW ran an
angle where Cactus Jack's absence was explained with a
farcical comedy storyline in which he went crazy, was institutionalized, then escaped, and then developed amnesia. Foley had wanted the injury storyline to be serious and generate genuine sympathy for him before his return. The comedy
vignettes that WCW produced instead were so bad that Foley jokes in
Have a Nice Day that they were the brainchild of WCW executives who regarded a surefire moneymaking feud as a problem that needed to be solved. The angle was awarded "Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic" by the
Wrestling Observer Newsletter. After 15 minutes of brawling and brutal spots which left both Cactus and Vader covered in blood, Race won the match for Vader by using a stun gun on Cactus, knocking him out. The level of violence and brutality involved in this match left the crowd and commentators
Tony Schiavone and
Jesse Ventura in stunned disbelief; both did not commentate much throughout the second half of the match. It also caused WCW, a promotion marketing itself as
family friendly, to refuse to book Cactus Jack against Vader on a pay-per-view again. Jack subsequently began teaming with
Maxx Payne. At
Battlebowl in November 1993, Jack was randomly paired with Vader to face
Charlie Norris and
Kane in a "Lethal Lottery" qualifying match; Jack and Vader defeated Kane and Norris to qualify for the Battlebowl battle royal, which was won by Vader. At
Starrcade '93: 10th Anniversary, Jack and Payne defeated
Shanghai Pierce and
Tex Slazenger. At
SuperBrawl IV in February 1994, Jack and Payne challenged
WCW World Tag Team Champions the Nasty Boys, winning by disqualification (meaning the titles did not change hands). Jack revived his feud with Vader in the spring of 1994. On March 16, 1994, during WCW's "Battle Stars 1994" tour of Germany, Cactus and Big Van Vader had one of the most infamous matches in wrestling history as part of WCW's European Cup tournament. Cactus began a
hangman, but neither wrestler was aware that the ring ropes had been drawn extra tight before the event, and Cactus could barely move. When Cactus finally freed himself from the ropes and fell out of the ring, his right ear was badly split at the back. When Cactus re-entered the ring, the two wrestlers began trading blows. During this time, Vader smacked Cactus's face, causing the upper half of his ear to fall to the mat below. The two men continued wrestling as the referee picked up the ear and gave it to the ring announcer. Vader claimed for years after that the ear had come off during the botched Hangman maneuver, however in a WWE Network video, Vader admits that after seeing footage that he had indeed removed Cactus's ear. Cactus Jack and Vader wrestled their final match in WCW – a
Texas death match – in April 1994, a year to the day since their first match. During the bout, Vader once again powerbombed Cactus Jack on the floor, mirroring his actions of the prior year. Upon watching the match on
WCW WorldWide, Foley was disgruntled by the commentary of
Tony Schiavone and
Bobby Heenan, which failed to reference the events of the prior year. Foley had to choose between surgically reconstructing his ear or wrestling at the pay-per-view and winning the titles. Foley opted to wrestle and won his only championship in WCW, defeating the Nasty Boys in a "
Broad Street Bully match" with
Dave Schultz as the special guest referee. During Cactus Jack's reign as WCW World Tag Team Champion, WCW shared a brief co-promotion with ECW during this time in which Cactus Jack represented WCW on
ECW Hardcore TV as the WCW Tag Team Champion, culminating in a bout against
Sabu at
Hostile City Showdown on June 24, 1994. During a
promo, Cactus Jack spat on his title belt and threw it to the ground to appeal to the ECW fans who shunned the mainstream promotions, an act for which he was later forced to apologize to booker Ric Flair. After a stint in
Smoky Mountain Wrestling, Foley returned to ECW to feud with
The Sandman. Funk returned to team up with Sandman, and during a particularly violent spot, the pair hit Cactus Jack with a
kendo stick forty-six times in a barbed wire rope match. Cactus then defeated Funk at
Hostile City Showdown 1995. Later, he repeatedly fought Sandman for the
ECW World Heavyweight Championship. During their match at
Barbed Wire, Hoodies & Chokeslams, Cactus knocked Sandman unconscious and was declared the winner. Referee
Bill Alfonso, however, reversed his decision because the title cannot change hands by knockout. Foley then continued to have a series of violent encounters with the Sandman while challenging him and claiming that he had never been beaten in a
Falls Count Anywhere match. He then started to team with
Tommy Dreamer. According to Heyman, the hardcore style differentiated Foley from other traditional wrestlers, so in ECW, Foley was right at home. However, Foley did not enjoy working with Sandman, as Sandman was often intoxicated during matches and could not perform properly; drinking large amounts of beer and smoking cigarettes made up a large part of Sandman's overall gimmick. But 1995 proved to be an interesting year for Foley, particularly during his time in ECW. Two incidents caused him to change his opinion of a promotion that most thought made him feel like he was at home. There was a sign in the front of the audience one night that said "Cane Dewey" with Foley's permission - a reference to using a Singapore cane on Foley's real-life eldest son, who was three years old then (Foley would sometimes mention his family in his promos). Foley then witnessed a botch in the opening match of
Wrestlepalooza on August 5, 1995, where
J. T. Smith did a dive, slipped off the ring apron and landed head-first on the concrete. Smith was so severely concussed that his head began swelling on the spot, and the audience's response to Smith's botch was "you fucked up". These incidents angered the normally jovial Foley so much that he furiously cut several memorable and scathing promos during this period to channel his intense frustration and anger toward ECW fans, who he felt asked too much from him and the ECW roster. Foley then began a
gimmick where he criticized hardcore wrestling and sought to renounce his status as a hardcore wrestling icon, instead using a slow and technical wrestling style as a way to punish the audience. He said that he was on a mission to save his partner from making the mistake of trying to please bloodthirsty fans. Foley later admitted in an interview in 2015 that after Wrestlepalooza he became indifferent toward ECW and its fanbase. The mismatched partnership between Cactus Jack and Dreamer lasted until Wrestlepalooza, when Cactus turned on Dreamer while they were teaming with
the Pitbulls against Raven,
Stevie Richards and the
Dudley Brothers (
Dudley Dudley and
Big Dick Dudley). Cactus DDT'ed his partner and joined
Raven's Nest, as he wished to serve
Raven's "higher purpose". He remained one of Raven's top henchmen for the remainder of his time in ECW. On August 28, Cactus beat the previously undefeated
911. As part of Foley's heel
gimmick, he began praising WWF and WCW on ECW television, which angered ECW fans. Their anger intensified once word began to spread that Foley was leaving to join the WWF (In
Have a Nice Day, Foley recounted an incident where he asked an ECW roadie to sell T-shirts for him at an event held in a Queens, New York venue where he had been popular even as a heel; the man came back after being spat upon numerous times by angry fans, who made him fear for his life). Even when he tried to give sincere good-byes to the fans, Foley was met with chants of "You sold out" by the ECW fanbase everywhere he went. In February 1996 at
CyberSlam, Cactus Jack was booked to face WWF hater
Shane Douglas, who won after he handcuffed Cactus and then hit him with no fewer than ten consecutive chair shots. When he put Jack into a
figure four leglock, this allowed Mikey Whipwreck to get into the arena and land one last hard chair shot to Cactus's face, knocking him unconscious. Foley's last ECW match was against Whipwreck on March 9, 1996, at
Big Ass Extreme Bash, and he recounts that he was not looking forward to it due to the increasingly hostile reactions he got even when he wasn't in character. The ECW fans, who knew that this was Foley's last match, finally returned his affection. They cheered him throughout the match and chanted, "Please don't go!". After the match, Foley told the audience that their reaction made everything worthwhile and made his exit by dancing with
Stevie Richards and
The Blue Meanie to
Frank Sinatra's song "
New York, New York". Foley has said that this exit was his favorite moment in wrestling.
