10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Mick Foley

5. Most Of His WWE Title Reigns Were Short

Foley won three WWE World Titles as Mankind. The total number of days he held those titles was 47. Two of them were taped six and five days before they aired so in terms of the number of days he was WWE Champ actually on television it was only 36 days. It's a great achievement to be WWE Champion and anybody that wins it once is remembered for it, but Foley's reigns were so brief that they are really forgettable. The first one was memorable because it aired on the January 4, 1999 edition of Raw (a taped Raw from December 29, 1998) and it generated one of the loudest ovations in the history of WWE as Steve Austin marched down to ringside to help Mankind beat The Rock. It was also the famous "put butts in the seat" episode where WCW was mocking Foley on their broadcast. Great moment, but he only had the title for 20 days at least on screen. Mankind's second title win was also a moment people remember fondly because he beat The Rock in the Halftime Heat match on January 31, 1999 (taped five days earlier). It was an Empty Arena match, which was very unique and a lot of fun to watch. That reign lasted only 15 days on screen. His final WWE Title reign lasted one day reign at SummerSlam 1999 because he lost the title to Triple H the next night on Raw. Steve Austin was the WWE Champ, Foley won the triple threat match and then passed it over to Hunter. There were rumors that Austin didn't want to drop it to Hunter, but it was more likely that WWE wanted special guest referee Jesse Ventura raising the hand of a babyface like Mankind instead of Hunter. There were 12 title changes in WWE in 1999 counting Mankind's win to start the year. It was a completely different booking philosophy compared to what we see now. He was a great wrestler, but he was never a great champion because he was never allowed to be.