The WWE Attitude Era stands as one of the most revolutionary and culturally significant periods in professional wrestling history. Among the defining figures of this era, and a pivotal character in the Monday Night Wars, was Mick Foley. Known to fans as Mankind, Cactus Jack, and Dude Love, Foley may not have had the mainstream appeal of Stone Cold Steve Austin or The Rock, but his contribution was undeniable. His hardcore style, emotional storytelling, and underdog persona deeply resonated with audiences, making him an essential part of the era’s identity.
Foley’s matches are some of the most unforgettable in wrestling history, none more so than his 1998 Hell in a Cell clash with The Undertaker. During that match, Foley was thrown 16 feet from the top of the cell through the Spanish announce table and later choke-slammed through the cell roof itself — moments that became iconic visuals of the Attitude Era. These daring stunts cemented Foley’s reputation as one of the toughest, most fearless and “sickest SOBs” in the business.
While Foley had countless memorable matches throughout the Attitude Era and the rest of his career, he doesn’t consider his iconic Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker (or any match from the Attitude Era for that matter) as his greatest. Surprisingly, Foley considers his standout match to be against Randy Orton at 2004’s Backlash, thanks to the lasting impact it had on Orton’s career and the way it reshaped fans’ perception of him.
“My favorite match was Backlash against Randy Orton,” Foley explained on a recent episode of the Chris Van Vliet podcast. “Crazy thing is, if he has a new favorite, I don’t want to know about it. He’s technically, probably had better matches. But the idea of being in that spot, people ask me, you will just say you made somebody.”
Foley continued, “No one person makes anybody. It takes a lot of people, a lot of factors, and even if the bases were loaded for Randy, it’s still up to him to knock it out of the park. And he did, and one of the wisest decisions I ever made.”
Foley’s Backlash 2004 match against Randy Orton, a Hardcore match for the Intercontinental Championship, marked his return to the ring after a four-year hiatus. At the time, Orton was portraying his “Legend Killer” gimmick, feuding with older, more established wrestlers like Foley, Shawn Michaels, and The Undertaker. Foley enjoyed the program with Orton not only because it helped “put him over” with the fans in a new way, but also because it gave him the chance to help establish a younger wrestler’s career by putting him through the punishing gauntlet of a hardcore match with Foley.
Foley added, “And it was like the fans looked at him like he was a completely different guy. And it really made me feel good.”
Orton himself has echoed this sentiment, citing his 2004 Backlash match against Foley as one of the most important in his career. When asked on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show what his favorite match was, he replied, “Gosh. You know, I’ve been asked that before and that’s a very hard question because I’ve had a lot of matches, I consider to be like up there as my favorite. But when I was 24 years old, I wrestled Mick Foley at Backlash in a hardcore match.”
Orton continued, “That match probably was the most important one in my career, I think, because the fans saw me put myself, put my body through something they had never seen me put my body through before. It was a very physical match. Lots of blood, lots of sweat, some tears. But I think I earned the fans’ respect that night. From then on, I could tell something was different in the air when I would walk through that curtain.”
Do you consider his match against Randy Orton at Backlash 2004 one of Foley’s greatest? What match do you consider the greatest in Foley’s career?
