sportbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

25 years since the 'Three Faces Of Mick Foley' Royal Rumble match

25 years since the 'Three Faces Of Mick Foley' Royal Rumble match

Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love all took part in the same Royal Rumble match back in 1998, which was won by Stone Cold Steve Austin.

25 years ago, Mick Foley entered the Royal Rumble match three times, as the 'Three Faces of Foley' came into the match and left one by one.

Every year at the 'Rumble,' we're reminded by WWE that 30 wrestlers enter and only one ends up in the ring, as 29 others are thrown over the top rope.

However, that's not actually the truth every time, with the one proper exception coming back in 1998, when only 28 wrestlers entered, but one of them came down the entrance three times.

The man involved was Foley, who went into the match as all three of his characters, Cactus Jack, Dude Love and Mankind, but still didn't manage to win.

Cactus Jack entered first and was greeted with friend, and occasional foe, Chainsaw Charlie coming in at number two, with only Shawn Michaels having won from number one at that time.

He lasted in the match for nine minutes until Charlie eliminated him. Having been the second person out of the match Foley didn't return until the 16th entrant, this time as Mankind, but lasted just over two minutes before Goldberg eliminated him.

Finally he returned as Dude Love in the 28th position, lasted another seven minutes, and was taken out by Farooq, which left just the former leader of the Nation of Domination, The Rock and Stone Cold as the last three in the match.

Farooq was then eliminated by The Rock but it would be Stone Cold who won the Rumble by getting rid of the 'Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment,' earning his second Rumble win in-a-row.

'98 was a classic Rumble in the Attitude Era and seeing Cactus Jack and Dude Love back in the ring, both of whom hadn't been seen in a WWE ring since the previous year, was a delight for everyone.

In the following year, Foley would actually compete as all three of his characters in a wide array of matches, all going down in history for their own reason.

He and Chainsaw Charlie won the tag team titles off the New Age Outlaws at WrestleMania XIV, in a Dumpster Match, before having the titles taken off them.

1998 wasn't Foley's only legendary Royal Rumble moment. Image: WWE
1998 wasn't Foley's only legendary Royal Rumble moment. Image: WWE

Later in the year he fought as Dude Love and lost a World Championship match against Stone Cold at Over the Edge, before being 'sacked.'

As Mankind, he took on the Undertaker in the infamous Hell in a Cell match at King of the Ring, leading to the famous line in commentary by good ol' JR, Jim Ross, "As God as my witness, he is broken in half!"

Foley would have two more extremely important moments at the Rumble event, though neither of them would be in the 30 man over the top rope event.

In 99' he took on the Rock in a rather brutal 'I Quit' match for the World Championship, as Mankind, with the challenger taking a ridiculous amount of chair shots to the head, in a sequence that is difficult to watch in the modern day.

A year later he was once again competing for the title, this time it was his first occasion competing as Cactus Jack in nearly two years.

He faced Triple H in a Street Fight, once again he came up just short, in another pretty brutal match.

Featured Image Credit: WWE

Topics: Wrestling, WWE, Royal Rumble, Triple H