X-Pac welcomes Marty the Moth to the show.

X-Pac asks Marty who inspired him to become a professional wrestler. Marty informs that he got into wrestling because of Goldberg, but then he saw Shawn Michaels wrestle. Michaels always looked like he was enjoying what he was doing in the ring so much, especially at the end of his career. This was very inspirational for him and made him really want to get into the ring.

Marty talks about his experience trying out as a competitor for Tough Enough. He informs that this was his first time meeting “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and that was pretty intimidating, but he had to get past that because he was in a competition. He points out that it seems like WWE’s goal is to make people quit that show for the sake of television, and you have to do everything to tell yourself to keep pushing through.

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Marty mentions that when he was initially signed by Lucha Underground they cast him in the role of Mil Muertes. He thought he’d be able to play that role effectively, but he does admit that he’s more of a silly guy than a serious guy. He was then told that he’d be portray a magician character called “Magnificent Martin”, but that didn’t happen either.

He informs that he got a concussion early on during his tenure in Lucha Underground, and because they’re owned by MGM he wasn’t allowed to wrestle for three months due to insurance issues. For this reason, he wasn’t able to be in the majority of Season 1. He points out that he’s currently filming Season 4 of the show.

X-Pac welcomes Mick Foley to the show.

X-Pac talks about some of the calculated risks he, Foley and other performers took early on in their careers. He points out that a lot of those dangerous things were part of what made them successful professional wrestlers at a later point in their careers. Foley agrees, pointing out that while he doesn’t regret the things he did, he admits that he probably shouldn’t have been doing dangerous bumps for small crowds at indie events.

On the other hand, Foley points out that if he didn’t treat every show like it was the most important show he would ever wrestle on, he doesn’t think he would have ever reached the heights that he did later in his career. He doesn’t regret the decisions he made during his career, but he admits that he probably could have been smarter with the execution at times.

X-Pac recalls the night Mick Foley won the WWE Championship. He says that was a great moment, especially with all the wrestlers backstage rushing to the ring to celebrate with Foley. Foley agrees, pointing out that the ovation in the arena was enormous when Steve Austin’s music hit, and again when he picked up the pin-fall victory. Given the jump in ratings that the segment saw that night, this became a huge moment in the Monday Night War and in WWE’s history.

Foley talks about the origin of the Mankind character. Foley mentions that the Mankind mask was actually a mask that WWE had made for The Undertaker when he broke his orbital bone, but they ended up choosing the “Phantom of the Opera” look instead. When Foley came in Vince McMahon gave him the mask, and Foley mentions that he took a large responsibility for the character’s development from that point onward.

He developed the character’s name and theme music, and was given a lot of creative freedom to come up with the mannerisms that we all associate with Mankind. He admits that he signed a piece of paper saying that WWE owns the character, but he was the one who developed that character into the Mankind we all know.

X-Pac informs that he’s writing an autobiography right now, and he recalls watching Foley write his initial book on an airplane nearly two decades ago. Foley informs that he wrote that whole book in 50 days. There were some days when he wouldn’t get the chance to write at all, but on other days all he’d do was write. That was a great experience for him as he proved to himself that he could try anything.

Foley comments on whether he’ll be attending Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks’ “All In” event in September. Foley says he doesn’t know if he’ll be a part of it, but he’s doing everything he can to help get the word out about it. He wishes those guys the best of luck and he hopes the show is a great success.

Foley considers Vader and Chyna to be two of the most deserving people who are not yet in the WWE Hall of Fame. He hopes that both enter the Hall sooner rather than later, especially with Vader having heart issues in the last couple of years.

He says that he’s spoken to Vader, who admitted to him that a Hall of Fame induction would legitimize his career. Foley doesn’t think an induction should determine whether Vader’s career was a success or not because it certainly was a success, given the amount of money he drew around the World.

That sums up this week’s episode of X-Pac 1, 2, 360. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!

Steve Carrier

Steve is the Founder of RingsideNews. He has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He first got into website development at the time and has been focusing on bringing his readers the best professional wrestling news at it's highest quality.

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