I loved when Rock poked fun at HHH's monologues: "I am the Gaaammme-UH! And I'm going to be taallkkingg-UH! For the next twenty minunnuttess-UH! And saying absolutely nnotthhinngggg-UH!"
@@wilcee238 Yeah, in the one I'm thinking of both he and Stephanie had their lips pursed and twisted super hard to keep from smiling or laughing. And HHH was chomping on that gum 😆
"Mick sold". That's what seperates Mick Foleys hardcore wrestling from all these modern 120lb. indie-rific outlaw marks who do 1080 flips from ladders onto flaming thumbtacks. They don't SELL!! Mick sold all his shit!!
When I think back to the Attitude Era, if we are talking singles wrestlers Mount Rushmore OF THE ATTITUDE ERA (For those who need it spelled out. Lol. Seriously, come on people), I put Mick Foley on that. The man was so talented that he got not one, not two, not three, but FOUR gimmicks over. All of the top stars (Rock, Taker, Austin), had one of, if not their best feud with one of Foley's incarnations (Austin vs Dude Love, Taker vs Mankind, Rock versus Mankind as more of himself and Cactus Jack vs Triple HHH). He is one of the few constants in some of the most memorable attitude era moments. I respect Mick Foley so much more now that I'm in my thirties. If we're talking purely singles wrestlers, for me, it's Taker, Foley, Rock and Austin.
@@metallicbigtoe3949 My favorite version of Foley was 98’ mankind when he was siding with Paul Bearer again, and Kane. And the whole conspiracy angle with the Undertaker.
Jim is also overlooking how genuinely terrified Hunter looked of Cactus, both times. Some of his friends would have done the spooky fingers and killed the gimmick there and then.
I remember the change in 2000, before the Royal Rumble street fight. Hunter looked like he was going to shit himself, and all Mick really did was take off his mask, and change his shirt. But Hunter was smart enough to know that doing spooky fingers would kill it, and when he won, it wouldn't mean anything. If he freaks out, and acts like he's scared out of his mind at "What fucking hornet's nest did I just kick?", NOW when he goes over, it means something. Even though I was 18 at that time (FUCK that's a long time ago), and I was smart to the business, they were able to suck me in, because I liked Mick, and I hated HHH's guts, and I just wanted to see Mick kick his ass, just once. And when Mankind became Cactus Jack, I truly believed that's what it would take for Mick to finally get the win. Because Hunter acted like that's what it would take, for Mick to get the win.
@@specialk9424man, I still wish Cactus would’ve won the street fight. The rest of the feud could’ve gone the exact same way, but I, and I think everyone else, wanted Cactus to win that match. It’s still my all time favorite, for a few reasons, but mostly because it’s one of the few times we saw Mick actually beating the shit of someone in a main event for most of the match, instead of taking all the hits, and he looked good doing it.
@@chrischar9428 Yeah that really sucked of HHH to say -- anyone who was watching at the time knew that HHH's title run was not setting the world on fire -- Mick MADE him
I watched recently the part where Mankind came out on Smackdown after being beaten up by HHH on Raw in Jan 2000, and you could see when he moved from Mankind to Cactus Jack. ' First thing I am going to do is kick your teeth all over the city of Chicago' and my favourite line because you believe when he says it ' I'm gonna tear you apart in New York City'. So perfect. I heard Mick say in an interview that he gave a lot of props to HHH for the way he sold the change and the fear he showed when Mick became Cactus Jack. If HHH didn't believe it we wouldn't and it completely elevated the program. Loved it.
I've always liked about Mick Foley is that he believed he was Dude Love, he believed he was Cactus Jack and he believed he was Mick Foley but never all at the one time.
@@ambushit6484 that's one of my all time favorite promos/matches. The way HHH sells being pissed off when Cactus debuts at the Garden was fucken awesome, the street fight was fucken awesome & the piledriver through the bigass table was fucken awesome BANG BANG
@@morningstar577 definitely one of the iconic promos/matches. I remember almost falling outta my chair when dude love said, "somebody spank me I thought he was dead."
Foley was one of the few guys that feuded with the four pillars of the Attitude Era(Undertaker, Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H) and all the guys looked exactly like superstars and told a great story. Even though the trilogy was long spaced out between Triple H & Cactus Jack the Street Fight and the Hell In A Cell Match was well worth the wait and elevated Triple H to become on the best heels of the Attitude Era. The trilogy between Helmsley & Mankind was just the beginning as between 1996 and 1997 the WWF/E was slowly transitioning into the Attitude Era.
His feud with Orton also solidified Orton's ceiling as a main event star. Prior to the feud, he was viewed as nothing more than the pretty boy cocky young man from Evolution.
funniest thing about what Jim said "the worst thing you did, you encouraged marks to do death matches" part (i paraphrase a bit) is that ... that was supposed to be then-Dean Ambrose's debut gimmick in WWE, before The Shield, post-FCW. His had that one "Accidental" encounter with Mick Foley at the airport or some shit (there used to be a video on youtube, with Mark Henry making a save at the end), where he (Ambrose) accused Mick of wrongly influencing a "lost generation of wrestlers", that Foley is the reason why guys like him did deathmatches 'n' shit, where all that was supposed to lead to a match between Mick and Ambrose/Moxley, but Foley didn't pass the medical tests which is why it never came to fruition. It is funny to me that the guy with that big of a boner for deathmatches matches like Moxley, was meant to debut in WWE as guy accusing somebody else for popularizing those hardcore matches
LOL of all the Kevin Dunn stories you've told... "No one is going to know Cactus Jack in NY." LOL This is a looking back on the story. Even though I saw this stuff when I was a kid. The WWE stuff. This guy was a big deal in ECW and elsewhere obviously before ever going to WWE. Just give that man a carrot and go on right?
Great clip. The white boots reveal was a brilliant subtle piece of comedy in wrestling. Wish Dude came out to help Steve earlier in his debut. Cactus did beat HHH in that match with the first 3 faces of Foley promo. Pile driver through a table on the entrance ramp. HHH sold that promo like a god.
That and his match with Orton at Backlash in 2004 really elevated both those guys to the next level, you got to see a darker side to both those men, giving them that edge that they needed to become permanent main eventers. Mick put both those guys over like a million bucks.
Did you guys not watch any of the Foley/HHH matches from 1997? Or HHH/Austin at No Mercy 99? How it took Royal Rumble 2000 for some people to jump on board is beyond me.
Another thing copycats missed is that prime Mick Foley was a fairly big intimidating looking guy. His most famous period being in the WWF tends to distract away from the fact he was a big tough wrestler, and then he added the crazy thumbtacks and barbwire on top of instead of as an alternative to wrestling ability.
His in ring psychology and ability to draw you in his promos is also top notch. As I grow old, I tend to appreciate those aspects of Foley more than the bumps he took.
I’m not a fan of those kind of matches, but the royal rumble street fight was done perfectly. With the way triple h and Stephanie treated Mick in the build. it made complete sense that Foley would want to really hurt Hunter and use barbed wire and thumbtacks to punish him.
The only reason I use to get the WWE network was for the "Retro footage" Just watch 90s and 2000's raw smackdown nitro and thunder and ppvs because it's a million miles better than the current stuff
Foley is probably my all time favorite wrestler, not my favorite character (The Undertaker), not the best talent (Brett Heart IMO), but somehow just as a person my all time favorite.