Japan (1995–1996, 1997) ,
Tokyo, Japan in August 1995 In 1995, during his time in ECW and other promotions in the United States, Foley also went to Japan and wrestled in
International Wrestling Association of Japan (IWA Japan), where he engaged in feuds with
Terry Funk and Shoji Nakamaki. During his brief stint in Japan, Foley had the nickname "Tsunami Stopper." The level of violence and brutality in hardcore wrestling matches in Japan was at a much higher level than in Western promotions (except for ECW), something Western wrestlers were not accustomed to. On January 6, Cactus faced Funk in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Scramble Bunkhouse Deathmatch at the Honjo Gymnasium in
Saitama, just north of
Tokyo in front of 150 people in a match that involved barbed wire as the ring ropes and objects set on fire. This turned out to be a particularly chaotic and brutal match where Foley and Funk mostly brawled in the seating area amongst the crowd, with folding chairs flying everywhere. After several brutal spots involving flaming chairs, flaming iron rods, Funk Hip-tossing Cactus into a flaming chair and Funk slamming Cactus's head into a wooden table, Funk reversed a Spinebuster by Cactus into a DDT and pinned him to win the match. In 2010 Foley wrote that, "looking back that match in Honjo is probably the performance I'm proudest of." After the tournament, Foley's right arm had second-degree burns from the C-4 explosions from the match with Funk and his arm smelt of explosive chemicals. After a 14-hour flight from
Tokyo's
Narita Airport to
JFK Airport his father picked him up from the airport to take him back to his Long Island home, and immediately smelt something unusual. When Foley got home, his father and wife kept asking him about the awful smell, but he would not say anything, not wanting them to worry. After his father left, his wife persisted, so he revealed the burns to her. Foley continued wrestling in Japan, Later on, he teamed with
Tracy Smothers,
Tiger Jeet Singh, the
Headhunters, and Bob Bargail for multiple runs at the
W*ING World Tag Team Championship, and a few runs at
Tarzan Goto's
IWA World Heavyweight Championship. True to his hardcore style, other matches Foley took part in were more deathmatches that involved objects like bricks, body bags, thumbtacks, barbed wire and window panes, and some matches even involved fire. He would continue wrestling in Japan until June 1996; the last notable match Foley had as Cactus Jack in Japan for
Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling was a "Caribbean barbed wire barricade glass deathmatch" against
W*ING Kanemura, which Cactus won on May 5. Foley returned to Japan for one night on April 29, 1997, at Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling's 8th Anniversary show with Terry Funk and
The Gladiator losing to W*ING Kanemura,
Masato Tanaka and
Atsushi Onita in a Western Texas Tornado Street Fight.
World Wrestling Federation (1996–2001) Feud with The Undertaker (1996–1997) In 1996, at the persistence of
Jim Ross, whom Foley had known in his days in WCW, WWF head
Vince McMahon had Foley sign a contract with WWF, and this time it wasn't to use Foley as "
enhancement talent". Ross insisted to hire Foley since WWF needed a new opponent for The Undertaker and Ross wanted to change the culture in the locker room. McMahon was not a fan of Cactus Jack and wanted to cover up Foley's face, so he was shown several designs for a new heel character–a man with a leather mask and chains, called "Mason the Mutilator". However, WWF decided that character as a whole was too dark and only kept the mask. Although interested in the concept of the character, Foley did not like the name, so he came up with the new name "Mankind", which McMahon liked and approved of. Mankind was an eerie and mentally deranged miscreant who dwelled in the
boiler rooms of buildings, constantly squealed (even throughout his matches), randomly shrieked
"Mommy!", spoke to a rat named George, and regularly took to acts of
masochism (such as by pulling out his hair). He donned a mask seemingly constructed of oddly shaped pieces of leather that were patched together with rivets. Mankind's finishing move was the "
Mandible Claw". The move is based on the "Mandibular Nerve Pinch", a finishing move developed and utilized by former osteopathic physician and neurosurgeon-turned-wrestler,
Sam Sheppard. The maneuver is a nerve hold applied when the aggressor plunges their middle and ring fingers into the opponent's mouth, under their tongue and into the soft tissue at the bottom of the mouth, while simultaneously forcing their jaw upwards with the thumb or palm of the same hand; clamping pressure is then applied between the fingers inside the mouth, and the thumb or palm under the jaw. If applied genuinely and correctly, it purportedly compresses the two nerves within the tissues of the mandible which render the opponent's jaw paralyzed - thus preventing the opponent from potentially breaking the hold by biting the aggressing wrestler's fingers. Its proper application is said to cause a significant amount of
legitimate pain intense enough to inhibit the opponent's vision, and if cinched long enough, can force the opponent to black out. The creatively-inclined and dedicated Foley initially would prepare for playing Mankind by researching the character, often spending the night in the respective arena's boiler room and sometimes under the wrestling ring for the first few months. Some time after that, he could get into character almost instantly. His catchphrase, ever perplexing, was "Have a nice day!". His association with boiler rooms led to his specialty match, dubbed the
boiler room brawl. On the April 1, 1996, episode of
Monday Night Raw in
San Bernardino, California, the day after
WrestleMania XII, Mankind debuted on television and defeated
Bob "Spark Plug" Holly, quickly moving into a feud with
The Undertaker. At
In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies later that month, The Undertaker defeated Mankind in a
dark match. The two wrestlers then faced one another in a series of dark matches and house show matches until their first broadcast match against one another at
King of the Ring in June 1996, where Mankind defeated The Undertaker using the Mandible Claw after The Undertaker's manager Paul Bearer accidentally struck The Undertaker with an
urn. The feud culminated in the first-ever "
Boiler Room Brawl" at
SummerSlam 1996, and in addition to escaping the arena's boiler room, the winner would also have to reach the ring and take the urn from Paul Bearer. In more than 20 minutes of brawling in the boiler room, the backstage corridors, and the entrance ramp, both men taking some damage involving metal trash cans, tables, ladders, metal poles, hot coffee, and the exposed concrete floor. The Undertaker appeared to have won, but Paul Bearer refused to hand him the urn, allowing Mankind to win, thus (for the time being) ending the relationship between Bearer and The Undertaker. While Paul Bearer was Mankind's manager, Mankind referred to him as "Uncle Paul". Mankind then became the number one contender to face the then-WWF Champion
Shawn Michaels at
In Your House: Mind Games. Michaels won by disqualification via interference by
Vader and The Undertaker. The Mankind and Undertaker rivalry continued with the first-ever
buried alive match at
In Your House 11: Buried Alive. Undertaker won the match, but Paul Bearer, the
Executioner, Mankind and other heels attacked The Undertaker and buried him alive. Afterward, The Undertaker challenged Mankind to a match at
Survivor Series 1996, which the Undertaker won. The feud continued after another match at
In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which Undertaker had won at
WrestleMania 13. Undertaker was victorious in the match while Bearer would take a leave of absence.
