Jim Cornette Reviews A&E’s WWE Rivals: Mick Foley vs. Triple H 

The best part, is when he even made HHH break character.

@@wilcee238 Yeah, in the one I'm thinking of both he and Stephanie had their lips pursed and twisted super hard to keep from smiling or laughing. And HHH was chomping on that gum 😆

@@wilcee238 H never broke character on tv with Rock. Live events, he did it all the time.

How right he was, when you remember 2002-2003 in WWE.

The game was prolly the best in 99 2000 with my baby Steph looking hot!!!!!!!!

Exactly. Not surprised for many, including Jim, to undervalue and downplay HHH'S greatness.

I remember the change in 2000, before the Royal Rumble street fight. Hunter looked like he was going to shit himself, and all Mick really did was take off his mask, and change his shirt. But Hunter was smart enough to know that doing spooky fingers would kill it, and when he won, it wouldn't mean anything. If he freaks out, and acts like he's scared out of his mind at "What fucking hornet's nest did I just kick?", NOW when he goes over, it means something. Even though I was 18 at that time (FUCK that's a long time ago), and I was smart to the business, they were able to suck me in, because I liked Mick, and I hated HHH's guts, and I just wanted to see Mick kick his ass, just once. And when Mankind became Cactus Jack, I truly believed that's what it would take for Mick to finally get the win. Because Hunter acted like that's what it would take, for Mick to get the win.

​@Special K Thanks Jim.

@@specialk9424man, I still wish Cactus would’ve won the street fight. The rest of the feud could’ve gone the exact same way, but I, and I think everyone else, wanted Cactus to win that match. It’s still my all time favorite, for a few reasons, but mostly because it’s one of the few times we saw Mick actually beating the shit of someone in a main event for most of the match, instead of taking all the hits, and he looked good doing it.

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Decent summation 👍

@@metallicbigtoe3949 My favorite version of Foley was 98’ mankind when he was siding with Paul Bearer again, and Kane. And the whole conspiracy angle with the Undertaker.

Sorry but Bret is ahead of Foley

WE LOVE MRS FOLEYS BABY BOY!!!

@@misterwardy1972 Bret's peak was before the attitude era. During the actual attitude era he was being wasted in WCW.

Seriously. When you take a piledriver into thumbtacks and just pop right up it doesnt make you look tough. It makes wrestling look goofy.

"They don't SELL", Seats and/or Moves.

Also, I fuckin loved Dude Love.

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I think the No Way Out match was better tbh .. both classics still

Most memorable to me is the one with Kane setting JR on fire

One of my favorite matches. And the build up to it was great.

I’m not a fan of those kind of matches, but the royal rumble street fight was done perfectly. With the way triple h and Stephanie treated Mick in the build. it made complete sense that Foley would want to really hurt Hunter and use barbed wire and thumbtacks to punish him.

I don't think this match gets enough praise and this really was the start of the game beating the hell out of mick

Because hhh himself said nobody did that for him

@@chrischar9428 Yeah that really sucked of HHH to say -- anyone who was watching at the time knew that HHH's title run was not setting the world on fire -- Mick MADE him

His feud with Orton also solidified Orton's ceiling as a main event star. Prior to the feud, he was viewed as nothing more than the pretty boy cocky young man from Evolution.

And he has always said he had his best matches with the one WWF wrestler not a part of the Attitude Era, HBK

Calling HHH a pillar of anything is a joke.

@@christiankarlkarganilla2763 he did that for triple h, undertaker, rock, orton, and edge. He took all of them to the next level

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Same

True story!

Except that one time when dude love interviewed mankind with cactus jack as a surprise guest.

@@ambushit6484 that's one of my all time favorite promos/matches. The way HHH sells being pissed off when Cactus debuts at the Garden was fucken awesome, the street fight was fucken awesome & the piledriver through the bigass table was fucken awesome BANG BANG

@@morningstar577 definitely one of the iconic promos/matches. I remember almost falling outta my chair when dude love said, "somebody spank me I thought he was dead."

Yea cuz he's a actor thats outta shape, he better act like he's something that's all he could do

Yea, that was odd to me.

@@Speedyreedy1218 Flair dominated 75% of match and Foley was left bloody, defenseless, and sobbing on the mat to protect…Melina…who turned on him the next night on RAW. Beyond stupid.

That and his match with Orton at Backlash in 2004 really elevated both those guys to the next level, you got to see a darker side to both those men, giving them that edge that they needed to become permanent main eventers. Mick put both those guys over like a million bucks.