Foley did the hardcore stuff but there was always purpose to the bumps he took. He was a character you felt for, either as a man at his wit's end lashing out at people, or a warm everyman who loved the people who loved him back.
The other thing was that they dont just have gimmick matches just to have them. Each time they had to up the anty, it had a purpose and reason behind it
Just by chance I saw HHH’s WWF debut match as Hunter Hearst Healmsley last night and maybe I’m looking at it through the eyes of someone who knows how the story ends (up until this point) but he was very impressive even with that gimmick. There was a lot of Gorgeous George in his mannerisms and he was so committed to it. It says a lot about Trips that what’s widely considered his unwatchable early stuff is actually much, much better than so much of what we’re getting today in either of the promotions. I sincerely hope that he brings that passion that he’s always had for wrestling to WWE and fills the roster with wrestlers that have the same passion and hunger that he did.
It's not just you looking with the perspective of how it ends. I've been an HHH fan since the very beginning and loved him immediately in 95. I always knew he had "it" and was going to be a big deal. The Blueblood is very underrated. I could see Gorgeous George, 70s Flair, and some Nick Bockwinkel too. All the nicknames he earned later in his career, you saw glimpses of it early on. All this talk everyone has about "not believing in HHH til the street fight at the 2000 rumble," I just don't get. Because I saw "it" in the summer of 1997 with those Foley matches.
But don't think anyone could have ever imagined Trips would essentially become the most powerful man in wrestling, running the biggest wrestling promotion in the world and that his buddies like Shawn Michaels and Road Dogg running everything, DX literally runs the wrestling world, not the nWo, not The Bullet Club, but Degeneration X
I loved his character from the beginning too. When you really think about it, he always maintained his king-like stance. When he would emerge during Wrestlemania, he would always readopt this persona to make his entrances. I’ve always loved him.
Yeah Jim is 100% right about the people that Mick Foley influenced. Guys like John Moxley never understood how smart he was and how great of a promo he was, like they didn’t watch any of his matches they just watched the high spots from his matches. Didn’t watch any of the program leading up to that big Helena cell just the hell in a cell. It feels like wrestlers today grew up watching Mick and the Hardy’s , Just watched endless highlight reels of their most dangerous stuff and that’s the wrestling business today
Jim summed up Mick so well, when we think about Foley all we think about is getting thrown off the cell or getting backdropped into tacks, but there are so many layers to Mick as a human being. He's got a great mind for wrestling, not to mention being one of the all time great storytellers.
Agreed. The problem as I see it is that the disciples of Foley who have entered the business after him only think about and work towards topping Mick’s iconic bumps. It’s sort of like how Jim says that Russo remembers “moments” like Piper smacking Snuka with the coconut, but not the storyline that came before and after. I suppose the whole situation is emblematic of the type of society we live in today, where attention spans for various forms of entertainment is noticeably shorter than it used to be.
The HitC highspot at least told a story. He took an insane bump but then he made a miraculous comeback and proceeded to take more punishment. Plus it's befitting of a character like The Undertaker to do something ruthless as throwing as chucking their opponent from a great height. It's not just "man fall off cage". There was a how and why to it.
Believe it or not, they did work out. They just didn't have the genetics for the fruits of their labor to show. They had the muscle but you couldn't see it. Unlike a lot of the mudshow goofs who look like crap, work like crap and spend their down time sitting in front of their tv drinking beer and eating cheetos instead of working out in the gym.
That point jim made about Mick’s selling is so true. Foley always sold like death. He mastered that “crumple” style where you take something and just slump over like it killed you
PleaZe stop making me feel old... Like when Randy Orton was with Rick Flair and he said a guy with a beard came up to him saying I watched you as a kid... That made Randy feel old...
Mick was a story teller like no other, while Triple H understood his value as the deplorable heel people would pay to see get the shit kicked out of them.
@@Speedyreedy1218 Flair dominated 75% of match and Foley was left bloody, defenseless, and sobbing on the mat to protect…Melina…who turned on him the next night on RAW. Beyond stupid.
'Ode to Joy' IS the Beethoven symphony, the choral part from his Ninth. HHH first entrance theme was a little harpsichord piece. He started using Beethoven in 97.
Cornette give HHH as he was back then any credit? Hell will freeze over before he does that, Cornette is still holding a grudge against him for the Curtain Call.
Hhh needed the cactus jack to win over the fans and what a great debut for cactus jacket at Madison Square Garden. I remember that so well and at one point the crowd chanting ECW
I am so glad that Corny,and Jim Ross fought for Mick. They both loved him,and gave us a chance to love him. Like Corny said,he made us love him to the point, we didn't want to see him hurt himself anymore. Love and thanks Mick Foley!
The street fight at the 2000 Royal Rumble is one if the best matchs Not all the time that's why it was great if you truly wanted your version of this match you wouldn't do it every night you'd know you'd have one chance
Brian, Foley wasn't going to win a match in the 2000 feud. One, he didn't need to. Because he was winning moments. HHH'S facials when he transforms to Cactus Jack made CJ relevant again. And the beatdown he gave HHH followed. CJ goading HHH into accepting a HIAC at No Way Out, a match fans knew HHH never experienced, and one Foley was iconic in, was Foley "winning a moment." That's them selling tickets and making money. Additionally, Foley was on his way out and wanted to put H on the map. You do that by making him strong and losing the feud does that. HHH was appreciative and he paid it forward in his career following Foley's footsteps. When he was dropping a title to someone he always put them over multiple times in a row, as Foley did for him. He did it for Goldberg in 03, Benoit in 04, Batista in 05, Orton in 09.
@@whitewhale9012 It wasn't a travesty. Goldberg was the biggest WCW star they had in that Bischoff controlled era. So that's who HHH was going to drop it to. Not DDP if he stayed. Not Steiner, not Booker (in that state anyway), but Goldberg. Booker was ruined as soon as he was booked to lose the WCW title to Rock at 2001 Summerslam. Rock mocked his hair, his intelligence. He went from being a force and alliance figurehead to Austin taking over and Booker being relagated to Shane's stooge. Then once the alliance lost at Survivor Series, he was made a joke with Austin beating him in a grocery store. Then he was still made a joke feuding the next year with Edge over a shampoo commercial. Then being made the weak link in the nwo. Then in a parody tag team with Goldust. He wins a battle royal three weeks before WM19 and you expect him to win the WHC from a well established heel HHH? When the Booker of 2003 was FAR FROM the white hot Booker of June and July 2001? Hell no. That's bad booking and lack of story development. 2006 King Booker. THAT was the major character development he needed to be taken seriously once again as a strong singles to push. It began with his fall 2005 U.S. title feud leading to the heel turn. It continued into spring 2006 winning KOTR. Now we had a solid 6 months of serious, no joke cracking, spinnarooni Booker. And that's when you pull the trigger. And they did. That summer he was world champ and he had a run longer than Edge's popcorn title switches with Cena every other month.
@@Speedyreedy1218 Booking an angle where a heel is overtly racist, the commentators repeatedly tell you the black guy is a criminal, the racist heel wins the feud with no shenanigans, and even takes 30 seconds to pin him... just so you know the racist is superior by miles is bad booking. Unless your goal is to affirm the awesomeness of racism. If that was the goal, they did a great job. Cos that was the message of THAT little morality play. It's really not complicated. There are millions of ways to book that angle with the same participants with the same result that dont come across so horribly. Listening to guys like Pritchard pretend the racial overtones didnt actually exist is just embarrassing. It wasnt veiled. PLEASE dont pretend that wasnt the crux of the feud. They did everything short of dropping N-bombs on him. It was pure cringe. Also, your post really drives home how badly Booker was utilized overall.
