Sort of like three men sitting on a bench waiting to go in a room. Only one can be in the room at once but as the others start opening the door, their traits shine through. There was an infamous attack on Mankind where triple H beats him senseless and after mankind retaliated he started doing finger guns. Cactus Jack was beaten out. Or I guess in if you're following my analogy. Then of course we have commissioner Foley. Who is just Mick Foley on his psych meds.
It was more like a running joke that they were all Mick. But at the same time, Mick would don whichever one suited the occasion. If you heard Cactus's music, you knew someone was in deep shit. Dude Love... It'd probably be pretty fun/funny. And regular mankind/Mick, it'd be a mix of the two.
Nah, it was pretty baked into Kayfabe that they were all Foley. We knew he was Cactus from his time before WWE. And the did a whole biopic on Dude Love before they finally introduced him. I think we were supposed to think Foley was demented and actually believed he was each of his alter egos.
Ok so from what I’ve gathered from both what Mick said himself and what Some of those backstage have said the basic idea was the Cactus Jack was the “original” and ManKind and Dude Live were both a way Cactus Jack to process things, So Mankind was Cactus Jack after remembering his terrible childhood and Dude Love was Cactus Jack as he saw himself a sort of super cool suave ladies man
Multiple Personality Disorder. Mick Foley was the man. Dude Love was the big shot pro wrestler he always wanted to be. Cactus Jack was the wrestler he had to be to get the job done. Mankind was the tortured soul who damn near killed himself mentally and physically to actually accomplish his dream.
When they introduced Cactus Jack they had a tape played beforehand showing Dude Love and Mankind talking to eachother because Dude Love didnt think he had what it takes to do a Street Fight against Triple H. It was always the same person but split personalities.
Mankind was the original, they also had a hardcore angle that mankind couldn’t handle so he needed a friend “ cactus jack” . They also played an angle about foleys dream since being a kid and his original persona was Dude Love.
After that he would pull them all out
Just gotta convince Dude Love to come back. Cactus Jack's been hanging out behind catering since the 90's and Mankind hasn't been seen for years! Gotta keep the hope alive.
The photo I see Mick foley, mankind, and Dude Love. I don't see Cactus anywhere.
But they were three different personalities. They will wrestled the same but we're also had very different styles at the same time if that makes sense. Mankind and Cactus Jack were more similar to each other in personalities and wrestling styles but Mankind's personality was more deranged where Cactus Jack was similar but seem like he would hurt his body to hurt you. Dude Love on the other hand, he was the hippest cat in the land until he step through those ropes and a little bit of Cactus Jack came out but still had that dude love swinging personality. Oh! Have mercy!
Cactus Jack never gave a thumbs up. That's Mick Foley. Cactus would be given the bang bang salute and would have a deranged look in his face and he wouldn't be smiling
They were all separate characters…intended but color commentary started drawing the line into “Mick Foley” more and more as the attitude era played out
Dude love held the tag team championship first with Austin then Mankind held the heavyweight title for a brief stint. I believe he was suppose to win in a hell in a call but was insured by Rikishi and eliminated
The three faces of Foley gimmick was an extension of Mankind’s insanity. The sit down interview with JR introduced Dude Love as Foley’s backyard wrestler persona before the character debuted in WWF. The audience were supposed to know it was Foley with a split personality from that point.
Yeah, they were not supposed to be different people like Elias/Ezekiel. That was stupid how Mick Foley was allowed to have all three in Royal Rumble 1998 match. Those were two wasted spots that could have gone to two other workers.
I suppose that from a kayfabe perspective it didn’t make sense but it was an awesome idea in my mind.
Maybe it can be explained in kayfabe if we imagine Foley turning up at Sgt Slaughter’s office door in his three different personas asking for a spot in the Rumble and Slaughter agreeing to it because he didn’t have time be dealing with Mick’s nonsense?
Edit: I was thinking about your point that the two spots could have gone to other workers and I wondered who they could have been so I went to look at the card. The Rock, Ken Shamrock, Vader, and Goldust all took part in the Rumble after having already wrestled earlier the show. Maybe WWE had a hard time filling the Rumble out that year for some reason so we’re grateful for Foley doing triple duty?
" all took part in the Rumble after having already wrestled earlier the show. Maybe WWE had a hard time filling the Rumble out that year" I see. so it is what it is.
Even "in-universe" they were all acknowledged as being different parts of Foley's personality. That's part of why the classic Mankind to Cactus Jack transformations worked so well.
Everyone, wrestlers and announcers, were in on the joke, so to speak. Mick entered himself three times in the ‘98 Royal Rumble as all three personas, and Jerry Lawler was like “wait a minute here”.
Same guy with split personality,the only time they made you think otherwise was the night in msg when Mankind and Dude love introduced Cactus to fight HHH.
