Mick Foley is a great enough performer that if he only wrestled as Cactus Jack in his WWE career he would have been very successful. It worked for him in WCW and ECW. It would have worked in WWE too although maybe it would have taken them a while to understand what that character was. The reason Mankind wore the mask was because he wasn't comfortable with how he looked. He would do crazy things like pull his own hair out, scream randomly, stuff his fingers down the throat to apply the Mandible Claw finisher, punch his own leg to get the feeling back after a crazy bump and we were told he liked to stay in the boiler room. That stuff was the Mankind we knew. What worked for him as Mankind was his ability to take this dark, weird, disfigured character and then morph into some guy who gained confidence that ended up being one of the funniest guys in the business. The transformation was amazing from the time when he started in 1996 beating the Undertaker at SummerSlam and then over the next couple of years he completely changed things around. Mankind never would have won the crowd over as much as he did if he didn't have a mask on. We knew who he was and within a year of his debut WWE was pushing the idea that he had other characters like Cactus Jack and Dude Love too. However, the reason people ended up cheering for him is because he got away from being that creepy Mankind guy and started acting like himself. The message was about gaining confidence as a man. It was an easy story to tell. It was the evolution of Mankind. Without that mask, it never would have been the same.
John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.
