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182-658: The group formed in October 2008 and had been largely successful, with Sting and Kurt Angle being TNA World Heavyweight Champions , Booker T introducing a new championship into TNA called the TNA Legends Championship and declaring himself the first official champion, with Kevin Nash going on to win the belt as well, and Booker T and Scott Steiner holding the TNA World Tag Team Championship . The group's formation

364-447: A Falls Count Anywhere match . He then started to team with Tommy Dreamer . According to Heyman, the hardcore style differentiated Foley from other traditional wrestlers, so in ECW, Foley was right at home. However, Foley did not enjoy working with Sandman, as Sandman was often intoxicated during matches and could not perform properly; drinking large amounts of beer and smoking cigarettes made up

546-463: A Six-way elimination match on July 20, 2024, at Slammiversary in Montreal , Quebec , Canada to win the title. Mick Foley Michael Francis Foley (born June 7, 1965) is an American retired professional wrestler and author. He is currently signed to WWE , under the company's "Legends" program, acting as a company ambassador. Foley worked for many wrestling promotions, including

728-557: A Tuxedo match , and Last Man Standing match . The Storm/Roode match was originally a Bull Rope match but Storm asked Carter to change it to a Florida Death match , which was not on the "Wheel of Dixie", which Carter agreed to. Also, the winner would be decided at TNA Final Resolution of 2013. To date, the championship has had seven belt designs, with the original title belt (which was unveiled in May 2007) having on its center plate an imprint of an eagle with its wings extended. The word "World"

910-612: A dark match . The two wrestlers then faced one another in a series of dark matches and house show matches until their first broadcast match against one another at King of the Ring in June 1996, where Mankind defeated The Undertaker using the Mandible Claw after The Undertaker's manager Paul Bearer accidentally struck The Undertaker with an urn . The feud culminated in the first-ever " Boiler Room Brawl " at SummerSlam 1996 , and in addition to escaping

1092-469: A falls count anywhere match , lost a stretcher match , and then fought to a double disqualification in a cage match . These matches caught the attention of World Championship Wrestling promoters, in large part due to widespread photo circulation, and in August 1991, Foley re-joined WCW. Foley returned to WCW in August 1991 as "Cactus Jack", wrestling on house shows . On September 5, 1991, at Clash of

1274-679: A triple threat match , which was originally to be for the Impact World Championship but reigning champion Tessa Blanchard missed the tapings due to the COVID-19 pandemic . While the title was not recognized as an official championship by Impact, Moose had several title defenses. On the February 23, 2021, episode of Impact! , Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore officially sanctioned Moose's self-proclaimed championship. At Sacrifice , Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated Moose to unify

1456-448: A weekly pay-per-view event . The main event of the telecast was a twenty-man Gauntlet for the Gold match in which 20 men sought to throw each other over the top rope and down to the floor in order to eliminate others, until there were two men left who wrestle a standard singles match to become the first ever TNA-era NWA World Heavyweight Champion. Ken Shamrock defeated Malice to win

1638-501: A WWE Network video, Vader admits that after seeing footage that he had indeed removed Cactus's ear. Cactus Jack and Vader wrestled their final match in WCW – a Texas death match – in April 1994, a year to the day since their first match. During the bout, Vader once again powerbombed Cactus Jack on the floor, mirroring his actions of the prior year. Upon watching the match on WCW WorldWide , Foley

1820-484: A baseball bat while the referee was not looking to allow Sting to take the advantage and pin Joe after a Scorpion Death Drop . Nash's actions were explained on the October 16 episode of TNA Impact! , when he said that Joe disrespected him and his long-time real-life friend Scott Hall in late 2007 when Joe insulted Hall for not showing up at TNA's December pay-per-view Turning Point . The group officially joined together on

2002-584: A bout against Sabu at Hostile City Showdown on June 24, 1994. During a promo , Cactus Jack spat on his title belt and threw it to the ground to appeal to the ECW fans who shunned the mainstream promotions, an act for which he was later forced to apologize to booker Ric Flair. Following successful defenses against the Nasty Boys and Harlem Heat , Cactus Jack and Sullivan lost the WCW World Tag Team Championship to Pretty Wonderful at Bash at

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2184-577: A considerable physical toll, eventually earning him the moniker "The Hardcore Legend". Michael Francis Foley was born in Bloomington, Indiana , on June 7, 1965. He is of Irish descent, and has an older brother named John. Shortly after his birth, he moved with his family to the Long Island town of East Setauket , about 40 miles east of New York City , where he attended Ward Melville High School . At school, he wrestled and played lacrosse , and

2366-553: A crusade to rid Bradley of his valet Tamara Fytch . He ignited a feud between Candido and Bradley when he accused Candido of having sexual relations with Fytch. Cactus Jack left SMW in December 1994 before the feud was resolved. Cactus Jack's first appearance for the NWA-affiliated Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion came on the May 31, 1994, episode, with Cactus revealed as Sabu's opponent for

2548-593: A face. Cactus Jack won the match with a piledriver through a table. In September 1997, Foley (as Mankind) wrestled Sabu at Terry Funk's WrestleFest , an event organized to mark the retirement of Foley's friend Terry Funk . Funk, however, broke his retirement soon after the event, and in December 1997, he joined the WWF as "Chainsaw Charlie", aligning himself with Foley. At the 1998 Royal Rumble , Foley participated under all three personas, Cactus Jack (1st entrant), Mankind (16th), and Dude Love (28th). Charlie and Cactus defeated

2730-594: A falls-count-anywhere match against Orndorff at SuperBrawl III . He then moved on to face Big Van Vader. Cactus Jack wrestled Big Van Vader on April 6, 1993, winning by count-out after being severely beaten. Although talented and athletic, the 400 lb (180 kg) Vader was a notoriously stiff wrestler who had been trained in the Japanese "strong" style, and he hit so hard that most other wrestlers outright refused to work with him, out of fear of severe injury. However, Foley decided to continue his program with Vader, and as

2912-474: A fan favorite after engaging in a feud with Paul Orndorff, Harley Race, and Big Van Vader. Jack and Orndorff wrestled each other in a match for a spot on WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader's team at Clash of the Champions XXII . After the match, Race and Orndorff beat up Jack. At the following Clash of Champions event, Cactus Jack helped Sting's team win the match. He engaged in a feud with Orndorff, winning

3094-545: A feud with the chainsaw -wielding Leatherface , whom he had betrayed during a tag team match. But perhaps the most notable matches of Foley's time in Japan were on August 20, 1995, where IWA organized a King of the Death Match tournament at their Kawasaki Dream event at the outdoor Kawasaki Stadium in its namesake city , which featured some of the bloodiest, most violent and most brutal matches of Foley's career. The tournament

3276-415: A five-match "gauntlet" challenge set upon Triple H by Vince McMahon. It was around this time that Foley began to realize he was going to have to retire soon- in addition to the massive physical toll he had inflicted on his body, Foley then began to develop cognitive problems such as forgetting simple bodily motions and trouble remembering how to write and spell basic words. Foley's last match was supposed to be

3458-552: A globe centered with TNA's logo at the top and bottom of each. At each end of the title belt there was a small plate that covered the championship belt snaps with TNA's logo engraved on each. At the November 8, 2010 tapings of the November 11 episode of Impact! , TNA introduced a new design for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt, which the champion Jeff Hardy dubbed the "Immortal Championship", as part of

3640-528: A globe with "World" inscribed above the globes and "Champion" inscribed below them and the outer side plates featuring the Impact logo but without the owl design. Blue shading had filled the Impact logo, the owl design, and the globes and logos on the side plates, but in 2020, the belt was modified with red shading replacing the previous blue to reflect the new color of the Impact Wrestling logo introduced following

3822-492: A hardcore wrestling icon and used a slow and technical wrestling style as a way to punish the audience. He said that he was on a mission to save his partner from making the mistake of trying to please bloodthirsty fans. Foley later admitted in an interview in 2015 that after Wrestlepalooza he became indifferent toward ECW and its fanbase. The mismatched partnership between Cactus Jack and Dreamer lasted until Wrestlepalooza, when Cactus turned on Dreamer while they were teaming with

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4004-428: A large part of Sandman's overall gimmick. But 1995 proved to be an interesting year for Foley, particularly during his time in ECW. Two incidents caused him to change his opinion of a promotion that most thought made him feel like he was at home. There was a sign in the front of the audience one night that said "Cane Dewey" (this was done with Foley's permission, when he didn't know what this meant, but later understood),

4186-641: A member of the MEM. Sting agreed to a match at Slammiversary against Morgan where, if Morgan won, he could join the group. Sting went on to defeat Morgan at the pay-per-view. In the final match of the pay-per-view, Angle won the King of the Mountain match to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship after Samoa Joe turned heel and joined the MEM by handing him the World Heavyweight Championship belt, backstabbing