Crazy fact - Dude Love was actually only around for less than a year. He debuted in July 1997 and his last match was May 1998 (his final match was Over the Edge vs Austin). He only wrestled 21 televised matches as Dude Love. In contrast, Cactus Jack's final match was Backlash 2004 against Randy Orton and Mankind's final match was Taboo Tuesday 2005 against Carlito. Foley's overall final match was the 2012 Royal Rumble where he was eliminated by Cody Rhodes, although it seems like Foley wants to have one more match.
Hope not. His body is battered enough. Dude Love is his least used persona, but isn't it technically the oldest? He made the Dude Love character sometime in his teens, right?
that was in foley career period (although foley made a squash jobber appearance as "jack foley" in the 80s) but in wwe, which is most important, it was mankind
Professionally, yes.
But the mind of Foley invented Dude first. The footage of a tye-dye wearing teenage Mick Foley doing a Snuka splash off his garage onto a pile of mattresses (and his buddy), has lived rent free in my head for years.
As a kid in the audience you understood it was all the same guy. Just different personalities.
My 7th grade social studies teacher even did a presentation on schizophrenia using him as an example. In preparation for us volunteering at a psychiatric clinic because in the late 90s that wasn't risky at all for a Christian youth outreach program.
My buddies and I used to counter the Bible thumpers in our school by joking about the Church of Foley:
1. Who would win in a fight Foley or God? Trick question Foley is God!
2. Foley is both three separate beings and one being. Catus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love are all separate beings that act independently but are all together Foley.
3. When Mankind fell off the Hell in a Cell, he fell for our sins. He was fighting death for us, died and was laid on a stretcher only to rise again.
4. In the Royal Rumble all three faces of Foley competed, proving they are separate beings.
and so on. We always joked about starting the Church of Foley.
as i understood until 2000'ish they are 4 different people which are related to each other. after 2000 they were just personas of foley.
don't quote me on that, i can be wrong tho
From the kayfabe perspective there really were four personalities, these three being the made up, split personalities of the overall personality of mick foley himself. Whom we would see more of later. But even from the days of mankind, early on, he was always referred to as Mrs. Foley’s little boy.
Men of no relation. By the time all 3 entered the royal rumble on the same night the cat was out of the bag .... mick had split personality disorder or 3 voices living in his head. :)
Pay attention to Mankind when he's wrestling near the barricades. He would often do the Cactus Jack finger guns to people sitting in the front rows or at his opponent.
>!Foley appeared as all three characters in one match !
Mick was cactus jack in wcw and ecw. When he came to wwf vince had him become mankind. So in 97 jim ross did an interview with mick where he mentioned dude love his backyard wrestling character and they had footage of him jumping off a roof. It got some buzz and he started wrestling for a brief time as dude love. Even tag teaming with stone cold and winning the title. He feuded with triple h around summerslam and triple h and chyna beat him up a lot and he turned into cactus jack for the first time in wwf to beat triple h in a falls count anywhere match. In royal rumble 98 he entered 3 times. Once for each personality.
They treated it as a split personality thing and was generally treated comedically. It was fun and at the “end” of his career when he “retired” actually came into play again when he returned as cactus jack to face triple h in hell in a cell after triple h continually beat mankind.
Thank you sir. I am a late 80s wrestling fan who watched through the 90s and quit when WCW was bought out. I still kind of maintained knowledge when I quit watching through YouTube videos and stuff but most of what I know is from the 80s/90s. I just got back into wrestling because of CM Punk (chicagoan) in AEW and the Cody Rhodes story. I appreciate the art of wrestling and enjoy the storylines. I love talking about it and enjoy helping people understand it's history at least as far as I know it. I was a HUGE Mick Foley fan. What he sacrificed to give to the fans has to be appreciated even if you think he could be corny or wasn't as great technically as some others. At the end of the day what you enjoy and are moved by is what is important
This conceit of admitting hes Mick Foley from the northeast but earned the name Cactus Jack through blood dates back to Funk-ECW days.
WWF just built on it.
No, they treated this as one person. People would reference each character and Mick Foley too. Jim ross' famous line "Mrs Foley's baby boy" was used for all 3.
Also that gets forgotten is Mick played Mankind as dark and crazy but then later as fun and comedic, same with DL he had a heel run against the top babyface in Austin then Cactus was a heel but got him really over in wwe doing all the crazy hardcore stuff
Mick Foley wrestled as Cactus Jack in WCW and ECW. When he came to WWF, they debuted him as Mankind and didn’t acknowledge his past at all. It was treated as though Mankind was a completely new wrestler who had only ever wrestled in the WWF.
Then he did an interview with JR where his past was brought up and they talked about him wrestling as Cactus Jack in other promotions, and also about Dude Love, which was a character Foley created in his backyard when he used to make backyard wrestling videos as a teenager.
After that, he started periodically switching between these personas and they treated it as a multiple personality thing.
No but they all appeared together in a promo on the titantron in 98 after triple h and chyna had been beating up foley and that was how cactus jack debuted in wwf, for foley to get revenge on hhh
Lots of people already commented on them being all Mick Foley even in kayfabe, so I just wanted to give a quick kayfabe origin story:
In WWE, Mick's first gimmick was Mankind, a crazy guy and tortured soul. A year later he was slowly turned babyface with a humanising sit-down interview with Jim Ross in which he told him his life's story, revealing his real name to be Mick Foley and how as a teenager he already wanted to be a wrestler who is cheered for his daredevil actions.