@@whitewhale9012 It wasn't racist. As a Black tween myself when it happened, I wasn't offended. I've watched it several times as a woman many years since, and still am not offended. It ways a feud on classism and elitism. Heels are supposed to make you riled up, feel uncomfortable, and make you think they're crossing a line. If the audience chooses to get worked up and imply a racial overtone when that isn't the case, that's on them. You're indirectly giving this heel more heat. I loved the match and they told a good story with the very little time they were given. Booker got IC and tag title pushes afterward. He got US title pushes and a WWE title match the following year when placed on Smackdown. So he wasn't buried. A burial would be Booker Curtain jerking every week, no angles on TV, not on the main show broadcast (i.e. only wrestling on Heat. No more Raw appearances). That did NOT happen. You don't have to have liked the angle. That's fine. But saying Booker was buried and HHH was racist is an exaggeration.
I feel like Terry Funk also is a part of the Foley curse. Marks think Terry was just an old man who was a hardcore nut and he doesn't get the real credit he deserves
I wish Jim a happy healthy life for at least 5 more years. I contemplating of leaving in 2027. I wanna keep listening to cornettes commentaries till then. Hope he does more watch along episodes.
I will be "leaving" between now and 22nd of October 2024 as I don't want to turn 40 I've always said I'll not see 40 so if fate doesn't deal with it I will
That's how I always felt about that retirement match against Triple H. I'm not knocking the effort put in or the spectacle of it, but it was a clear attempt to trade on Foley's cell match v. Undertaker 1998, which had already become legendary by that time. The 1998 match was not legendary just because of the fall off and through the cage, it was legendary because of almost everything about it, most of which was just happenstance, like Terry Funk getting chokeslammed out of his shoes, J.R.'s iconic calls, Earl Hebner genuinely trying to get Mick not to run back to the ring, the tooth going through Foley's lip, and Foley refusing to get stretchered out, it was the Undertaker persevering through a fractured ankle, Undertaker standing atop the cage as it was being hoisted into the air, it was the metal clasps pinging off the wire as it struggled to support both men's weight, it was Mick Foley narrowly avoiding death or full-body paralysis because of a poorly delivered chokeslam through the top of the cage. It was everything about that match.
RE: The hardcore copycats "I'll tell you a little secret about the Blues: it's not enough to know which notes to play, you have to know why they need to be played." -George Carlin
Brian, Austin was "shoved down my throat" 97, 98, 99, 01. I welcomed HHH as the featured performer of the millennium. He, by the way, never had a 20 minute promo. Heavily exaggerated by the IWC. #TeamTripleHSince95
Another thing is that Mick always told a story in his matches. It wasn't just pointless violence. Everything made sense and it looked like it had a purpose, despite how sadistic or masochistic it was. Mick was a great wrestler, period. None of these garbage match idiots have any idea on what it's like to actually wrestle or have a wrestling mind.
It has always bothered me that no matter whos talking about the greatest promo ability among the greats that no one ever mentions Mick. Easily one of the most entertaining personalities in history.
Foley DID beat Triple H at least twice: At summerslam 97 in steel cage as mankind and on raw in msg in sep. 97 when he debuted cactus jack gimmick in WWE
The street fight between these 2 at the royal rumble shows you that if you are going to use tacks and barbed wire in a match. This is how you do it and make it work.
Like many people, I respect Jim Cornette to no end. I have been a fan of his forever and a day already, but his description to mick about not shorting the fans- he couldn't been more correct and I appreciate the miles he may have helped mick add via subtracting certain parts of his presentation. My favorite wrestler more or less being encouraged to keep with the funny and less with the rougher stuff. And later when he did the hard-core stuff again it meant something. Like it should.
In Beyond The Mat, there's a scene where Mick is in gimmick as Dude Love talking with Russo backstage. Russo rattles off about ten lines he had wrote for Mick & really made it seem like Russo was behind the magic of the gimmick.
The Triple H/Cactus Jack Street Fight match at Royal Rumble 2000 is still my favorite hardcore match of all time. The violence and brutality were plenty but doesn't overstay it's welcome like 97 percent of these type of matches tend to do.
I hear Brian when he talks about Triple H being jammed down the audience's throats. I remember after he turned on DX and became The Game and started getting all that promo time, it really turned me off and led to me checking out as a regular viewer. I just never bought Triple H with that gimmick, a lot of people obviously did, but I found the gimmick and especially promos to be phony, boring and scripted. Say what you want about him in DX with the Outlaws and X-Pac, but you at least got the sense he was being himself somewhat. Triple H's push post DX came off to me as the company saying "This guy's the next guy and you will like it."
That's how I felt about the Austin push. 97, 98, 99, 01 were LONG years for me as a fan. I was so excited for the millennium to be the FrancHHHise's time. #TeamTripleH
The HHH/Mick Foley retirement angle from early 2000 is still my favorite WWE angle of all time. The lead up to their match at the Royal Rumble that year was simply amazing.
Triple H sold that promo where mick removed his shirt to reveal the cactus t shirt underneath and essentially change character instantly, shows how underrated hunter was as a heel.
so wait... we had 'ane rivels HHH vs batista. now we have anes rivals hhh vs Foley? JINKIES!?! wonder who was running the company when this deal went through?!
I know Jim and Brian aren't big HHH fans but I'm very surprised they both said Foley never beat Hunter. He beat him at Summerslam 97 in the cage and he beat him on Raw as Cactus in September 97. Let's stick to the facts please.
Triple H 2000/2001 was easily the best version of him, great matches and rivalries throughout that period, the ultimate villain to the Rock, Jericho, Foley and Austin
I’ve never been one for death matches, but WW22 vs Edge was an amazing moment for Foley, hated seeing those two put their bodies through that, but the story was great.
