page_title: Mick Foley
section_title: Commissioner and departure (2000–2001)
hierarchical_section_title: Mick Foley / Professional wrestling career / World Wrestling Federation/WWF / Commissioner and departure (2000–2001)
caption_attribution_description: Mick Foley in WrestleMania X-Seven Fan Axxess
context_page_description: Michael Francis Foley is an American actor, author, retired professional wrestler, and color commentator. He's currently signed to WWE.
  Foley worked for many wrestling promotions, including the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and National Wrestling Alliance, as well as numerous promotions in Japan. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of WWE, and participated in the main event of WrestleMania in 1999 and 2000. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2013.
  Foley has wrestled under his real name and various personas. His main persona during his time in WCW and ECW from 1991 to 1996 was Cactus Jack, a bloodthirsty and uncompromisingly physical brawler from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico who wore cowboy boots and often wrestled with sharp and/or solid metallic objects, such as barbed wire, thumbtacks, or metal trashcans.
context_section_description: After retiring from active competition, Foley served as storyline WWF Commissioner under his real name rather than one of his personas. Foley has said that he intended for his Commissioner Foley character to be a "role model for nerds," cracking lame jokes and making no attempt to appear tough or scary. He also had a knack during this time to have no one spot for his office; rather, Mick would have an office in all sorts of odd places (for example, closets). Foley turned getting cheap pops into something of a catchphrase, as he shamelessly declared at each WWF show that he was thrilled to be "right here in (whatever city in which he was performing (e.g., New York))!" punctuated with an intentionally cheesy thumbs-up gesture. During this time, Commissioner Foley engaged in rivalries with Kurt Angle, Edge and Christian, and Vince McMahon without actually wrestling them. He left the position in December 2000 after being "fired" onscreen by McMahon during which he received a brutal beat down.
  Foley made a surprise return on the Raw just before WrestleMania X-Seven and announced that he would be the special guest referee in the match between Mr. McMahon and his son Shane at WrestleMania. After WrestleMania, Foley made sporadic appearances on WWF programming throughout the middle of the year, at one point introducing Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura during a taping of Raw in the state as a foil to Mr. McMahon, as well as serving as the guest referee for the Earl Hebner versus Nick Patrick Referee match and a tag-team bra and panties match between WWF wrestlers Lita & Trish Stratus vs WCW stars Stacy Keibler & Torrie Wilson at the WWF Invasion pay-per-view. Foley returned as commissioner in October 2001, near the end of The Invasion angle. During this brief tenure, Foley had the opportunity to shoot on the WWF's direction and how dissatisfied he was with it. Saying that there were far too many championships in the company, he booked unification matches before the final pay-per-view of the storyline, Survivor Series. After Survivor Series, he ended his commissionership at Vince McMahon's request and left the company.
caption: Foley at WrestleMania X-Seven Fan Axxess
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