Did you guys not watch any of the Foley/HHH matches from 1997? Or HHH/Austin at No Mercy 99? How it took Royal Rumble 2000 for some people to jump on board is beyond me.

@@Speedyreedy1218 Nobody is saying Triple H wasn't a good worker. But I think that RR match is really when people bought him as a main eventer.

@@daleharris3809 I bought him as one long before that.

He sold Mankind's transformation to Cactus in 2000 as well. H always has great facials.

@@Speedyreedy1218 Everyone knows how good Hunter and Shawn were, just don’t tell that to Jim or shit head Brian.

@@SpaceGhost92 Cornette has never said anything bad about their work. He hated the people they were backstage.

Apart from Stone Cold hitting Vince with the bedpan and zapping him with the defibrillator. 😲😂

Joe especially I first saw him in that match with Daniels and Aj those 2 triple threat matches were dope to see for the first time

It's because they were always athletic even before they got fatter but Kevin is more trim now and looks better

Believe it or not, they did work out. They just didn't have the genetics for the fruits of their labor to show. They had the muscle but you couldn't see it. Unlike a lot of the mudshow goofs who look like crap, work like crap and spend their down time sitting in front of their tv drinking beer and eating cheetos instead of working out in the gym.

@Mark Douglas KO did slim down a bit from when I last saw him.

@@AWX_Wrestling Like Bray Wyatt easy to see why Vince didn't see anything in him

Rock and Foley is a better rivalry.

@@sharpshooter07 No argument here. I still wince at RR 1999 with them MULTIPLE HEAD CHAIR shots.

@@sharpshooter07 it's more chaotic. But Foley and HHH didn't bounce the title back and forth. And turning it into a prop.

Some of the best matches ever in the WWE in my opinion

@@sharpshooter07 I disagree.

How could they not react to him? That's their hometown guy.

His in ring psychology and ability to draw you in his promos is also top notch. As I grow old, I tend to appreciate those aspects of Foley more than the bumps he took.

Dude is the life of the party type a guy.

Agreed. The problem as I see it is that the disciples of Foley who have entered the business after him only think about and work towards topping Mick’s iconic bumps. It’s sort of like how Jim says that Russo remembers “moments” like Piper smacking Snuka with the coconut, but not the storyline that came before and after. I suppose the whole situation is emblematic of the type of society we live in today, where attention spans for various forms of entertainment is noticeably shorter than it used to be.

Many wrestlers at least those who were stars of the 80s and 90s are good storytellers.

The HitC highspot at least told a story. He took an insane bump but then he made a miraculous comeback and proceeded to take more punishment. Plus it's befitting of a character like The Undertaker to do something ruthless as throwing as chucking their opponent from a great height. It's not just "man fall off cage". There was a how and why to it.

I'm surprised Jim and Brian forgot Foley won those matches in 97

Yep. And Canadian Stampede ended in a No Contest. But HHH bladed for Foley. That may have been the first person he got color for, Foley.

It's not just you looking with the perspective of how it ends. I've been an HHH fan since the very beginning and loved him immediately in 95. I always knew he had "it" and was going to be a big deal. The Blueblood is very underrated. I could see Gorgeous George, 70s Flair, and some Nick Bockwinkel too. All the nicknames he earned later in his career, you saw glimpses of it early on. All this talk everyone has about "not believing in HHH til the street fight at the 2000 rumble," I just don't get. Because I saw "it" in the summer of 1997 with those Foley matches.

But don't think anyone could have ever imagined Trips would essentially become the most powerful man in wrestling, running the biggest wrestling promotion in the world and that his buddies like Shawn Michaels and Road Dogg running everything, DX literally runs the wrestling world, not the nWo, not The Bullet Club, but Degeneration X

@@TimeBomb014X I saw it. And for me, Armageddon 99 was the final stamp of reassurance.

I loved his character from the beginning too. When you really think about it, he always maintained his king-like stance. When he would emerge during Wrestlemania, he would always readopt this persona to make his entrances. I’ve always loved him.

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The other thing was that they dont just have gimmick matches just to have them. Each time they had to up the anty, it had a purpose and reason behind it

Yeah it was a Monday night Raw?

And at Summerslam 97 in the cage. Foley won that one as well. Surprised Jim and Brian forgot those matches.

They're both storytellers.

Yep

PleaZe stop making me feel old... Like when Randy Orton was with Rick Flair and he said a guy with a beard came up to him saying I watched you as a kid... That made Randy feel old...

Respect to Foley.

Cornette give HHH as he was back then any credit? Hell will freeze over before he does that, Cornette is still holding a grudge against him for the Curtain Call.