I just don’t like how they (not just Jim and Brian, but most commenters and the smart fans) don’t give HHH his proper credit. This was basically a Mick Foley love fest, which is cool, I like Foley too.. but they never talk abt how HHH took the DX ball from Shawn and not only kept it going, but they were as over as Austin, Taker, and whoever else y’all wanna bring.. then, he takes the risk to switch heel while he was beloved af at WM 15, and nobody talks about how that had the potential to flop & backfire similar to Austin’s heel turn at WM17.. but HHH pulled it off & became a despised heel at a time when a newly face Rock needed a heel opponent while Austin feuded with Vince/Taker in 99.. Just saying I would have liked some neutral coverage.. Put some RESPECKT ON THE GAME’S NAME 😤🎮
Another HHH mark in the house? #TeamTripleH Let's go!!! They NEVER put respect on his name. They've been downplaying his contributions and discrediting his accomplishments SOLELY out of hatred for who his friends are and jealousy for who he's married to. He paid his dues. ONCE HE WAS OFF PUNISHMENT AND ACTUALLY GIVEN THE BALL, like you said, stepped up with DX. He made it better, actually. He always bet on and believed in himself. Everyone was trying to convince him to stay babyface. He knew since a kid and believed in his heart that he could be his generation's Flair. The ultimate heel. He did that and then some. No one wanted to boo Austin, Rock, Foley, Undertaker at a certain point. He was the only heel that could be paired up against ANY babyface and not be made a joke, taken seriously as a credible foe. He became a huge star IN SPITE of his friends. And became an icon BEFORE his marriage. Plus, he had longevity of 30 continuous years without interruptions from time off. He had iconic feuds in the New Generation, Attitude, Ruthless Agression, PG, and Reality Eras. He deserves to be spoken in the SAME sentence as The Undertaker. #ForeverMyGoat #TheFrancHHHise
@@Speedyreedy1218 I detect no lies 💯 ppl always try to discredit HHH by saying he married Stephanie, but they don’t say that he was already a 2x WWF champion before the whole wedding angle. In fact, when Chyna won the intercontinental title in October 1999, HHH was still WWF Champ and they were still a real life couple. So, it’s not like he got to the top BECAUSE of his relationship with Stephanie.. their affair only started because of the angle, and HHH legit fell in love with Steph (can’t fault him there, Steph a baddie 😍) and that’s when he ascension was solidified.. HHH gets no credit for taking all that punishment in that Street Fight at RR 2000, and solidifying HIMSELF as a main event player, it’s always, “Cactus put him over…” nevermind that he was OVER AS THE LEADER OF DX.. never main evented Raw?? I remember a few Raws he mainevented with The Rock, as DX was one of the Corporation’s main foes.. it’s just a bunch of HHH bashing like you said bc they didn’t like his friends from the Clique. But I won’t stand for it. 😤
@@TrevStoker And that "affair garbage" is just that. HHH and Chyna were broken up when he was with Stephanie. People hate HHH so bad that they just take Chyna's side-despite knowing her drug and partying ways. She even claimed HHH abused her. When Piper died, she saw HHH at the funeral and apologized for the lies she spread about him. Never once did he badmouth her. Never once did he sue her for slander. And he could've. Gotta demand these folks put respect on his name. And call out these phonies who kiss his ass now but were shitting on him for 20 years. #HHHatersGonnaHate
Not to mention Jim , it ALMOST looked like mick hit the back of his head on the trap mat apparatus ! Almost better off knowing it wasnt coming ! Fuck . IDK . Either way . Kudos to that man . Hell fire , superplexes dont feel GOOD , ya know ?
Triple H beat EVERYBODY! He beat Rock, Austin and Foley over and over and over. Only time was Backlash when Rock finally beat him for the belt. Smh it used to drive me nuts how much they let him win.
He lost to Austin and Rock plenty of times in 97-99. He lost to Foley several times in 97. And lost to Undertaker countless times. Put Angle over too. This "HHH beat everyone" narrative is BS.
Jeff Hardy has A lot of foley in him. In that he was always genuinely beloved by fans and extremely over, and fans cared about his well-being because of all the insane stuff he put his body through for our entertainment. Sucks that his addiction has gotten the best of him in recent years.
When I was 12 or so & first found out Mick was retiring from an interview he did on.... I wanna say "60 Minutes", I was real upset. Given how he was retiring and he did not _LOOK_ young, I assumed he was easily over 40 years old. Probably something like 45 years old. Only to hear in his promo, now, that he was merely 32.
![Gunna - HIM ALL ALONG [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HiCxoDeo0hc/mqdefault.jpg)
I loved when Rock poked fun at HHH's monologues: "I am the Gaaammme-UH! And I'm going to be taallkkingg-UH! For the next twenty minunnuttess-UH! And saying absolutely nnotthhinngggg-UH!"
The best part, is when he even made HHH break character.
@@wilcee238 Yeah, in the one I'm thinking of both he and Stephanie had their lips pursed and twisted super hard to keep from smiling or laughing. And HHH was chomping on that gum 😆
@@wilcee238 H never broke character on tv with Rock. Live events, he did it all the time.
How right he was, when you remember 2002-2003 in WWE.
The game was prolly the best in 99 2000 with my baby Steph looking hot!!!!!!!!
"Mick sold". That's what seperates Mick Foleys hardcore wrestling from all these modern 120lb. indie-rific outlaw marks who do 1080 flips from ladders onto flaming thumbtacks. They don't SELL!! Mick sold all his shit!!
Seriously. When you take a piledriver into thumbtacks and just pop right up it doesnt make you look tough. It makes wrestling look goofy.
"They don't SELL", Seats and/or Moves.
Mick Foley always gives Cornette major credit for helping him at WCW and WWF
When I think back to the Attitude Era, if we are talking singles wrestlers Mount Rushmore OF THE ATTITUDE ERA (For those who need it spelled out. Lol. Seriously, come on people), I put Mick Foley on that. The man was so talented that he got not one, not two, not three, but FOUR gimmicks over. All of the top stars (Rock, Taker, Austin), had one of, if not their best feud with one of Foley's incarnations (Austin vs Dude Love, Taker vs Mankind, Rock versus Mankind as more of himself and Cactus Jack vs Triple HHH). He is one of the few constants in some of the most memorable attitude era moments. I respect Mick Foley so much more now that I'm in my thirties. If we're talking purely singles wrestlers, for me, it's Taker, Foley, Rock and Austin.
Decent summation 👍
@@metallicbigtoe3949 My favorite version of Foley was 98’ mankind when he was siding with Paul Bearer again, and Kane. And the whole conspiracy angle with the Undertaker.
Sorry but Bret is ahead of Foley
WE LOVE MRS FOLEYS BABY BOY!!!
@@misterwardy1972 Bret's peak was before the attitude era. During the actual attitude era he was being wasted in WCW.
Triple H & Mankind had the 2 best sit down interviews with Jim Ross. They’re the most iconic & the most memorable
Most memorable to me is the one with Kane setting JR on fire
Jim is also overlooking how genuinely terrified Hunter looked of Cactus, both times.
Some of his friends would have done the spooky fingers and killed the gimmick there and then.
Exactly.
Not surprised for many, including Jim, to undervalue and downplay HHH'S greatness.
I remember the change in 2000, before the Royal Rumble street fight. Hunter looked like he was going to shit himself, and all Mick really did was take off his mask, and change his shirt. But Hunter was smart enough to know that doing spooky fingers would kill it, and when he won, it wouldn't mean anything. If he freaks out, and acts like he's scared out of his mind at "What fucking hornet's nest did I just kick?", NOW when he goes over, it means something. Even though I was 18 at that time (FUCK that's a long time ago), and I was smart to the business, they were able to suck me in, because I liked Mick, and I hated HHH's guts, and I just wanted to see Mick kick his ass, just once. And when Mankind became Cactus Jack, I truly believed that's what it would take for Mick to finally get the win. Because Hunter acted like that's what it would take, for Mick to get the win.
@Special K Thanks Jim.
@@specialk9424man, I still wish Cactus would’ve won the street fight. The rest of the feud could’ve gone the exact same way, but I, and I think everyone else, wanted Cactus to win that match. It’s still my all time favorite, for a few reasons, but mostly because it’s one of the few times we saw Mick actually beating the shit of someone in a main event for most of the match, instead of taking all the hits, and he looked good doing it.
No Way Out PPV in 2000 elevated HHH to bonafide Main Event heel. Mick Foley doesn't get enough credit for elevating guys (HHH, Randy Orton, Edge).
Because hhh himself said nobody did that for him
@@chrischar9428 Yeah that really sucked of HHH to say -- anyone who was watching at the time knew that HHH's title run was not setting the world on fire -- Mick MADE him
I watched recently the part where Mankind came out on Smackdown after being beaten up by HHH on Raw in Jan 2000, and you could see when he moved from Mankind to Cactus Jack. ' First thing I am going to do is kick your teeth all over the city of Chicago' and my favourite line because you believe when he says it ' I'm gonna tear you apart in New York City'. So perfect.