Three Faces of Foley (1997–1998) In April to May 1997,
Jim Ross conducted a series of sit-down interviews with Mankind. During the interviews, Ross brought up the topic of Foley's home videos, the hippie-inspired character he played in them - Dude Love - and his tormented journey in wrestling. The interviews also affected the fans, who began cheering Mankind even though he was still a heel at this point. On May 26, 1997,
Stone Cold Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels won the
WWF Tag Team Championship from
Owen Hart and the British Bulldog, but the following month Michaels was injured and could no longer compete. Mankind tried to replace him, but Austin said he wanted "nothing to do with a freak" and resigned himself to facing Hart and the Bulldog alone on July 14. Halfway into the match, however, Foley debuted a new face persona known as "Dude Love", who helped Austin take the victory, becoming the new Tag Team Champions. Dude Love had some new and renamed moves, such as the "Love Handle" (a renamed Mandible Claw) and "Sweet Shin Music" (a simple kick to the shins, a play on Shawn Michaels's
superkick finishing move). Austin and Foley vacated their tag team titles when Austin suffered a neck injury in a match at
SummerSlam in
East Rutherford, New Jersey. In August 1997, Dude Love began feuding with
Hunter Hearst Helmsley. That month, at
SummerSlam, Mankind defeated Helmsley in a
steel cage match. The feud led to a
falls count anywhere match on the September 22, 1997 episode of
Raw is War. One of Foley's most memorable vignettes aired before the match began, in which Dude Love and Mankind discussed who should wrestle the upcoming match. Eventually, "they" decided that it should be Cactus Jack, and Foley's old character made his WWF debut as a face. Cactus Jack won the match with a
piledriver through a table. At
WWF One Night Only later that month, Helmsley defeated Dude Love. In September 1997, Foley (as Mankind) wrestled Sabu at
Terry Funk's WrestleFest, an event organized to mark the retirement of Foley's friend
Terry Funk. Funk, however, broke his retirement soon after the event At
Survivor Series in November 1997, Mankind lost to
Kane in Kane's debut match. In December 1997, Funk joined the WWF as "Chainsaw Charlie", aligning himself with Foley. At the
1998 Royal Rumble, Foley participated under all three personas, Cactus Jack (1st entrant), Mankind (16th), and Dude Love (28th). Charlie and Cactus defeated
the New Age Outlaws at
WrestleMania XIV in a
dumpster match to win the tag team titles (which was originally supposed to be a barbed-wire rope match- but this often violent and bloody match was scrapped due to the high-profile appearance of
Mike Tyson taking place at the event). The next night, however,
Vince McMahon stripped them of the belts, citing that Charlie and Cactus had put the Outlaws in a random backstage dumpster and not the original dumpster brought ringside. He scheduled a rematch in a steel cage, which the Outlaws won with help from their new allies
D-Generation X (DX). On April 6, 1998, Foley turned heel when Cactus explained that the fans would not see him anymore because they did not appreciate him, and only cared about Stone Cold Steve Austin. In the midst a hard-fought match with Terry Funk in Albany, fans started to leave the arena a minute or so before it finished. Ring announcer Howard Finkel announced that Austin, who was the hottest wrestler in the WWE at the time, would be making an appearance. The crowd exploded at the news, and many rushed back to their seats. Foley later admitted that this crowd reaction emotionally hurt him, feeling that his hard work could not compete with Austin's popularity and that he would be just another wrestler to face the company's megastar.
Vince McMahon explained to Austin the next week that he would face a "mystery" opponent at
Unforgiven: In Your House. That opponent turned out to be Dude Love, who won the match by disqualification, meaning that Austin retained the title. McMahon, displeased with the outcome, required Foley to prove he deserved another shot at Austin's title with a number one contender's match against his former partner, Terry Funk. The match was both the WWF's first-ever "
hardcore match" and the first time that Foley wrestled under his real name. Foley won, and after the match, a proud McMahon came out to Dude Love's music and presented Foley with the Dude Love costume. At
Over the Edge: In Your House, Dude Love took on Austin for the title. McMahon designated his subordinates
Gerald Brisco and
Pat Patterson as the timekeeper and ring announcer respectively and made himself the special referee. However, the Undertaker came to ringside to ensure McMahon called the match fairly, and with his presence Dude Love lost the match. Foley, wearing street clothing as himself, was ultimately "fired" by McMahon on the June 1 episode of
Raw. Subsequent episodes of
Raw saw a change in Foley, who had now reverted to a version of his Mankind persona (albeit, less deranged). This saw him adopt new ring attire – pairing untucked, collared shirts with his original Mankind tights. On June 15, 1998, teaming with Kane in a Tag Team Royal Rumble match, Mankind debuted his now-familiar white
dress shirt with a loose necktie look. The character would subsequently reignite his feud with The Undertaker. At
King of the Ring 1998 in
Pittsburgh's
Civic Arena on June 28, the two performed in the third
Hell in a Cell match, which became one of the most
notable matches in professional wrestling history. Foley received numerous injuries and took two dangerous and highly influential
bumps – the first being tossed off the top of the high Cell by The Undertaker, crashing through the Spanish announcer's wooden table and landing on the arena's concrete floor. Barely five minutes after the first fall, Foley, with a separated shoulder, climbed back up to the top of the Cell structure after Terry Funk and others tried to stop him. The second bump, which was an unplanned
mishap, occurred when The Undertaker
chokeslammed Foley and the fenced panel Foley landed on broke and gave way. Foley then plunged through the Cell and landed on the ring mat, losing a tooth. Mankind lost the match to conclude their storyline.
WWF Champion (1998–2000) In the following months he teamed with
Kane - collectively securing the WWF Tag Team Championship on two separate occasions - and engaged in various feuds with Kane, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Undertaker. Foley decided that crowds might respond better if Mankind were more of a comedy character, and so he abandoned the tortured soul characteristics and became more of a goofy, broken-down oaf. He began the transition into this character following
SummerSlam in 1998 after Kane turned on him and the two lost the tag team championships. The following month, Foley began an angle with Vince McMahon, with Mankind trying to be a friend to the hated Mr. McMahon character. On the October 5 episode of
Raw is War, while McMahon was in a hospital nursing wounds suffered at the hands of The Undertaker and Kane, Mankind arrived with a female clown called Yurple in an attempt to cheer him up. Having succeeded only in irritating McMahon, Mankind then took a disgusting sock off his foot and placed it on his hand to create a
sock puppet named "Mr. Socko". Intended to be a one-time joke and suggested by
Al Snow, Socko became an overnight sensation. Mankind began putting the sock on his hand before applying his finisher, the
Mandible Claw, stuffing a
smelly sock in the mouths of opposing wrestlers. Mankind also acted as a puppeteer, having the sock “speak” in a high-pitched voice. The sweatsock became massively popular with the fans, mainly because it was marketed (mostly by
Jerry "The King" Lawler during the events) as being dirty, smelly, sweaty, repulsive, and vile. McMahon manipulated Mankind, who saw the WWF owner as a father figure, into doing his bidding. McMahon created the
WWF Hardcore Championship and awarded it to Mankind, making him the first-ever champion of the hardcore division. Mankind was then pushed as the favorite to win the
WWF Championship at
Survivor Series, as McMahon appeared to be influencing the tournament so that Mankind would win. He and
The Rock both reached the finals, where McMahon showed his true colors. As The Rock placed Mankind in the
Sharpshooter, McMahon ordered the timekeeper to ring the bell even though Mankind did not submit, a reference to the infamous
Montreal Screwjob occurring just the year prior. As a result of the Survivor Series, Mankind officially turned face, while The Rock turned heel and became the crown jewel in McMahon's new faction,
The Corporation. After weeks of trying to get his hands on The Corporation, Mankind received a title shot against
The Rock at
Rock Bottom: In Your House. Mankind won the match by using his mandible claw hold (with the Mr. Socko prop on his hand) and the referee declared The Rock had become unresponsive. But McMahon overruled the title change because Mankind didn't keep his pre-match promise to make The Rock submit. After several weeks of going after The Corporation, Mankind defeated The Rock to win his first WWF Championship on December 29 in
Worcester, Massachusetts. The taped show was broadcast on January 4, 1999; thus that is the date WWE recognizes as beginning the title run. Having title changes on broadcast television rather than pay-per-view was uncommon in professional wrestling, but because of the
Monday Night War, television ratings became more important. The head of rival promotion WCW
