Of course Mick Foley would be on this list somewhere but the question is, as who? As the wildman Cactus Jack, with demented toothless grin and baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire? As himself, the Hardcore Legend and bestselling author who took Edge to new heights by allowing him to spear him through a flaming table at Wrestlemania? Or as Dude Love no, just kidding. Obviously its going to be Mankind. Mankind seemed to be inspired by one part Hannibal Lector, one part Leatherface, one part Bruiser Brody. A masked lunatic, Mankind would creep and skulk to the ring, squealing and crawling, pulling out his own hair, and talking to a pet rat called George. In the ring, he would straighten to reveal a large, hairy, gap-toothed man, dressed in what appeared to be the rags of a boiler suit, who would destroy opponents with his fast, fairly agile and incredibly aggressive wrestling style. While in the post-kayfabe Attitude Era, Mankind couldnt reach the dizzy heights and nauseating lows of some of his spiritual ancestors on this list, he did have one thing going for him that Abdullah The Butcher, Bruiser Brody and Mad Dog Vachon didnt have national exposure and a fantastic production. A weekly television show and monthly pay-per-views ensured that Mankind became a household name very, very quickly. Seeming to be impervious to pain and to enjoy it, Mankind would become infamous for his deranged promos, often filmed in the darkness of the boiler room he was said to live in. Foleys career as Mankind came to its zenith when he fought the Undertaker at the 1998 King Of The Ring in the second ever Hell In A Cell match. Recognising that he and the Dead Man wouldnt be able to match up to the astonishing first effort with Undertaker and Shawn Michaels (Taker had a broken foot and Foley wasnt the athlete that Michaels was), Foley suggested a number of hardcore shortcuts to make this version of the match just as memorable. Starting on top of the cage itself, the match is now one of the most famous hardcore matches of all time, although it certainly wasnt supposed to be, and it cemented Foleys legacy as a future WWE Hall Of Famer, even as it knocked years off his career. It also helped popularise backyard and garbage matches in mainstream wrestling circles throughout the West, and Foley Is God signs can still occasionally be seen at his public appearances even today. For wrestling fans in the Attitude Era, that flippant slogan was often just a simple statement of belief.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