4368-490: A neck injury in a match at SummerSlam in East Rutherford, New Jersey . Dude Love feuded with Hunter Hearst Helmsley , as the two competed in a falls count anywhere match . One of Foley's most memorable vignettes aired before the match began, in which Dude Love and Mankind discussed who should wrestle the upcoming match. Eventually, "they" decided that it should be Cactus Jack, and Foley's old character made his WWF debut as

4550-456: A one-time TNA Legends Champion , and the inaugural WWF Hardcore Champion . Foley's Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker is regarded as one of his most memorable and controversial matches and widely acknowledged as the greatest Hell in a Cell Match of all time. Foley's dedicated and physical style of wrestling led him to often participate in violent and brutal matches that involved him taking dangerous bumps and putting his body through

4732-408: A pay-per-view again. On March 16, 1994, during WCW's "Battle Stars 1994" tour of Germany, Cactus and Big Van Vader had one of the most infamous matches in wrestling history as part of WCW's European Cup tournament. Cactus began a hangman , but neither wrestler was aware that the ring ropes had been drawn extra tight before the event, and Cactus could barely move. When Cactus finally freed himself from

4914-543: A random backstage dumpster and not the original dumpster brought ringside and scheduled a rematch in a steel cage, which the Outlaws won with help from their new allies, D-Generation X . On April 6, 1998, Foley turned heel when Cactus explained that the fans would not see him anymore because they did not appreciate him, and only cared about Stone Cold Steve Austin: after a hard-fought match with Terry Funk in Albany, fans started to leave

5096-407: A reference to using a Singapore cane on Foley's real-life eldest son, who was three years old then (Foley would sometimes mention his family in his promos), and then witnessing a botch in the opening match of Wrestlepalooza on August 5, 1995, where J. T. Smith did a dive, slipped off the ring apron and landed head-first on the concrete. Smith was so severely concussed that his head began swelling on

5278-412: A result of Cactus's victory, in a rematch with Vader on April 24, the two executed a dangerous spot to sell a storyline injury. Harley Race removed the protective mats at ringside and Vader powerbombed Cactus onto the exposed concrete floor, causing a legitimate concussion and causing Foley to temporarily lose sensation in his left foot. While Foley was away, WCW ran an angle where Cactus Jack's absence

5460-785: A seat close to the front row and is visible in the video of the event. Foley formally trained at Dominic DeNucci 's wrestling school in Freedom, Pennsylvania , driving several hours weekly from his college campus in Cortland, New York . He debuted on June 23, 1986, in Clarksburg, West Virginia , under the ring name "Cactus Jack". In addition to appearing on DeNucci's cards, Foley and several other students also took part in some squash matches as jobbers for World Wrestling Federation TV tapings of Prime Time Wrestling , WWF Wrestling Challenge and Superstars of Wrestling , where Foley wrestled under

5642-518: A segment featuring himself (as Mankind) and The Rock. The "This Is Your Life" segment aired on September 27, 1999, and received an 8.4 rating, with Yurple the Clown making another appearance. Foley briefly reverted to his Cactus Jack persona for a Hardcore handicap match against Ministry of Darkness members Viscera and Mideon on May 10, 1999, which Cactus won; the match saw Cactus enter using two basketballs as weapons. In August 1999, Foley returned after

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5824-506: A significant amount of legitimate pain that's so intense it can inhibit the opponent's vision, and if applied long enough, can force the opponent to black out. The creatively inclined and dedicated Foley initially would prepare for playing Mankind by researching the character, often spending the night in the respective arena's boiler room and sometimes under the wrestling ring for the first few months, but after that, he could get into character almost instantly. His catchphrase, ever perplexing,

6006-440: A single ten-minute match was two, or sometimes three, with their hands in front of their head to ease the blow and lessen a chance of a concussion. However, Foley had taken eleven in the span of two and a half minutes, all unprotected, because he had been handcuffed just before The Rock began his repeated onslaught. Foley was originally supposed to take five chair shots to the head with the final match-ending shot being two-thirds up

6188-647: A stable consisting of Eric Young , Sheik Abdul Bashir , Kiyoshi , Brutus Magnus , Doug Williams and Rob Terry to form a super-stable known as The Elite Mafia . At Hard Justice , the MEM further solidified their dominance with Kevin Nash regaining the TNA Legends Championship, Samoa Joe winning the TNA X Division Championship , and Booker T, Scott Steiner and Kurt Angle retaining the TNA World Tag Team and TNA World Heavyweight Championships. By Hard Justice,

6370-578: A storyline injury. The title was put up in a tournament featuring the top eight ranked wrestlers in the TNA Championship Committee rankings . The finals of the tournament would take place at Bound for Glory on October 10. * Angle and Hardy wrestled another draw on the September 16 edition of Impact! , which led to Eric Bischoff making the final match at Bound for Glory a three–way. On October 29, 2013, TNA President Dixie Carter vacated

6552-522: A suitable replacement in Cute Kip James . Kip was not intended to be a long-term addition to the team, as he quickly disappeared from the main event scene as the original five members of the Main Event Mafia resumed their positions. At Destination X , Booker T lost the TNA Legends Championship to A.J. Styles while Sting retained the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Angle with Jeff Jarrett as

6734-538: A surefire moneymaking feud as a problem that needed to be solved. The angle was awarded "Most Disgusting Promotional Tactic" by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . In one of WCW's most violent and brutal matches of all time, Cactus Jack faced Vader in a Texas Deathmatch (a variation of a Last Man Standing match) at Halloween Havoc 1993 in New Orleans on October 24 after having a wheel being spun and

6916-416: A tag team match with Al Snow in November 1999, but with the WWF having to go on with the absence of their biggest star Stone Cold Steve Austin at the time (who was out with a broken neck), Foley felt that the company would suffer too badly if another one of its biggest stars disappeared from the roster- even with The Rock surging in popularity. So Foley, even in the poor condition he was in, decided to go on for

7098-446: A third time by pinning the reigning champion Austin. Mankind's win led to an enraged Triple H to assault Austin, justifying Austin's absence while he healed a knee injury. The next night on Raw is War , Triple H defeated Mankind to win his first WWF championship. A feud then developed between Mankind and Triple H. This included Triple H defeating Mankind in another Boiler Room Brawl on the September 23 edition of SmackDown! , as part of

7280-476: A three-month absence recovering from knee surgery to resume his feud with Triple H , who had kayfabe injured Foley's left knee with his sledgehammer. On an episode of Raw is War , Mankind drew with Triple H in a match for the number one contender for the WWF Championship, which resulted in a Triple Threat match between Steve Austin, Triple H and Mankind at SummerSlam where Mankind won the WWF Championship for

7462-486: A title match between the two with the added stipulation that, if Sting lost, his contract would be rendered null and void. Magnus would retain the championship with help from Dixieland, thereby forcing Sting to leave TNA forever. Magnus would then enter a feud with Joe for the title after Joe made him submit in a tag team match, with the match happening at Lockdown . Magnus retained the championship at Lockdown with help from Abyss , but would ultimately lose it to Eric Young on

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7644-653: A title shot against The Rock at Rock Bottom: In Your House . Mankind won the match by using his mandible claw hold (with the Mr. Socko prop on his hand) and the referee declared The Rock had become unresponsive. But McMahon overruled the title change because Mankind didn't keep his pre-match promise to make The Rock submit. After several weeks of going after the Corporation, Mankind defeated The Rock to win his first WWF Championship on December 29 in Worcester, Massachusetts . The taped show

7826-414: A winner, meaning that Mankind retained the title. The next night, Mr. McMahon booked a ladder match for the championship, which The Rock won with help from The Big Show . Mankind would go on to WrestleMania XV to defeat The Big Show and again at Backlash a month later in a violent and brutal Boiler Room Brawl (the first in the WWF since July 1996), where the objective of the match had been simplified from

8008-487: A wrestling role or to explain his actions at the event. Instead, he was only seen standing in the rafters on each episode. As a result of Sting's actions at the event, a storyline within the company began that saw a possible alliance between Booker T and Sting. On the July 31 episode of TNA Impact! , Samoa Joe was brawling with Booker T, a baseball bat fell from the ceiling hanging by a wire; Booker T grabbed it and smashed Joe over

8190-655: Is in his first reign. Before the championship was created, TNA controlled the NWA World Heavyweight Championship via an agreement with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). In 2007, the agreement between TNA and the NWA ended, leading to the creation of the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. The championship was unveiled on May 14, 2007, at the taping of TNA's primary television program, Impact! , which aired on May 17, 2007. The inaugural champion

