10 Pivotal Mick Foley Moments From The Monday Night Wars

10. Trolling The ECW Fans

By the time Nitro went head to head with Raw in September 1995, Mick Foley had already left WCW having grown tired of bashing his head against their glass ceiling. Worried that he'd never be more than a mid-card heel, Foley gambled against all advice from family and colleagues alike by heading back to the independents.

Driven by his daredevil style, he worried that he wouldn't be around for long so was determined to force the hand of fate by not stagnating in a company that didn't view him as a top guy. WCW was built around wrestlers who were already stars, not those who wanted to become them.

Mick Foley's Cactus Jack persona found a home in ECW next, where his bumping skills and hardcore approach fit perfectly with their punk rock aesthetic. The flipside of fitting in so well was the anchor around his neck however. It would take something a little different to make a mark with fans who were used to seeing wrestlers be crash test dummies each and every week.

The ultimate antidote was to give them the exact opposite of what the blood-thirsty Philadelphia faithful wanted. Out went thrilling ultra-violence. In came headlocks. Lots and lots of headlocks. Even though it wasn't the plan, Foley was already eroding the Cactus Jack character to make way for a new one altogether.