YMMV / Mick Foley

• Awesome Music:
  • While Mankind's original theme is very melancholic and nightmarish, the remix heard during Mick Foley's win of the World Championship is more triumphant and hopeful. It helps that said match is considered the tipping point in the Monday Night Wars and signaled the decline of WCW.
  • His entrance theme as Dude Love is a Disco-inspired, smooth, upbeat tune that fits the sillier Face of Foley.
  • Cactus Jack's badass entrance theme fits the sadistic and utterly ruthless Garbage Wrestler who uses about anything he can get his hands on as a weapon.
  • His most iconic theme, "Wreck" ^note Which was initially used for Mankind and later became synonymous with the man himself, opens with a car crash and what follows is an upbeat, grungy guitar riff that lets you know you're about to have a nice day.
• Badass Decay: He commented in his book that Mankind went from a raging, unstable Psychopathic Manchild to what Triple H called a "human Muppet." Ironically, he won more titles with the less badass persona.
  • Even in human muppet mode, Mick Foley was still fairly badass as his early 1999 feud with The Rock and later The Big Show will attest to. This period also saw him beat both "Stone Cold" Steve Austin AND Triple H at the same time at Summerslam '99 before losing it to Triple H the next night.
  • It happened again in TNA during Mick's angle with Eric Bischoff. Mick went from being a legitimately insane badass who beat Sting for the world title to what Spoony referred to as dangerously-incapable-of-surviving-on-his-own stupid.
  • On the February 4, 2010 episode of Impact, Mick faced Kevin Nash in a no disqualification match. Despite not being able to inflict very much punishment on Foley, Nash got the three count after kicking Foley in the face. Yes, the man who remained conscious after falling off the top of a cage twice in the same night was booked to not only lose a no-DQ match, but get knocked out by a move that wasn't even Nash's finisher.
  • Unfortunately, this has occurred to Foley in real life as well. He is in such poor physical condition after decades of bumps, falls, and chair shots that he can no longer even put his own shoes and socks on.
• Base-Breaking Character: Mankind began as an utterly disturbing, unstable maniac that cut some of the most chilling promos ever seen in wrestling. Over time, however, this character was dropped in favour of a goofy, fun character, trading in his two-finger glove for Mr. Socko, and his disturbing and eerie Schizophrenic theme for the cheery Wreck theme. Which is the better version has often been debated.
• Crazy Is Cool:
  • During the famously hellacious ordeal of his Hell in a Cell Match with The Undertaker, Foley was being taken out on a stretcher, but got up, jogged back to the cell, and climbed back up to the roof. With a dislocated shoulder. And if that doesn't convince you: after the match was finally over, Foley was again being stretchered out, but having been wheeled out once he refused to do so again, and with the help of a couple of WWF officials, walked to the back under his own power. Keep in mind, this is a man who had intentionally been tossed off the top of the sixteen-foot Hell in a Cell, then unintentionally got choke-slammed through the top of the Cell down to the ring, and afterwards admitted that he couldn't remember a good portion of the match. He also refused to go to a hospital following the match, because he was scripted to interfere in the main event, and even asked 'Taker backstage if they'd remembered the thumbtacks while dozens were still stuck in his skin. Of course, the main event didn't seem very "main event" after all of this. Keep in mind, the main event was "Stone Cold" Steve Austin finally losing his first WWF championship to the then red-hot Kane.
  • 'Taker himself often looks somewhat beside himself whenever questions about this match come up in the rare interviews he's done, in stark contrast to his image. Foley says in Have a Nice Day that he legitimately believed that he had accidentally killed Foley after he fell through the top of the cell to the ring below; Callaway's memories of this match probably aren't very pleasant, especially when you keep in mind that it kept going on after the fall. The fact that he actually, if briefly, broke character during the match when Foley got up from the stretcher and started yelling at him to climb back up to the top of the cage is just another level of awesomeness Foley managed to achieve. And then there's this (abridged) conversation he and 'Taker had in the back, after the match:
    Foley: Hey, did I ever get to use those thumbtacks on you?
