WWE Hall of Famer, Mick Foley, made waves in all three major 90s promotions, WWE, WCW, andECW, where he cultivated his three personas, Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love. Eric Bischoff recently recalled working with Foley in WCW during an episode of his "83 Weeks" podcast, and how he was mandated by Ted Turner to try and reign the Hardcore legend in.
"The only issue I had with [Foley] is he wanted to do things, physically, that I just couldn't let him do," Bischoff claimed. "I got word from Turner Legal to tone him down. There were concerns that not only could he permanently injure himself, or worse, but some of the stuff that he was doing could injure a fan, or worse." Bischoff further noted that he would end up having to reel Foley in a lot in some cases, like when the veteran wanted to jump off of balconies, and opined that this restriction was probably why he ended up leaving WCW.
"Always liked Mick, always liked Mick. Got along with Mick great," Bischoff recalled earlier in the podcast. "Loved his character work; much like Johnny B Badd, the reason you don't have to listen to a Cactus Jack interview to know that it's passionate and intense is because he is that character." The veteran further opined that Foley's character work was so great that he would not simply portray a character, but become the character to the extent that you could watch a Foley segment without audio and still get a feel for his character. "He believes everything that he's doing and saying; it's real to him in that moment."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "83 Weeks" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
