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#4 Mrs. Foley’s Baby Boy Wins The Big One
To each of us, there are always certain Raw moments that stand out as massively emotional for a wide variety of reasons. Case in point, your humble scribe here remembers going absolutely crazy at Chris Jericho defeating Triple H for the WWF Championship back in April 2000, only to see the decision eventually reversed (damn you, Hunter…).
One thing we can likely all agree on, though, is that Mick Foley finally winning the big one on the January 4, 1999 edition of Monday Night Raw was a moment that was so emotional for so many of the right reasons.
In more recent years there has been CM Punk and Daniel Bryan as two examples of guys whose face didn’t fit when Vinny Mac was looking at who his World Champion should be, but before them, there was Mick freakin’ Foley.
Foley himself has regularly talked over the years about how Vince McMahon refused to hire him time and time again, with him ringing the then-WWF every time his WCW or ECW contract deals were coming to an end. And each and every time he’d be greeted with a “we’re not interested right now” response. Luckily for Foley, Jim Ross would manage to get McMahon to reluctantly agree to sign The Hardcore Legend. But even then, he was largely designed to be just another guy for The Undertaker to beat.
Lacking the physique or dashing leading man looks of what Vince is always after in his top talent, Foley was always going to face an uphill battle to succeed in the World Wrestling Federation back then. But Vince McMahon be damned, for that is exactly what Saint Mick would do.
The culmination of Foley’s struggles came on that January ’99 episode of Raw where he’d shockingly defeat The Rock for the WWF Championship, with the crowd boisterous in a way that is sadly rarely seen these days. There was Foley, there was The Rock, there was Steve Austin involved, there was D-Generation X, and it all came together to make one of the most memorable, loudest, and emotional moments in Raw history.
