Was Dude Love the ultimate "Wasn't as over as people remembered" wrestler
 

Listening to Foleys pod. He and Conrad kept talking about Meltzer saying the crowd was silent when Dude Love came up and he's 100% not wrong

I watched all the 97 Raws and Dude Love wasn't over NEARLY as much as fans say he was.

I don't ever really remember Dude Love being over.

Utter bullshit, he debuted with Steve Austin in the ring, there is no way the crowd was silent.

Check every appearance after that. Even his debut wasn't that great

It's actually really nothing special

I didn’t think people remembered him being all that over. Never really hear a lot of fond reminiscing about Dude Love.

There is a big difference between a lukewarm.reaction and silence.

Pretty solid pop for the victory and post match stuff.

Also, other than his solid run as a heel for a few months, Dude Love was clearly the least popular of his personas, but still for that idiot Meltzer to claim silence is just more of his standard operating bullshit.

Dude Love sucked, but I think we all just let Foley have it because Mankind/Cactus were so good.

The same way we forget a decade of suckiness from Kane, because that initial run was so awesome.

Dude Love is the least violent of the personas played by a guy whose bread and butter was committing acts of unfathomable (at the time) violence to his opponents and to himself.

Dude Love worked the best as the part you got through to get to the good part. It was usually the happy go lucky Dude that got pushed too far before he became the sadistic Cactus Jack.

He wasn't claiming silence for his debut. It was so a segment towards the end of 97

I thought that is what Meltzer said. I just went by your original post, but I agree it was a luke warm response. Dude Love was pretty forgettable outside of that few months heel run he had about a year later fueding with Austin. Cactus Jack was slightly better because he was at least a serious character with mystique. Mankind is the one he had all his top runs with.

His whole face turn from Mankind to Dude Love just felt so flat. His Cactus Jack appearances were fun and i loved his stuff with Funk, but that period from Wrestlemania 13 to 97 Survivor Series was just so "eh"

I remember he had a good cage match with Triple H as Mankind, but that I believe was before Dude Love actually debuted.

Foley and Funk being former WWF Tag Team Champions is such a weird thought. It doesn’t seem like something that would have happened in this universe.

Neither here nor there but

One of the funniest segments I remember in wrestling was when Dude and Vince were dancing with the Dudettes

That was supposed to be the debut of Dude Love. Mankind was going to leap off the top of the cage like his hero Jimmy Snuka (yikes) but before he did that he was to rip his shirt open and reveal a big painted heart on his chest. Unfortunately he sweated too much during the match so when he ripped his shirt open, there was just a big red smudge on his chest.

I haven’t done a Mick Foley retrospective but if I remember correctly I don’t think he became the universally beloved character until late in 1998/early 1999. It was a slow burn from the Hell in a Cell match in June of 98 to corporate Mankind to Mr. Socko and then the feud with the Rock which is what put him over the top.

So yeah anything in 97 I’d believe wasn’t that over. I hated his heel Dude Love feud with Austin.

Haha that's right, I forgot about that!

I’m sure there are other scattered moments, but it’s pretty sad that one of the most memorable things to happen while he was portraying DL was a championship match at a PPV and J.R. loudly and obsequiously mocking Brisco and Patterson sucking up to Vince by saying “YES, SIR MISTER MACK-MAN!”. LOL That sound byte still cracks me up just by merely thinking about it.

I didn't care for Dude Love when that character happened, but looking back that angle with Austin/McMahon and Dude Love is fantastic.

This was pretty much my first thought when I went and watched Foleys WWE career back as an adult. Dude Love was pretty shit.

Did Dude Love win any titles other than a short Tag Title reign?

I didn’t “get” Dude Love as a kid. I’ve got much more appreciation for the idea now, but he was always going to be move over as Mankind or Cactus Jack.

[QUOTE=Supreme Olajuwon;5598281

So yeah anything in 97 I’d believe wasn’t that over. I hated his heel Dude Love feud with Austin.[/QUOTE]




i know it wasn't this feud, but I loved when Austin was looking for a tag partner and Foley kept up with the "pick me Steve!!!" thing, and at one time Austin snapped and just yelled "You're a long-haired freak andyou suck!" and just kicked his ass. I dunno why, but it cracks me up