8372-456: Is regarded as one of the company's most brutal matches. During the match, Foley took several violent and dangerous bumps from The Rock all over the arena, including repeated steel chair shots to the head and a fall from the stands onto solid electrical objects, which sparked upon impact. Although steel chair shots to the head were commonplace in the Attitude Era , the most a wrestler would take in

8554-405: The 1998 Royal Rumble , making Foley the only competitor to enter the same Royal Rumble match three times under different personas. Foley is a four-time world champion (three WWF Championships and one TNA World Heavyweight Championship ), an 11-time world tag team champion (eight WWF Tag Team Championships , two ECW World Tag Team Championships , and one WCW World Tag Team Championship ),

8736-568: The 2000 edition of WWE's premier annual event, WrestleMania . He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2013 . Foley has wrestled under his real name and various personas. His main persona during his time in WCW and ECW from 1991 to 1996 was Cactus Jack , a dastardly, bloodthirsty and uncompromisingly physical brawler from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico , who wore cowboy boots and often used sharp metallic objects, such as barbed wire, thumbtacks, and trashcans. When Foley first appeared in

8918-545: The ECW World Heavyweight Championship . During their match at Barbed Wire, Hoodies & Chokeslams , Cactus knocked Sandman unconscious and was declared the winner. Referee Bill Alfonso , however, reversed his decision because the title cannot change hands by knockout. Foley then continued to have a series of violent encounters with the Sandman while challenging him and claiming that he had never been beaten in

9100-559: The Headhunters , and Bob Bargail for multiple runs at the W*ING World Tag Team Championship , and a few runs at Tarzan Goto 's IWA World Heavyweight Championship . True to his hardcore style, other matches Foley took part in were more deathmatches that involved objects like bricks, body bags, thumbtacks, barbed wire and window panes, and some matches even involved fire. He would continue wrestling in Japan until June 1996;

9282-744: The Hostile City Showdown event on June 24 at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . After being part of a talent exchange between ECW and WCW, Foley brought his WCW World Tag Team Championship belt and spit on it for a recorded ECW TV segment. Foley continued with ECW and began a feud with Sabu . Foley then began working the ECW tag team division on teams with Terry Funk , Mikey Whipwreck , and Kevin Sullivan . Cactus had two ECW World Tag Team Championship reigns with Whipwreck while in ECW, while at

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9464-499: The Immortal storyline. The new design consisted of a purple strap with a silver center plate depicting a masked head (designed to resemble Hardy's face with face paint), the TNA logo on the forehead and blue lines along the mask. There were four irregular dodecagonal side plates on the title belt, shaped like stars with rounded edges on two of the sides of these plates. The Immortal title belt

9646-542: The No Surrender episode of Impact Wrestling , Hulk Hogan announced that Bellator MMA had pulled Rampage Jackson and Aces & Eights member Tito Ortiz from TNA programming due to their upcoming PPV fight, thus removing Jackson from the MEM. In the main event of the night, Magnus lost the BFG Series finals to A.J. Styles. During his match, EGO interfered. Due to this, Magnus started a feud with EGO. After losing to EGO,

9828-525: The Royal Rumble pay-per-view, forcing TNA to change their plans and abandon the storyline. On the June 13, 2013 episode of Impact Wrestling , Sting announced the return of the Main Event Mafia to combat Bully Ray 's Aces & Eights stable, who had been running rampant throughout the entire TNA roster. On June 20, 2013, the second member of the new Main Event Mafia was revealed to be Kurt Angle . On

10010-630: The Sharpshooter , McMahon ordered the timekeeper to ring the bell even though Mankind did not submit, a reference to the Montreal Screwjob from the year before. As a result of the Survivor Series, Mankind officially turned face, while The Rock turned heel and became the crown jewel in McMahon's new faction, the Corporation . After weeks of trying to get his hands on the Corporation, Mankind received

10192-532: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship after the previous champion A.J. Styles . Carter scheduled an eight-man tournament to determine a new champion, that would begin on November 7. Seven of the eight men were former TNA World Heavyweight Champions including Jeff Hardy , Chris Sabin , Bobby Roode , James Storm , Kurt Angle , Austin Aries , and Samoa Joe . The eighth would be determined later in

10374-741: The United States Wrestling Association in Dallas, where he wrestled both as "Cactus Jack" and under a mask as "Zodiac #2". In July 1990, he wrestled for Tommy Dee at the Riverhead Raceway in Riverhead, New York , where he met his future wife Colette Christie. In September 1990, he began appearing with the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania -based Tri-State Wrestling Alliance (TWA), the precursor to Eastern Championship Wrestling , whose high-impact and violent wrestling style fit Foley well. In

10556-400: The boiler rooms of buildings, constantly squealed (even throughout his matches), randomly shrieked "Mommy!" , spoke to a rat named George, regularly took to acts of masochism (such as by pulling out his hair), and wore a mask seemingly constructed of oddly shaped pieces of leather that were patched together with rivets. Mankind's finishing move was the " Mandible Claw ". The move is based on

10738-585: The independent circuit , Foley began receiving offers from various regional promotions, including Bill Watts ' Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). In 1988, he joined the Memphis, Tennessee -based Continental Wrestling Association (CWA), where he teamed with Gary Young as part of the Stud Stable . Cactus and Young briefly held the CWA Tag Team Championship in late 1988. In November 1988, Foley left

10920-537: The vacant championship with Ricky Steamboat as the guest referee at the event. The NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships were contested for in TNA until May 13, 2007, when NWA ended their five-year agreement with TNA, which had allowed the latter full control over both titles. NWA Executive Director Robert Trobich also stripped then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Christian Cage and then-NWA World Tag Team Champions Team 3D of their respective championships, ostensibly because Cage refused to defend

11102-414: The "Mandibular Nerve Pinch", a finishing move developed and utilized by former osteopathic physician and neurosurgeon-turned-wrestler, Sam Sheppard . This finishing maneuver is a nerve hold that's applied when the aggressor plunges their middle and ring fingers into the opponent's mouth, under their tongue and into the soft tissue at the bottom of the mouth, while simultaneously forcing their jaw upwards with

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11284-526: The "undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion". In early 2017 After TNA rebranded as Impact Wrestling, the name of its flagship show, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship changed its name to the Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship to reflect the name changes of the company. At Slammiversary XV , GFW Global Champion Alberto El Patron defeated Impact Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion Bobby Lashley to unify

11466-484: The 1996 match to only having to escape the boiler room. Shortly after, Big Show would team with Mankind, Test and Shamrock to take on the Corporation at Over The Edge. Later in the year, Foley and The Rock patched up their friendship and teamed up to form a comedy team called the Rock 'n' Sock Connection , becoming one of the most popular teams during that time. The pair won the tag team titles on three occasions. One notable match

11648-415: The April 10 episode of Impact Wrestling . TNA World Heavyweight Championship The TNA World Championship is a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). It is the promotion's principal championship. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via pinfall or submission. The current champion is Nic Nemeth , who

11830-679: The Beach in July 1994. After turning on Sullivan, Foley wrestled his final match for the company at Fall Brawl '94: War Games in September 1994, losing to Sullivan in a "loser leaves WCW" match . In October 1994, Foley joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling (SMW) as Cactus Jack, causing Boo Bradley to lose the SMW Beat the Champ Television Championship . He often teamed with Brian Lee to feud with Bradley and Chris Candido . Cactus then began

12012-562: The Bulldog alone the next week. Halfway into the match, however, Foley debuted a new face persona known as "Dude Love", who helped Austin take the victory, becoming the new Tag Team Champions. Dude Love had some new and renamed moves, such as the "Love Handle" (a renamed Mandible Claw) and "Sweet Shin Music" (a simple kick to the shins, a play on Shawn Michaels's superkick finishing move). Austin and Foley vacated their tag team titles when Austin suffered

12194-697: The CWA for the Texas-based World Class Wrestling Association (WCWA). In the WCWA, "Cactus Jack", billed as "Cactus Jack Manson", was a major part of Skandor Akbar 's stable (the addition of "Manson" to Foley's name, due to its implied connection to Charles Manson , made him uncomfortable). Foley also won several titles, including the WCWA World Light Heavyweight Championship and WCWA World Tag Team Championship . He left

12376-416: The Cell and landed on the ring mat, losing a tooth. Mankind lost the match to conclude their storyline. Following a couple of months of teaming with Kane who together won the WWF Tag Team Championship on two separate occasions and various feuds with Kane, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and The Undertaker, Foley decided that crowds might respond better if Mankind were more of a comedy character, and so he abandoned

12558-424: The Champions X: Texas Shootout , where he took a particularly brutal bump backward off the 3 feet (0.91 m) high apron and landed on the concrete floor, with his head and back taking the impact. Later that month, he formed the villainous " Sullivan's Slaughterhouse " stable with Kevin Sullivan and Bam Bam Bigelow and began a long feud with Norman the Lunatic . At the Capital Combat pay-per-view in May 1990,