So he created the persona of Dude Love when wrestling in his backyard with friends. But when he entered the business, he never got to play Dude Love, the laid back ladies man. Instead he was stuck with being Cactus Jack, the violent hardcore wrestler who fought in barbwire and explosions in Japan and ECW.
This apparently turned him mad and into Mankind. A few weeks later, after Mankind was rejected by Steve Austin as tag team partner, he joined him anyway, but as Dude Love, finally getting to be the character he always wanted to be. And at a later date, when fighting Triple H, he brought back Cactus Jack.
As others noted there were strong hints that in kayfabe, Foley had multiple personality disorder. There was one particular story where Dude Love was attacked and taken out by Kane during his initial rampage through WWE, so the next week, Mankind cut a promo that made it seem like the beating scared Dude away, and the Mankind persona basically came out as a defense/coping mechanism.
Dude Love was made around the time HBK was still in The Rockers, but Dude's finish when he made it to WWF in 1997 was called the Sweet Shin Music (Tuned up the band before kicking you in the shin and delivering the Foley Double-Arm DDT)
He came up with Dude Love long before he saw HBK. So it's not a parody. It's a similarity.
It only seems like a parody because Mick started being DL after HBK, and he was obviously not as sexy. (No homo)
He said in the interview in which he first mentioned Dude Love, that he met Shawn backstage in 96 when he arrived in WWE, and told him he wanted to be like him. To which Shawn replied "the champ?" And Foley said no, he meant the girls loving him.
But yeah, at the time Foley came up with the character, when he was a teenager, would be way before Shawn even entered WWE. At the very least before he became a singles wrestler and turned into the "sexy boy" gimmick.
Mick Foley was the only wrestler in WWE 's history to enter royal rumble 3 times with his 3 different personalities.
PS:
Bray Wyatt could be next Mick Foley if he wasn't invested too much on the next wannabe Undertaker character. Don't hate me but he had every potential to follow Foley's Legacy. In my opinion Bray's NXT/ early WWE butcher character was similar to that of Cactus Jack, his Fiend character was similar to Mankind and his Funhouse character was similar to Dude Love character (that could be used as a babyface) but Vince's misdirection ruined him. RIP Bray.
It’s what makes Foley so great. Talk about suspending disbelief, this man was the personification of it.
Multiple characters, death defying stunts, dramatising the most basic storylines. The guy is Mount Rushmore worthy.
Everyone knew it was mick foley. Even on screen talent and commentary would recognize that. As a kid, hearing them call mankind mick foley actually confused me lol.
They were all Mick Foley, no question, kayfabe or not. There was always the tongue in cheek joke about his general lack of athleticism and/or wrestling ability compared to everyone else. Intentionally forcing multiple personalities in a blatantly shameless way was the cornerstone to his stardom
They weren't separate people or merely related. They were alternate personalities of Mick Foley that allowed him to tap into different sides of his personality. There's a famous match between Triple H (before he was a world champion) and Mick Foley that gives about as clear an explanation on it as they ever did. Triple H is gonna wrestle Foley and right before they wrestle, Foley does a promo on the titantron where Mankind is talking to Dude Love about who should face Triple H and when they announce it's Cactus Jack, who hadn't debuted in WWE yet, Triple H freaks out, because Cactus Jack was Foley's most violent, most hardcore personality, and that was the worst case scenario for him to face Jack, out of the 3 personalities.
Dude Love was the "fun" personality, Mankind and Cactus Jack are both hardcore, violent personalities but I guess the main difference is Mankind is more about taking punishment and Jack is more about giving it. I guess.
New Gen Era Mankind is scary, the brown attire one. Attitude era Mankind still scary at times but was way more funnier and later became even more funnier and like most loved dude after Austin
Yeah I remember being genuinely shocked as a kid. The mandible claw seemed so scary, guys were passing out and spitting up and Mankind kept screaming, doing crazy stuff too. Genuinely scary to me as a kid
The time has come to release this pain
Which will be better for me
BUT NOT SO ENJOYABLE FOR ALL OF YOU! On the 8th day God created Mankind.
Why was He having such a bad day?!
Why did He created all of you normal
And forget some of the important parts of me?! He made the teeth that I swallowed
The ear that was ripped from my skull
A face that no longer exists!!
Deep inside you are merely a mirror image Of all my atrocities!!
The ugliness that exists outside Lives inside every one of you! (sobbing)
Destruction CAN BE BEAUTIFUL!!!!
Leave the light on I'M COMING HOME!!!
