History
Mick Foley was having an identity crisis and that was never a good thing. By December of 1997, he had moved from his Mankind and Dude Love personas and returned to the familiar garb of Cactus Jack.
By December 29th, he realized that he needed backup in his feud with the New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and the Road Dogg). Cactus came out on that episode of Raw with a barbed wire baseball bat, but still fell prey to the hockey stick wielding Outlaws. Cactus finally fought back and the three brawled up the ramp, toward a mysterious wooden box. Cactus finally threw Billy into the box and a chainsaw cut through beside him. As Billy cleared out, Chainsaw Charlie cut his way through the box to stand beside Cactus. (Charlie was, of course, Terry Funk.)
The next week the Outlaws were going against the Headbangers. The match ended after Mosh missed the stage dive and was pinned. Afterward Cactus and Chainsaw hit the ring to attack the Outlaws.
The next week, we saw a video where Cactus revealed that Chainsaw was Terry Funk. Afterward, Mankind was set to take on Goldust, who was dressed as Dude Love that week. Mankind immediately defeated him with the mandible claw, and then both men were attacked by Stone Cold Steve Austin.
That brought us to the Royal Rumble. The first two competitors in the Rumble itself were Cactus and Chainsaw, who immediately attacked each other. They brawled until Tom Brandi entered at #3. They quickly overwhelmed and pitched Brandi, and then fought until Rocky Maivia came in as #4. Chainsaw wound up eliminating Cactus between entrants 7 & 8.
Later, Mankind came out and was eliminated by Goldust, but not before he took Chainsaw out of the match. As might be predicted, Dude Love was #28 and wound up eliminated by Faarooq.
The next night Cactus and Chainsaw were set to face off against the Quebecers. The match soon deteriorated into a brawl which the referee threw out. After Funk dove onto the other competitors on the floor, Cactus grabbed his barbed wire baseball bat to send the Quebecers sprinting for the back.
Cactus and Chainsaw finally got their shot at the Outlaws the next week. As might be expected, this wasn’t a match so much as a fight for survival. Cactus and Chainsaw wound up disqualified after Chainsaw started throwing chairs into the ring. Afterward Cactus stole Road Dogg’s cup and hit a low blow, then piled the chairs on top of him and Chainsaw hit a moonsault.
Later in the night, Cactus and Chainsaw were in mid-interview when DX (HHH, HBK, and Chyna) showed up. They provided a distraction so the Outlaws could attack them from behind. They pinned Cactus and Chainsaw under the old cyclone fencing set, then attacked with trash cans.
The next week opened with a match between Chainsaw and Cactus. Cactus brought out a dumpster when he entered. Finally, Chainsaw was in the dumpster so Cactus climbed a ladder and dropped an elbow onto him. That was the cue for the Outlaws. They hit the stage, locked the dumpster shut, and shoved it off the stage.
The next thing we saw was Vince arguing with the Outlaws as wrestlers fought to open the dumpster. When they got it open, Sunny started crying. She knelt and took Chainsaw’s hand as the EMTs started work. Flash Funk, meanwhile, was being held back from going after the Outlaws, who looked remorseful. Finally Chainsaw and Cactus were loaded into an ambulance and taken away.
Backstage, the Outlaws were talking about how they’d gone too far when DX stopped them. Shawn Michaels told them to keep it up, because what they’d done would draw the all-important ratings.
Michael Cole called in from the hospital to let Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler know that something was going on and the police had arrived.
In the main event, DX had come out with the Outlaws when Steve Austin attacked. The five of them easily gained control and tied Austin up in the ropes as Michaels taunted him with the world title. Suddenly Cactus (armed with an IV stand) and Chainsaw (with chainsaw) came down the ramp and attacked, driving DX away.
The next week the Outlaws came out to talk about the incident the week before and wound up shoving another dumpster off the stage. They headed down to the floor and pulled two inflatable dummies dressed like Cactus and Chainsaw out of the wreckage. They then went on to mock Cactus and Chainsaw.
Meanwhile, DX had been having a bad night. Steve Austin had stolen Shawn Michaels’s world title and they’d been trying to get it back. Finally they came down to the ring to complain. Austin hit the ring and drove them out by using the belt as a weapon. The Outlaws came out to assist and then a chainsaw bit through the ring canvas as Chyna retrieved Shawn’s belt. Cactus and Chainsaw climbed out from under the ring to close the show. DX and the Outlaws headed to the back to close the show.
That brought us to In Your House: No Way Out. The main event was Austin, Cactus, Chainsaw, and Owen Hart against the Outlaws, HHH, and Savio Vega (who was subbing for an injured Shawn Michaels). The match was wild but went to a whole new level when Savio grabbed a roll of barbed wire and started tying Cactus up with it. Billy Gunn grabbed a chair and swung only to nail Road Dogg instead. Cactus tagged Austin back in, who cleaned house. In the end, Austin hit Billy with the Stunner for the win. After the match, Chyna hit the ring to chew Austin out and gave him the double finger salute, so Austin gave her a Stunner as well.
The next week on Raw, Michael Cole hit the parking lot to talk to the Outlaws. The interview was interrupted by Cactus and Chainsaw. Cactus smashed the car’s windshield with a bat while Chainsaw used his chainsaw.