Eric Bischoff, attempting to take advantage of the fact that their show
Monday Nitro aired live while Mankind's title victory was taped the week before, had announcer
Tony Schiavone reveal the ending of the Mankind-Rock match before it aired. He then added sarcastically, "That's gonna put some butts in the seats." The move backfired for WCW, as
Nielsen ratings showed that Raw won the ratings battle that night, despite the
Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash main event which led to the reformation of the
New World Order (nWo). Foley took personal pride in observing that ratings indicate large numbers of viewers switched from
Nitro to
Raw to see him win the title. It was a significant turn of direction between the warring companies as WCW would never beat the WWF in the television ratings again going forward. Mankind lost the WWF Championship to The Rock in an
"I Quit" match (a type of
submission match) 20 days later at the
Royal Rumble at the
Arrowhead Pond in
Anaheim, California, near
Los Angeles, in what is regarded as one of the company's most brutal matches. During the match, Foley took several violent and dangerous attacks from The Rock all over the arena, including repeated steel chair shots to the head and a fall from the stands onto solid electrical objects, which sparked upon impact. Although chair shots to the head were commonplace in the
Attitude Era, the most a wrestler would take in a single ten-minute match was two, or sometimes three, with their hands in front of their head to ease the blow and lessen a chance of a concussion. However, Foley had taken eleven in the span of two and a half minutes, all unprotected, because he had been
handcuffed just before The Rock began his repeated onslaught. Foley was originally supposed to take five chair shots to the head with the final match-ending shot being two-thirds up the entrance ramp. After the sixth shot, Foley was still at ringside and, even after Foley signaled to The Rock to hit him in the back, The Rock decided to keep to the match's brutal tone based on Foley's previous on-the-fly calling of similar shots on the spot. He bludgeoned Foley five more times in the head until they got to the two-thirds mark. This match is featured in Barry Blaustein's documentary
Beyond the Mat, which shows the impact the match had on Foley, his family, and even the rest of the audience at ringside. At one point Foley's wife Collette and five-year-old daughter Noelle both cried and screamed in horror, with Noelle believing her father was dying as The Rock pummeled Foley with repeated chair shots. The match at this point had become so brutal that some people in the audience sitting in the front furiously showed signs of disapproval at The Rock and shouted at him and the referee to stop the match. The match ended after Mankind lost consciousness, and The Rock's allies played a recording of Mankind saying "I Quit" from an earlier interview he did with Shane McMahon. Mankind won the title back in a rematch a week later on Halftime Heat, which aired during halftime of
Super Bowl XXXIII, in the WWF's first-ever
empty arena match in
Tucson, Arizona, on January 31. After 20 minutes of brawling in the ring, the empty grandstands, a kitchen, the arena's hallways, an office, and the catering hall, Mankind took a sock off his foot and stuffed it into The Rock's mouth. He eventually used a
forklift to pin a subdued Rock in a basement loading area. The two then competed in a
Last Man Standing match at
St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House, which ended without either being able to respond to a ten count, meaning that Mankind retained the title. The next night, Mr. McMahon booked a ladder match for the championship, which The Rock won with help from
The Big Show. Mankind would go on to
WrestleMania XV to defeat The Big Show and again at
Backlash a month later in a violent and brutal Boiler Room Brawl (the first in the WWF since July 1996), where the objective of the match had been simplified from the 1996 match to only having to escape the boiler room. Foley briefly reverted to his Cactus Jack persona for a Hardcore handicap match against
Ministry of Darkness members
Viscera and
Mideon on May 10, 1999, which Cactus won, entering wielding two basketballs as weapons. In that same month, Big Show would align with fellow former Corporation members Mankind, Test, and Shamrock in a collective known as "
The Union". They took on part of the newly fused
Corporate Ministry at
Over the Edge. Foley took some time away to undergo knee surgery and was written off television with a kayfabe blow dealt by Triple H. In August 1999, Foley returned after a three-month absence recovering from knee surgery to resume his feud with
Triple H, who had kayfabe injured Foley's left knee with his sledgehammer. On an episode of
Raw is War, Mankind drew with Triple H in a match for the number one contender for the WWF Championship, which resulted in a Triple Threat match between Steve Austin, Triple H and Mankind at
SummerSlam where Mankind won the WWF Championship for a third time by pinning the reigning champion Austin. Mankind's win led to an enraged Triple H to assault Austin, justifying Austin's absence while he healed a knee injury. The next night on
Raw is War, Triple H defeated Mankind to win his first WWF championship. A feud then developed between Mankind and Triple H. This included Triple H defeating Mankind in another Boiler Room Brawl on the September 23 edition of
SmackDown!, as part of a five-match "gauntlet" challenge set upon Triple H by Vince McMahon. It was around this time that Foley began to realize he was going to have to retire soon. In addition to the massive physical toll he had inflicted on his body, Foley then began to develop cognitive problems such as forgetting simple bodily motions and trouble remembering how to write and spell basic words. Foley's last match was meant to be a tag team bout with Al Snow in November 1999. With the WWF having to go on devoid of their biggest star Stone Cold Steve Austin at the time (who was out with a broken neck), Foley felt that the company would suffer too badly if another one of its top talents disappeared from the roster, although The Rock was surging in popularity. Foley, even in the poor condition he was in, decided to endure for a few more months until Austin returned. Around the latter part of the year, Foley and The Rock patched up their friendship and teamed up to form a comedy duo titled
the Rock 'n' Sock Connection, becoming one of the most popular acts during that time. The pair won the tag team titles on three occasions. One notable match was a Buried Alive encounter in September that pitted the Rock 'n' Sock Connection against The Undertaker and The Big Show, who were out for revenge after losing the tag titles one week earlier. The Big Show tossed Mankind off the stage, landing him hard on the dirt and falling into the grave with Mankind travelling nearly in total. Foley then helped
Raw is War achieve its highest
ratings ever with a segment featuring himself (as Mankind) and The Rock. The "This Is Your Life" segment aired on September 27, 1999, and received an 8.4 rating, with Yurple the Clown making another appearance. Mankind received a title shot against Triple H on an episode of
Raw is War on October 25, 1999. Mankind appeared to have the title won after he forced Triple H to pass out by ramming a sock down his gullet, but Val Venis interfered and cost Mankind the match. Mankind continued his feud with Triple H when he was slated to have the last Boiler Room Brawl match with "
Santa Claus". He ended up being attacked by the
Mean Street Posse,
Billy Gunn and
Road Dogg, all of whom dressed up as Santa Claus. Mankind defeated all five of the Santa Clauses until Triple H appeared as a 6th Santa Claus and brought down Mankind, escaping the Boiler Room and winning as the eponymous character. On the December 27, 1999, episode of
Raw is War, Mick Foley and the Rock had a "Pink Slip on a Pole match", where whoever was first to grab the
pink slip first stayed in WWF and the loser having to leave. Foley would lose before then showing up as Mankind on the January 13, 2000, edition of
SmackDown!. He then fell back into his Cactus Jack persona in front of the crowd to promote Cactus Jack facing Triple H for the WWF Championship at
Royal Rumble, in a
Street Fight. Cactus used a 2x4 wrapped in barbed wire and thumbtacks - trademark weapons from his pre-WWF days - but Triple H won the match after delivering two Pedigrees, the second slamming Cactus face-first onto a pile of tacks. The feud culminated with a rematch at
No Way Out in a Hell in a Cell match, where stipulations held that Cactus could not use foreign metallic objects he utilized at the Royal Rumble. It was also stated that if he did not win the title, Foley had to retire from wrestling. During the match, they had made their way onto the top of the cell and Cactus was preparing to piledrive Triple H onto a barbed wire 2x4 on fire, but Triple H reversed it into a backdrop. It caused the cage to break, and Cactus fell through the canvas. Triple H then pinned an exhausted Cactus, winning the match and ending Foley's career. Foley left for a few weeks, but returned at the request of
Linda McMahon to wrestle for the title by replacing
Chris Jericho's spot at the main event of
WrestleMania 2000 against Triple H, The Rock and Big Show. Triple H won the match - pinning Foley in a third consecutive pay-pay-view main event - and Foley did not wrestle again for four years.
