Before signing on with World Class Championship Wrestling as Cactus Jack Manson, Mick Foley spent years competing on the independent circuit after beginning his training with Dominic DeNucci in 1983. He also made numerous squash appearances as jobbers for the WWF during this time.
Foley was noticed by World Championship Wrestling promoters in 1991, and after briefly competing for the Global Wrestling Foundation, he began working full-time for WCW.
Catus Jack immediately won over the hearts of the crowd, and his conflict with Big Van Vader was a turning point in his professional life.
Foley and Vader engaged in one of WCW’s most horrific matches, a Texas Deathmatch, in 1993. As a result of the shocking savagery that ensued, WCW refused to book Foley and Vader for another PPV match.
However, the pair fought once more in 1994 in a devastating contest that saw Vader rip off Foley’s ear and is still regarded as one of the most severe in wrestling history.
Foley returned to the independent circuit between 1994 and 1996, but his battle against Terry Gordy in Japan in 1995 remains one of his most well-known contests. In that bout, Foley made his barbed wire bat debut.
Foley eventually signed a contract with the WWF in 1996. He changed his identity to Mankind and began a feud with The Undertaker, who in 1998 during their King of the Ring bout hurled Foley over a 20-foot high cage.
Foley won the WWF World Title later that year against Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson; he would go on to hold the title three more times in his career.
Foley has written two autobiographies, a novel, a series of kid’s books, and is currently retired and working as an ambassador for the WWE.
