Cactus Jack vs. Rex Cooper WCW Main Event 12-13-1992
I don't know how we got here, but I think we've hit a point where Mick Foley is underrated
I don't know if it's because I'm a pro wrestling boomer and I think these kids today are watching too many Billy Ostrich matches and listening to their Dan Fogelberg records too loudly, but I don't think Mick gets the proper amount of appreciation. I'm betting for a lot of younger fans, Mick Foley is more known for his goofy demeanor than his bloody matches. I can't blame them, there were people who were born after Mick Foley's first "retirement match" who can legally drink now. That's absurd. I thought we all agreed to stop making people after Mick Foley retired. Mick wrestled full-time from 1983 to 2000 which means that Mick's been out of the game longer than he was in the game. It is just nature that as the inevitable march of time continues, parts of his legacy gets forgotten. He just becomes the guy who wrote some books, got tossed off a cell, and wore a stinky sock on his hand. He gets knocked down the all-timer list just a little bit more. People forget how over he was as a babyface in the Attitude Era. People forget he was the main event of the greatest episode of RAW. People forget he is one of the greatest promos in the history of professional wrestling.
Even I forget
One of the benefits of doing the blog it's allowing me to revisit things that I stopped remembering. At some point I decided I wanted to talk about Mick Foley. He recently started a new podcast, fantastic by the way, and he seemed like someone worth covering. There's a lot of ground to cover with Mick, so I decided to start off with Cactus Jack. I've made mention before I was a WWF die-hard and a casual WCW fan, but Jack was always one of my guys. Maybe it was the one-ear thing, but he was a guy I found endless fascinating. I think as a babyface, little kids are always going to gravitate to Cactus Jack or Mankind because all toddlers walk and grunt like them. If you have a toddler, get them to walk around the house and you'll see what I mean. Cactus wasn't just a great babyface, he was an incredible heel. I was originally supposed to just watch a heel Cactus squash and move on to working on my next entry, but I kept seeing Cactus Jack content. I kept watching. ECW promo after ECW promo after ECW promo. I just stared, unable to look away. I have a lot of trouble not glancing at my phone during stuff, but there wasn't enough Gmail notifications in the world that could get me to look away. There I was 25 years later, still finding this man endless fascinating. How many wrestlers can steal your attention for an hour when it was meant to be 5 minutes? A handful of them, and at least three of them are a face of Foley. I don't care if you think he's the best promo of all time
He's still somehow underrated
Well I've kissed enough of Mick Foley's admittedly large ass when it comes to promos, let's see how he does in a squash match. It's mid December 1992 and oh what a night we have in store as Cactus Jack is on WCW Main Event against Rex Cooper. Cactus Jack out first and while I love Cactus in so many ways, his gear always looked terrible in WCW. It really looks like something someone donated to Savers but nobody bought it so it ends up in a textile recycling plant. It's like he wanted to wear all black, but got cold feat and got some iron on decals of cacti. His opponent tonight is Rex Cooper . Rex has the double whammy of great wimpy attire, a mullet and a colorful singlet. That's what I'd like to be dressed at in my wake please. Open casket. Both sides.
I want to show off my calves.
Cactus starts off cornering Cooper, and I always forget how big Cactus Jack is. He is the point guard on the Billy Gunn Deceptively Big All Stars Basketball team. Cactus Jack with some forearms to the back followed by a weird splash to the side. Then Jack hits a spinning kick? What was that? It's just dawning on me how little Cactus Jack offense I've ever seen. His whole career is based on taking punishment, so I have no idea what Jack offense looks like other than " Getting thrown onto concrete". Well the offense isn't great, as now Jack is doing a soft bodyslam. I write an article all about how great Mick Foley is and then he COMPLETLY REDEEMS HIMSELF BY DOING A FIRST ROPE SPRINGBOARD LEGDROP. It isn't a killer move, but its cool and new and it looks like it hurt. So he hits another one followed by some kicks to the face. Jack grabs a hold of Cooper's face and he starts screaming. Jack, not Cooper. God I forgot how awesome heel Cactus was. A back rake and a rope choke and c'mon Mick, you're better than this. LEGDROP ON THE APRON.
See, I was right
Cooper gets back in the ring but ends up in the ropes so Jack hits a DOUBLE CLOTHESLINE OVER THE TOP. This is a good news/bad news move. The Good News is Foley gets so much speed and force that he flies through and it looked vicious. The Bad News is Cooper goes far slower and momentum forces him to gingerly tip over the top. The thought was there though. Cactus gets Cooper back in the ring and then hits a Double Arm DDT for the win.
I'm a big enough man to admit when something didn't work, and this was it. However because I have a fragile male ego and need to defend myself, I think that this may be an outlier and there are good Cactus squashes out there. It dragged and it was slow, but the apron legdrop and Double Clothesline were rad enough to get my motor running. It doesn't change my major point about how good Foley is except maybe I will add one caveat. Mick Foley is somehow underrated
Except in squash match
TLDR Review
Dude, I didn't love this. Maybe I should be more mankind to Foley. Why do Cactus Jack O' Lanterns scare me so damn much.
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