Cactus Jack is the name that
Mick Foley decided to take when he started his career in
professional wrestling. It was supposed to just last a couple of months, until Foley was good enough to become
Dude Love, but, well...
shit happens sometimes. (See
Dude Love for more information on that
tangent.)
Mick's friends back in
East Setauket,
New York used to refer to Foley's father (Jack,
duh) as "Cactus Jack", because when he was supervising
athletic events at
Ward Melville High School, he'd stand motionless against a wall for hours on end--like a
cactus. When Foley needed to create a character to wrestle as,
Cactus Jack was just the first thing to pop into his head.
And thus,
Cactus Jack, hailing from
Truth or Consequences,
New Mexico, was born.
Foley wrestled as
Cactus Jack for the first decade of his
wrestling career, taking the character first to the independent leagues and then to
World Championship Wrestling,
Extreme Championship Wrestling, and
Japan.
When Foley entered the
World Wrestling Federation he became known as
Mankind (see the
Mankind node if you're interested as to
why).
A year later,
Vince McMahon decided to let Foley introduce
Cactus Jack. So, Cactus debuted at
Madison Square Garden on one
hot summer night on
Raw is War in 1997, as a way to decisively end his ongoing feud with
HHH.
That, indeed, is how
Cactus Jack came to be used in the
WWF--most of the time he was
Mankind, occasionally he was
Dude Love--but when a
feud needed to be ended, they brought in
Cactus Jack.
Foley also finished his career as
Cactus Jack, wrestling his last few matches in early 2000 as Cactus against--
ironically enough--
HHH.
For more information about Foley's career in general, see
Mick Foley.