This is a script for my YouTube video which you can view here: https://youtu.be/8Vp5oh2jGRU
On January 4th 1999 in a pre-taped show from Worcester, Massachusetts, Mankind would win his first WWE championship. On this night Mankind's victory would air despite being taped in December, where he would defeat a man to end his first reign, The Rock. At the 1998 Survivor Series, Rock would win in controversial fashion, when Vince McMahon called for the bell during a sharpshooter. You know, like that other time something similar happened that nobody ever talks about. There is a fair amount of backstory to lead to this night however, dating back to before Mick Foley even got signed to WWE.
In the early years of Mick Foley's wrestling career, being based in New York he would sometimes work enhancement matches for WWE under the names Jack and Nick Foley. He would even make it to television, with his TV debut being a tag match with Les Thornton against the British Bulldogs. This match would become infamous, as the Dynamite Kid would beat on Foley remorselessly, which is commonly known as taking liberties with the much lower level wrestler. Things like that were more common in those days than they are now, as every wrestler who made it to the global stage today, was an enhancement talent at some point and rarely do bigger stars seem to take that for granted.
Mick Foley finally got signed by WWE in April of 1996, hired by Vince McMahon as a bet against Jim Ross, who had long lobbied for Foley's hiring. Mick had before this achieved a decent amount of success in WCW, but had been fired due to what Foley claims was a misunderstanding. As an attempted peace offering to build bridges between the two companies, Foley who was going by Cactus Jack at the time was allowed to take bookings in ECW. During one promo where he wanted to get across how important his upcoming hardcore dream match with Sabu was, he spat on his WCW tag team championship belt and threw it down. In Foley's mind he was just trying to get his big singles match over, but WCW didn't appreciate this treatment of their belt, and promptly fired him. Fortunately for the Hardcore legend, this left him with another company to work in, and he took full advantage of his ECW run. During this time, Foley became known for his captivating promos, embracing a new heel character that disavowed hardcore wrestling, instant heel heat in ECW. He would cut a series of 'anti-hardcore' promos, with the most famous one being targeted at the fans, as one had held up a sign saying 'cane Dewey', referring to Mick's at the time three year old son. While Cactus was excelling in ECW, Jim Ross was lobbying for him to get a WWE role. McMahon finally relented, but only to try and teach JR a lesson that he always knew best.
The Mankind character initially feels like an attempt by Vince to cut Cactus Jack's legs out from under him, but it grew on fans as it was dark and compelling, something Duke the Dumpster Drose and Isaac Yankem weren't. Mankind would enter to slow and somber music, and leave in victory to a beautiful piano tune. The reason for this was the designed backstory of the character. It was implied that a young Mankind would mainly live underground, his life controlled by Mrs. Foley. When she held parties, he would be brought out to exhibit his mastery of the piano, but was still treated as less than. Mankind would eventually snap, breaking his own fingers so that he couldn't play the piano anymore, hence the strange leather finger wraps he would wear. These wraps also made it easier for Mankind to apply the mandible claw, as they combined the the necessary fingers.
Foley embraced the role and slowly endeared himself to Vince McMahon. In May of 1997 Foley filmed an interview with Jim Ross that would air in weekly parts. During this series, Foley offered footage of Dude Love, the character he used to play in his backyard, going as far as to jump off the roof of his house. The footage came to be known because of a conversation between Mick and one of this greatest opponents Shawn Michaels, in which Foley admitted that before becoming a wrestler he had always wanted to be like the heartbreak kid with the Dude Love Character, and there was footage of this. McMahon was drawn to this side of Mick, so much so that he wanted to harness this character, not just the deranged Mankind. I already talked about the debut of Dude Love on this channel so I won't detail it here, but from this grew the idea that Cactus Jack could re-emerge as a third personality of Foley. On the September 22nd 1997 episode of Raw from Madison Square Garden, Dude Love and Mankind both introduced the third face of Foley. Cactus would debut having a absolute battle against Triple H, who Mankind had been embroiled in a feud with since the 97 King of the Ring final, again also previously talked about on this channel.
By mid-1998, Foley made himself undeniable by showing his versatility playing not just the unhinged Mankind, but also by performing as the wild man Cactus Jack, and his childhood character, Dude Love. Channeling the jump off his roof years earlier, Mick would achieve his career defining moment by allowing himself to be thrown off the Hell in a cell cage by his fiercest rival, the Undertaker. He and the deadman had many firsts against each the such as the first ever boiler room brawl, but the match the had at King of the Ring 1998 was several steps too far.
