Comparison: Mick Foley vs Brock Lesnar

I don't know how "rewatch value" became "rewatch valley" but it made me laugh so I'm not changing it and will probably call it "rewatch valley" from now on.

Top Matches

Extremely close. Foley's top 5 would be Michaels, Triple H, Randy Orton, Taker, and Austin while Lesnar's top 5 would be Punk, Roman, Bryan, Cena, and Taker. Gonna give the edge to Foley for sheer volume.

Versatility

Brock wins this one for me on the basis of early Brock alone. Can't really remember a Foley match that wasn't a complete brawl.

Consistency

Can't call it. Can think of very few genuinely bad matches that either of them have had. Brock has Goldberg at WMXX and Taker at WMXXX while Foley had a poor run in TNA at the tail end of his career.

Charisma/"It" Factor

Brock pretty easily wins this one. Any time he has a match nowadays he can draw the crowd in pretty easily based on his presence alone and even to this day with many internet fans turning on him, he still gets good reactions whenever he comes out. That's not to say that Foley didn't have charisma though as he was pretty consistently over everywhere he went.

Promos

Foley wins this one, though Lesnar is a better promo than a lot of people give him credit for. It's just that Foley might be one of the best promos of all time. Cane Dewey, the Cactus Jack reveal, "the problem with being hardcore", just to name a few are all fantastic promos.

Elevating Others

Gotta give this to Foley. His matches with Orton, Triple H, and Edge helped them get over as main event talents. His feud with Taker in '96 also helped Taker transition from  slow-moving big man to a more fast-paced brawler. Lesnar often makes his opponents look great and elevates them in defeat, but I don't know if the careers of Triple H and Undertaker would be the same had it not been for Foley.

Offence

Lesnar pretty easily. Lot's of varied and great-looking offence during his career, and when he took things to the mat against Angle it looked great. Foley's offence is nothing special.

Selling

Close but gotta give it to Brock. In a time where he is basically superman, he made the crowd truly believe that guys like Punk, Bryan, Styles, and Balor all had a chance at winning.

Rewatch

On rewatches, Foley's matches held up better than Brock's so gotta go with him.

Bonus Question

Goldberg is probably the worst wrestler Brock has faced and they had a couple of good matches, and while I personally like RVD I know a lot of people hate him, so we can throw in their KOTR match here. Meanwhile we have Foley vs Sandman and Foley vs Whipwreck, both of which I think are better than the Brock vs RVD match, and both of whom I think are worse wrestlers than Goldberg and RVD. Gotta go with Foley for this.


It's a close one but personally I think Foley is better than Brock, which is something I probably would've said off the top of my head.

Cap's Categories:

Top Matches – My gut reaction was to say Lesnar, but the more I thought about it the more I went Foley. There are some amazing Lesnar matches vs Cena Extreme Rules and vs Reigns at Mania 31 are a hell of a 1-2 punch that would top most wrestlers best matches. But I feel like there are just as many highly rated Brock matches that I didn’t like (Rumble Triple Threat). I always thought the Cell match with Taker was great (and clearly better than KOTR 98) but overrated by people who called it the best Cell match. The Eddy match is awesome of course. I kind of dread the idea of doing a deep dive on his first WWE run but would take recommendations for top stuff other than the ones I mentioned. Stuff like his Angle matches I didn’t like at all to the surprise of no one I’m sure. ☺

I think Foley might be underrated when it comes to top tier matches. Dude Love vs Austin, HBK match, Cactus vs HHH at the Rumble, The Nasty Boys matches, Sting matches, Orndorff match, the 1/95 IWA Death match with Funk, Sabu matches, Edge match, Orton match, that Edge & Dreamer 6 man, etc. I could easily see like 5 of those matches on one of my lists and its not exactly a murders row of opponents.

Versatility – I’m just going to say Brock and move on. I feel like I could find a way to argue Foley but its late as I’m typing this. Obviously Brock could do more in the ring. Foley was so limited athletically and offensively but he managed to excel in radically different settings against a ton of different opponents and produced great matches that accomplish different things and told really different stories. Dude Love vs Austin is radically different from Mankind vs HBK which is radically different from Cactus vs HHH. And that’s just WWF matches within an almost 4 year period. Brock could do more suplexes for sure, but he couldn’t work comedy spots like Foley for example…you know what, fuck it, Foley.

Consistency – Foley is one of the most consistent wrestlers ever in terms of sheer effort. You could always count on him trying to figure out how to have the best match possible regardless of opponent or setting.

Charisma/"It" Factor" – Foley has the great everyman charisma, but come on this is Brock in a cakewalk.

Promos – Peak Foley is probably one of the 5 best interview of the past 30 years.

Elevating Others – I mean…Rock, HHH twice (in 97 and 00), Edge, Orton, he re-elevated Taker in 96, New Age Outlaws, the Radicalz, arguably Sabu, Al Snow, Mickey Whipwreck, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Sandman, basically all of ECW. Elevating others is Foley’s legacy.

Offense – Brock takes this even when his offense just completely devolved into suplex city and F5s. Foley is probably the worst offensive wrestler of anyone I’d call an all time great.

Selling – My gut says Foley but the more I thought about it I think Brock might be the answer. Brock’s progressive selling in the WM 31 match with Reigns is one of the most impressive selling performances in modern WWE. Foley was really good at this obviously…but the degree of difficulty on selling when you’re getting thrown onto actual thumbtacks or barbed wire isn’t in the same universe as something like WM 31.


Rewatch Valley – I would probably go Brock just because I’ve more recently rewatched a ton of Foley. But I’m pretty sure I would grow to dread the Brock matches as opposed to being super entertained by the Foley ones.

Bonus Elliott's Question (Brody vs Nigel or best work associated with a crappy wrestler) – Actually an easy one this time. Foley had multiple great matches and an all time classic against HHH. Brock most certainly did not.

Foley - 6
Brock - 4
Draw – 0

Seems about right.