12 Times American Football Crossed Over Into Wrestling

As Cactus Jack, Mick Foley teamed with Gary Young against Robert Fuller and Phil Hickerson in a series of unusual tag team matches. Dubbed, “The Tennessee Football Classic” (or “The Kentucky Football Classic”, depending on the city they were in that night), the match involved two teams, two managers in cages, and a football with a key attached.

During the match, the two teams would battle over the key and attempt to unlock their respective cages, allowing the manager (armed with a weapon) to join the match. In this case, the managers were Downtown Bruno (Harvey Wippleman) and Fuller’s wife Sylvia. While wrestling, teams would also play keep-away with the ball, which would be thrown back and forth between wrestlers and fans.

This type of audience participation probably wouldn’t work out in today’s era of jaded fans trying to put themselves over. Imagine trusting a crowd that chants “Michael Cole” or “We Are Awesome” with an important prop in a match; the ball would just as soon end up in the men’s room for someone’s Instagram selfie than in the ring. But the late 1980s were a less cynical time for wrestling, and Foley recalled the matches fondly years later in his first autobiography.