Commissioner and departure (2000–2001) Fan Axxess in 2001 After retiring from active competition, Foley served as storyline
WWF Commissioner under his real name rather than one of his personas. Foley has said that he intended for his Commissioner Foley character to be a "role model for nerds," cracking lame jokes and making no attempt to appear tough or scary. He also had a knack during this time to have no one spot for his office; rather, Foley would have an office in all sorts of odd places (for example, closets). Foley turned getting
cheap pops into something of a catchphrase, as he shamelessly declared at each WWF show that he was thrilled to be "right here in (whatever city in which he was performing (e.g., New York))!" punctuated with an intentionally cheesy thumbs-up gesture. During this time, Commissioner Foley engaged in rivalries with
Kurt Angle,
Edge and Christian, and Vince McMahon without actually wrestling them. He left the position in December 2000 after being "fired" onscreen by McMahon during which he received a brutal beat down at the hands of Angle, Edge and Christian. Foley made a surprise return on the
Raw just before
WrestleMania X-Seven and announced that he would be the
special guest referee in the match between Mr. McMahon and his son Shane at WrestleMania. After WrestleMania, Foley made sporadic appearances on WWF programming throughout the middle of the year, at one point introducing Minnesota Governor
Jesse Ventura during a taping of
Raw in the state as a foil to Mr. McMahon, as well as serving as the guest referee for the
Earl Hebner versus
Nick Patrick referee match and a tag-team bra and panties match between WWF wrestlers
Lita and
Trish Stratus vs. WCW wrestlers
Stacy Keibler and
Torrie Wilson at the
Invasion pay-per-view. Foley returned as commissioner in October 2001, near the end of
The Invasion angle. During this brief tenure, Foley had the opportunity to
shoot on the WWF's direction and how dissatisfied he was with it. Saying that there were far too many championships in the company, he booked unification matches before the final pay-per-view of the storyline,
Survivor Series. After Survivor Series, he ended his commissionership at Vince McMahon's request and left the company.
Various promotions; Ring of Honor (2003–2005) On December 12, 2003, Foley served as the special guest referee for a
Terry Funk vs.
Dusty Rhodes match promoted by the
International Wrestling Cartel. On May 8, 2004, Foley returned to Japan for the first time in seven years. He lost to
Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown title at
Hustle's Hustle 3 pay per view in Yokohama. On September 11, 2004, Foley made his debut for
Ring of Honor (ROH) and cut a promo, praising ROH and referring to it as "Ring of Hardcore", thus establishing himself as a face. On October 15, Foley returned to ROH where he confronted
Ricky Steamboat, who claimed that traditional wrestling was better than hardcore wrestling. During this confrontation Foley also cut a scathing promo on Ric Flair, as part of his real-life animosity over Flair referring to Foley as a "glorified stuntman" in his autobiography. The next day, both Foley and Steamboat cut promos on each other, leading to a match between two teams of wrestlers handpicked by both men, with
Nigel McGuiness and
Chad Collyer representing Steamboat and
Dan Maff and
B. J. Whitmer representing Foley, which was won by McGuiness and Collyer. On November 6, Foley teased a heel turn when he called
ROH Champion Samoa Joe "softcore". On December 26 at ROH's Final Battle event, Foley returned to ROH and had his final confrontation with Ricky Steamboat, where the two made peace. On January 15, 2005, Foley turned heel after being confronted by Samoa Joe and hit Joe over the head with a steel chair. On February 19, Foley resumed his feud with Samoa Joe in ROH, teasing a return to the ring but instead choosing
Vordell Walker to fight Joe. After Joe defeated Walker, Foley introduced his "backup plan" New Cactus Jack to fight Joe in a second match, which Joe won as well. On July 8, Foley returned to ROH as a face, confronting ROH Champion
CM Punk, who had turned heel and mocked ROH and the championship after he had signed with WWE and threatened to take the title with him to WWE. Foley acted as a direct line to Vince McMahon, attempting to convince Punk to defend his title one last time on McMahon's orders before he departed from ROH. On August 20, Foley returned to ROH again, as a face, to rescue
Jade Chung from
Prince Nana. Foley was then attacked from behind by Alex Shelley and
The Embassy until
Austin Aries and
Roderick Strong chased them off. Foley made his final regular appearance with ROH on September 17, when he was in
A.J. Styles' corner in a match against Embassy member
Jimmy Rave, which Styles won. Afterward, Foley spoke highly of Ring of Honor. Foley teamed up with
Shane Douglas on May 7, 2005, when they defeated
Al Snow and
D'Lo Brown for the Tri-Cities Tag titles at the Mark Curtis Memorial Reunion in Johnson City, Tennessee. On August 27, 2005, Foley teamed with
Terry Funk and his brother
Dory Jr. as they lost to
The Midnight Express,
Bobby Eaton,
Dennis Condrey and
Stan Lane at
WrestleReunion 2. On November 12, 2005, Foley worked in England for Universal Uproar in Coventry teaming with
The Sandman,
Steve Corino and Paul Travell as they defeated
Alex Shane, Martin Stone, Iceman and Stixx in a Hardcore Elimination match.
Return to WWE (2003–2008) Feud with Randy Orton (2003–2004) Foley returned to WWE to referee the
Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and
Kevin Nash at
Bad Blood on June 15, 2003. On the June 23 episode of
Raw broadcast from
Madison Square Garden, he was honored for his achievements in the ring and presented with the retired
WWE Hardcore Championship belt. The evening ended with Foley taking a beating and kicked down a flight of stairs by
Randy Orton and
Ric Flair. On the December 1 episode of
Raw, Foley returned to replace Stone Cold Steve Austin as co-general manager of the
Raw brand. He soon grew tired of the day-to-day travel and left his full-time duties to write and spend time with his family. In the storyline, Foley was afraid to wrestle a match with WWE Intercontinental Champion
Randy Orton on the December 15 episode of
Raw and walked out of the match rather than face him, the result of the match was ruled a draw. After Foley walked backstage, Orton confronted him asking why he walked out of the match and calling him a coward before spitting in his face. Foley walked out of the arena afterward. Foley returned briefly to wrestling, competing in the
Royal Rumble match at the
Royal Rumble on January 25, 2004, and eliminating both Orton and himself with his trademark Cactus Jack clothesline. He and
The Rock reunited as the Rock 'n' Sock Connection and lost a handicap match to
Evolution at
WrestleMania XX on March 14. Foley and Orton continued to feud, culminating in a
hardcore match for the
WWE Intercontinental Championship at
Backlash on April 18, where a thumbtack-covered Orton defeated Foley, as his Cactus Jack persona, to retain the title after hitting Foley with his signature move, the
RKO onto a barbed-wire covered baseball bat. Foley regards this match as possibly the best of his career.