Later that night despite all he went through, Foley would make a run in that would be pivotal to the WWE title changing hands, as Kane would defeat Steve Austin to win the WWE title for about 24 hours. Despite the world of pain Foley must have been in, he still came back and played his role in the storyline that would eventually take Mankind to the WWE championship, as Mankind found himself doing the bidding of Vince McMahon, in keeping the title away from Stone Cold. Vince clearly had destain for Mankind, but would throw him enough bones to keep him loyal for months. The most significant bone being the WWE Hardcore championship, which began life as a gift to Mankind, but became an active championship in 1999.
This loyalty would lead to the 1998 Survivor Series, where a tournament known as the Deadly Game would guarantee a new WWE champion. On the night, Mankind would be given an easy first round match against Gillberg, a comedy ripoff of WCW's Goldberg. He would then make short work of Al Snow in the second round. Steve Austin would claim a win after the Big Bossman got himself disqualified by using his nightstick. Bossmans one job was to weaken Stone Cold for the later rounds. Austin would get a pass into the semi finals though, as X-Pac and William Regal went to a double count out. Commissioner Slaughter tried to restart the match but X Pac and Regal just brawled to the back, giving Stone Cold a bye that McMahon didn't want him to receive.
This led to a semi final match between Steve Austin and Mankind, in which the McMahon's pulled out every trick to make sure Steve didn't win. Mankind would take the W, leading to the final match, Mankind vs The Rock.
In the weeks leading up to the deadly game, the Rock had been a fan favourite just under the popularity of Stone Cold. He and Vice had had words, but Vince's main concern was not letting Steve Austin win. At the end of the night, The Rock applied a sharpshooter to Mankind, and Vince rang the bell, declaring the Rock the new WWE champion, his first of 10 world title reigns, turning on Mankind in the process. A rather cheap callback to something that might have happened a year earlier... Mankind would get a rematch at the December pay per view, named Rock Bottom and themed around the new corporate champion. In the match, Mankind would apply his Mandible Claw, making the Rock pass out. In any other match Mankind would have been declared the winner, but McMahon forced the referee to not award Mankind the title, since Rock never submitted, an ironic twist on that thing that might- oh screw it, it was yet another reference to Montreal.
Come January 4th, Mankind was ready to go to any length to get another title shot against the Rock. To get the match he would take Shane McMahon hostage in the ring, and threatened to break his arm if Vince didn't give him a title match that night. This would be called back to later in the year, as on August 23rd Triple H threatened to break Jim Ross' arm if Mankind didn't give his a title shot. Mankind agreed but Triple H did it anyway, and left that night with his first WWE title win.
The match itself was good but Mankind and the Rock would have better worked matches. The finish came when all out brawl happened between Vince's Corporation and DX, who were feuding at the time. All of a sudden the glass shatters, and Stone Cold Steve Austin arrives to one the biggest crowd pops in Raw history. He blasts the Rock with a chair, and pulls Mankind on top of Rock to get the pinfall. Post match once Foley gains his composure, he runs around ringside, gets lifted up by DX which will become a problem later, and gives an emotional speech where he dedicates the match to his children, exclaiming "at the risk of not sounding cool, big daddio did it!"
As I noted before, this match had actually been taped in December 1998, meaning that the result was known before it aired by anyone in attendance, and Eric Bischoff of course. At this time Eric was getting desperate in his weekly ratings war, so desperate that he would give out the results of that nights Raw on Nitro in a sleazy effort to stop fans from turning to Raw. On this night in particular, he had lead announcer Tony Schiavone announce that "Mick Foley who once wrestled here as Cactus Jack is gonna win their world title. That'll put a lot of butts in seats". Whether it put any butts in seats or not is irrelevant, but it did cause thousands of Nitro viewers to switch to Raw to watch the title change, an estimated 600,000 fans to be more. Over the years Mick has expressed that he was very hurt by Tony's comments, and Tony has also expressed much regret for his words. Thankfully, it sounds like the two were able to reconcile their differences after a phone call.
While there are many great things about Mick Foley's WWE championship win, one that has always hit me most was in my opinion the greatest line Michael Cole has ever said, because of the impact it had on a younger me. As Mankind is celebrating, Cole proclaims that "Mick Foley has achieved his dream, and the dream of everyone else who has been told you can't do it." That line, in that moment, was perfect.
Foley's three WWE title runs would all occur in 1999. He would lose to The Rock in brutal fashion at the 99 Royal Rumble in an I Quit match, and would win the title back during Halftime heat, an empty arena match that aired between halves of the 99 Superbowl. Mankind would win again the the 99 Summerslam in another match I have already made a video about. Foley's three reigns add up to a combined length of 21 days, but that doesn't matter given the impact that man made on many a wrestling fan over the years. What matters is that this moment feels like a win on that night felt special for every underdog anywhere, those of us who have been told, you can't do it. But you can.
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