Mick Foley Reveals Why Vince McMahon Preferred Dude Love To Cactus Jack

While in WWE, Mick Foley famously played three different characters, Mankind, Dude Love, and Cactus Jack. Mankind mostly acted as someone who was crazy and eventually turned out to be loved, Love was a type of hippie throwback, sporting tie-dye apparel and talking in a more relaxed voice than his other characters, and the violent psychopath Cactus Jack came from his time in other promotions. WWE Hall of Famer Foley revealed why Vince preferred the Love character to the one of Jack on Foley is Pod.

"At one point Vince wanted the evolution to be complete," Foley said. "'You're Dude Love from now on,' but I think by the time SummerSlam rolls around he realize that we don't know that Cactus is in the works because I think Vince was still holding out ... Dude Love in a way was his baby, he heard about it through Bruce ... Cactus Jack was a WCW deal. I had a little issue when they did a special on me as Dude Love and Vince himself said, 'After experiencing a modicum of success as Cactus Jack,' and I'm thinking, 'Cactus was as successful as he was allowed to be.'"

Foley was most successful sporting the Mankind gimmick, as all three times he won the WWE Championship were when he played Mankind. Foley entered the 1998 Royal Rumble a record three times, using all three faces to attempt to win the match, however, this effort would be to no avail, as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would win the battle royale. Foley won the WWE Tag Team Championships one time each under both Dude Love and Cactus Jack personas. Dude Love was famously -or infamously- the persona Mick Foley was portraying when he jumped off his own roof as a teenager.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Foley is Pod" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.