I heard Mick say in an interview that he gave a lot of props to HHH for the way he sold the change and the fear he showed when Mick became Cactus Jack. If HHH didn't believe it we wouldn't and it completely elevated the program. Loved it.
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I've always liked about Mick Foley is that he believed he was Dude Love, he believed he was Cactus Jack and he believed he was Mick Foley but never all at the one time.
Except that one time when dude love interviewed mankind with cactus jack as a surprise guest.
@@ambushit6484 that's one of my all time favorite promos/matches. The way HHH sells being pissed off when Cactus debuts at the Garden was fucken awesome, the street fight was fucken awesome & the piledriver through the bigass table was fucken awesome BANG BANG
@@morningstar577 definitely one of the iconic promos/matches. I remember almost falling outta my chair when dude love said, "somebody spank me I thought he was dead."
Yea cuz he's a actor thats outta shape, he better act like he's something that's all he could do
Foley was one of the few guys that feuded with the four pillars of the Attitude Era(Undertaker, Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H) and all the guys looked exactly like superstars and told a great story. Even though the trilogy was long spaced out between Triple H & Cactus Jack the Street Fight and the Hell In A Cell Match was well worth the wait and elevated Triple H to become on the best heels of the Attitude Era. The trilogy between Helmsley & Mankind was just the beginning as between 1996 and 1997 the WWF/E was slowly transitioning into the Attitude Era.
His feud with Orton also solidified Orton's ceiling as a main event star. Prior to the feud, he was viewed as nothing more than the pretty boy cocky young man from Evolution.
And he has always said he had his best matches with the one WWF wrestler not a part of the Attitude Era, HBK
Calling HHH a pillar of anything is a joke.
@@christiankarlkarganilla2763 he did that for triple h, undertaker, rock, orton, and edge. He took all of them to the next level
funniest thing about what Jim said "the worst thing you did, you encouraged marks to do death matches" part (i paraphrase a bit) is that ... that was supposed to be then-Dean Ambrose's debut gimmick in WWE, before The Shield, post-FCW. His had that one "Accidental" encounter with Mick Foley at the airport or some shit (there used to be a video on youtube, with Mark Henry making a save at the end), where he (Ambrose) accused Mick of wrongly influencing a "lost generation of wrestlers", that Foley is the reason why guys like him did deathmatches 'n' shit, where all that was supposed to lead to a match between Mick and Ambrose/Moxley, but Foley didn't pass the medical tests which is why it never came to fruition.
It is funny to me that the guy with that big of a boner for deathmatches matches like Moxley, was meant to debut in WWE as guy accusing somebody else for popularizing those hardcore matches
LOL of all the Kevin Dunn stories you've told... "No one is going to know Cactus Jack in NY." LOL This is a looking back on the story. Even though I saw this stuff when I was a kid. The WWE stuff. This guy was a big deal in ECW and elsewhere obviously before ever going to WWE. Just give that man a carrot and go on right?
How could they not react to him? That's their hometown guy.
The 2 matches in 2000 are still 2 of my favorite of all time
W
Same
True story!
Great clip. The white boots reveal was a brilliant subtle piece of comedy in wrestling. Wish Dude came out to help Steve earlier in his debut.
Cactus did beat HHH in that match with the first 3 faces of Foley promo. Pile driver through a table on the entrance ramp. HHH sold that promo like a god.
He sold Mankind's transformation to Cactus in 2000 as well. H always has great facials.
@@Speedyreedy1218 Everyone knows how good Hunter and Shawn were, just don’t tell that to Jim or shit head Brian.
@@SpaceGhost92 Cornette has never said anything bad about their work. He hated the people they were backstage.
The artwork of Corny and Dude Love is phenomenal.
the sit down with JR did wonders for both Hunter and Foley. The Kane one was pretty good, too.
Royal Rumble 2000 made HHH a star and was the best street fight I’ve ever seen. Time and place for gimmicks and this was it.
That and his match with Orton at Backlash in 2004 really elevated both those guys to the next level, you got to see a darker side to both those men, giving them that edge that they needed to become permanent main eventers. Mick put both those guys over like a million bucks.
Did you guys not watch any of the Foley/HHH matches from 1997? Or HHH/Austin at No Mercy 99? How it took Royal Rumble 2000 for some people to jump on board is beyond me.
@@Speedyreedy1218 Nobody is saying Triple H wasn't a good worker. But I think that RR match is really when people bought him as a main eventer.
@@daleharris3809 I bought him as one long before that.
Another thing copycats missed is that prime Mick Foley was a fairly big intimidating looking guy. His most famous period being in the WWF tends to distract away from the fact he was a big tough wrestler, and then he added the crazy thumbtacks and barbwire on top of instead of as an alternative to wrestling ability.
His in ring psychology and ability to draw you in his promos is also top notch. As I grow old, I tend to appreciate those aspects of Foley more than the bumps he took.
Cactus vs HHH at Royal Rumble 2000 is one of the greatest matches ever.
One of my favorite matches. And the build up to it was great.
I’m not a fan of those kind of matches, but the royal rumble street fight was done perfectly. With the way triple h and Stephanie treated Mick in the build. it made complete sense that Foley would want to really hurt Hunter and use barbed wire and thumbtacks to punish him.
I don't think this match gets enough praise and this really was the start of the game beating the hell out of mick
This was a good one. Made me go back and watch all those matches again
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The only reason I use to get the WWE network was for the "Retro footage" Just watch 90s and 2000's raw smackdown nitro and thunder and ppvs because it's a million miles better than the current stuff
Yep
Foley is probably my all time favorite wrestler, not my favorite character (The Undertaker), not the best talent (Brett Heart IMO), but somehow just as a person my all time favorite.
Foley did the hardcore stuff but there was always purpose to the bumps he took. He was a character you felt for, either as a man at his wit's end lashing out at people, or a warm everyman who loved the people who loved him back.
The other thing was that they dont just have gimmick matches just to have them. Each time they had to up the anty, it had a purpose and reason behind it
I think Otis could have been the new Mick Foley. Fans were ready to love him.
Dude is the life of the party type a guy.
Truly, an underrated rivalry. Mick made HHH those 3 months throughout late 99-early 2000.
Rock and Foley is a better rivalry.
@@sharpshooter07 No argument here. I still wince at RR 1999 with them MULTIPLE HEAD CHAIR shots.
@@sharpshooter07 it's more chaotic. But Foley and HHH didn't bounce the title back and forth. And turning it into a prop.
Some of the best matches ever in the WWE in my opinion
@@sharpshooter07 I disagree.
Just by chance I saw HHH’s WWF debut match as Hunter Hearst Healmsley last night and maybe I’m looking at it through the eyes of someone who knows how the story ends (up until this point) but he was very impressive even with that gimmick. There was a lot of Gorgeous George in his mannerisms and he was so committed to it. It says a lot about Trips that what’s widely considered his unwatchable early stuff is actually much, much better than so much of what we’re getting today in either of the promotions. I sincerely hope that he brings that passion that he’s always had for wrestling to WWE and fills the roster with wrestlers that have the same passion and hunger that he did.
It's not just you looking with the perspective of how it ends. I've been an HHH fan since the very beginning and loved him immediately in 95. I always knew he had "it" and was going to be a big deal.
