10 Times WWE Best Used Blood
3. Cactus Jack Vs. Randy Orton (Backlash 2004)
Likely the greatest hardcore match that will ever be made under the WWE banner, Cactus Jack vs. Orton was more than just a violent spectacle. Like what he did for Triple H in 2000 and Edge in 2006, Foley made an absolute star out of Orton.
However, unlike the aforementioned encounters, where Foley put his foes over by taking sickening moves from them, here it was Orton who took the beating. The young Intercontinental Champion showed his toughness, as Cactus butchered him. Minutes into the match, Orton’s face was sliced open by Barbie.
From there, there’re chair shots to the head, barbed-wire boards, and a nasty spot where Orton falls onto a pile of thumbtacks, turning into what Jim Ross would infamously call a “human pincushion.”
By this point, Orton was still a boring pretty boy to many, but even anyone who still hates him to this day has to admit it’s a damn fine performance, and it helped catapult him into the main event. Randy Orton can be boring, but by God, he can bleed too.