5. Cactus Jack Loses His F**king Ear Bang Bang!
Hes suffered so many injuries in pursuit of his dream of professional wrestling that you could dedicate an entire article to listing just the in-ring moments when Mrs. Foleys baby boy was horribly damaged in the name of art. This one, though this one was special. Touring Germany with WCW in March 1994, Foley then wrestling under the Cactus Jack name was running a brutal series with Big Van Vader. On March 17th, the circus hit Munich, and the crowd were treated to the second in these stiff, uncompromising matches. Early on in the match, Foley had hit Vader with the tried-and-tested Cactus clothesline at the time, a crowdpleasing mid-match bump that would traditionally see Jack run at his opponent, clothesline him out of the ring and go out himself with the momentum of his suicidal charge. The second time Jack attempted it, Vader sprang out of the way, and Foley caught himself in the hangman deliberately twisting the second and third rope over with his neck caught between them. Even on a good day, this was a rough move to take, causing some nasty splits behind the ears, but WCW used elevator cable covered in rubber as ring ropes, and earlier on that day there had been a complaint that the ropes were too loose so theyd tightened them up. When Foley hit the hangman, he found that not only couldnt he pry himself loose, but it felt like he was about to be decapitated. He did the only thing he could do, and yanked himself through and free. Skip to 7:30 below, if you dont have time for the full match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJPLkrfW-KY Crawling back into the ring around thirty seconds later, Cactus and his right ear were still together, albeit not really on speaking terms. With the next exchange of blows, the divorce was final, and Mick Foleys ear flew off onto the ring canvas. In a classic only in WCW moment, the referee didnt speak any English, and couldnt tell him that his ear had come off, and so handed it to the ring announcer, who turned green, ran backstage and tried to hand it to Ric Flair, the boss at the time who told him to put it on ice. True to form, the consummate professional, Foley carried on the match to do the job to Vader (hows your finger, Sin Cara?) and then leapt into the ambulance with a plastic bag filled with ice and what was left of his right ear. Ridiculously, the first hospital wouldnt even see him a man covered in blood and holding an ear in his lap so, like in a scene from a screwball comedy, the ambulance simply drove on to the next one, where he was informed that the ear couldnt be reattached itd been scraped off the side of his head, and was basically mush. Now one-eared, Foley returned home convinced that he and Vader were due one of the worlds most coruscating pushes. It was the grudge match from heaven: how could anyone screw it up? The man had literally well, maybe not literally ripped his ear off. Of course, this was WCW, and the injury was barely mentioned again. Cactus Jack had one more match with Vader a month or so later, and that was that.
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.