The Blueblood is very underrated. I could see Gorgeous George, 70s Flair, and some Nick Bockwinkel too. All the nicknames he earned later in his career, you saw glimpses of it early on.
All this talk everyone has about "not believing in HHH til the street fight at the 2000 rumble," I just don't get. Because I saw "it" in the summer of 1997 with those Foley matches.
But don't think anyone could have ever imagined Trips would essentially become the most powerful man in wrestling, running the biggest wrestling promotion in the world and that his buddies like Shawn Michaels and Road Dogg running everything, DX literally runs the wrestling world, not the nWo, not The Bullet Club, but Degeneration X
@@TimeBomb014X I saw it. And for me, Armageddon 99 was the final stamp of reassurance.
I loved his character from the beginning too. When you really think about it, he always maintained his king-like stance. When he would emerge during Wrestlemania, he would always readopt this persona to make his entrances. I’ve always loved him.
Yeah Jim is 100% right about the people that Mick Foley influenced. Guys like John Moxley never understood how smart he was and how great of a promo he was, like they didn’t watch any of his matches they just watched the high spots from his matches. Didn’t watch any of the program leading up to that big Helena cell just the hell in a cell. It feels like wrestlers today grew up watching Mick and the Hardy’s , Just watched endless highlight reels of their most dangerous stuff and that’s the wrestling business today
It's a sad day in wrestling when my favorite night and channel for wrestling is A&E on Sunday night!
I had never seen any of Foley's work prior to the Mankind gimmick in WWF but I knew who Cactus Jack was.
I did read PWI and such.
Great segment here by Jim and Brian. I enjoyed all of the stuff about Mick and the perspective Jim brings to Mick's legacy.
This was a great Feud their Match @ Royal Rumble 2000 was great the 3 faces of Foley promo is iconic.
Jim summed up Mick so well, when we think about Foley all we think about is getting thrown off the cell or getting backdropped into tacks, but there are so many layers to Mick as a human being. He's got a great mind for wrestling, not to mention being one of the all time great storytellers.
Agreed. The problem as I see it is that the disciples of Foley who have entered the business after him only think about and work towards topping Mick’s iconic bumps.
It’s sort of like how Jim says that Russo remembers “moments” like Piper smacking Snuka with the coconut, but not the storyline that came before and after.
I suppose the whole situation is emblematic of the type of society we live in today, where attention spans for various forms of entertainment is noticeably shorter than it used to be.
Many wrestlers at least those who were stars of the 80s and 90s are good storytellers.
The HitC highspot at least told a story. He took an insane bump but then he made a miraculous comeback and proceeded to take more punishment. Plus it's befitting of a character like The Undertaker to do something ruthless as throwing as chucking their opponent from a great height.
It's not just "man fall off cage". There was a how and why to it.
Foley did beat Triple H at SummerSlam 97 and on a RAW when he debuted as Cactus.
I'm surprised Jim and Brian forgot Foley won those matches in 97
Yep. And Canadian Stampede ended in a No Contest. But HHH bladed for Foley. That may have been the first person he got color for, Foley.
I’ll never understand how Mick Foley, Samoa Joe, and Kevin Owens move like they do, while looking like they do. It defies logic.
Joe especially I first saw him in that match with Daniels and Aj those 2 triple threat matches were dope to see for the first time
It's because they were always athletic even before they got fatter but Kevin is more trim now and looks better
Believe it or not, they did work out. They just didn't have the genetics for the fruits of their labor to show. They had the muscle but you couldn't see it. Unlike a lot of the mudshow goofs who look like crap, work like crap and spend their down time sitting in front of their tv drinking beer and eating cheetos instead of working out in the gym.
@Mark Douglas KO did slim down a bit from when I last saw him.
@@AWX_Wrestling Like Bray Wyatt easy to see why Vince didn't see anything in him
That point jim made about Mick’s selling is so true. Foley always sold like death. He mastered that “crumple” style where you take something and just slump over like it killed you
Cactus visiting Vince in the hospital with Socko was the funniest thing I've seen in Pro Wrestling.
Apart from Stone Cold hitting Vince with the bedpan and zapping him with the defibrillator. 😲😂
I'd always assumed that "Dude Love" was a play on words of "Man Kind"
12:05 the Kevin Dunn shot 😂😂
Mick is somebody I didn't fully appreciate until after the AE. I was a kid back then and didn't fully realize what he contributed
PleaZe stop making me feel old... Like when Randy Orton was with Rick Flair and he said a guy with a beard came up to him saying I watched you as a kid... That made Randy feel old...
Respect to Foley.
Mick was a story teller like no other, while Triple H understood his value as the deplorable heel people would pay to see get the shit kicked out of them.
They're both storytellers.
I still hate how they had Mick lose that “I quit” match to Flair
Yea, that was odd to me.
@@Speedyreedy1218 Flair dominated 75% of match and Foley was left bloody, defenseless, and sobbing on the mat to protect…Melina…who turned on him the next night on RAW. Beyond stupid.
Ode to Joy was his first entrance music. They changed it to Beethoven's symphony in 97.
'Ode to Joy' IS the Beethoven symphony, the choral part from his Ninth. HHH first entrance theme was a little harpsichord piece. He started using Beethoven in 97.
@@Devypocalypse Yes I said Beethoven was in 97.
13:09 this is where I find Cornette to be so biased. The “blah blah blah!”. Give credit where credit is due. Triple H stepped up. Say it.
Cornette give HHH as he was back then any credit? Hell will freeze over before he does that, Cornette is still holding a grudge against him for the Curtain Call.
Mankind defeated HHH SummerSlam 97 cage match and that Monday Night Raw match 9/97 in MSG as Cactus Jack
Hhh needed the cactus jack to win over the fans and what a great debut for cactus jacket at Madison Square Garden. I remember that so well and at one point the crowd chanting ECW
"I think you know the guy....and his name.....is Cactus Jack!" That moment lives in my head 24/7
I am so glad that Corny,and Jim Ross fought for Mick.
They both loved him,and gave us a chance to love him.
Like Corny said,he made us love him to the point, we didn't want to see him hurt himself anymore.
Love and thanks Mick Foley!
He beat HHH the first time he fought him as Cactus Jack
Yeah it was a Monday night Raw?
And at Summerslam 97 in the cage. Foley won that one as well. Surprised Jim and Brian forgot those matches.
The street fight at the 2000 Royal Rumble is one if the best matchs
Not all the time that's why it was great if you truly wanted your version of this match you wouldn't do it every night you'd know you'd have one chance
Gotta watch Micks work/shoot interview with Good Ole JR. Still gives ya the tingles. Man was a poet
Goldust was good too. Meh on Jeff Jarrett.
Brian, Foley wasn't going to win a match in the 2000 feud. One, he didn't need to. Because he was winning moments. HHH'S facials when he transforms to Cactus Jack made CJ relevant again. And the beatdown he gave HHH followed. CJ goading HHH into accepting a HIAC at No Way Out, a match fans knew HHH never experienced, and one Foley was iconic in, was Foley "winning a moment." That's them selling tickets and making money.
Additionally, Foley was on his way out and wanted to put H on the map. You do that by making him strong and losing the feud does that.
HHH was appreciative and he paid it forward in his career following Foley's footsteps. When he was dropping a title to someone he always put them over multiple times in a row, as Foley did for him. He did it for Goldberg in 03, Benoit in 04, Batista in 05, Orton in 09.