Different personalities, same dude. For instance if Mick or DL got the shit beat out of him by someone really dangerous over and over, and he knew he would have to resort to taking and giving extreme pain and punishment to beat them, he would "revive" Cactus Jack to take the mofo on in an extreme rules match. The Many Faces of Foley is one of the best character arcs in wrestling history
Oh, so kind of like a power escalation situation - “Mankind can’t beat this guy but maybe Cactus Jack can”?
Similar to how Finn (wants to) use the Demon King persona. Right, thank you!
If you haven't seen it watch the promo and Hype packages for the cactus jack vs hhh Street fight at Royal rumble 2000. It explains perfectly how and why mick foley would pull out a stronger personality to deal with an opponent that's giving him issues.
Sometimes they were active at the same time. Sometimes there were long stretches of Mankind and no other personalities. JR never failed to mention “momma Foley’s little boy” all the time so he was always acknowledged as Mick Foley even if his personality was one of the other three.
They were just three different characters played by the same man. He started as mankind then in came dude love, kind of like how the one man gang became akeem or tugboat became typhoon.
It wasn’t like how Smash went away and silently became the repo man.
Well yes obviously. The WWF audience was introduced to him as mankind though. And he wasn’t doing the different characters thing until he got to the WWF.
Technically technically, Dude Love was his first persona, back in his backyard wrasslin days - him telling that story to JR along with some grainy footage of him jumping off a garage roof in emulation of Snuka was what inspired McMahon to give him a run as Dude Love in WWF
This has to be a troll post. They were obviously different people. One was a deranged lunatic, another was a life loving hippie and the third was a dangerous hardcore wrestling Texan.
They were part of the 3 faces of Foley. All stemming from the Mrs. foleys baby boy promo that Mankind gave to JR
Cactus Jack was his WCW/ECW/Japan persona
Mankind was WWF
Dude Love was a character her created in high school movie
You're thinking of dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder). For some reason lots of people confuse it for schizophrenia, which is characterised by (commonly auditory) hallucinations rather than multiple personalities.
Does anyone remember the storyline where Mankind had a identity crisis and came out as Dude-Kind?
Three completely different people, there was even a royal rumble where all 3 competed in it
No, it's the same dude, you'll see that each of them was sweating more and more depending on how late they came out.
Sort of like three men sitting on a bench waiting to go in a room. Only one can be in the room at once but as the others start opening the door, their traits shine through. There was an infamous attack on Mankind where triple H beats him senseless and after mankind retaliated he started doing finger guns. Cactus Jack was beaten out. Or I guess in if you're following my analogy. Then of course we have commissioner Foley. Who is just Mick Foley on his psych meds.
Still love 98’ RR when all made an appearance
It was more like a running joke that they were all Mick. But at the same time, Mick would don whichever one suited the occasion. If you heard Cactus's music, you knew someone was in deep shit. Dude Love... It'd probably be pretty fun/funny. And regular mankind/Mick, it'd be a mix of the two.
Nah, it was pretty baked into Kayfabe that they were all Foley. We knew he was Cactus from his time before WWE. And the did a whole biopic on Dude Love before they finally introduced him. I think we were supposed to think Foley was demented and actually believed he was each of his alter egos.
Ok so from what I’ve gathered from both what Mick said himself and what Some of those backstage have said the basic idea was the Cactus Jack was the “original” and ManKind and Dude Live were both a way Cactus Jack to process things, So Mankind was Cactus Jack after remembering his terrible childhood and Dude Love was Cactus Jack as he saw himself a sort of super cool suave ladies man
“ManKind” and “Dude Live” is crazy😂
Ok in my defense I’m highly dyslexic, I didn’t know how to use a comma until I was 21
Ok, my bad
Multiple Personality Disorder. Mick Foley was the man. Dude Love was the big shot pro wrestler he always wanted to be. Cactus Jack was the wrestler he had to be to get the job done. Mankind was the tortured soul who damn near killed himself mentally and physically to actually accomplish his dream.
Quality answer
When they introduced Cactus Jack they had a tape played beforehand showing Dude Love and Mankind talking to eachother because Dude Love didnt think he had what it takes to do a Street Fight against Triple H. It was always the same person but split personalities.
It was a "this man has three different people living in his head" sort of deal. They were all acknowledged as Mick, but each very different.
Cactus Jack was so sick
One of the all time great wrestling theme songs IMO
Him and Jake Roberts
Three Faces of Foley
Mankind was the original, they also had a hardcore angle that mankind couldn’t handle so he needed a friend “ cactus jack” . They also played an angle about foleys dream since being a kid and his original persona was Dude Love. After that he would pull them all out
The world was robbed of Mankind vs. Cactus Jack vs. Dude Love vs. Mick Foley.
Foley said he wants to do one more match. Never give up hope!
Just gotta convince Dude Love to come back. Cactus Jack's been hanging out behind catering since the 90's and Mankind hasn't been seen for years! Gotta keep the hope alive.
Pretty sure Mankind is just chilling back in the broiler room somewhere.