'Ode to Joy' IS the Beethoven symphony, the choral part from his Ninth. HHH first entrance theme was a little harpsichord piece. He started using Beethoven in 97.

@@Devypocalypse Yes I said Beethoven was in 97.

The Booker T thing really muddies that up too, and I dont know how responsible he was for that travesty.

@@whitewhale9012 It wasn't a travesty. Goldberg was the biggest WCW star they had in that Bischoff controlled era. So that's who HHH was going to drop it to. Not DDP if he stayed. Not Steiner, not Booker (in that state anyway), but Goldberg. Booker was ruined as soon as he was booked to lose the WCW title to Rock at 2001 Summerslam. Rock mocked his hair, his intelligence. He went from being a force and alliance figurehead to Austin taking over and Booker being relagated to Shane's stooge. Then once the alliance lost at Survivor Series, he was made a joke with Austin beating him in a grocery store. Then he was still made a joke feuding the next year with Edge over a shampoo commercial. Then being made the weak link in the nwo. Then in a parody tag team with Goldust. He wins a battle royal three weeks before WM19 and you expect him to win the WHC from a well established heel HHH? When the Booker of 2003 was FAR FROM the white hot Booker of June and July 2001? Hell no. That's bad booking and lack of story development. 2006 King Booker. THAT was the major character development he needed to be taken seriously once again as a strong singles to push. It began with his fall 2005 U.S. title feud leading to the heel turn. It continued into spring 2006 winning KOTR. Now we had a solid 6 months of serious, no joke cracking, spinnarooni Booker. And that's when you pull the trigger. And they did. That summer he was world champ and he had a run longer than Edge's popcorn title switches with Cena every other month.

@@Speedyreedy1218 Booking an angle where a heel is overtly racist, the commentators repeatedly tell you the black guy is a criminal, the racist heel wins the feud with no shenanigans, and even takes 30 seconds to pin him... just so you know the racist is superior by miles is bad booking. Unless your goal is to affirm the awesomeness of racism. If that was the goal, they did a great job. Cos that was the message of THAT little morality play. It's really not complicated. There are millions of ways to book that angle with the same participants with the same result that dont come across so horribly. Listening to guys like Pritchard pretend the racial overtones didnt actually exist is just embarrassing. It wasnt veiled. PLEASE dont pretend that wasnt the crux of the feud. They did everything short of dropping N-bombs on him. It was pure cringe. Also, your post really drives home how badly Booker was utilized overall.

@@whitewhale9012 It wasn't racist. As a Black tween myself when it happened, I wasn't offended. I've watched it several times as a woman many years since, and still am not offended. It ways a feud on classism and elitism. Heels are supposed to make you riled up, feel uncomfortable, and make you think they're crossing a line. If the audience chooses to get worked up and imply a racial overtone when that isn't the case, that's on them. You're indirectly giving this heel more heat. I loved the match and they told a good story with the very little time they were given. Booker got IC and tag title pushes afterward. He got US title pushes and a WWE title match the following year when placed on Smackdown. So he wasn't buried. A burial would be Booker Curtain jerking every week, no angles on TV, not on the main show broadcast (i.e. only wrestling on Heat. No more Raw appearances). That did NOT happen. You don't have to have liked the angle. That's fine. But saying Booker was buried and HHH was racist is an exaggeration.

Goldust was good too. Meh on Jeff Jarrett.

Not everything he did made sense. The thumb tacks we're stupid and we all knew he was landing on them. It was pointless and advanced nothing

Did he do it?

What do you mean “leaving”?

Bro what

I will be "leaving" between now and 22nd of October 2024 as I don't want to turn 40 I've always said I'll not see 40 so if fate doesn't deal with it I will

he was the perfect foil to austin and rock, a real despicable heel.

And was he not so much better when him and Shawn reunited as DX just the two of them when they battled the Vince and shane

His look around that time justified his spot imo.

That's how I felt about the Austin push. 97, 98, 99, 01 were LONG years for me as a fan. I was so excited for the millennium to be the FrancHHHise's time. #TeamTripleH

I'd replace Foley with HHH.

Those are the 8 I always choose

@@Speedyreedy1218 blasphemy

@@cyrus2546 Not at to me.

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He lost to Austin and Rock plenty of times in 97-99. He lost to Foley several times in 97. And lost to Undertaker countless times. Put Angle over too. This "HHH beat everyone" narrative is BS.

The advantages of dating Stephanie....

Yup. And Canadian Stampede ended in a No contest. HHH did a blade job for him too.

Who?