When Mr. McMahon was recovering in a hospital from an injury caused by Steve Austin, Mankind, who at the time was trying to curry favor with the WWE Chairman, thought hed be funny by trying to cheer Vince up. After several attempts failed, Mankind produced a sock puppet with a face drawn on it, known as Mr. Socko, which, like the others, failed to make Vince happy (at least on the outside). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOznZP2XdnY What neither Vince nor Mankind counted on was Mr. Socko becoming an overnight sensation, as fans everywhere loved the sock so much that it became part of Mankinds regular routine. Eventually, Socko would replace Mankinds finger glove for the Mandible Claw, and the new visual would be Mankind stuffing a dirty sock into his opponents mouth. This fit perfectly with Foleys characters transition from a dramatic and sombre character to a comedic sidekick to the Rock. As the years went on, and Foley began appearing more sporadically, people would start cheering wildly as soon as Foley would point to his trousers and pull out a dirty sock, which Jim Ross would instantly identify as Mr. Socko. So while there are many explanations for Mick Foleys success in WWE, one cannot ignore the sudden and unexpected popularity of a crudely-drawn sock puppet that would become one of the funniest signature moves in WWE history.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.