Ranking Every Triple H Vs Mick Foley WWE Pay-Per-View Match - From Worst To Best
Star Wars.
SummerSlam 2017 will mark twenty years since Mick Foley and Triple H opened the August spectacular with a hard-hitting blue bar cage match that aided the careful transformation both characters were then undergoing.
As a pay-per-view event, SummerSlam '97 proved an unintentionally transcendent night in the company's history. Stone Cold Steve Austin breaking his neck following a botched piledriver from Owen Hart drastically impacted both men's careers, whilst the scintillating conclusion to the Bret Hart/Undertaker WWE Title match began the company's slow march to Montreal later that year.
Foley and Hunter may not have stolen the show that night, but they'd command unparalleled attention in relatively new roles as a sympathetic babyface and vicious heel respectively. Their chemistry had been improving following matches earlier that year and would continue on that trajectory, allowing both men to flourish and ultimately shine in separate runs as the company's top star and Champion during its most profitable period.
A legendary feud often overlooked by WWE (perhaps due to a general disinterest in Mick Foley's pivotal role in elevating Triple H to the upper echelon), their bitter rivalry spanned numerous pay-per-views and did more for the future Chief Operating Officer than just about any other struggle in his lengthy transition from the 'Greenwich Snob' to 'The Game'.
10. Hunter Hearst Helmsley Vs Dude Love (One Night Only)
Triple H found himself enveloped in one of WWE's more controversial scenes at the climax of UK-only pay-per-view One Night Only, but the only thing remotely memorable about his clash with Dude Love at the September 1997 event was Mick Foley's abysmal British accent in the pre-match promo.
Required to work a straight wrestling match in keeping with Mick's most mellow persona, the two were somewhat out of their comfort zones together, having spent the prior supershows tearing strips out of each other in energetic brawls.
Opening the show in front of a typically red hot crowd, the pair relied heavily on comedic shortcuts to get through the bout, with Helmsley reverting back to the peak cowardice of the Greenwich Snob gimmick that had gradually been phased back following his on-screen allegiance with Shawn Michaels.
It did at least afford Mick Foley a night off taking too many insane bumps, though he did sustain another brutal strike from Chyna on the arena floor, continuing their one-sided mini-feud that ran concurrently with the ongoing series of matches.
Hunter won relatively clean here, scoring with a Pedigree in a finish that kept him protected ahead of their electric Madison Square Garden brawl a fortnight later. Foley would perform an identical role two years later, when another high profile star wasn't quite as keen...