Grilling JR - Cactus Jack in WCW [Show Notes] (Patreon)

This week we’re going to be discussing Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy as his birthday is right around the corner and we’ll be discussing Mick’s time in WCW with you JR!

Mick Foley really began making a name for himself in World Class and the Continental promotion in the late 80s.

Cactus Jack, or should we say Cactus Jack Manson makes his debut for WCW on the December 16, 1989 edition of World Championship Wrestling.

How aware of Mick Foley / Cactus Jack before seeing him for his WCW television debut?

Mick has talked about how you and Jim Cornette really hyped Mick up to Ric Flair and Kevin Sullivan on his first night there at Center Stage.

He leaves a big impression in his first appearance, he and Rick Fargo lose to the Steiner Brothers, and after the match, Cactus & Fargo fight with each other and Cactus leaves him laying with his signature running elbow from the apron to the floor.

This would be a common trait of his early matches, leaving his partner laying after the match. A great unique idea to get over this crazy new character to the audience, right?

He and Kevin Sullivan would even join up with Buzz Sawyer as “Sullivan’s Slaughterhouse”.

What a trio, but great for Cactus to be under the learning tree of Sullivan in particular, do you agree?

Bam Bam Bigelow would later replace Sawyer in the group. Looking back this is a super underrated group at the time is it not?

Probably the most memorable moment of Cactus Jack’s first WCW run was unfortunately a horrible match with Mil Mascaras at the Clash of Champions in Corpus Christi, TX on February 6, 1990. Cactus takes a spectacular flat back bump on the concrete floor however, and you and Cornette on commentary put over your career could be over right there. Cornette would say “Cactus Jack is dead!”

Tell us a bit about Mil Mascaras coming in here.

This is one of those moments where the guy who lost got over more than the guy who won. Was this one of those signs that Mick…got it?

Flair was booking during this period, and Mick has said Flair didn’t really show much of a liking of his work even telling him “you’ll be in a wheelchair by the time you’re 30!”

Was Flair too much of a traditionalist to get this Cactus Jack character and all the sick bumps he was taking? Or is Flair right in his thinking that Cactus is giving his body too much abuse?

Old Anderson replaces Flair as Booker, but Foley & Ole don’t really hit it off, and after giving his notice, on June 10, 1990, Cactus had his last match in WCW for a while, losing to Norman the Lunatic at a house show in Sunrise, FL and wouldn’t return to WCW until over a year later on August 11, 1991.

Is it a frustration the management of WCW here didn’t see the potential in Cactus Jack here?

What do you think is left on the table at the time or was it good for Cactus to get away at this point in his career?

Cactus goes back on the independents for a while, and work’s for Herb Abrams UWF and goes on a tour of All Japan for Baba, even wrestling Andre the Giant in a tag match over there.

Were you in contact with Mick during this time?

He wrestles Eddie Gilbert in Tri-State Wrestling (a forerunner to ECW in Philadelphia) and this is said to get Jack back on the radar of WCW.

How involved were you in getting Cactus back to WCW where he was immediately put into a feud with Sting?

Was this the perfect starting point for Foley to make a splash?

He also would form an alliance with Abdullah the Butcher, including the famous moment at Halloween Havoc where Abdullah gets “electrocuted” in the electric chair and then even a feud between the two after it. What do you think of this pairing?

Into 1992, and he and Sting had an absolute show stealer of a match at Beach Blast 1992, and it was falls count anywhere. This is a show we’ll look at in more detail in a couple of weeks.

Is Cactus up there for you as one of Sting’s top opponents?

You can see that Cactus can be a top guy with the right push right?

When Jake Roberts joins the fold, he and Cactus form an alliance, what a duo that is!

This period is also where we would really see Cactus begin to shine with promos, what did you think of his style of promos?

As we get into 1993, Cactus Jack turns babyface. Is it a good freshen up for the character? I’m sure Cactus likes that he has different guys to work with too.

One of course was Vader, this is just after you left WCW, Jim but I’m sure you’ve seen and heard about some of their bloody brawls. What was it about Cactus that just brought out the best in wrestlers?

Of course, a year later was where Cactus lost half his ear while wrestling Vader in Germany. Do you remember speaking to him about this at the time?

Were you keeping in contact with Mick during this time, watching his work still?

Would Cactus have made a good World Champion in WCW?

Was Cactus during his run in WCW the perfect epitome of the company at the time? Guy who will do anything for wrestling with a push, good mic work, and can work…and he just never got going?