| Yet another installment in the "Why WCW lost untold millions of
dollars in 1993" series...
Mick Foley, known as Cactus Jack at the time, needed some time off
to be with his family and recover from some nagging injuries. So,
an angle is booked wherein Cactus would have two matches with Vader,
the WCW World Champion at the time. The first match was inconclusive,
allowing Cactus to get a rematch with the title on the line. During
the second match, on WCW Saturday Night, Vader powerbombed Cactus on
the concrete floor outside the ring. Foley's head hit visibly--and
audibly--hit the concrete, and EMTs stretchered him out
on national television. Althought it was just an angle, he did get
legitimately get a concussion because of the bump.
Some Internet wrestling fans, in their typical overzealousness, managed
to dig up Foley's home phone number and called him to see if he was all
right.
Now, instead of doing some sane angle, WCW decided to:
1) Have Cactus Jack disappear.
2) Send a "WCW Camera Crew," led by "Catherine White," around looking
for him.
3) Have Catherine White find a clean-shaven Cactus Jack hiding on in
the slums of Cleveland.
4) Make Cactus Jack have amnesia, thinking himself to be an ex-sailor
who can only remember the name "Dewey" (the name of his son
in real life).
5) Have amnesiac ex-sailor Cactus be a role model to all the other
homeless people in the slums, helping them better their lives.
6) Have him regain his memory after an actress playing his wife makes
an emotional plea at the behest of Mrs White.
It's also worth noting that Foley wanted his real wife, Colette, to
be in the angle, but WCW considered her too attractive. They claimed
that no one would believe that Cactus Jack had an attractive wife, and
so they got a fat ugly woman to play her. Foley also tried to stop
this retarded angle in the first place, but to no avail. The bookers
were convinced it was gold.
So, upon Cactus' return, he was made to wrestle Yoshi Kwan at Fall
Brawl '93 (in order to earn a shot against Vader), with a "bag of something
personal belonging to Cactus" on the line. Its contents were never
revealed. It was also revealed around this time that Cactus Jack
never had amnesia in the first place, and it was all just
mind games on his part to mess with Vader's head.
Cactus finally got his return match with Vader at Halloween Havoc '93
in a Texas Death Match. While ALL conventional booking by ANY sane
person on the face of the planet would have Foley go over to regain his
heat after the retarded angle, Vader retained his title after his manager,
Harley Race, zapped Foley with a tazer. Yes, a tazer. It should be noted that
the match was spectacular up until that point.
Foley was fired less than a year later. But don't feel too bad for him, he'd be hired by the World Wrestling Federation in 1995 and go on to make millions of dollars as one of their most popular superstars. | 