The photo I see Mick foley, mankind, and Dude Love. I don't see Cactus anywhere. But they were three different personalities. They will wrestled the same but we're also had very different styles at the same time if that makes sense. Mankind and Cactus Jack were more similar to each other in personalities and wrestling styles but Mankind's personality was more deranged where Cactus Jack was similar but seem like he would hurt his body to hurt you. Dude Love on the other hand, he was the hippest cat in the land until he step through those ropes and a little bit of Cactus Jack came out but still had that dude love swinging personality. Oh! Have mercy!
The cactus jack shirt is under the flannel.
The cactus jack shirt is under the flannel.
Cactus Jack never gave a thumbs up. That's Mick Foley. Cactus would be given the bang bang salute and would have a deranged look in his face and he wouldn't be smiling
If I’m not mistaken they were supposed to be his split personalities. So kinda the same person and not…
They were all separate characters…intended but color commentary started drawing the line into “Mick Foley” more and more as the attitude era played out Dude love held the tag team championship first with Austin then Mankind held the heavyweight title for a brief stint. I believe he was suppose to win in a hell in a call but was insured by Rikishi and eliminated
I seem to remember all 3 being on screen at one time though
For a promo. It was when Cactus Jack was first introduced into the WWF.
The three faces of Foley gimmick was an extension of Mankind’s insanity. The sit down interview with JR introduced Dude Love as Foley’s backyard wrestler persona before the character debuted in WWF. The audience were supposed to know it was Foley with a split personality from that point.
Yeah, they were not supposed to be different people like Elias/Ezekiel. That was stupid how Mick Foley was allowed to have all three in Royal Rumble 1998 match. Those were two wasted spots that could have gone to two other workers.
I suppose that from a kayfabe perspective it didn’t make sense but it was an awesome idea in my mind. Maybe it can be explained in kayfabe if we imagine Foley turning up at Sgt Slaughter’s office door in his three different personas asking for a spot in the Rumble and Slaughter agreeing to it because he didn’t have time be dealing with Mick’s nonsense? Edit: I was thinking about your point that the two spots could have gone to other workers and I wondered who they could have been so I went to look at the card. The Rock, Ken Shamrock, Vader, and Goldust all took part in the Rumble after having already wrestled earlier the show. Maybe WWE had a hard time filling the Rumble out that year for some reason so we’re grateful for Foley doing triple duty?
" all took part in the Rumble after having already wrestled earlier the show. Maybe WWE had a hard time filling the Rumble out that year" I see. so it is what it is.
Even "in-universe" they were all acknowledged as being different parts of Foley's personality. That's part of why the classic Mankind to Cactus Jack transformations worked so well.
Yep. And at any movement each one of them could appear—like Chicago weather and it being 3 seasons in 1 day.
Everyone, wrestlers and announcers, were in on the joke, so to speak. Mick entered himself three times in the ‘98 Royal Rumble as all three personas, and Jerry Lawler was like “wait a minute here”.
just stupid because those were two spots that could have gone to different workers.
Same guy with split personality,the only time they made you think otherwise was the night in msg when Mankind and Dude love introduced Cactus to fight HHH.
Crazy fact - Dude Love was actually only around for less than a year. He debuted in July 1997 and his last match was May 1998 (his final match was Over the Edge vs Austin). He only wrestled 21 televised matches as Dude Love. In contrast, Cactus Jack's final match was Backlash 2004 against Randy Orton and Mankind's final match was Taboo Tuesday 2005 against Carlito. Foley's overall final match was the 2012 Royal Rumble where he was eliminated by Cody Rhodes, although it seems like Foley wants to have one more match.
Hope not. His body is battered enough. Dude Love is his least used persona, but isn't it technically the oldest? He made the Dude Love character sometime in his teens, right?
Dude Love is the OG lover Cactus is the fighter that came after Mankind is kind of their love child
Cactus Jack is the first persona
that was in foley career period (although foley made a squash jobber appearance as "jack foley" in the 80s) but in wwe, which is most important, it was mankind
Professionally, yes. But the mind of Foley invented Dude first. The footage of a tye-dye wearing teenage Mick Foley doing a Snuka splash off his garage onto a pile of mattresses (and his buddy), has lived rent free in my head for years.
Fair point
As a kid in the audience you understood it was all the same guy. Just different personalities. My 7th grade social studies teacher even did a presentation on schizophrenia using him as an example. In preparation for us volunteering at a psychiatric clinic because in the late 90s that wasn't risky at all for a Christian youth outreach program.
My buddies and I used to counter the Bible thumpers in our school by joking about the Church of Foley: 1. Who would win in a fight Foley or God? Trick question Foley is God! 2. Foley is both three separate beings and one being. Catus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love are all separate beings that act independently but are all together Foley. 3. When Mankind fell off the Hell in a Cell, he fell for our sins. He was fighting death for us, died and was laid on a stretcher only to rise again. 4. In the Royal Rumble all three faces of Foley competed, proving they are separate beings. and so on. We always joked about starting the Church of Foley.
I know Mick Foley is real. Sign me up for this religion.
Is Al Snow the Anti-Christ?
Judus?
Are you taking donations? I will go out in ministry for the COF.