    Undertaker: (pointing at the numerous tacks in Mick's forearm) Mick, look at your arm.
    Foley: But did I use the tacks?
    Undertaker: Yeah, Mick, you used the tacks.
    Foley: Oh, good. (walks away)
  • In another example more on the crazy side, during his match with Mideon and Viscera, they came out armed with various legit weapons include steel chairs and baseball bats. What did Cactus Jack come out armed with? A pair of basketballs. Guess who won?
  • In Have A Nice Day, he wrote about the first time he met Kevin Sullivan and that Sullivan wasn't impressed when he told Sullivan that his finisher was an elbow drop. Then Jim Cornette made the save by explaining that Cactus Jack came running off the apron and dropped an elbow on the concrete. Sullivan's eyes lit up at that, telling Cactus to drop the elbow on his partner after their match with The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott).
• Creepy Awesome: As the original version of Mankind.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Enough of one to get over half a million viewers to change the channel to see him win the WWF Title when informed he would. See Fingerpoke Of Doom for more information. A guy who had "mid-carder" written all over him when he came into the WWF became such a big star that it's widely agreed that he (not Triple H or The Undertaker) was the 3rd biggest star of the the biggest era in wrestling, completing the big three of Austin, Rock and Foley.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Also narrowly averted in that first meeting with Vince. The "Mason the Mutilator" costume was very frilly and had a texture Mick described as "puffy chainmail". Mick told Vince that, not only was it a horrible costume, but it was all wrong for the character (a deranged, deformed sewer-dweller). Vince took Mick's criticism to heart, calling his wardrobe department and ordering "something that looks like Mick made it in his basement", leading to the torn brown vest and tights he would later be known for.
  • Later inverted: He began wearing dress shirts and ties (along with his mask) later specifically because he thought formal clothes made him look worse.
• Franchise Original Sin: As legendary as the match was, Mankind falling off the top of the Cell has become such an iconic spot that WWE and many other independent promotions have tried to replicate or surpass it, often leading to serious injuries. The most famous example would probably be Shane McMahon at Wrestlemania 32 trying to elbow drop The Undertaker off a 20-foot tall Cell, which was taller than the one Mick fell off of.
• Growing the Beard: Mankind vs. Undertaker in the Boiler Room Brawl. The prototype to hardcore matches in the WWF, which showed Mankind beating the Undertaker. This was the start of Mankind as "the madman who took the Undertaker to the limit" and shed the image of Mankind as being a misunderstood piano prodigy who happened to be crazy because of what his parents did to him. This was an almost direct precursor to their infamous Hell in a Cell match.
• Harsher in Hindsight: That legendary Hell in a Cell match can be harder to watch when you know about the numerous serious injuries Mick sustained during it. To make a long story short, of all his matches that Mick has written about - including his infamous "I Quit" match with The Rock - Hell In A Cell is the only one that Mick had to watch on tape in order to write about as he doesn't remember a lot of it. That's how punishing it was for him.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Mick had created the Dude Love persona as a cooler, better version of himself who'd get the girls Mick couldn't get as himself. He ended up marrying a model who met him when he was Cactus Jack and thought that he was sexy with his front teeth missing.
• Ho Yay: With Al Snow. As over-the-top as it sometimes seemed during the "Best Friends" gimmick, that was nothing compared to backstage.
  As it turned out, a road trip with me and Al could be a little overwhelming. 'Too Hot' Scott Taylor once returned from five days in Canada and was asked by his wife how he'd enjoyed the trip. "It was fine," he told her, "Except all they talked about was hammering each other." Scott was not the only one who stopped riding with us after one trip.
• Memetic Badass: Many fans believe Mick Foley to be indestructible. To wit: He is one of the only people to break Hell in a Cell with his own body, and in a way that should very likely have killed him. The fans have signs that read "Foley is God" for a reason. It's not uncommon for people to argue that Foley's real opponent that night was the Cell itself, and the Cell lost.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Mmmm BEEFY!"