The Booker T thing really muddies that up too, and I dont know how responsible he was for that travesty.
@@whitewhale9012 It wasn't a travesty. Goldberg was the biggest WCW star they had in that Bischoff controlled era. So that's who HHH was going to drop it to. Not DDP if he stayed. Not Steiner, not Booker (in that state anyway), but Goldberg.
Booker was ruined as soon as he was booked to lose the WCW title to Rock at 2001 Summerslam. Rock mocked his hair, his intelligence. He went from being a force and alliance figurehead to Austin taking over and Booker being relagated to Shane's stooge. Then once the alliance lost at Survivor Series, he was made a joke with Austin beating him in a grocery store. Then he was still made a joke feuding the next year with Edge over a shampoo commercial. Then being made the weak link in the nwo. Then in a parody tag team with Goldust.
He wins a battle royal three weeks before WM19 and you expect him to win the WHC from a well established heel HHH? When the Booker of 2003 was FAR FROM the white hot Booker of June and July 2001?
Hell no. That's bad booking and lack of story development.
2006 King Booker. THAT was the major character development he needed to be taken seriously once again as a strong singles to push. It began with his fall 2005 U.S. title feud leading to the heel turn. It continued into spring 2006 winning KOTR. Now we had a solid 6 months of serious, no joke cracking, spinnarooni Booker. And that's when you pull the trigger. And they did. That summer he was world champ and he had a run longer than Edge's popcorn title switches with Cena every other month.
@@Speedyreedy1218 Booking an angle where a heel is overtly racist, the commentators repeatedly tell you the black guy is a criminal, the racist heel wins the feud with no shenanigans, and even takes 30 seconds to pin him... just so you know the racist is superior by miles is bad booking. Unless your goal is to affirm the awesomeness of racism. If that was the goal, they did a great job. Cos that was the message of THAT little morality play.
It's really not complicated. There are millions of ways to book that angle with the same participants with the same result that dont come across so horribly.
Listening to guys like Pritchard pretend the racial overtones didnt actually exist is just embarrassing. It wasnt veiled. PLEASE dont pretend that wasnt the crux of the feud. They did everything short of dropping N-bombs on him. It was pure cringe.
Also, your post really drives home how badly Booker was utilized overall.
@@whitewhale9012 It wasn't racist. As a Black tween myself when it happened, I wasn't offended. I've watched it several times as a woman many years since, and still am not offended.
It ways a feud on classism and elitism. Heels are supposed to make you riled up, feel uncomfortable, and make you think they're crossing a line. If the audience chooses to get worked up and imply a racial overtone when that isn't the case, that's on them. You're indirectly giving this heel more heat.
I loved the match and they told a good story with the very little time they were given.
Booker got IC and tag title pushes afterward. He got US title pushes and a WWE title match the following year when placed on Smackdown. So he wasn't buried. A burial would be Booker Curtain jerking every week, no angles on TV, not on the main show broadcast (i.e. only wrestling on Heat. No more Raw appearances). That did NOT happen.
You don't have to have liked the angle. That's fine. But saying Booker was buried and HHH was racist is an exaggeration.
I feel like Terry Funk also is a part of the Foley curse. Marks think Terry was just an old man who was a hardcore nut and he doesn't get the real credit he deserves
1:56 I can, for once, come up with a better example than Corny.
_All I need to do to become a famous artist, is to cut my ear off!_
I wish Jim a happy healthy life for at least 5 more years. I contemplating of leaving in 2027. I wanna keep listening to cornettes commentaries till then. Hope he does more watch along episodes.
What do you mean “leaving”?
Bro what
I will be "leaving" between now and 22nd of October 2024 as I don't want to turn 40 I've always said I'll not see 40 so if fate doesn't deal with it I will
I need to watch these A&E shows.
That's how I always felt about that retirement match against Triple H. I'm not knocking the effort put in or the spectacle of it, but it was a clear attempt to trade on Foley's cell match v. Undertaker 1998, which had already become legendary by that time. The 1998 match was not legendary just because of the fall off and through the cage, it was legendary because of almost everything about it, most of which was just happenstance, like Terry Funk getting chokeslammed out of his shoes, J.R.'s iconic calls, Earl Hebner genuinely trying to get Mick not to run back to the ring, the tooth going through Foley's lip, and Foley refusing to get stretchered out, it was the Undertaker persevering through a fractured ankle, Undertaker standing atop the cage as it was being hoisted into the air, it was the metal clasps pinging off the wire as it struggled to support both men's weight, it was Mick Foley narrowly avoiding death or full-body paralysis because of a poorly delivered chokeslam through the top of the cage. It was everything about that match.
I was actually looking forward to hearing his DX Biography take because he wasn’t a fan of DX back then 😂
Did he do it?
RE: The hardcore copycats
"I'll tell you a little secret about the Blues: it's not enough to know which notes to play, you have to know why they need to be played."
-George Carlin
Brian, Austin was "shoved down my throat" 97, 98, 99, 01. I welcomed HHH as the featured performer of the millennium. He, by the way, never had a 20 minute promo. Heavily exaggerated by the IWC.
#TeamTripleHSince95
Who doesn't love Dude love?
My favorite promo is the 3 faces of Foley.
Awesome Shoot Today Jim!!😎🐐🐐
The craziest bump I have ever seen was Eddie Gilbert driving his car into Lawler. I still can’t believe Kingfish did that.
Another thing is that Mick always told a story in his matches. It wasn't just pointless violence. Everything made sense and it looked like it had a purpose, despite how sadistic or masochistic it was. Mick was a great wrestler, period. None of these garbage match idiots have any idea on what it's like to actually wrestle or have a wrestling mind.
Not everything he did made sense. The thumb tacks we're stupid and we all knew he was landing on them. It was pointless and advanced nothing
It has always bothered me that no matter whos talking about the greatest promo ability among the greats that no one ever mentions Mick. Easily one of the most entertaining personalities in history.
Foley DID beat Triple H at least twice: At summerslam 97 in steel cage as mankind and on raw in msg in sep. 97 when he debuted cactus jack gimmick in WWE
Yup. And Canadian Stampede ended in a No contest. HHH did a blade job for him too.
The street fight between these 2 at the royal rumble shows you that if you are going to use tacks and barbed wire in a match. This is how you do it and make it work.
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WOOO MERCY BABY
Like many people, I respect Jim Cornette to no end. I have been a fan of his forever and a day already, but his description to mick about not shorting the fans- he couldn't been more correct and I appreciate the miles he may have helped mick add via subtracting certain parts of his presentation. My favorite wrestler more or less being encouraged to keep with the funny and less with the rougher stuff. And later when he did the hard-core stuff again it meant something. Like it should.
Daaaaaam Brother
Y’all really Cranked up the amount of Ads to a Greedy amount
Jim Ross summed up Foley perfectly:"Everytime we have him the ball, he knocked it out of the park."
In Beyond The Mat, there's a scene where Mick is in gimmick as Dude Love talking with Russo backstage. Russo rattles off about ten lines he had wrote for Mick & really made it seem like Russo was behind the magic of the gimmick.
The Triple H/Cactus Jack Street Fight match at Royal Rumble 2000 is still my favorite hardcore match of all time. The violence and brutality were plenty but doesn't overstay it's welcome like 97 percent of these type of matches tend to do.
what got Mick over was ... he was the biggest underdog in the company. he spent most of his time putting his opponent over.