Various feuds (2005–2006) Foley appeared as a color commentator at WWE's
ECW One Night Stand on June 12, 2005, and subsequently renewed his contract with WWE. Foley returned in a match where fans were able to vote on which persona he would appear as—Mankind, Dude Love, or Cactus Jack—against
Carlito at
Taboo Tuesday on November 1. The fans voted for Mankind, who went on to defeat Carlito- this was the last time Foley ever wrestled as Mankind. On the February 16, 2006 episode of
Raw, Foley returned to referee the WWE Championship match between
Edge and
John Cena. After Cena won, Edge attacked Foley, and the following week, Foley (who from now on would resemble Cactus Jack in his wrestling show appearances and matches, but would still wrestle under his own name) challenged Edge to a hardcore match at
WrestleMania 22 on April 2. In the intensely brutal match, the heavily bloodied and thumbtack-covered Edge defeated Foley after spearing him through a flaming table, where both performers suffered second-degree burns after anti-flame material was sweated off of both performers and was not applied to the flaming table, at their own request. In the weeks after the match, an "impressed" Foley aligned himself with Edge against the newly rejuvenated
ECW on the May 8 episode of
Raw, turning heel in WWE for the first time since 1998. At
ECW One Night Stand on June 11, Foley, Edge and
Lita defeated Terry Funk,
Tommy Dreamer and
Beulah McGillicutty in a violent and brutal tag-team hardcore match, which included a spot where Funk hit Foley with a barbed wire 2x4 plank lit on fire, and the flame latched onto Foley, and he then fell onto a plywood board covered in more barbed wire. Foley then engaged in a storyline rivalry with
Ric Flair, inspired by real-life animosity between them. In
Have a Nice Day!, Foley wrote that Flair was "every bit as bad on the booking side of things as he was great on the wrestling side of it." In response, Flair wrote in his autobiography that Foley was "a glorified stuntman" and that he was able to climb the ladder in the WWF only because he was friends with the bookers. The two had a backstage confrontation at a
Raw event in December 2004 in
Huntsville,
Alabama, but Foley has said that they have largely reconciled. To spark the feud, Flair again called Foley a "glorified
stuntman" and Foley called Flair a "washed-up piece of crap" and challenged him to a match. The result was a Two-out-of-Three Falls match at
Vengeance on June 25, where Flair beat Foley in two straight falls. The two then wrestled in an intensely brutal and bloody
"I Quit" match at
SummerSlam on August 20. In the beginning of the match, Foley stuffed his smelly gym sock,
Mr. Socko, down Flair's gullet to apply the
Mandible claw. Flair nearly passed out from the sock's foul smell, but since the match was an "I Quit" match, Foley was unable to capitalize. Flair, who was covered in blood, thumbtacks and cuts from barbed wire, won the match when he forced Foley to quit by threatening
Melina with a barbed-wire bat. On the August 21 episode of
Raw, Foley kissed
Vince McMahon's buttocks as part of McMahon's "
Kiss My Ass Club"
gimmick after he threatened to fire Melina. Shortly thereafter, Melina betrayed Foley and announced that he was fired.
Sporadic appearances, SmackDown color commentator and second departure (2007–2008) Seven months later, Foley returned on the March 5, 2007 episode of
Raw with the storyline being that he tricked McMahon into giving him his job back, turning face once again. At
Vengeance on June 24, Foley wrestled in a WWE Championship Challenge match involving WWE Champion
John Cena,
Randy Orton,
King Booker, and
Bobby Lashley. Cena retained by pinning Foley. On the October 29 episode of
Raw, Foley made an appearance on as the special guest referee for a match between
Jonathan Coachman and Mr. McMahon's storyline illegitimate son
Hornswoggle. Foley then made an appearance on
SmackDown! the same week, where he defeated Coachman with Hornswoggle as the special guest referee. On the January 7, 2008, episode of
Raw, Foley and his tag team partner Hornswoggle qualified for the
Royal Rumble on January 27 by defeating
The Highlanders, but Foley was eliminated by Triple H during the Royal Rumble match. Foley debuted as a color commentator for SmackDown alongside
Michael Cole at
Backlash on April 27, replacing
Jonathan Coachman. On the August 1 episode of
SmackDown, Foley was
kayfabe attacked by Edge during Edge's promo for his
Hell in a Cell match against
The Undertaker at
SummerSlam on August 17. Foley sat out the August 8
SmackDown to sell his recovery from the injuries. Tazz filled in for Foley as a color commentator on
SmackDown, while Raw wrestler
Matt Striker filled in for Tazz on
ECW. Foley told Long Island Press pro wrestling columnist Josh Stewart in August 2008 that "creatively, the announcing job wasn't working out too well". He expanded with Dave Meltzer on the Observer radio show that the environment was creatively frustrating. Foley allowed his contract with WWE to expire on September 1, 2008, and quietly left the company.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling / Impact Wrestling (2008–2011, 2020) Championship reigns (2008–2009) On September 3, 2008, Foley's agency, Gillespie Talent, issued a press release that stated Foley had signed a short-term deal with
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Foley claimed in the statement to be "very excited about the specifics of this agreement and the potential it holds". Foley made his TNA debut on September 5, at a TNA house show giving a short speech about how he loved the product, in which he also belittled WWE. The official TNA Wrestling website featured an image of a smiley face with a variation of Foley's catchphrase, "Have a nice day!" (and, before
No Surrender on September 14, "Have a nice Sunday!"). On the September 18 edition of
Impact!, Foley made his first televised appearance for TNA, where
Jeff Jarrett introduced him to the audience on the arena's video wall. Two weeks later, Foley made his full television debut in a promo making comments about the
WWE roster, Vince McMahon and
Kurt Angle. At
Bound for Glory IV on October 12, he was the special guest enforcer for Jarrett and Angle's match. Later, on
Impact!, Foley said goodbye, but was then approached by Jeff Jarrett with a new offer; he later indicated that they had come to terms on a new contract and would make a major announcement the next week. On the October 23 episode of
Impact!, Foley announced that he was now co-owner of TNA along with Jarrett, just after Kurt Angle headbutted him. On the November 27 episode of
Impact!, TNA presented the Turkey Bowl.
Alex Shelley ended up being pinned by
Rhino, and Foley handed Rhino the check. Afterward, the defeated Shelley had to put on a Turkey Suit in compliance with the match rules, albeit with much refusal. However, Shelley "
flipped off" Foley and proceeded to beat him up. In the aftermath, Mick mentioned that Shelley is lucky he still has his job.