12740-431: The Champions XVI: Fall Brawl , Cactus Jack burst out of a giant box and attacked Sting , the then- WCW World Heavyweight Champion . After feuds with Van Hammer and Abdullah the Butcher , Cactus Jack faced Sting in a non-title falls count anywhere match at Beach Blast in 1992, which Sting won. For a long time, Foley considered this the best match he ever worked. Unlike Jack's first stint in WCW, where his personality

12922-534: The Dallas-based Global Wrestling Federation , where he formed a short-lived tag team with Makhan Singh known as "Cartel". Cartel took part in a tournament for the newly created GWF Tag Team Championship , losing to Chris Walker and Steve Simpson in the semi-finals. Foley also competed in a tournament for the GWF North American Heavyweight Championship , losing to Terry Gordy in the quarter-finals. In August 1991 at TWA's Summer Sizzler event, Cactus Jack and Eddie Gilbert had three matches in one night: Cactus won

13104-431: The ECW fanbase everywhere he went. In February 1996 at CyberSlam , Cactus Jack was booked to face WWF hater Shane Douglas , who won after he handcuffed Cactus and then hit him with no fewer than ten consecutive chair shots, and when he put Jack into a figure four leglock , this allowed Mikey Whipwreck to get into the arena and land one last hard chair shot to Cactus's face, knocking him unconscious. Foley's last ECW match

13286-472: The February 1, 2018, episode of Impact! , the title became known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship and on March 13, 2021, it was unified with the TNA World Heavyweight Championship , which was briefly sanctioned in 2021 as a separate title from the Impact World Championship. In January 2024, Impact Wrestling reverted back to

13468-496: The Impact World Championship, though still represented by both belts (with the white strap TNA belt being swapped out for the original black strap version shortly thereafter). In August 2021, after Christian Cage won the title, the TNA belt was retired once again. Prior to Hard to Kill (2024) in January 2024, the company reverted back to the TNA name. To reflect the change, TNA President Scott D’Amore presented Alex Shelley , who

13650-447: The July 11 episode of Impact Wrestling' , Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was announced as the fifth member. On the August 22 episode of Impact Wrestling , due to Kurt Angle taking a hiatus on August 2 to go into rehab for ( legit ) alcohol use, A.J. Styles took his place as the fifth member of the team and helped pin Devon in the 5-on-5 tag match, forcing Devon to leave TNA. On September 12, on

13832-413: The June 7 episode Impact! , which ended in a double disqualification , therefore neither man advanced to the King of the Mountain match. The final qualification match was won by Christian Cage over Abyss on the June 14 episode of Impact! . Angle ended up winning the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary over Joe, Cage, Styles and Harris, who was a mystery participant chosen by Cornette, to become

14014-528: The King of the Mountain match were determined in a series of standard wrestling matches that took place on Impact! leading up to the event, with Angle defeating Rhino in the first bout to gain entry on the May 17 episode of Impact! . On the May 24 episode of Impact! , Samoa Joe defeated Sting to become the second participant. The third qualification match was held on the May 31 episode of Impact! between A.J. Styles and Tomko , which Styles won. The next bout pitted Chris Harris against James Storm on

14196-409: The MEM as he made his return from an injury and attacked Joe, Styles and their allies. Steiner notably spared using his lead pipe on his protégé , Petey Williams , who backed off as soon as he saw him. At Turning Point , Booker T defeated Christian Cage to retain the TNA Legends Championship. As per the stipulation, Cage was forced to join the MEM, however, the MEM attacked Cage and kicked him out of

14378-502: The MEM trio of Sting, Magnus and Joe engaged in different storylines. At Bound for Glory , Magnus defeated Sting. On the October 31 edition of Impact Wrestling Magnus won a gauntlet match by eliminating Sting to be in the TNA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament . On the following edition of Impact Wrestling , MEM announced that their mission was accomplished and they parted ways, with Sting saying he

14560-516: The MEM with his baseball bat and stealing Angle's TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt. The following week, Sting confronted Samoa Joe, claiming to unveil Joe's mystery adviser before Victory Road , where he would be facing Samoa Joe. Later on in the show, Sting disguised himself as Joe and nearly dragged out Joe's adviser from his car, before Joe stopped him, choking him out with the Coquina Clutch and his signature tribal knife. Joe then took back

14742-509: The Mafia. This would lead to Angle facing Morgan in a singles match on TNA Impact! which Angle would win. After the match, Angle shook Morgan's hand, showing that he would want him in the MEM. On the following week's TNA Impact! , during a King of the Mountain qualification match between Angle and Sting, Morgan interfered and helped Angle win. After the match, Angle thanked Morgan for helping him win. Morgan would go on and ask Sting to let him become

14924-503: The Main Event Mafia controlled every male championship in TNA. At No Surrender , Angle lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to A.J. Styles. On the October 1 edition of TNA Impact! the alliance between MEM and World Elite crumbled after an all-out brawl between the two factions. The following week, Joe lost the TNA X Division Championship to Amazing Red after Bobby Lashley interfered. The Main Event Mafia's championship match losing streak continued at Bound for Glory , where Nash lost

15106-535: The Main Event Mafia, now as a heroic stable, in response to a year-long war between the TNA roster and the Aces & Eights . The group included past members of the original Mafia (Sting, Kurt Angle, and Samoa Joe) and new members Magnus and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson . In the summer of 2008, A.J. Styles was being attacked by the villainous alliance of Booker T , Team 3D and Tomko until Karen Angle got then husband Kurt Angle to help AJ. However, Kurt then joined in on

15288-456: The Mat , which shows the impact the match had on Foley, his family, and even the rest of the audience at ringside, and at one point Foley's wife Collette and five-year-old daughter Noelle both cried and screamed in horror, with Noelle believing her father was dying as The Rock pummeled Foley with repeated chair shots. The match at this point had become so brutal that some people in the audience sitting in

15470-409: The Mountain match for the championship at TNA's Slammiversary on June 17, 2007. This match type involves five participants racing to gain a pinfall or submission to become eligible to hang a championship belt to win. On May 15, 2007, Jeremy Borash unveiled the TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt on that day's edition of TNA's online video podcast TNA Today . The five participants for

15652-504: The NWA World Heavyweight Championship against wrestlers from other NWA territories. That same day, TNA were scheduled to produce their Sacrifice event, in which both Cage and Team 3D were to defend their respective championships. On the card , Cage was scheduled to defend the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against Kurt Angle and Sting in a three-way match . That night, the onscreen graphic used to refer to

15834-515: The Nasty Boys in a violently brutal and chaotic tag team Chicago Street Fight , where Cactus Jack lost the match after he was shoved off a 3 feet (0.91 m) high stage and landed back first on the concrete. Later that month, Cactus Jack formed a tag team with Kevin Sullivan , with the duo feuding with the Nasty Boys. Cactus Jack and Sullivan were scheduled to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship at Slamboree in May 1994. Foley had to choose between surgically reconstructing his ear or wrestling at

16016-466: The New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania XIV in a dumpster match to win the tag team titles (which was originally supposed to be a barbed-wire rope match- but this often violent and bloody match was scrapped due to the high-profile appearance of Mike Tyson taking part at the event). The next night, however, Vince McMahon stripped them of the belts, citing that Charlie and Cactus had put the Outlaws in

16198-473: The October 23 episode of TNA Impact! In a segment between Nash, Booker T, Angle, Sting, and Jeremy Borash , Angle announced that the four had joined together to form a group of legends called The Main Event Mafia. Team 3D were offered a spot in the group, seemingly accepting before attacking them, turning face. The goal of the group was to start a "war" against the younger talent to take what they deserved: respect. The following week, they added Scott Steiner to

16380-630: The Pitbulls against Raven, Stevie Richards and the Dudley Brothers ( Dudley Dudley and Big Dick Dudley ). Cactus DDT'ed his partner and joined Raven's Nest , as he wished to serve Raven 's "higher purpose". He remained one of Raven's top henchmen for the remainder of his time in ECW. On August 28, Cactus beat the previously undefeated 911 . As part of Foley's heel gimmick , he began praising WWF and WCW on ECW television, which angered ECW fans. Their anger intensified once word began to spread that Foley

16562-547: The Ring 1998 in Pittsburgh 's Civic Arena on June 28, the two performed in the third Hell in a Cell match , which became one of the most notable matches in professional wrestling history. Foley received numerous injuries and took two dangerous and highly influential bumps – the first being tossed off the top of the 16 feet (4.9 m) high Cell by The Undertaker, crashing through the Spanish announcer's wooden table and landing on

