[1997-05-19-WWF-Raw] Interview: Mankind

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

The first installment of the Mankind interviews with Jim Ross! This is frighteningly good … even better than the Goldust ones. Footage was mixed in of Mick jumping off of his roof as Dude Love, which from my understanding was a rare thing circulated in trading communities prior to this. This was step one in Mick Foley becoming a major star in the promotion.

[Kevin Ridge]

My memory was off as I thought the Mankind interviews started before the Goldust ones. These interviews were great with old backyard clips of Foley including that crazy dive he took off the roof on a house. Mankind thinks he’s a good kisser. Rainman delivery there. The hype the next’s week segment of Dude Love and Cactus Jack!

[soup23]

I like these better than the Gold Dust ones because it feels more organic humanizing Foley and I get his plight into becoming Mankind more. Ready to see this whole series play out and Mick get elevated.

[BackToBionic]

Gosh these are so good. I loved the cowboys and indians line. The difference between these and the Goldust ones is that in those he's saying "I'm not Goldust, I just made that character up to feed my family. In reality I'm totally different." In Foley's he's using his reality to show why he became the way he is...there's still a level of kayfabe.

[PeteF3]

Yes, Mick as has been usual has his finger on the pulse of where wrestling and kayfabe are going, to a greater degree than just about anyone else. It's kind of a crime that Foley never had any kind of shot at a position in creative, because I think he was the kind of experienced and creative voice that wrestling could have used in the 21st century. A tremendous start to a great series--Mick bares his soul but gets off a number of funny lines ("Now I'm not saying I didn't take money to eat other strange things...") as well.

[Exposer]

This is an incredible piece of business. They straddle the line between kayfabe & reality perfectly here. Foley's amazing here being as compelling & terrifying as ever but at the same time becoming sympathetic. These interviews are probably the best character pieces in WWF history. The Undertaker feud got Foley over in the ring, but these interviews got him over as a character.