The Main Event Mafia's
Kevin Nash,
Booker T, and
Scott Steiner were going to take on
Brother Devon,
A.J. Styles, and Mick Foley in his debut matchup at
Genesis on January 11, 2009. Nash, however, suffered a legitimate staph infection and missed Genesis. He was replaced by
Cute Kip. Foley got the pin when he hit Scott Steiner with a double arm DDT onto a chair. At
Lockdown on April 19, he defeated
Sting to win the
TNA World Heavyweight Championship for his first-ever championship in TNA, and his fourth World title overall. At
Sacrifice on May 24, Foley put his title on the line against Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett and Sting. During the match, Foley stuffed a dirty old sock into the mouths of Jarrett and Sting, but Sting pinned Angle to become the new leader of the Main Event Mafia. Due to the rules of the match, Foley retained the title. Foley had also stated on
Impact! tapings that if he retained the TNA World Heavyweight Title at the
King of the Mountain match at
Slammiversary on June 21, he would only put the title up in a match once a year. However, he lost the title to Kurt Angle in the King of The Mountain match at Slammiversary. He received a rematch at
Victory Road on July 19, commenting he had only submitted once in his career (to Terry Funk, in a
spinning toe hold) and swore he'd never do it again. He lost the match when Angle forced him to submit again with the
ankle lock. On July 30, on the 200th episode of
Impact!, Foley won the
TNA Legends Championship by pinning champion Kevin Nash in a tag team match where Nash teamed with Angle and Foley with
Bobby Lashley. At
Hard Justice on August 16, Nash defeated Foley to regain the title, following interference from
Traci Brooks.
Various storylines (2009–2011, 2020) On the September 24 episode of
Impact! Foley turned
heel when he attacked
Abyss during and after a
TNA World Tag Team Championship match against Booker T and Scott Steiner. Foley revealed Abyss as the one who tore up his picture and attacked him with a videotape and the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire. Abyss then challenged Foley to a
Monster's Ball match which Foley accepted. At
Bound for Glory on October 18, Abyss defeated Foley in the match. Two weeks later on the October 29 episode of
Impact!, Foley turned on Dr. Stevie and saved Abyss from him, turning
face once again. The following week he explained that he had played Dr. Stevie all along and had challenged Abyss to a match at Bound for Glory to see how tough he was. On the edition of November 12 of
Impact! Raven returned to TNA and saved Stevie's future in the company by costing Abyss a match and throwing a fireball in Foley's face. After this, Foley turned his attention away from Abyss and Dr. Stevie and concentrated on
Hulk Hogan's arrival in TNA, appearing to be paranoid about Hogan taking over TNA. On the edition of December 3 of
Impact! Foley teased another heel turn by booking face Kurt Angle in a handicap match, after Angle refused to give him information on who Hogan is bringing to TNA. At
Final Resolution on December 20, Abyss and Foley defeated Stevie and Raven in a "Foley's Funhouse" tag team match. On the live January 4, 2010 episode of
Impact!, the day of Hulk Hogan's debut for TNA, Foley was assaulted by the reunited
Kevin Nash,
Scott Hall and
Sean Waltman, when trying to get a meeting with Hogan. On the January 21 episode of
Impact! new Executive Producer
Eric Bischoff fired Foley, after claiming to have been attacked by him. On the February 11 episode of
Impact!, Bischoff and Foley "talked it over", as Hogan had suggested two weeks prior, and Foley was entered in the
8 Card Stud Tournament at
Against All Odds on February 14. The match was a No Disqualification match against Abyss, who won the match and advanced. On the March 15 episode of
Impact! Bischoff announced that he would be shaving Foley bald as a punishment for trying to help Jeff Jarrett in a handicap match the previous week. At first, Foley was seemingly going along with the plan, but at the last second he shoved Mr. Socko down Bischoff's throat, put him on the barber's chair and shaved him nearly bald. On the following edition of
Impact!, Foley lost to Jarrett in a No Disqualification Career vs. Career match set up by Bischoff, forcing Foley to
kayfabe leave TNA. In reality, Foley was taken off television due to him being on his way to exceed the maximum number of dates per year on his contract, at the pace he was making appearances. Foley returned to TNA on the July 15 episode of
Impact!, leading an invasion of fellow ECW alumni TNA World Heavyweight Champion
Rob Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Stevie Richards, Rhino, Brother Devon,
Pat Kenney and
Al Snow forming the team of EV 2.0. The following week, TNA president
Dixie Carter agreed to give the ECW alumni their own reunion pay–per–view event,
Hardcore Justice: The Last Stand on August 8, as a celebration of hardcore wrestling and a final farewell to ECW. At Hardcore Justice, Foley refereed a Final Showdown match between Tommy Dreamer and Raven. On the following edition of
Impact!, the ECW alumni, known collectively as
Extreme, Version 2.0 (EV 2.0), were assaulted by A.J. Styles,
Kazarian,
Robert Roode,
James Storm,
Douglas Williams and
Matt Morgan of Ric Flair's stable, who thought they didn't deserve to be in TNA. In August, Foley began writing a weekly column for TNA's website. On the October 7, 2010, live edition of
Impact!, Foley defeated Ric Flair in a Last Man Standing match. the Last Man Standing match with Flair turned out to be Foley's last match in TNA. At
Bound for Glory on October 10, Foley was in EV 2.0's corner, when Dreamer, Raven, Rhino, Richards and Sabu defeated members Styles, Kazarian, Morgan, Roode and Storm in a
Lethal Lockdown match. After not appearing for two months, Foley returned on the December 23 episode of
Impact!, confronting Fortune and
Immortal. After
Genesis on January 9, 2011, Foley once again disappeared from TNA television, but kept making regular appearances at TNA house shows. At the tapings of the May 12 episode of
Impact Wrestling, Foley made his return to television as he was revealed as the "
Network" consultant, who had been causing problems for Immortal for the past months. On May 23, Foley, who had expressed frustration with TNA and said that he did not plan to renew his contract with TNA once it would expire in the fall of 2011, made a joke on Twitter, comparing his Empty Arena match with The Rock to a TNA house show. On the following edition of
Impact Wrestling on June 2,
Hulk Hogan announced that Foley had been fired as the Network Executive. This was done to write Foley, who had asked for his release from TNA, off television. His departure from TNA was confirmed on June 5, 2011. On October 24, 2020, Foley made a brief return to Impact Wrestling at the
