“I wanted to be where the blood and guts were, Jimmy”

Jim Ross (commentating): Later tonight, we'll look further into the psyche of Mankind. Last week we told you about the strange childhood of Mickey Foley, a young with a niche for pain and an appetite for worms.

Mankind: I picked up the largest specimen, Jimmy, and I sucked it down!!

Jim Ross (commentating): On the surface, young Mickey Foley was just like the other boys. He even played high school lacrosse, but Mickey played goalie without the benefit of pads.

Mankind: Losing the chest protector was not enough, and I began to tempt fate, tempt certain pain even more. I removed my protective cup. And, Jimmy, I'm not going to say I didn't pay the price one May morning, because I did, I went down like I'd been shot. I remember the girls field hockey team watching me, as they strapped ice packs to my affected area and shipped me off in an ambulance. The doctors said that it would be at least three weeks before the swelling would go down and I could go back to school. But even though my testicle was the size of a grapefruit, I made it back to school the next day!! It was the only time in my high school years that I remember girls looking at my genital region. I considered that the greatest day of my high school days!!

Jim Ross (commentating): In the next hour, we'll take you back to October 17, 1983, Madison Square Garden. It was a defining moment in a young man's life.

Mankind: It took just about all the money I had in the world, but I got a front row seat. And I saw the move that would change my life...

Jim Ross (commentating): There is no simple explanation for why a man becomes deranged. From childhood, Mickey Foley's affection for pain made him different. Despite coming from a loving and caring household, he was not at home. Mickey Foley was searching for a place to belong.

Mankind: It was 1983 in upstate New York where it might be a nice place for a lot of boys, but not when Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco were in a cage in October. Madison Square Garden, that's where I wanted to be!! I didn't want to ride horses along a field. I didn't want to fish for trout in a stream. I wanted to be where the blood and guts were, Jimmy. So I put out my thumb, Jimmy, and it took sixteen or seventeen hours, but I made my way to the Garden. It took just about all the money I had in the world, but I got a front row seat, and I saw the move that would change my life...when Jimmy Snuka came off the top of the cage. I saw people stand up, and I saw people cheer, and I knew that I wasn't the only person whose life was changed in that arena. I realized, Jimmy, that I wanted to do the same thing. I wanted to hear people cheer for me for some act of bravery that I commited. I wanted to hear, see people's emotions. I wanted to see children cry out of love for me and the things I could do inside of the ring. That's my first time in Madison Square Garden and my parents weren't there. I did it just about like I've done everything else in my life, all by myself.

Jim Ross (commentating): That's when Mickey Foley developed an alter-ego. A superstar with the athleticism of Jimmy Snuka and the sex appeal he so desperately wanted in high school.

Mankind: I made a movie when I was eighteen. About myself, maybe as a type of escape, where I was a wrestler. And it's strange, the first time I ever met Shawn Michaels, you know him.

Jim Ross: Oh yes, very well.

Mankind: He looked at my scarred and battered body. He didn't know me, but he knew the legend of who I was before. He said, "Is this the way you always envisioned yourself?", looking somewhat down on me. And I said, "No, you know, the strange thing is I always imagined myself being you." And he said to me, "The champ..." I said, "No, I mean, the girls, the jewelry, the tattoos, the love." So in my movie, I was not Mick Foley, I sure as hell wasn't Mankind. I was Dude Love.

(A clip of his home video is aired)

Mankind: And during the course of the movie, dating back to my experience in Madison Square Garden, I decided I was going to do something heroic. I was going to do something to make people cheer for me. So I ascended up onto my friend's roof, and I dove off.

Jim Ross (commentating): Ironically, Dude Love gave Mick Foley his first break. It became an underground hit and somehow wound up in the hands of wrestling great Dominic Denucci. Denucci admired Mick's guts more than his skill and took him under his wing. Every weekend for the next two years, Mick traveled 800 miles round trip. Eating and sleeping in the back seat of his '79 Ford Fairmont, still hoping to realize his dream.

Mankind: I knew I wasn't ready to be Dude Love yet. I never wanted to be Cactus Jack. I figured, here is a horrible name for a horrible wrestler. And by golly, as soon as I get the ability, then I'll get that heart tattoo on my chest and I'll put those earrings in, and I'm gonna get the girls. It never really worked out that way did it Jimmy?

Jim Ross: Not quite.

Mankind: I guess nature didn't cooperate with me. Cactus Jack was supposed to be around for three months. He stayed for eleven years.

Jim Ross (commentating): Next week, Mickey Foley becomes Cactus Jack. Eleven years in a sadistic sub-culture of nails, barbed wire, and bombs. A lost soul still searching for a place to belong.

Mankind: I walked out the first time I saw barbed wire strung up in place of ring ropes. I said, "I'm finally home!! Mrs. Foley's little boy is finally home!!"