  • Basically any moment from his legendary Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker, especially JR's commentary ("AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, HE IS BROKEN IN HALF!")
  • "FOLEY IS GOD"
  • Dude Love vs. Cactus Jack vs. Mankind vs. Mick Foley. It's very popular for at least one video of each WWE video game to show that match if more than one of Mick Foley's gimmick shows up.
• Most Wonderful Sound: Where "Stone Cold" Steve Austin had his shattering glass, Mick has his screeching tires and smashing metal.
• Narm Charm: Dude Love.
• Play-Along Meme: Because of having a total of three (maybe four if you count his real life self) alter egos, having a promo with Dude Love, Mankind and Cactus Jack interacting with each other, and even at one point, being a part of the Royal Rumble with all three of his personas as entries, there are many fans who joke that Cactus Jack, Dude Love, Mankind, and Mick Foley are four completely different people and want to see a Fatal Four Way between the wrestlers.
• Sacred Cow: Is to this day one of the most beloved and well-respected figures in the wrestling industry. Speak ill of Mick Foley at your own risk.
• Tough Act to Follow: Foley thought Undertaker's Hell in a Cell with Shawn Michaels was this, but it turned out that his own HiaC debut against Taker would set the standard for the match, and be the measuring stick by which not only his own matches, but every Hell in a Cell match that followed would be stacked up against. It's generally agreed that no subsequent HiaC has met that standard, except possibly HHH vs Taker at Mania, but given the toll the match took on Foley's body, it's also generally agreed that's a good thing.
  • During Foley’s episode on Stone Cold’s interview show, Austin notes that not only did he have to follow Foley’s match (which was impossible to top) but that Foley even had a role in the finish.
• Ugly Cute: Real life example, the man is downright hideous, with several scars, broken bones, and a missing ear. Yet he's so likable, kind, good to his fans, and intelligent, that he's just lovable in every way. The high level of lovable is probably the crux to how he's been in an Ugly Guy, Hot Wife marriage for twenty years. He even describes himself as “cute in a rugged sort of way” in the Beyond the Mat documentary.
• The Woobie: Come on, watch any match where he gets beaten senseless and tell us that you don't want to just give him a big hug. Well, maybe not when he's covered in blood, but at least send him a nice "get well" note.
  • When he's a face, he is probably wrestling's biggest woobie. Though, he's a bit of a Real Life one as well. Averted when he's a heel though.
  • He was definitely a Woobie when he worked in Memphis. Most of management didn't like him and looked down upon him, and he garnered the unwarranted ire of a bitter referee who thought he was an idiot for wanting to be in the wrestling business. Case in point, Mick was legitimately injured during one match, where he had a torn abdominal muscle, and this same referee ignored him when he tried to tell him he was seriously injured. After getting to the back, Mick apparently looked so pitiful that manager Randy Hales said something along the lines of "Cactus Jack has got to be the biggest pussy I've ever seen". That's right—somebody called Cactus Jack a pussy. Luckily for Mick, Jeff Jarrett—ironically one of the people who'd given him a pounding in the ring—immediately came to his defense and told Randy Hales off in a spectacular manner.
  Fuck you Randy Hales! You've never even been in the ring!
  • Iron Woobie: Most of his memorable matches play this trope for all its worth: the other guy beats on Mick with all he's got and Mick just keeps coming until the other guy pulls out a Limit Break attack that'll end the match.
    • During a segment of The Broken Skull Sessions, Austin asks Mick to rate the pain of some of his most famous bumps. While he rates being stuck in the elevator cables that ripped off his ear and his two falls off the cell highly, the rest get unbelievably low ratings, mostly threes. Austin, who was pushed as the toughest SOB in the WWE, can only look on in amazement as Mick rates getting chokeslammed through a table with a glass pane on it as a three.
  • Check out this Facebook post to get a glimpse into the full extent of Mick's Woobie-dom.
• Write What You Know: He's written four books about, naturally, pro wrestling, including his bestselling memoir.

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