2020 Bound for Glory via video message to congratulate Ken Shamrock for his induction into the Impact Hall of Fame.
Second return to WWE (2011–present) Last matches and final retirement (2011−2012) Foley returned to WWE at a house show in
Dublin, Ireland, taking a break from his UK comedy tour, on November 2, 2011, making an in-ring promo with
The Miz and
R-Truth and then guest refereed the tag team match, appearing again in Manchester on November 5. Foley returned to television on the November 14 episode of
Raw SuperShow, which featured him presenting a "This Is Your Life" celebration for John Cena (he presented a similar segment for
The Rock 12 years earlier). Among those brought out were Cena's former tag team partner
Bull Buchanan, his former baseball coach (kayfabe), and his father; however the segment was interrupted by The Rock, who delivered a Rock Bottom to Foley before leaving the ring, ending the segment. Foley was the special guest host on the live edition of
SmackDown on November 29. Foley appeared on the January 16, 2012 episode of
Raw SuperShow to announce his intentions to participate in the
Royal Rumble match at the
2012 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, later in the night during a six-man tag team match
CM Punk needing a tag Foley came down to the ring and got tagged in the match; he defeated David Otunga but John Laurinaitis reversed the decision because Foley was not an official participant of the match. The next week, he also appeared, wishing
Zack Ryder good luck in his match against Kane that night. Foley participated in the Royal Rumble match at the 2012 Royal Rumble pay-per-view where he entered at number 7 and eliminated
Justin Gabriel (with the help of
Ricardo Rodriguez),
Epico, and
Primo, eventually being eliminated by
Cody Rhodes after 6 minutes and 34 seconds. The match was ultimately won by
Sheamus. This was Foley's last night as an active wrestler. Foley later appeared in a segment alongside
Santino Marella at
WrestleMania XXVIII. On April 10, 2012, Foley made an appearance on
WWE SmackDown: Blast from the Past. He returned on the June 18 episode of
Raw SuperShow announcing that he would be serving as the temporary general manager of both
Raw and
SmackDown for the week. On July 23, at the
1000th episode of Raw, he appeared as Dude Love, danced with
Brodus Clay and performed the mandible claw on
Jack Swagger with a
tie dyed Mr. Socko. In 2012, he hosted the
WWE: Falls Count Anywhere – The Greatest Street Fights and other Out of Control Matches DVD. On the September 24, 2012, episode of
Raw, Foley made an appearance to confront
CM Punk, telling him to accept a match against John Cena. Later in the show, however, Punk attacked Foley backstage. At
Hell in a Cell, CM Punk successfully retained his WWE Championship against
Ryback due to interference from the referee,
Brad Maddox. The next day on
Raw, CM Punk announced he would be facing Team Foley at
Survivor Series in a traditional Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match for which Foley had accepted the challenge. However Punk had been removed from the match the following week. On the November 12, 2012, episode of
Raw, Foley was appointed the Special Guest Enforcer in the match between CM Punk and John Cena. Foley's hand-picked Survivor Series team of
The Miz,
Randy Orton,
Kofi Kingston and
Team Hell No failed to defeat Team Ziggler in the Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series Elimination Tag Match. Foley portrayed
Santa Claus on the December 24 pre-taped edition of
Monday Night Raw. Foley as Santa was run over by
Alberto Del Rio. However, he managed to recover later in the night and help Cena defeat Del Rio in a Miracle on 34th Street Fight match. In August 2012, Foley was originally scheduled to have a match with the debuting
Dean Ambrose at
SummerSlam. However, doctors could not medically clear Foley, so Foley announced his final retirement from in-ring competition. At the February 26 taping of
Saturday Morning Slam (that aired March 16), Foley was named as the new general manager for the show. Foley returned on April 22 episode of
Raw to confront Ryback until he was saved by John Cena. Foley appeared as part of the
Extreme Rules post-show to provide an analysis. On the December 18 episode of
Main Event he appeared As 'Foley Claus', helping
The Miz defeat
Curtis Axel. In April 2014, Foley didn't re-sign his Legends contract with WWE. On the October 20, 2014, episode of
Raw, Foley returned during a segment with
Dean Ambrose and
Seth Rollins where he discussed the cases of their match at
Hell in a Cell. Throughout December 2014, Foley appeared in segments on
Raw as Saint Mick alongside his daughter Noelle. In 2015, Foley appeared at
SummerSlam, where he kicked off the event with host
Jon Stewart. Foley returned to
Raw on March 14, 2016, in a backstage segment with Dean Ambrose, in which he gave him a pep talk for his upcoming
WrestleMania 32 match against
Brock Lesnar and a passing of the torch in the form of his iconic barbed wire baseball bat, "Barbie". On April 3, 2016, at
WrestleMania 32, Foley returned in-ring alongside
Shawn Michaels and
Stone Cold Steve Austin in a post-match interruption where the trio of Hall of Famers took on
The League of Nations after they had defeated
The New Day and proclaimed "No three people can ever defeat us." Foley brought out Mr. Socko and executed the Mandible Claw two times during the fight, once on
Sheamus and once on
King Barrett. The latter was part of a three-way finishing move sequence where Barrett was first hit with Sweet Chin Music by Shawn Michaels, staggered and fell into Mr. Socko, and finally hit with a Stone Cold Stunner.
Raw General Manager (2016–2017) '' in December 2016 On the July 18, 2016, episode of
Raw, Foley was appointed by
Stephanie McMahon as the general manager of Raw. Foley unveiled new titles exclusive to the
Raw brand, while also making fair decisions to favor the faces and occasionally disagreeing with Stephanie McMahon. One of Foley's first decisions as Raw General Manager was pitting the feuding
Sheamus and
Cesaro against one another in a Best of 7 series. Going into
Clash of Champions the duo were tied 3–3. At Clash of Champions, both men would be counted out resulting in a draw and the best of seven series being declared a draw. On the next night's episode of
Raw Foley who had promised the victor a championship opportunity would put the two in a tag team. This would lead to the creation of
The Bar. On the November 21 episode of
Raw, Foley would place
Sami Zayn in a match against
Braun Strowman after Zayn failed to defeat
The Miz at
Survivor Series for the
WWE Intercontinental Championship to bring the title to
Raw. During the match, Foley would order the match to be stopped, deeming Zayn unable to continue. The following week on
Raw, Zayn would demand a rematch against Strowman, but Foley would decline, telling Zayn he could not beat him, making Zayn storm off in anger. On the December 12 episode of
Raw, Zayn would once again ask for a rematch with Strowman but was once again rejected by Foley. Zayn would then tell Foley he was pondering going to
SmackDown because Foley did not believe in him. Later that night, after Zayn defeated
Jinder Mahal, Foley would tell him he has arranged a trade with
SmackDown for him in exchange for
Eva Marie. Zayn would angrily refuse the trade and once again demanded a rematch with Strowman. Foley would yield, giving Zayn his match with Strowman at
Roadblock: End of the Line with a ten-minute time limit. On the March 13, 2017, episode of
Raw, Stephanie McMahon forced Foley to fire a member of the
Raw roster by the end of the night. Foley chose to fire Stephanie McMahon herself, which prompted
Triple H to come out and confront Foley. After being insulted and ordered to leave the ring, Foley instead attacked Triple H, stuffing a stinky sock in Triple H's mouth via
Mr. Socko before being low blowed by McMahon.
Seth Rollins would then come out to aid Foley, only to be attacked by Triple H. On the March 20 episode of
Raw, Stephanie McMahon would fire Foley for his actions the previous week. A few weeks later Foley made an appearance at the WWE Hall of Fame
class of 2017 ceremony.
Sporadic appearances (2018–present) On the September 10, 2018, episode of
Raw, Foley interrupted
Elias with the announcement that in speaking with Stephanie McMahon regarding the upcoming 20th anniversary of his
Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker at
King of the Ring that he would be appointed
special guest referee for the WWE Universal Championship match between
Roman Reigns and
Braun Strowman at the September
Hell in a Cell PPV event. At Hell in a Cell,
Brock Lesnar would interfere in the contest with
Paul Heyman spraying Foley in the eyes with pepper spray, as a result; the match was ruled a no-contest. Following the show, a Mick Foley 20 Years of Hell special was aired on the WWE Network. On the May 20, 2019, edition of
Raw, Foley returned to unveil a new championship. He unveiled the
24/7 Championship announcing a scramble for the title. In July, he announced that he wanted to challenge R-Truth for the championship. However, that didn't occur due to being attacked by
Bray Wyatt, now appearing as "The Fiend" on
Raw. On the November 7, 2023, episode of
NXT, Foley announced who will be in the qualifiers for the Iron Survivor Challenge at
NXT Deadline. In December 2025, Foley announced that, in light of his concerns about WWE's relationship with
President of the United States Donald Trump, particularly in the context of Trump's "cruel" comments on the
death of Rob Reiner, he would not make any further appearances for WWE during Trump's time in office, and he would not renew his WWE Legends deal upon its expiration in June 2026. == Writing career ==