16744-615: The Slaughterhouse lost to Norman the Lunatic and the Road Warriors in a six-man tag team match . It was during this period that Foley was involved in a car accident that resulted in the loss of his two front teeth, adding to the distinctive look for which he is famous. Foley left WCW in June 1990 after a conversation with booker Ole Anderson in which Anderson critiqued his style. After leaving WCW in June 1990, Foley briefly returned to

16926-487: The TNA Front Line in the process. On the June 25 edition of TNA Impact! , it was explained that Joe had been paid off by the MEM due to them being unable to defeat him. The MEM, as well as Morgan, attacked Sting in disapproval of his leadership, with Angle announcing that he had regained leadership of the group. The following week, Sting saved A.J. Styles from a beat down from his former stablemates, attacking each member of

17108-548: The TNA Legends Championship to World Elite leader Eric Young, while Booker T and Steiner lost the TNA World Tag Team Championship to Doug Williams and Brutus Magnus, also of the World Elite. At the same PPV Angle narrowly defeated long-time foe Matt Morgan and afterwards shook his hand. On the following edition of TNA Impact! , the stable's future was thrown into question, when Booker T was announced as having left

17290-450: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship and Taz was also revealed to be Joe's adviser; Taz would later state that he was just an associate of the MEM. On the July 30 episode of TNA Impact! , Kevin Nash lost the TNA Legends Championship to Mick Foley in a tag team match with Kurt Angle against Bobby Lashley and Mick Foley. On the August 6 episode of TNA Impact! it was revealed that the Main Event Mafia would join forces with World Elite ,

17472-426: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship, returning it to Angle during the beatdown on Mick Foley at the end of the show. At Victory Road, the MEM gained full control of TNA's championship scene as Nash won the TNA Legends Championship from A.J. Styles to bring the title back to the MEM. At the same event, Booker and Steiner defeated Beer Money, Inc. for the TNA World Tag Team Championship , Angle defeated Foley to retain

17654-595: The TNA World Heavyweight Championship; later in the event during a match between Christian Cage , Angle, and Joe, Jeff Jarrett made his on-screen return to the promotion after not being seen in TNA since late May 2007, by helping Joe retain the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. Jarrett went on to Bound for Glory to defeat Angle in a standard match with Mick Foley as the Special Guest Ringside Enforcer . Also at Bound for Glory, Sting defeated Joe after Kevin Nash turned heel by striking his friend Joe with

17836-513: The TNA and original GFW Global Championship belts were used in tandem to represent the unification of both titles. At Destination X 2017 , the GFW Global Championship belt, with an updated color scheme and Impact logos on the side plates, became the sole belt used. Following the departure of Jeff Jarrett from the promotion, the company reverted to the Impact Wrestling name and the title belt was updated with an Impact name plate to reflect

18018-547: The TNA name, thus renaming the title as TNA World Championship. TNA Wrestling was formed as NWA: Total Nonstop Action in May 2002. Later that same year, TNA was granted control over the NWA World Heavyweight and World Tag Team Championships by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) governing body; subsequently becoming an official NWA territory as NWA-TNA. On June 19, 2002, NWA-TNA held its first show;

18200-566: The United States in April 1991, Foley resumed wrestling for TWA and the UWF. In May 1991 at the TWA's "Spring Spectacular II" event, Foley faced Eddie Gilbert in a barbed wire match – a sight not often seen in professional wrestling in the United States, and an object Foley would often be associated with. Barbed wire would be wrapped with the ropes all around the ring, and Cactus and Gilbert both bled heavily;

18382-517: The WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which Undertaker had won at WrestleMania 13 . Undertaker won the match and Bearer took a leave of absence, continuing the feud. Jim Ross then began conducting a series of interviews with Mankind. During the interviews, Ross brought up the topic of Foley's home videos, the hippie-inspired character he played in them, Dude Love, and his tormented journey in wrestling. The interviews also affected

18564-448: The WWF in 1996, he debuted the persona known as Mankind , an eerie, masochistic , mentally deranged lunatic who was masked and spent his spare time dwelling in mechanical rooms . The following year, Foley debuted Dude Love , a relaxed, fun-loving, jive-talking, tie-dyed shirt-wearing hippie . These personas were known as the "Three Faces of Foley", with Cactus Jack making his debut in the WWF also in 1997. All three characters appeared in

18746-597: The WWF owner as a father figure, into doing his bidding. McMahon created the WWF Hardcore Championship and awarded it to Mankind, making him the first-ever champion of the hardcore division. Mankind was then pushed as the favorite to win the WWF Championship at Survivor Series , as McMahon appeared to be manipulating the tournament so that Mankind would win. He and The Rock both reached the finals, where McMahon turned on Mankind. As The Rock placed Mankind in

18928-534: The WWF's first-ever empty arena match in Tucson, Arizona , on January 31. After 20 minutes of brawling in the ring, the empty grandstands, a kitchen, the arena's hallways, an office, and the catering hall, Mankind took a filthy sock off his foot and stuffed it into The Rock's mouth and then used a forklift to pin a subdued Rock in a basement loading area. The two then competed in a Last Man Standing match at St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House , which ended without

19110-479: The World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), and National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), as well as numerous promotions in Japan. He is widely regarded as one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era and one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of professional wrestling, and headlined

19292-409: The airport to take him back to his Long Island home, and immediately smelt something unusual. When Foley got home, his father and wife kept asking him about the awful smell, but he would not say anything, not wanting them to worry. After his father left, his wife persisted, so he revealed the burns to her. Foley continued wrestling in Japan, Later on, he teamed with Tracy Smothers , Tiger Jeet Singh ,

19474-496: The arena a minute or so before their match ended. Howard Finkel, the ring announcer there announced that Austin, who was the hottest wrestler in the WWE at the time would be making an appearance- and the crowd exploded at the news, and many rushed back to their seats. Foley later admitted that this crowd reaction emotionally hurt him, that his hard work could not compete with Austin's popularity and that he would be just another wrestler to face

19656-413: The arena's boiler room, the combatant also had to reach the ring and take the urn from Paul Bearer. After more than 20 minutes of brawling in the boiler room, the backstage corridors, and the entrance ramp, and both men taking some bumps involving metal trash cans, tables, ladders, metal poles, hot coffee, and the exposed concrete floor, The Undertaker appeared to have won, but Paul Bearer refused to hand him

19838-450: The arena's concrete floor. Barely five minutes after the first bump, Foley, with a separated shoulder, climbed back up to the top of the Cell structure after Terry Funk and others tried to stop him. The second bump, which was an unplanned botch , occurred when The Undertaker chokeslammed Foley and the fenced panel Foley landed on broke and gave way. Foley then plunged 13 feet (4.0 m) through

20020-409: The assault on A.J. Styles, planting the seeds for the Main Event Mafia. Tomko left the group after taking a year-long hiatus from TNA. At TNA's July pay-per-view Victory Road during a bout between the face Samoa Joe and heel Booker T for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship , Joe went on a storyline rampage and attacked referees , security and Booker T without on-screen mercy. Sting, who

20202-451: The back with it. At TNA's August pay-per-view Hard Justice , Sting attacked A.J. Styles, an on-screen ally of Joe's, after Styles had defeated Kurt Angle in a Last Man Standing match . The reasons for Sting's actions were eventually revealed on the August 14 episode of TNA Impact! , in which he stated that he attacked Joe and Styles because they were not showing enough respect for veterans such as Angle and Booker T by doing what they did at

20384-460: The center. The second side plate on each side is gold with TNA logo in the center. The third side plate on the right side features the Anthem logo in gold and red. Overall, there have been 59 reigns shared among 34 wrestlers. The inaugural champion was Kurt Angle, who won the championship by defeating Christian Cage and Sting in a three-way match on May 13, 2007, at TNA's Sacrifice event. Angle also holds

20566-469: The champions and their respective championships credited both Cage and Team 3D as still being NWA champions. Angle defeated Cage and Sting to win the World Heavyweight Championship. During subsequent TV tapings for the next two episodes of Impact! , TNA did not acknowledge the NWA ending their agreement with TNA but gave a storyline explanation as to why a new championship was created. Management Director Jim Cornette , TNA's on-screen authority figure at

20748-494: The championships. The TNA title was deactivated, and the Impact World Championship was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship. As Impact Wrestling returned to its original name, TNA Wrestling, the world title also reverted back to its original name. On the August 19, 2010, edition of TNA Impact! , the TNA World Heavyweight Championship was vacated, after champion Rob Van Dam suffered

20930-441: The change. A new title design was introduced at Impact Wrestling's Redemption on April 22, 2018. The gold center plate has the Impact logo with "World Champion" inscribed below the logo. An owl sits above the Impact logo, representing Impact's parent company Anthem Sports & Entertainment . On each side of the center plate is a group of four smaller gold plates, with the inner side plates featuring separate corresponding halves of