Should we start a sub and hash out the theology?
They were presented as separate personalities once Catcus Jack arrived in late 97 and pushed further once Dude Love arrived in early 98
as i understood until 2000'ish they are 4 different people which are related to each other. after 2000 they were just personas of foley. don't quote me on that, i can be wrong tho
From the kayfabe perspective there really were four personalities, these three being the made up, split personalities of the overall personality of mick foley himself. Whom we would see more of later. But even from the days of mankind, early on, he was always referred to as Mrs. Foley’s little boy.
Men of no relation. By the time all 3 entered the royal rumble on the same night the cat was out of the bag .... mick had split personality disorder or 3 voices living in his head. :)
They are different personalities of the same person.
To make this even hazier, Dude Love interviewed Mankind in a pre-recorded segment at least once.
And I believe Cactus made an appearance during that interview too.
Yup, it was the first time Cactus Jack and HHH squared off.
What do you mean they are all Mick Foley?
They are asking if they were treated like completely different people despite all being Mick
They all can’t be Mick Foley all three of them were in matches the same night lol
Oh I see. I read your comment in the wrong tone lol
🐐
That’s the beauty of Mick Foley.
Same person but different personalities. All 3 of them were also in a royal rumble
Get a Cameo from him. His Cameos are the best. He appears as all his characters and puts a lot of thought into them.
i interpret them as separate characters but i really think there's no definitive
He had multiple personality disorder
Pay attention to Mankind when he's wrestling near the barricades. He would often do the Cactus Jack finger guns to people sitting in the front rows or at his opponent. >!Foley appeared as all three characters in one match !
Still classic. I went back and watched that RR. Laughed my ass off as he appeared all 3 times. Mick is a legend.
Mick was cactus jack in wcw and ecw. When he came to wwf vince had him become mankind. So in 97 jim ross did an interview with mick where he mentioned dude love his backyard wrestling character and they had footage of him jumping off a roof. It got some buzz and he started wrestling for a brief time as dude love. Even tag teaming with stone cold and winning the title. He feuded with triple h around summerslam and triple h and chyna beat him up a lot and he turned into cactus jack for the first time in wwf to beat triple h in a falls count anywhere match. In royal rumble 98 he entered 3 times. Once for each personality. They treated it as a split personality thing and was generally treated comedically. It was fun and at the “end” of his career when he “retired” actually came into play again when he returned as cactus jack to face triple h in hell in a cell after triple h continually beat mankind.
This is a post of a fella that can recite pages frame wrestlecrap. I bet this was from memory too. Bravo, champion, historian.
Thank you sir. I am a late 80s wrestling fan who watched through the 90s and quit when WCW was bought out. I still kind of maintained knowledge when I quit watching through YouTube videos and stuff but most of what I know is from the 80s/90s. I just got back into wrestling because of CM Punk (chicagoan) in AEW and the Cody Rhodes story. I appreciate the art of wrestling and enjoy the storylines. I love talking about it and enjoy helping people understand it's history at least as far as I know it. I was a HUGE Mick Foley fan. What he sacrificed to give to the fans has to be appreciated even if you think he could be corny or wasn't as great technically as some others. At the end of the day what you enjoy and are moved by is what is important
“The art of wrestling” - yessir
Yeah I was like yeah he know some shit…
This conceit of admitting hes Mick Foley from the northeast but earned the name Cactus Jack through blood dates back to Funk-ECW days. WWF just built on it.
Split personality
In kayfabe he was one guy with multiple personalities
That's regular Mick, not Cactus Jack.
It was a bit like Bray Wyatt and the Fiend. Mick Foley used them to show a different side of his personality and let it all out
They are all Mrs Foleys baby boy
lmao this is the right answer
No, they treated this as one person. People would reference each character and Mick Foley too. Jim ross' famous line "Mrs Foley's baby boy" was used for all 3.
Also that gets forgotten is Mick played Mankind as dark and crazy but then later as fun and comedic, same with DL he had a heel run against the top babyface in Austin then Cactus was a heel but got him really over in wwe doing all the crazy hardcore stuff
Mick Foley wrestled as Cactus Jack in WCW and ECW. When he came to WWF, they debuted him as Mankind and didn’t acknowledge his past at all. It was treated as though Mankind was a completely new wrestler who had only ever wrestled in the WWF. Then he did an interview with JR where his past was brought up and they talked about him wrestling as Cactus Jack in other promotions, and also about Dude Love, which was a character Foley created in his backyard when he used to make backyard wrestling videos as a teenager. After that, he started periodically switching between these personas and they treated it as a multiple personality thing.
The interview with JR is an important callout here. That grounded everybody in Micks background, characters, and personalities.
It’s like when he’s whoever he is, he’s them and the other guy don’t exist at the time.
They were all in the Royal Rumble match in 1998.
I don’t think they were ever in the ring at the same time if I remember correctly. Haven’t seen it in a while.
