6. Cactus Jack vs Triple H - Royal Rumble, January 2000
Another example of Foley establishing a hot new wrestler as a legitimate superstar came at the first Pay Per View of the new Millennium, the Royal Rumble. Triple H had sporadically held the WWF Championship throughout 1999, but had yet to truly get himself over with the fans as a dominant threat. Foley helped see to that, this time in the guise of his psychotic alter-ego Cactus Jack. While fire was the crucial ingredient of Foleys later match with Edge, the weapon of choice here was a sack of thumbtacks. Towards the end of the match Mick emptied the sack out in the middle of the ring. Both men teased moves near the tacks until, in perhaps the most likely outcome, it was Foley himself who took the horrific bump. The crowd came unstuck as Triple H backdropped his poor opponent right onto the tacks, dozens upon dozens embedding themselves in his flesh. The Game then covered Foley and won the match. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-QTkPmdkZw Just kidding. To everybodys horror, Mick kicked out and the match continued. It took an even worse blow to end the bout for good, a nightmarish pedigree face-first into the remaining tacks. As if to prove any watching sceptics wrong, the camera caught a number of them clearly sticking out of Foleys forehead as the referee counted to three.
