In 1996, the night after Wrestlemania 12, Foley entered the WWF as Mankind. Mankind was promoted as some sort of "basketcase" who thrived on pain, and had apparantly grown up in a cellar somewhere. His finisher was "The Mandible Claw", a nerve hold executed by pinching his opponent's jaw and tongue. He spoke often of abuse and neglect, but we all knew who was behind the thick leather mask. Upon his entry into the WWF, Mankind immediately started a feud with the Undertaker, a feud which in some shape or form continues today. As Mankind, Foley dominated the Phenom like no other wrestler has ever been able to do before. Defeating him in 3 major Pay-Per-View events, including the Boiler Room Brawl & the Buried Alive Match. It was at SummerSlam's Boiler Room Brawl match that Mankind got his first and only manager in the WWF: Paul Bearer, who had turned his back on the Undertaker during this match. After SummerSlam, Foley was a major contender for the WWF World Title where he put on a spectacular match with then-champ Shawn Michaels. Certainly match of the year candidate.

Near the 1997 King of the Ring, Mankind's popularity began to soar. He began a series of interviews with Jim Ross, which actually told the real story behind Mankind and revealed to the WWF fans he was really Mick Foley, formerly Cactus Jack. The idea of Foley's "split personality" character had been born. The dream of being a fan favourite like Shawn Michaels, a boy toy to women was brought to the front. The character of Dude Love was introduced to everyone, a character that would rear it's head again sooner than anyone could imagine. Fans somehow began to identify with Mankind, and started to cheer him. Mankind made it to the finals of the King Of The Ring, where he finally lost to then pre-DX Hunter Hearst Helmsley, which began a long brutal feud between the two.

The next week, Austin fought Owen and the Bulldog by himself for several minutes until the voice of Mick Foley came over the loudspeaker along with a new theme song to introduce Foley's second persona in the WWF: DUDE LOVE! With Dude's help, he and Austin captured the tag team titles. Dude remained a top face for several months . Unfortunately, their title reign was somewhat short lived, as Austin had suffered a severe neck injury at the hands of Owen Hart at the 1997 Survivor Series. Austin certainly couldn't wrestle, so Dude was forced to forfeit the titlles.

Mankind rekindled his feud with Triple H with a cage match at SummerSlam. We saw foley live out the memory of his idol, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka as he jumped form the top of the cage onto HHH! However, the two were forced into a Falls Count Anywhere match the next night on RAW at Madison Square Garden. Once HHH had entered the ring, Dude Love appeared on the Titan-Tron. Dude said that falls count anywhere matches weren't his style, you need to be more deranged. Through some nifty trick photography, Mankindcame out and sat down next to Dude Love. Mankind said that he didn't do these types of matches either, but knew someone who did! At that monet, Cactus Jack walked out through the curtain! "Cactus Jack Is BACK!" Cactus made a very memorable WWF debut when he defeated Triple H in what was a BRUTAL match that ended with Cactus piledriving HHH through a table!

< Back