21112-430: The company and Angle admitted that he had been wrong all along about the younger talent of the company and praised the likes of A.J. Styles and Matt Morgan, thus becoming a face. However, Scott Steiner still wore Main Event Mafia clothing and said that the group was still alive as long as he was involved and that he did not take orders from Kurt Angle . He still maintained that the young talent did not show enough respect to

21294-461: The company in August 1989 after losing a loser leaves town match to Eric Embry in nine seconds. He then briefly competed in Alabama's Continental Wrestling Federation . In November 1989, Foley began wrestling for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) as "Cactus Jack". His debut match, which aired on NWA World Championship Wrestling , saw him partnered with a one-time jobber named Rick Fargo to face

21476-456: The company's megastar. Vince McMahon explained to Austin the next week that he would face a "mystery" opponent at Unforgiven: In Your House . That opponent turned out to be Dude Love, who won the match by disqualification, meaning that Austin retained the title. McMahon, displeased with the outcome, required Foley to prove he deserved another shot at Austin's title with a number one contenders match against his former partner, Terry Funk. The match

21658-474: The entrance ramp; but, after the sixth shot, Foley was still at ringside and, even after Foley signaled to The Rock to hit him in the back, The Rock decided to keep to the match's brutal tone based on Foley's previous on-the-fly calling of similar shots on the spot, and he hit Foley five more times in the head until they got to the two-thirds mark. This match is featured in Barry Blaustein's documentary Beyond

21840-505: The events. Sting, being a veteran of the sport himself, went on to say when he was Styles' and Joe's age, if he had a match with a veteran, he pinned them and walked away, not adding insult to injury by trying to end their careers, like Styles and Joe were trying to do. This sparked a rivalry between the three, which later involved Angle and Booker T. At TNA's September pay-per-view No Surrender , Sting announced that, at TNA's October pay-per-view Bound for Glory IV , he would challenge Joe for

22022-533: The fans, who began cheering Mankind, even though he was still a heel at this point. Around this time, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels won the WWF Tag Team Championships from Owen Hart and the British Bulldog , but Michaels was injured and could no longer compete. Mankind tried to replace him, but Austin said he wanted "nothing to do with a freak" and resigned himself to facing Hart and

22204-507: The first-ever buried alive match at In Your House 11: Buried Alive . Undertaker won the match, but Paul Bearer, the Executioner , Mankind and other heels attacked The Undertaker and buried him alive. Afterward, The Undertaker challenged Mankind to a match at Survivor Series 1996 , which the Undertaker won. The feud continued after another match at In Your House 14: Revenge of the 'Taker for

22386-400: The front furiously showed signs of disapproval at The Rock and shouted at him and the referee to stop the match. The match ended after Mankind lost consciousness, and The Rock's allies played a recording of Mankind saying "I Quit" from an earlier interview he did with Shane McMahon. Mankind won the title back in a rematch on Halftime Heat, which aired during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII , in

22568-527: The group because they believed he was leaving TNA for WWE (later proven to be true). The MEM proceeded to go on a rampage, assaulting Brother Ray , Samoa Joe , Petey Williams (Steiner doing the deed, finally severing the ties between the two), B.G. James , Rhino , Jeff Jarrett and A.J. Styles, injuring all in their "hits". At Genesis , Kevin Nash could not make it to the event due to a legitimate staph infection in his left elbow. When it came time for his tag team match, Booker T announced that they had found

22750-450: The last notable match Foley had as Cactus Jack in Japan was a "Caribbean barbed wire barricade glass deathmatch" against W*ING Kanemura , which Cactus won. In 1996, at the persistence of Jim Ross , whom Foley had known in his days in WCW, WWF head Vince McMahon had Foley sign a contract with WWF, and this time it wasn't to use Foley as " enhancement talent ". McMahon was not a fan of Cactus Jack and wanted to cover up Foley's face, so he

22932-434: The match ended when Gilbert threw Cactus into the ring ropes and he did a hangman — a planned move where a wrestler's head is tangled between the top two ring ropes – only this time his head was tangled with the ring ropes and barbed wire. The following month, at UWF's Beach Brawl pay-per-view, Foley teamed with Bob Orton in a loss to Wet 'n' Wild (Steve Ray and Sunny Beach ). In July and August 1991, Foley appeared with

23114-538: The match's no disqualification and no count-out rules. The objective of the match, in most cases, was to escape the boiler room first. On the April 1, 1996, episode of Monday Night Raw in San Bernardino, California , the day after WrestleMania XII , Mankind debuted on television and defeated Bob "Spark Plug" Holly , quickly moving into a feud with The Undertaker . At In Your House 7: Good Friends, Better Enemies later that month, The Undertaker defeated Mankind in

23296-569: The match, both men were covered in blood, ravaged by flesh cuts from the wire, and badly burned by the C-4 explosions. Foley later said that he only received $ 300 (equivalent to $ 600 in 2023) for the entire night. After the tournament, Foley's right arm had second-degree burns from the C-4 explosions from the match with Funk and his arm smelt of explosive chemicals. After a 14-hour flight from Tokyo 's Narita Airport to JFK Airport his father picked him up from

23478-425: The move to AXS TV. At Sacrifice on March 13, 2021, Impact World Champion Rich Swann defeated TNA World Heavyweight Champion Moose to unify the two championships. Following this, the 2020 red shaded Impact belt and the white strapped TNA belt were used jointly to represent the unified world championship; the unified title was briefly referred to as the Impact Unified World Championship before reverting to being called

23660-443: The new Godfather of the Main Event Mafia. Sting immediately made his new leadership felt, as on the May 28, 2009, edition of TNA Impact! , he dismissed Sharmell , Jenna Morasca and Angle's security men Big Rocco and Sally Boy from the alliance as part of his new leadership. Rocco and Sally promptly signed on to be Mick Foley 's security the following week. Heading into Slammiversary , Matt Morgan expressed his wishes to join

23842-403: The night in a gauntlet match, which was eventually won by Magnus last eliminating Kazarian and Sting . Match stipulations for the tournament were determined by spinning the "Wheel of Dixie"; options included a Falls Count Anywhere match , a Bull Rope match , a Submission match , a Ladder match , a Full Metal Mayhem match , a Coalminer's Glove match , a Tables match , a Dixieland match ,

24024-498: The pay-per-view and winning the titles. Foley opted to wrestle and won his only championship in WCW, defeating the Nasty Boys in a " Broad Street Bully match " with Dave Schultz as the special guest referee. During Cactus Jack's reign as WCW World Tag Team Champion, WCW shared a brief co-promotion with ECW during this time in which Cactus Jack represented WCW on ECW Hardcore TV as the WCW Tag Team Champion, culminating in

24206-483: The point that they offered Foley a contract, and Foley finally found some financial stability after years of hardship. Over the following months, Cactus Jack would generally team with jobbers. When the jobber would lose the match for the team, Cactus Jack would attack his partner, throw them out of the ring, and deliver his infamous ring apron flying elbow drop onto the concrete floor. Foley's biggest match to date came in February 1990 against Mil Máscaras at Clash of

24388-520: The ratings indicate that large numbers of viewers switched from Nitro to Raw to see him win the title and took great personal pride from this – and WCW never beat the WWF in the television ratings ever again. Mankind lost the WWF Championship to The Rock in an "I Quit" match (a type of submission match ) at the Royal Rumble at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California , near Los Angeles , in what

24570-442: The record for the most reigns, at six. Josh Alexander 's first reign is the shortest at three minutes while his second reign is the longest at 335 days. Tessa Blanchard is the only woman to ever win the world title. The title has been vacated seven different times. Nic Nemeth is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated defending champion Moose , Josh Alexander , Steve Maclin , Frankie Kazarian , and Joe Hendry in

24752-511: The ring names "Jack Foley" and "Nick Foley." Notably, a ring announcer once mispronounced Foley's last name as "Faley" before a match against Kamala on a 1987 episode of WWF Wrestling Challenge. In another match (the second episode of Superstars ), Foley and Les Thornton faced the British Bulldogs , during which the Dynamite Kid (who had a long earned reputation as a stiff worker in

24934-437: The ring) clotheslined Foley with such force that he was unable to eat solid food for several weeks. During these squash matches, Foley also faced other top-level talents at the time, such as Hercules Hernandez . His run would not last long, as he had not signed a contract with the promotion at the time. During this run, he was also billed from different hometowns and at different weights. After two years of relative obscurity on

25116-465: The rising tag team of brothers Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner – two of the stiffest and toughest workers in wrestling at the time. After taking brutal bumps from both Steiner brothers and losing the match, Cactus then began fighting with Fargo, and then jumped nearly 12 feet (3.7 m) off the apron to elbow Fargo in the abdomen, per Kevin Sullivan's instructions. Lead WCW booker Ric Flair , Sullivan, and other WCW executives were impressed with this to

