Since Chris Benoit is basically persona-non-grata in wrestling history, Mick Foley pretty much wins the award for Mr. Royal Rumble by default based on his back-to-back singles matches for the WWE Championship alone. They were each so good that he distanced himself from all of his peers who had far more time to accomplish many more accolades in their Rumble careers. It is a testament to Foley's talent that we could make such a claim. Whatever your opinion on that matter, what is not up for debate is the quality of the stories that he told in 1999 and 2000. A year after shortening his career with a performance for the ages, Foley returned to the Royal Rumble as Cactus Jack to battle the company's next top heel, Triple H. The Game was catching fire at that very moment, furthering his own case to be the top guy in the business in WWE's most heralded era. The Street Fight at Madison Square Garden was important, historically, for many of the same reasons that Rock vs. Foley was in 1999. It built Triple H into an all-time great in the making. It solidified Foley's legacy in WWE, giving him the chance to get back to his roots right before he retired after spending most of '98-'99 as the loveable persona that catered to the kids that still watched WWE's product in a period not geared toward little ones. The violent Cactus Jack persona was not a sock-wielding character. At his roots, Cactus was a maniac. He proved it against Trips, but Trips much like Rock the year before showed a toughness largely absent prior to. To add to the match's legacy, WWE essentially learned how to make a dominant heel champion out of this performance. They may not have known it at the time, but Foley's adaptation of Cactus Jack really screamed title change is imminent. WWE chose otherwise, instead opting to have Trips defeat Cactus at his own game despite interference from The Rock. It was a rather babyface-style win for a dastardly heel. It was an important addition to the WWE playbook, frankly. The formula had gotten tired and needed to be tweaked. Bad guys sometimes win in the end it taught us and future main-events were made better for it.
"The Doc" Chad Matthews has written wrestling columns for over a decade. A physician by trade, Matthews began writing about wrestling as a hobby, but it became a passion. After 30 years as a wrestling fan, "The Doc" gives an unmatched analytical perspective on pro wrestling in the modern era. He is a long-time columnist for Lordsofpain.net and hosts a weekly podcast on the LOP Radio Network called "The Doc Says." His first book - The WrestleMania Era: The Book of Sports Entertainment - ranks the Top 90 wrestlers from 1983 to present day, was originally published in December 2013, and is now in its third edition.
Matthews lives in North Carolina with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.