HHH put him over multiple times in 1997.
I don't think there's anyone else besides Mick could take the bumps off the cage with Undertaker
I hear Brian when he talks about Triple H being jammed down the audience's throats. I remember after he turned on DX and became The Game and started getting all that promo time, it really turned me off and led to me checking out as a regular viewer. I just never bought Triple H with that gimmick, a lot of people obviously did, but I found the gimmick and especially promos to be phony, boring and scripted. Say what you want about him in DX with the Outlaws and X-Pac, but you at least got the sense he was being himself somewhat. Triple H's push post DX came off to me as the company saying "This guy's the next guy and you will like it."
he was the perfect foil to austin and rock, a real despicable heel.
And was he not so much better when him and Shawn reunited as DX just the two of them when they battled the Vince and shane
His look around that time justified his spot imo.
That's how I felt about the Austin push. 97, 98, 99, 01 were LONG years for me as a fan. I was so excited for the millennium to be the FrancHHHise's time. #TeamTripleH
I gotta see Jim dress up as a hippie for a Cameo
The HHH/Mick Foley retirement angle from early 2000 is still my favorite WWE angle of all time. The lead up to their match at the Royal Rumble that year was simply amazing.
haha i remmeber when hhh would start a promo and they dimmed the lights for him.
Mick Foley did 3 different separate characters with different promos
He had an aura. Special times to be a youth growing up watching him. We the fans, LOVED HIM
Who?
Triple H sold that promo where mick removed his shirt to reveal the cactus t shirt underneath and essentially change character instantly, shows how underrated hunter was as a heel.
so wait... we had 'ane rivels HHH vs batista. now we have anes rivals hhh vs Foley?
JINKIES!?! wonder who was running the company when this deal went through?!
Mick was the spirit of the WWF
Dude Love should have been managed by Brother Love.
I love the thumbnails!!
And i was gonna say something , but in the last several minutes , Jim said it best
to answer your question... Mankind beat HHH at SummerSlam 1997 in a steel cage (I was there)
I know Jim and Brian aren't big HHH fans but I'm very surprised they both said Foley never beat Hunter. He beat him at Summerslam 97 in the cage and he beat him on Raw as Cactus in September 97. Let's stick to the facts please.
Cactus did beat hhh in msg in his debut in wwf 1997.
Triple H 2000/2001 was easily the best version of him, great matches and rivalries throughout that period, the ultimate villain to the Rock, Jericho, Foley and Austin
I’ve never been one for death matches, but WW22 vs Edge was an amazing moment for Foley, hated seeing those two put their bodies through that, but the story was great.
I just don’t like how they (not just Jim and Brian, but most commenters and the smart fans) don’t give HHH his proper credit. This was basically a Mick Foley love fest, which is cool, I like Foley too.. but they never talk abt how HHH took the DX ball from Shawn and not only kept it going, but they were as over as Austin, Taker, and whoever else y’all wanna bring.. then, he takes the risk to switch heel while he was beloved af at WM 15, and nobody talks about how that had the potential to flop & backfire similar to Austin’s heel turn at WM17.. but HHH pulled it off & became a despised heel at a time when a newly face Rock needed a heel opponent while Austin feuded with Vince/Taker in 99.. Just saying I would have liked some neutral coverage.. Put some RESPECKT ON THE GAME’S NAME 😤🎮
Another HHH mark in the house? #TeamTripleH Let's go!!!
They NEVER put respect on his name. They've been downplaying his contributions and discrediting his accomplishments SOLELY out of hatred for who his friends are and jealousy for who he's married to.
He paid his dues. ONCE HE WAS OFF PUNISHMENT AND ACTUALLY GIVEN THE BALL, like you said, stepped up with DX. He made it better, actually. He always bet on and believed in himself. Everyone was trying to convince him to stay babyface. He knew since a kid and believed in his heart that he could be his generation's Flair. The ultimate heel. He did that and then some. No one wanted to boo Austin, Rock, Foley, Undertaker at a certain point. He was the only heel that could be paired up against ANY babyface and not be made a joke, taken seriously as a credible foe.
He became a huge star IN SPITE of his friends. And became an icon BEFORE his marriage.
Plus, he had longevity of 30 continuous years without interruptions from time off. He had iconic feuds in the New Generation, Attitude, Ruthless Agression, PG, and Reality Eras. He deserves to be spoken in the SAME sentence as The Undertaker.
#ForeverMyGoat #TheFrancHHHise
@@Speedyreedy1218 I detect no lies 💯 ppl always try to discredit HHH by saying he married Stephanie, but they don’t say that he was already a 2x WWF champion before the whole wedding angle. In fact, when Chyna won the intercontinental title in October 1999, HHH was still WWF Champ and they were still a real life couple.
So, it’s not like he got to the top BECAUSE of his relationship with Stephanie.. their affair only started because of the angle, and HHH legit fell in love with Steph (can’t fault him there, Steph a baddie 😍) and that’s when he ascension was solidified.. HHH gets no credit for taking all that punishment in that Street Fight at RR 2000, and solidifying HIMSELF as a main event player, it’s always, “Cactus put him over…” nevermind that he was OVER AS THE LEADER OF DX.. never main evented Raw?? I remember a few Raws he mainevented with The Rock, as DX was one of the Corporation’s main foes.. it’s just a bunch of HHH bashing like you said bc they didn’t like his friends from the Clique. But I won’t stand for it. 😤
@@TrevStoker And that "affair garbage" is just that. HHH and Chyna were broken up when he was with Stephanie. People hate HHH so bad that they just take Chyna's side-despite knowing her drug and partying ways. She even claimed HHH abused her. When Piper died, she saw HHH at the funeral and apologized for the lies she spread about him. Never once did he badmouth her. Never once did he sue her for slander. And he could've.
Gotta demand these folks put respect on his name. And call out these phonies who kiss his ass now but were shitting on him for 20 years.
#HHHatersGonnaHate
Funny (not in a funny way) about when Mick was making Dude Love and if you think about Tyrus and Brotus Clay..... Think about it 😎
This storytelling is priceless.
Not to mention Jim , it ALMOST looked like mick hit the back of his head on the trap mat apparatus ! Almost better off knowing it wasnt coming ! Fuck . IDK . Either way . Kudos to that man . Hell fire , superplexes dont feel GOOD , ya know ?
Triple H beat EVERYBODY! He beat Rock, Austin and Foley over and over and over. Only time was Backlash when Rock finally beat him for the belt. Smh it used to drive me nuts how much they let him win.
He lost to Austin and Rock plenty of times in 97-99. He lost to Foley several times in 97. And lost to Undertaker countless times. Put Angle over too. This "HHH beat everyone" narrative is BS.
The advantages of dating Stephanie....
Jeff Hardy has A lot of foley in him. In that he was always genuinely beloved by fans and extremely over, and fans cared about his well-being because of all the insane stuff he put his body through for our entertainment. Sucks that his addiction has gotten the best of him in recent years.
When you say to Mick Foley please don't do that, he would take it as a challenge!
When I was 12 or so & first found out Mick was retiring from an interview he did on.... I wanna say "60 Minutes", I was real upset.
Given how he was retiring and he did not _LOOK_ young, I assumed he was easily over 40 years old. Probably something like 45 years old.
Only to hear in his promo, now, that he was merely 32.
I loved dude love I wish he did it more.