25298-436: The ropes and fell out of the ring, his ears were badly split at the back. When Cactus re-entered the ring, the two wrestlers began trading blows. During this time, Vader reached up and grabbed Cactus's right ear, and ripped it off. The two men continued wrestling as the referee picked up the ear and gave it to the ring announcer. Vader claimed for years after that the ear had come off during the botched Hangman maneuver, however in

25480-461: The same month he began wrestling for Herb Abrams ' Reseda, California -based Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF), appearing on its UWF Fury Hour program. Foley wrestled for both the TWA and the UWF until March 1991. In March 1991, Foley (as Cactus Jack) made his first excursion to Japan, wrestling for Giant Baba 's All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) promotion as part of its Champion Carnival round-robin tournament . He scored zero points in

25662-483: The same time he was training the young Whipwreck. After a stint in Smoky Mountain Wrestling , Foley returned to ECW to feud with The Sandman . Funk returned to team up with Sandman, and during a particularly violent spot, the pair hit Cactus Jack with a kendo stick forty-six times in a barbed wire rope match. Cactus then defeated Funk at Hostile City Showdown 1995 . Later, he repeatedly fought Sandman for

25844-505: The seating area amongst the crowd, with folding chairs flying everywhere. After several brutal spots involving flaming chairs, flaming iron rods, Funk Hip-tossing Cactus into a flaming chair and Funk slamming Cactus's head into a wooden table, Funk reversed a Spinebuster by Cactus into a DDT and pinned him to win the match. In 2010 Foley wrote that, "looking back that match in Honjo is probably the performance I'm proudest of." Cactus Jack later began

26026-520: The sock on his hand before applying his finisher, the Mandible Claw , stuffing a smelly sock in the mouths of opposing wrestlers. Mankind also became a smelly sock puppeteer, having the sock “speak” in a high-pitched voice. The sweatsock became massively popular with the fans, mainly because it was marketed (mostly by Jerry "The King" Lawler during the events) as being a dirty, smelly, sweaty, repulsive, and vile sock. McMahon manipulated Mankind, who saw

26208-450: The special guest referee and Mick Foley was the special guest enforcer. At Lockdown , Sting lost the TNA World Heavyweight Championship to Mick Foley and the rest of the Main Event Mafia (Nash, Steiner, Booker T and Angle) lost to Team Jarrett, which consisted of Jeff Jarrett, Samoa Joe, A.J. Styles and Christopher Daniels . At Sacrifice , Sting pinned Angle in an Ultimate Sacrifice match also involving Mick Foley and Jeff Jarrett to become

26390-471: The special referee. However, the Undertaker came to ringside to ensure McMahon called the match fairly, and with his presence, Dude Love lost the match and was "fired" by McMahon on the June 1 episode of Raw . On that same episode of Raw , Foley reverted to his Mankind character, who had become a more human and less creature-like character and began wearing an untucked dress shirt with a loose necktie, and also resumed his feud with The Undertaker. At King of

26572-435: The spot, and the audience's response to Smith's botch was "you fucked up". These incidents angered the normally jovial Foley so much that he furiously cut several memorable and scathing promos during this period to channel his intense frustration and anger toward ECW fans, who he felt asked too much from him and the ECW roster. Foley then began a gimmick where he criticized hardcore wrestling and sought to renounce his status as

26754-462: The tapings of the June 27 episode of Impact Wrestling , Samoa Joe was revealed as the third member, as he aided Sting and Angle after they attacked the Aces & Eights to help Samoa Joe defeat Mr. Anderson in a submission victory in his second Bound for Glory Series bout. On the July 4 episode of Impact Wrestling , Magnus was revealed to be the fourth member, as nominated by Samoa Joe because, as of

26936-438: The thumb or palm of the same hand; clamping pressure is then applied between the fingers inside the mouth, and the thumb or palm under the jaw. If applied genuinely and correctly, it purportedly compresses the two nerves within the tissues of the mandible which render the opponent's jaw paralyzed, thus preventing the opponent from breaking the hold by biting the aggressing wrestler's fingers. Its proper application purportedly causes

27118-471: The time of the announcement, Magnus was leading the Bound for Glory Series, but also the fact that they had fought alongside and against each other many times. In the main event between Chris Sabin , Austin Aries and Manik , the MEM was stationed at ringside to prevent the Aces & Eights from getting involved. After Chris Sabin won the match, the MEM congratulated Sabin on the win and appeared to back him up. On

27300-399: The time, decided that "that due to TNA's growing worldwide exposure, the company needed to have its own TNA title belts". At the first episode, broadcast on tape delay on May 17 Angle introduced himself as the "new TNA World Heavyweight Champion". but later on, Cornette stripped Angle of the TNA championship due to the controversial finish of the match at Sacrifice. and scheduled a King of

27482-454: The title has been known as the Impact World Championship. On June 4, 2018, the title was unified with the Impact Grand Championship , with the latter title being officially retired. At Rebellion , Moose appeared with the old TNA World Heavyweight Championship belt (its 3rd design from 2011 to 2017, later modified with a white strap) and declared himself the new TNA World Heavyweight Champion after defeating Hernandez and Michael Elgin in

27664-588: The title took the GFW Global Championship name and kept the former TNA lineage. On October 23, 2017, the GFW name was dropped, and the company name reverted to Impact Wrestling when the company severed ties with Jeff Jarrett , and he took the GFW name with him. However, Impact Wrestling kept the Global Championship name for their championship and the title was then called the Impact Global Championship. On

27846-627: The titles, with the GFW Global Championship being dropped and the Impact World Heavyweight Championship changing its name to the Unified GFW World Championship as Impact Wrestling began rebranding once again as GFW. In September 2017, GFW reverted their branding to Impact Wrestling, the championship then became known as the Impact Global Championship. Since the February 1, 2018 episode of Impact! ,

28028-404: The tortured soul characteristics and became more of a goofy, broken down oaf. He began the transition into this character following SummerSlam in 1998 after Kane turned on him and the two lost the tag team championships. The following month, Foley began an angle with Vince McMahon, with Mankind trying to be a friend to the hated Mr. McMahon. On the October 5 episode of Raw is War , while McMahon

28210-767: The tournament, losing to Jumbo Tsuruta , Danny Spivey , Johnny Smith , Toshiaki Kawada , Akira Taue , and Danny Kroffat . In addition to competing in the tournament, Foley and Texas Terminator Hoss wrestled several tag team matches, facing opponents including André the Giant , Dory Funk Jr. , Terry Funk , and Johnny Ace . During one bout, Foley accidentally broke the elbow of Ace – the favorite wrestler of Giant Baba's wife – which Foley attributes to his not being invited back to AJPW, coupled with Baba's reservations about Foley's dress sense and wrestling style (which had drawn unwelcome comparisons to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling , regarded by Baba as garbage wrestling ). Returning to

28392-455: The urn, allowing Mankind to win, thus (for the time being) ending the relationship between Paul and The Undertaker. While Paul Bearer was Mankind's manager, Mankind referred to him as "Uncle Paul". Mankind then became the number one contender to face the then WWF Champion Shawn Michaels at In Your House: Mind Games . Michaels won by disqualification via interference by Vader and The Undertaker. The Mankind and Undertaker rivalry continued with

28574-562: The veterans of the professional wrestling business. However, in February 2010, Steiner left TNA, effectively ending the Main Event Mafia. In January 2011, TNA started a storyline aiming to bring back the Main Event Mafia as a face group on the February 3, 2011, edition of TNA Impact! to feud with Immortal . Scott Steiner returned to the promotion on the January 27 edition of TNA Impact! and aligned himself with Kurt Angle, but on January 30, Booker T and Kevin Nash instead made surprise returns to World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) to compete at

28756-454: The wheel stopping at this match choice. Race won the match for Vader by using a stun gun on Cactus, knocking him out. The level of violence and brutality involved in this match left the crowd and commentators Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura in stunned disbelief; both did not commentate much throughout the second half of the match. It also caused WCW, a promotion marketing itself as family friendly to refuse to book Cactus Jack against Vader on

28938-768: The words "Heavyweight Champion" engraved in silver. On each side of the center plate was a group of three smaller plates, one with a TNA logo engraved while the other two featured separate corresponding halves of a globe, on either side of the TNA logo side plate. This belt—modified with a white strap—returned in April 2020 after Moose declared himself as " TNA World Heavyweight Champion " following defeating several past TNA wrestlers, and with then-reigning Impact World Champion Tessa Blanchard being absent due to COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. Moose's title would remain unrecognized until February 2021, when it became officially sanctioned and recognized by Impact executive vice president Scott D'Amore . Following Slammiversary XV , both