The following Raw opened with the Outlaws coming out wearing neck braces while a dumpster was at the end of the ramp. They talked about suing Chainsaw and Cactus for their injuries when Commissioner Slaughter appeared on the Titantron. He informed them that he knew their injuries were fake and they would defend their titles against Disciples of Apocalypse members Skull and 8-Ball (the ever-popular Harris Brothers). The Outlaws quickly gave up on the match and were heading to the back when the dumpster opened and Cactus and Chainsaw popped out. The match was thrown out as the Outlaws cleared out.
We had a Quebecers/Chainsaw & Cactus rematch the next week. Cactus got the win, and then Road Dogg appeared at the top of the ramp to taunt him. Cactus headed after him only to see Chainsaw get ambushed by Billy Gunn.
Chainsaw had a one on one match against Billy Gunn the next week. Of course, Billy brought his partner and a dumpster. Billy dominated in the beginning, but Chainsaw turned the tide after kicking out of two piledrivers. Chainsaw fought Road Dogg out of the ring then DDT’d Billy onto a title belt. Afterward, Cactus hit the ring and the two of them looped a cable around Road Dogg’s ankles, and then hoisted him into the air.
The next Raw had another rematch between the Quebecers and Chainsaw & Cactus. Cactus and Chainsaw had things well in hand until the Outlaws sat down on the top of the ramp in tuxedos. As the match went on, the Outlaws (and some inflatable dates) had dinner. Suddenly the two of them grabbed the table and attacked. Chainsaw went through the table and Cactus was hit with their champagne bucket. As Cactus got hit with a piledriver the referees hit the ring to break it up.
That brought us to Wrestlemania, where Cactus and Chainsaw got a shot at the Outlaws in a barbed wire match. Well, before the show, the PPV companies balked at that, so it was switched to a dumpster match. In order to win, your opponents had to go into a dumpster and you had to close the lids.
Cactus and Chainsaw attacked before the Outlaws could even get into the ring. As you might expect, the match was a wild brawl around the ringside area but neither team could shut the lid on their opponents. They finally battled backstage, where Chainsaw showed up driving a forklift. Cactus loaded the Outlaws onto a pallet, and then Chainsaw dropped them into a dumpster and used the forklift to hold the lids closed. Just like that we had new tag team champions.
The next night’s main event was a rematch between Cactus and Chainsaw and the Outlaws for the belts. You see, Cactus and Chainsaw had apparently locked the Outlaws in the wrong dumpster. Anyway, this was a cage match. The Outlaws gained an advantage when they tied Chainsaw to the cage, but Cactus was still holding his own until DX (now HHH, Chyna, and the just-debuted X-Pac) hit the ring and hopped the cage. Cactus was no match for the four of them. As Raw closed, DX (now with five members) climbed the cage and posed.
Cactus came out alone the next week. He sat down in the middle of the ring and talked about how Chainsaw had been ready to retire the week before as an undefeated tag team champion, but he’d talked him out of it. Cactus then talked about how throughout the DX beating he and Chainsaw had received, he’d heard the crowd. And they were chanting for Steve Austin. Cactus then told the crowd that they’d seen the last of Cactus Jack for a very long time and left the ring.
This was a time when Mick Foley really reached the next level as Cactus Jack. He was set for wild brawls (the norm in ECW), and with Terry Funk by his side, that was what you were going to get.
The worst problem with the angle was Chainsaw Charlie. Not Terry Funk – he was a vital part. The problem was that Cactus Jack and Terry Funk would have made a more dangerous tag team, and one better known to the fans. As noted above, by week two it was already being revealed that Terry was Chainsaw, so it soon became one of the worst kept secrets in wrestling (like the fact that Dusty Rhodes was the Midnight Rider or Brian Christopher was Jerry Lawler’s son).
Despite that, the matches were fun and showed Cactus and Funk’s strengths off perfectly. The close of the angle, when Cactus said goodbye, was another of Mick Foley’s strengths. Mick was always good at injecting emotion into his promos (like his response to the Cane Dewey sign in ECW), and this time you could feel his pain as he said goodbye in response to the disrespect he felt from the fans.
Mick Foley soon changed back into Dude Love. This time, however, the Dude was working for Mr. McMahon. By the end of the year, Dude had morphed into Mankind, who was believed to be the Corporate Champion going into the Survivor Series. At the 2000 No Way Out, HHH defeated Mankind in a match where Mankind had put his career on the line. He made one more wresting appearance at Wrestlemania, and then became the Commissioner. That lasted until the 2001 Survivor Series when, following a falling out with Vince McMahon, Foley left the WWF. Foley has since made sporadic wrestling appearances for the WWE, but currently appears to be retired.
Terry Funk returned to WCW following his departure from the WWF and remained there until 2000. From there, Funk competed for Major League Wrestling. In 2005 Funk’s status became an issue as he was offered deals to appear at both Shane Douglas’s Hardcore Homecoming and the WWE’s ECW One Night Stand PPV. Funk turned down the WWE to compete on Douglas’s show instead. A year later, however, Funk appeared at the second One Night Stand. Funk has since returned to a state of semi-retirement.