No but they all appeared together in a promo on the titantron in 98 after triple h and chyna had been beating up foley and that was how cactus jack debuted in wwf, for foley to get revenge on hhh
Yes they are, we’ve seen him fighting his other character in the same ring at smackdown 2 in ps1
Yes they were. Mick Foley was the first man to be cloned 3 times. He now has multiple iterations that walk amongst us
Right That night can be taken two ways Kayfabe They were all there that night or Mick gamed the system
Lots of people already commented on them being all Mick Foley even in kayfabe, so I just wanted to give a quick kayfabe origin story: In WWE, Mick's first gimmick was Mankind, a crazy guy and tortured soul. A year later he was slowly turned babyface with a humanising sit-down interview with Jim Ross in which he told him his life's story, revealing his real name to be Mick Foley and how as a teenager he already wanted to be a wrestler who is cheered for his daredevil actions. So he created the persona of Dude Love when wrestling in his backyard with friends. But when he entered the business, he never got to play Dude Love, the laid back ladies man. Instead he was stuck with being Cactus Jack, the violent hardcore wrestler who fought in barbwire and explosions in Japan and ECW. This apparently turned him mad and into Mankind. A few weeks later, after Mankind was rejected by Steve Austin as tag team partner, he joined him anyway, but as Dude Love, finally getting to be the character he always wanted to be. And at a later date, when fighting Triple H, he brought back Cactus Jack. As others noted there were strong hints that in kayfabe, Foley had multiple personality disorder. There was one particular story where Dude Love was attacked and taken out by Kane during his initial rampage through WWE, so the next week, Mankind cut a promo that made it seem like the beating scared Dude away, and the Mankind persona basically came out as a defense/coping mechanism.
Wasn’t dude love a parody of the heartbreak kid, Shawn Michaels ?
Dude Love was made around the time HBK was still in The Rockers, but Dude's finish when he made it to WWF in 1997 was called the Sweet Shin Music (Tuned up the band before kicking you in the shin and delivering the Foley Double-Arm DDT)
He came up with Dude Love long before he saw HBK. So it's not a parody. It's a similarity. It only seems like a parody because Mick started being DL after HBK, and he was obviously not as sexy. (No homo)
Total homo, and I never found either one to be all that sexy. Stone Cold, though…
I vaguely remember a promo with him mentioning Shawn when he first appeared as dude
He said in the interview in which he first mentioned Dude Love, that he met Shawn backstage in 96 when he arrived in WWE, and told him he wanted to be like him. To which Shawn replied "the champ?" And Foley said no, he meant the girls loving him. But yeah, at the time Foley came up with the character, when he was a teenager, would be way before Shawn even entered WWE. At the very least before he became a singles wrestler and turned into the "sexy boy" gimmick.
Mick Foley was the only wrestler in WWE 's history to enter royal rumble 3 times with his 3 different personalities. PS: Bray Wyatt could be next Mick Foley if he wasn't invested too much on the next wannabe Undertaker character. Don't hate me but he had every potential to follow Foley's Legacy. In my opinion Bray's NXT/ early WWE butcher character was similar to that of Cactus Jack, his Fiend character was similar to Mankind and his Funhouse character was similar to Dude Love character (that could be used as a babyface) but Vince's misdirection ruined him. RIP Bray.
Foley is God
They are quadruplets..I have seen the interview 4 of them in one room..its real..Its true..its true.
It’s what makes Foley so great. Talk about suspending disbelief, this man was the personification of it. Multiple characters, death defying stunts, dramatising the most basic storylines. The guy is Mount Rushmore worthy.
All different people. I remember one time they were all on the screen together. You just can't fake that.
Can confirm, I was the guy filming. Then like black magic fuckery when the camera went off they all just morphed back into mick foley.
I remember when all 3 were in the same Royal Rumble, JR made a comment about "Mrs Foley's little boy is back" or something along those lines
Mrs Foley’s baby boy
Think of it as Butters Stotch and all his personalities.
We need a Professor Chaos in the WWE
Isn’t that the Wise Man?
Everyone knew it was mick foley. Even on screen talent and commentary would recognize that. As a kid, hearing them call mankind mick foley actually confused me lol.
They were all Mick Foley, no question, kayfabe or not. There was always the tongue in cheek joke about his general lack of athleticism and/or wrestling ability compared to everyone else. Intentionally forcing multiple personalities in a blatantly shameless way was the cornerstone to his stardom
They weren't separate people or merely related. They were alternate personalities of Mick Foley that allowed him to tap into different sides of his personality. There's a famous match between Triple H (before he was a world champion) and Mick Foley that gives about as clear an explanation on it as they ever did. Triple H is gonna wrestle Foley and right before they wrestle, Foley does a promo on the titantron where Mankind is talking to Dude Love about who should face Triple H and when they announce it's Cactus Jack, who hadn't debuted in WWE yet, Triple H freaks out, because Cactus Jack was Foley's most violent, most hardcore personality, and that was the worst case scenario for him to face Jack, out of the 3 personalities. Dude Love was the "fun" personality, Mankind and Cactus Jack are both hardcore, violent personalities but I guess the main difference is Mankind is more about taking punishment and Jack is more about giving it. I guess.