29120-591: Was Kurt Angle , who also holds the record for the most reigns at six. When TNA changed its name and became Impact Wrestling in March 2017, the title was renamed soon after to reflect the change. After Impact Wrestling rebranded to Global Force Wrestling (GFW) later that year, the title was unified with the original GFW Global Championship at Slammiversary XV and became the Unified GFW World Heavyweight Championship. Following Destination X ,

29302-450: Was "Have a nice day!" and his association with boiler rooms led to his specialty match, dubbed the boiler room brawl . This specialty match is chaotic and dangerous with significant violent use of weaponry all taking place inside an arena's mechanical/boiler room. Combatants involved made use of everything from foreign objects to all sorts of exposed metal piping with large bolts, concrete flooring to solid electrical equipment, all allowed by

29484-432: Was a Buried Alive match that pitted the Rock 'n' Sock Connection against The Undertaker and The Big Show, who were out for revenge after losing the tag titles one week earlier. This match included a spot where The Big Show tossed Mankind off the stage, landing hard on the dirt and falling into the grave- Mankind traveled nearly 25 feet (7.6 m) in total. Foley then helped Raw is War achieve its highest ratings ever with

29666-538: Was a classmate and wrestling teammate of actor Kevin James . In October 1983, while a student at the State University of New York at Cortland , Foley hitchhiked to Madison Square Garden to see his favorite wrestler, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka , in a steel cage match against Don Muraco . He has said that Snuka's flying body splash from the top of the cage inspired him to pursue a career in professional wrestling. He had

29848-605: Was against Whipwreck on March 9, 1996, at Big Ass Extreme Bash , and he recounts that he was not looking forward to it due to the increasingly hostile reactions he got even when he wasn't in character. The ECW fans, who knew that this was Foley's last match, finally returned his affection. They cheered him throughout the match and chanted, "Please don't go!". After the match, Foley told the audience that their reaction made everything worthwhile and made his exit by dancing with Stevie Richards and The Blue Meanie to Frank Sinatra 's song " New York, New York ". Foley has said that this exit

30030-444: Was also a face, then entered the arena and stopped Joe's assault. However, Joe gave Sting the middle finger and continued his assault on Booker T. This angered Sting to a point in which he grabbed Joe and hit him with a baseball bat, thus turning heel in the process, allowing Booker T to steal the World Heavyweight Championship belt from Joe. Following the event, Sting did not appear on TNA's primary television program TNA Impact! in

30212-617: Was at a much higher level than in Western promotions (except for ECW), something Western wrestlers were not accustomed to. Cactus faced Funk in a No Ropes Barbed Wire Scramble Bunkhouse Deathmatch at the Honjo Gymnasium in Saitama , just north of Tokyo in front of 150 people in a match that involved barbed wire as the ring ropes and objects set on fire. This turned out to be a particularly chaotic and brutal match where Foley and Funk mostly brawled in

30394-544: Was both the WWF's first-ever " hardcore match " and the first time that Foley wrestled under his name. Foley won, and after the match, a proud McMahon came out to Dude Love's music and presented Foley with the Dude Love costume. At Over the Edge: In Your House , Dude Love took on Austin for the title. McMahon designated his subordinates Gerald Brisco and Pat Patterson as the timekeeper and ring announcer and made himself

30576-507: Was broadcast on January 4, 1999, so that is the date WWE recognizes as beginning the title run. Having title changes on broadcast television rather than pay-per-view was uncommon in professional wrestling, but because of the Monday Night War , television ratings became more important. The head of rival promotion WCW Eric Bischoff , attempting to take advantage of the fact that their show Monday Nitro aired live while Mankind's title victory

30758-559: Was disgruntled by the commentary of Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan , which failed to reference the events of the prior year. Frustrated by WCW and the company's new head Eric Bischoff 's reluctance to work a storyline with Vader around losing his ear. This frustration turned into a realization for Foley- after being unable to see a positive or lucrative future for himself with Bischoff in charge, Foley decided not to renew his contract with WCW. At Spring Stampede in April 1994, Cactus Jack and Maxx Payne faced WCW World Tag Team Champions

30940-453: Was explained with a farcical comedy storyline in which he went crazy, was institutionalized, then escaped, and then developed amnesia. Foley had wanted the injury storyline to be serious and generate genuine sympathy for him before his return. The comedy vignettes that WCW produced instead were so bad that Foley jokes in Have a Nice Day that they were the brainchild of WCW executives who regarded

31122-437: Was going to teach the wrestlers who think that the business owes them something a lesson and Joe, Magnus, and Angle wanting to become TNA World Heavyweight Champion. Magnus ended up winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship defeating Joe in the first round, Angle in the second round, and Jeff Hardy in the finals, but aligned himself with Dixieland and turned heel. Sting would then question Magnus why he did it, which set up

31304-506: Was his favorite moment in wrestling. In 1995, during his time in ECW and other promotions in the United States, Foley also went to Japan and wrestled in International Wrestling Association of Japan (IWA Japan), where he engaged in feuds with Terry Funk and Shoji Nakamaki. During his brief stint in Japan, Foley had the nickname "Tsunami Stopper." The level of violence and brutality in hardcore wrestling matches in Japan

31486-446: Was in a hospital nursing wounds suffered at the hands of The Undertaker and Kane, Mankind arrived with a female clown called Yurple in an attempt to cheer him up. Having succeeded only in irritating McMahon, Mankind then took a disgusting sock off his foot and placed it on his hand to create a sock puppet named "Mr. Socko". Intended to be a one-time joke and suggested by Al Snow , Socko became an overnight sensation. Mankind began putting

31668-428: Was leaving to join the WWF (In Have a Nice Day , Foley recounted an incident where he asked an ECW roadie to sell T-shirts for him at an event held in a Queens, New York venue where he had been popular even as a heel; the man came back after being spat upon numerous times by angry fans, who made him fear for his life ). Even when he tried to give sincere good-byes to the fans, Foley was met with chants of "You sold out" by

31850-414: Was placed above the eagle's head on a ribbon. The ribbon was wrapped around the bird's wings and body. Five stars were engraved on the ribbon when it passed over each of the bird's wings and the word "Champion" as it passed over the bird's talons. The words "Heavyweight Wrestling" were printed across the bird's chest. At the top of the center plate there was TNA logo. Four smaller side plates had an imprint of

32032-534: Was quieter, he was now outwardly maniacal; laughing hysterically, shrieking into the air while choking his opponents and yelling his signature catchphrase "Bang-Bang!". At Clash of the Champions XX in September 1992, Cactus Jack unsuccessfully challenged Ron Simmons for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. After spending a year and a half with WCW as a heel, Cactus Jack transitioned into

32214-487: Was replaced by the third design of the championship belt at the March 14, 2011 tapings of the March 17 episode of Impact! , introduced by the reigning champion at the time, Sting. The design featured seven gold plates over a black leather strap. The center plate had faux diamonds aligned along its multiple rounded edges, similar to that of the Big Gold Belt . Over the center plate was a large TNA Wrestling logo and below it

32396-544: Was seen live by tens of thousands of people, and each level of the tournament featured a new and deadly gimmick : Cactus Jack's first-round during the day was a barbed-wire baseball bat, thumbtack deathmatch, in which he defeated Terry Gordy; the second round was a barbed-wire board, bed of nails match where Cactus Jack defeated Shoji Nakamaki. At night against Terry Funk, the final was a barbed-wire rope, exploding barbed wire boards and exploding ring time bomb deathmatch, which Cactus Jack won with help from Tiger Jeet Singh . After

32578-488: Was shown several designs for a new heel character–a man with a leather mask and chains, called "Mason the Mutilator". However, WWF decided that character as a whole was too dark and only kept the mask. Although interested in the concept of the character, Foley did not like the name, so he came up with the new name "Mankind", which McMahon liked and approved of. Mankind was an eerie and mentally deranged miscreant who dwelled in

32760-583: Was taped the week before, had announcer Tony Schiavone reveal the ending of the Mankind-Rock match before it aired. He then added sarcastically, "That's gonna put some butts in the seats." The move backfired for WCW, as Nielsen ratings showed that Raw won the ratings battle that night, despite the Hulk Hogan vs. Kevin Nash main event which led to the reformation of the New World Order (nWo). Foley said that

32942-445: Was the last champion under the Impact name with a new belt. The new belt has 5 gold plates. The center plate added more height with the top and bottom each pointed like a V-shape with the sides having various shapes. In the center plate, features World on top, the TNA logo over a gold and red globe in center and Champion at the bottom. The first side plate next to the center on each side features World Champion in smaller print and globe in

33124-451: Was the result of TNA introducing a new storyline in which the veterans began a rivalry with younger talent within the company who called themselves The TNA Front Line ; with the MEM being the villains of the storyline as the veterans modelling themselves after the Mafia , portrayed as being upset at the disrespect being shown by the younger wrestlers. In June 2013, Sting announced the return of

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