Mick Foley originally became a national star while portraying Cactus Jack in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Though he had some success there, including a memorable feud with WCW World Champion Vader, he never achieved the heights that he would later with the WWE as Mankind, Dude Love, and a renewed Cactus Jack character. After leaving WCW, Foley went to ECW and Japan before ending up with the WWE in 1996.
During a recent edition of his podcast, 83 Weeks, Eric Bischoff recalled Foley’s time with the company and what he called a dangerous side. In particular, he was discussing his famous 1993 Halloween Havoc match with Vader.
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Apparently, Foley had requested to do some dangerous spots during the match that WCW had to tell him no on due to liability factors. Bischoff explained that Foley was just too dangerous for the company.
“That someone was me,” Bischoff said. “That was also the precursor for Cactus Jack leaving WCW. Cactus was becoming a danger not only to himself, but in the opinion of WCW legal, was providing a significant amount of litigation exposure because of the things he wanted to do. It was just over the top.
“Every week it was crazier and crazier, and we just couldn’t let it happen. In addition to probably other things, I’ve never talked to Mick about this, but that was the straw that broke the camel’s back with WCW and Mick. Mick wanted to increasingly become more physical, more violent, bloodier, more over the top, and WCW was going in a different direction.”
Bischoff went on to discuss how he still was concerned about Foley and his well-being even after he left WCW.
“More than a little bit, a lot (concerned),” Bischoff said. “Mick is proud and should be proud of the big moments he had in WWE. It’s not like Mick is a 170 pound gymnast – this guy is a big dude. I don’t know how he survived it. I really, really don’t.
“Mick is a very, very intelligent person. He’s not your average guy when it comes to intelligence; incredibly intelligent guy. But he had this bizarre dark side that he needed to explore and feed. It was becoming increasingly obvious to WCW and myself. I was just like, ‘enough is enough dude. Enough is enough,’ and that was it.”
We recently discussed the 1993 match between Vader and Foley on my podcast, Top Rope Nation, as part of a retrospective on the best moments from WCW’s Halloween Havoc. You can listen to that show below or wherever podcasts are found.
Do you have any favorite Cactus Jack moments from his run with WCW? Let us know in the comments section below.