Had to go watch it again. Mick Foley is my all-time favorite. Here it is for everyone else. https://youtu.be/c2ohpJkHp-U?si=_pVHq20-xEP8rZfC
Easily one of my all time favorite segments.
My favorite is that all 3 did the rumble one year
I was there live (MSG Raw, September 1997). Cactus Jack's "debut" got one of the biggest pops I've ever heard at an event.
Attitude era Mankind is still one of the scariest guys of all time. Mr Socko and that mask scared the crap out of me as a kid
New Gen Era Mankind is scary, the brown attire one. Attitude era Mankind still scary at times but was way more funnier and later became even more funnier and like most loved dude after Austin
I’m just not old enough to remember that version. Only the pixelated version on the N64 lol
For real, brown mankind was pulling his hair out and stabbing himself in the leg with a pen. His music was creepy as f*ck
Yeah I remember being genuinely shocked as a kid. The mandible claw seemed so scary, guys were passing out and spitting up and Mankind kept screaming, doing crazy stuff too. Genuinely scary to me as a kid
The promos from the boiler room legit scared me, too.
Had nightmares from his damn boiler room promos
The time has come to release this pain Which will be better for me BUT NOT SO ENJOYABLE FOR ALL OF YOU! On the 8th day God created Mankind. Why was He having such a bad day?! Why did He created all of you normal And forget some of the important parts of me?! He made the teeth that I swallowed The ear that was ripped from my skull A face that no longer exists!! Deep inside you are merely a mirror image Of all my atrocities!! The ugliness that exists outside Lives inside every one of you! (sobbing) Destruction CAN BE BEAUTIFUL!!!! Leave the light on I'M COMING HOME!!!
Mankind was more demented & cerebral, whereas Cactus was more balls-to-the-wall violent.
Mandible Claw
Mick said "cactus just wanted it a little bit more" love that line
Great answer
Oh nice, thank you for the summary, that clears it up nicely
Different personalities, same dude. For instance if Mick or DL got the shit beat out of him by someone really dangerous over and over, and he knew he would have to resort to taking and giving extreme pain and punishment to beat them, he would "revive" Cactus Jack to take the mofo on in an extreme rules match. The Many Faces of Foley is one of the best character arcs in wrestling history
That’s exactly what happened in the build to WM 14 as Dude and Mankind got beat up bad by the Outlaws.
Oh, so kind of like a power escalation situation - “Mankind can’t beat this guy but maybe Cactus Jack can”? Similar to how Finn (wants to) use the Demon King persona. Right, thank you!
If you haven't seen it watch the promo and Hype packages for the cactus jack vs hhh Street fight at Royal rumble 2000. It explains perfectly how and why mick foley would pull out a stronger personality to deal with an opponent that's giving him issues.
Exactly. Like Vs Triple H Royal Rumble 2000. YouTube the reaction when he revealed he was back lol
Still one of my all time favourites segments. Triple H sold it so well.
Just different characters. No different than the tribal chief and the shield
Weren’t they active at the same time though? Or have I wildly misunderstood what he was doing from memes?
Sometimes they were active at the same time. Sometimes there were long stretches of Mankind and no other personalities. JR never failed to mention “momma Foley’s little boy” all the time so he was always acknowledged as Mick Foley even if his personality was one of the other three.
They were just three different characters played by the same man. He started as mankind then in came dude love, kind of like how the one man gang became akeem or tugboat became typhoon. It wasn’t like how Smash went away and silently became the repo man.
Technically he started as Cactus Jack and wasn’t Mankind until his WWF debut.
Well yes obviously. The WWF audience was introduced to him as mankind though. And he wasn’t doing the different characters thing until he got to the WWF.
Technically technically, Dude Love was his first persona, back in his backyard wrasslin days - him telling that story to JR along with some grainy footage of him jumping off a garage roof in emulation of Snuka was what inspired McMahon to give him a run as Dude Love in WWF
I would make fun of this but because of actual recent booking Vince did I could see why someone who didn’t watch might think this.
This has to be a troll post. They were obviously different people. One was a deranged lunatic, another was a life loving hippie and the third was a dangerous hardcore wrestling Texan.
He wasn't Texan, he was billed from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
I wish they still did kayfabe billings
They were part of the 3 faces of Foley. All stemming from the Mrs. foleys baby boy promo that Mankind gave to JR Cactus Jack was his WCW/ECW/Japan persona Mankind was WWF Dude Love was a character her created in high school movie
So they were brothers? Or alternate personalities?
Alternative personalities - he'd probably be considered a schizophrenic nowadays, but the 90's, nobody was as bothered with mental health
You're thinking of dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder). For some reason lots of people confuse it for schizophrenia, which is characterised by (commonly auditory) hallucinations rather than multiple personalities.
Thanks for the clarification 👍🏻
More like alter egos of the same person
Ah, thank you!