If there is one man who embodies hardcore wrestling, it’s Mick Foley.

The 59-year-old, who starred in WCW and WWF throughout the 1990s and beyond, put his body through hell night after night, all in the name of entertainment.

Mick Foley is a hardcore wrestling legend

During a pro-wrestling career that lasted more than two decades, he had famous feuds with the likes of The Rock, Shawn Michaels and Sting on the biggest of stages.

But he’s remembered most for an infamous Hell in the Cell match with The Undertaker in 1998.

The pair immediately set the standard for future bouts inside the structure, which has become a fan-favourite gimmick in the years since.

In one iconic moment Foley, as his alter-ego Mankind, was choke-slammed through the roof of the cell.

Footage of the star sprawled out on the canvas as Undertaker looks down from the top of the cell is etched in the memory of every fan who witnessed it.

No doubt it was one of the most hardcore moments of Foley’s career, and a match that saw him sustain a number of legitimate injuries performing the stunts.

But interestingly, it’s not Undertaker who he credits as the hardest-hitting competitor of his era.

Instead, Foley gives that title to late WWE Hall of Famer Vader.

“He was very comfortable opening me up,” Foley explained, recalling their ‘Texas death match’ at WCW Halloween Havoc in 1993.

“When I’m asked by fans who was the hardest-hitting competitor I’d ever shared a ring with, I don’t even have to think about it; it was Vader.

Foley, as Cactus Jack, went to war with VaderWWE

“It jogs your brain. It really does. Nobody brought it the way that Vader did, and there were those who did not like to work that style, and I did. I liked working with Vader because his size made me such an underdog.”

Foley went on to explain that Vader, who passed away in 2018 aged 63, was able to bring out the best in him as a competitor.

“[There are] two types of people that Vader would face. There were those who were so intimidated. Then there were those who saw it as an amazing challenge, and I saw it as an amazing challenge.

“He was about business when he got in there. If you weren’t interested in having a great match, he was going to tear you apart.

“He forced you to be your best.”

Vader, a hardcore icon who battered WCW legends like Sting, Ric Flair and Foley for fun, was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022.

Vader was a hardcore legend in his own right, who was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame

It’s perhaps unsurprising that he’s been credited as the hardest hitter in history, given his 450-pound frame destroyed almost every competitor that dared to step in his way.