Last week, we took a look back to Cactus Jack’s first appearance in WCW, and the total disaster of a time he had with his Jobber Of The Week partner, Rick Fargo. Despite being 100% disappointed and completely let down by Mr.Fargo, Cactus decided to give the tag-team division another shot. This time he wouldn’t pick a muscle-head like Fargo for a partner, he would get someone a little sleazier. A little meaner. A little nastier. That’s right, his new partner was this week’s Jobber of the Week, and #2 on Mick Foley’s All-time Worst Enhancement Partner list – the original “Nasty Boy” – Nasty Ned Brady.
In his previous WCW appearance, Cactus Jack showed his displeasure of his tag-team partner Rick Fargo’s losing effort by promptly turning on him and giving him one hell of an ass-kicking. However, even though his first attempt at tag-team glory was a total failure, Cactus was ready to try again the following week. Once again, he decided to skip enlisting a star or heck, even a mid-carder to be his running mate. He went back to the enhancement talent roster to see who he could find. He found a man similar to himself in many ways, one Nasty Ned Brady. Unlike Fargo, Ned and Cactus appeared to be cut from the same cloth. Both guys’ brawling ring style would never be confused with say, Lou Thesz or Ric Flair. And appearance wise, both guys looked like they just were paroled after serving a twenty year jail term for doing various dirty deeds. I mean come on, take a look at these both guys as they entered the ring on that December 1989 night in Greensboro.
I don’t know if they look like they’re getting ready to conquer WCW’s tag-team division, or gearing up to provide enough material for A&E’s 1st ever, 24/7 serial killer-themed marathon of Cold Case Files. Luckily for the sake of humankind, and unluckily for their opponents, they decided to keep their dastardly deeds confined to the ring. Their potential victims? Why none other than the uncrowned WCW Mid-card Tag-team Champions themselves, Tommy Rich and Ranger Ross. Were Rich and Ross intimidated at all by their shady looking opponents? Well, they were so scared that in the prematch promo they…
…giggled like mentally handicapped 12 year-old girls at a slumber party, looked like they were about to unleash the world’s steamiest mid-card man-kiss, and ended the promo with a good ol’ fashion fondling session. OK….now suddenly Cactus and Nasty Ned seem like the sane ones. Once Rich and Ross stopped making out with each other, they made their way down to the ring. What transpired next was worse than Cactus Jack could possibly imagine. Despite looking tough, Ned got his tail kicked from pillar to post, and made Fargo’s effort the previous week look like HBK and Bret Hart’s performance in the Wrestlemania Iron Man match. It wasn’t a pretty match to watch either, as Foley stated in his first book that Jim Cornette said the match, “sucked a dick.” Tommy Rich wanted to make sure Cornette’s comments were literal, so he used his famous “Blow-job press”…oops, I mean Lou Thesz press to finally get his team the win over Ned and Cactus.
It had happened again. For the second consecutive week, Cactus Jack had been let down by a bumbling partner. Did Cactus have any sympathy for his fallen partner. He had gone apes#it on poor Rick Fargo the previous week, but maybe he saw a future in his partnership with Ned. It certainly appeared so, as Cactus promptly helped Ned to his feet…
..only to deliver one sick looking Russian leg sweep. The punishment for failing him didn’t stop there. Jack pounded Ned, clotheslined him over the ropes and onto the floor, and then set him up for his new signature move – the elbowdrop onto the exposed concrete floor. With a giant leap off the apron, Cactus came crashing down on Ned, and then it happened. Jack looked up at the camera and fired his “pistols,” doing his future trademark catchphrase “Bang, bang” for the first time.
Nasty Ned was no quitter though. He got up off the Greensboro, North Carolina concrete floor and kept on truckin’. The Florida native hung around WCW for the early 90’s, before heading back home to the Sunshine State. There in the IWF, he would unleash his creativity as he became the Repo-Man. Ned loved his character so much, he sent a tape of it to the WWF. Apparently, the guys at Stamford loved it so much as well, it was rumored they trademarked it for themselves. Soon Barry Darsow would take the Repo role to a wider audience, and it forced Ned to change his name to the Possessor.
More hijinks ensued in 1993. At a local Florida indy show, as Ned and the Cuban Assassin were double-teaming Rocky Johnson, a young University of Miami football player named Dwayne Johnson ran to the ring, kicked Ned and the Cuban’s ass and saved the day. Huh, I wonder what ever happened to that feisty young kid? Ned continued on, claiming something called the FWF Hea vyweight title, before making his last run in the big-time, as he returned for a short stint in WCW in late 1995 / early 96.
It’s now been 15 years since that fateful night in North Carolina where Cactus Jack Manson and Nasty Ned Brady crossed paths. Recently, I had a chance to chat with Mick Foley about his one-time partner. Had all the years that passed by made Foley change his feelings on the man he once double-crossed?
Did you hear that Mr. Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson? Get Nasty Ned signed up immediately for the sequel. And the rest of you be back next week, as we reveal Cactus Jack’s all-time, worst-ever enhancement tag-team partner, featuring more comments from Mick Foley.
Blade Braxton: “Why didn’t the combination of you and Nasty Ned work? You two were like peanut butter and jelly, you guys were two of a kind!”
Mick Foley: “One of the greatest regrets of my career is that night in North Carolina, teaming up with Ned taking on Ranger Ross and Tommy Rich. I turned on Ned. So the chances of a great tag team were crushed before it ever had the chance to grow.”
BB: “That’s really sad. Not only did it ruin a great relationship, but we saw what you teaming with the Rock did for his movie career. You may have cost Nasty Ned an Oscar.”
MF: “I think it’s a shame Nasty Ned didn’t pursue a movie career. With those looks he could have been a great character actor. He had the greatest facial expressions of what we call underneath wrestler in the history of the business. No question, he could be slinging guns or tending bar in the Starsky & Hutch movie. He could be up for all those roles.”