The Kayfabe Chronicles: Triple H's Antics Resurrect Long-Gone Persona Posted by J.D. Dunn on 04.10.2007
You've Done It Now, Triple H!
Triple H's Antics Resurrect Long-Gone Persona by staff writerGeorge Sirois
January 14, 2000
Can Cactus Jack deliver the same violent beating to Triple H that he did in 1997?
CHICAGO Two years ago, the persona of Cactus Jack a journeyman who had seen it all and done it all was locked away by the man who portrayed him, when WWF fans cheered for another man while he lay in a pool of his own blood in the ring. They had disregarded everything that he had just gone through and instead chanted for Stone Cold Steve Austin. The man who was Cactus Jack superstar Mick Foley decided that it would be a long time before the fans saw that side of him again. It would take something drastic for that persona to return.
That time is now, and it's all thanks to current WWF Champion Hunter Hearst Helmsley. This January 23, Cactus Jack will be stepping in the ring to take on Triple H in a street fight for the richest prize in the game, and Triple H has nobody to blame but himself.
Helmsley and Foley are no strangers to each other. They built up a quick mutual disliking in 1997 when they fought in the King of the Ring finals. Triple H won that match against Foley's other persona Mankind, and they had another encounter in that year's SummerSlam in a highly memorable cage match. But Triple H wouldn't go away quietly, so Mick Foley had to dip into his past and bring out Cactus Jack to finish the feud. And finish it, he did with a piledriver through a table on the stage area.
It has now only been about five weeks since Triple H regained the WWF Championship from The Big Show and declared the beginning of a new era in the company the McMahon-Helmsley Era with his wife Stephanie McMahon Helmsley by his side. But since that time, the two of them have managed to earn the contempt of all the employees there; wrestlers, referees, everyone. It was no surprise that the one wrestler who was the most vocal against this new era was Mankind, and so Triple H took him and The Rock former tag-team partners and Triple H's most dangerous opponents and put them against each other in a "pinkslip on a pole match."
The thought of so much blood brought back Cactus Jack.
Mankind lost, and was therefore fired from the WWF. But Triple H had to keep pushing the issue even though he supposedly won the war. He began mocking Mankind / Mick Foley with a series of badly-produced short films called "Have a Bad Day" with Dennis Knight portraying a pathetic version of Mankind trying to get a job in the "real world" (although the impression was dead-on). Only when the entire WWF locker room rebelled against Triple H and Stephanie was Triple H forced to re-instate Mick Foley, and the challenge was made for the January 23 Royal Rumble.
Triple H's constant humiliation of Mick Foley continued even after the re-instatement, and it was after beating Mick in an eight-man tag match that he had finally had enough of it. He stood before Triple H and announced that after the beating he gave him last Monday night, "one thing Mankind is not is ready to face you in a street fight at the Royal Rumble at Madison Square Garden. But I think the WWF fans deserve a substitute in that match " And at that moment, Mankind pulled off his mask and opened up his shirt, revealing a very familiar "Wanted Dead" shirt underneath.
On January 23, we're going to see just what is in store for Triple H. Considering what he's been through with Cactus Jack in the past, he really should have known better. He should have brushed aside Mankind instead of going out of his way to make an example of him. And even after the "pinkslip on a pole" match, he should have just concentrated on someone else instead of producing those short films. By pressing the issue in everyone's faces, he earned the contempt of even superstars that have fought and lost against Mankind in the past.
On January 23, all of the past missteps that Triple H has made will come back to haunt him like the ghost that Cactus Jack once was: a ghost that has now been resurrected, thanks to the WWF Champion.
