In an interview with Sports Illustrated, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley commented on a variety of topics, including the importance of his Cactus Jack character.

“It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Cactus Jack was supposed to be a generic, boring name for a 6-foot-4, 220 pound Long Islander big on heart, but lacking in athletic ability and the thick slabs of muscle which had become almost mandatory in the mat game by the mid-eighties. So when I was asked my name 31 Junes ago at the Clarksburg, West Virginia armory before the first match of my career, the name ‘Cactus Jack’ just kind of came out. I only intended to be Cactus Jack long enough to learn the ropes and develop enough confidence to become the man I really thought I was destined to become – Dude Love, eye candy for the ladies, the object of so many women’s affections, that long ago he’d refused to count them all. Mother Nature had other plans however, and 11 years later, I was still Cactus Jack when the WWE finally came calling with the opportunity to wrestle The Undertaker.

Mr. McMahon, you see, was not a Cactus Jack fan. But, following a notable first year in a leather mask as Mankind, Mr. McMahon had a change of heart, and not only gave Cactus Jack the occasional opportunity in WWE, but built up the Cactus character to be my toughest and wildest incarnation of all. It was if he was admitting to me, and whoever out there was watching, that he just might have missed the boat on that Cactus Jack guy after all! In allowing a guy who (in his opinion) didn’t look like a star, Mr. McMahon just may have opened up the possibility that other unlikely prospects might find a home, and stardom inside the WWE. Maybe, just maybe, the lesson learned from the Cactus Jack experiment helped open the door for future WWE Superstars such as Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, and Kevin Owens – all of whom flourished in what would have been seen as a very unlikely environment a generation earlier.”

The interview is available in full at this link.