"I'll bring him in, but I'm covering up his face" - Vince McMahon wasn't a fan of WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley
Mick Foley is known for his time in the WWE as the most hardcore wrestler of all time. Foley is one of the few WWE Superstars who has enjoyed different gimmicks during his tenure in the company. He has wrestled under the names Dude Love, Cactus Jack, Mankind and of course, Mick Foley. However, The Chairman of WWE, Vince McMahon wasn't a huge fan of Foley in the beginning.
Vince McMahon didn't want Mick Foley in the WWE
Mick Foley, in an interview with Inside The Ropes, spoke about his time in WWE and how Vince McMahon wasn't keen on making him a star.
“I was not supposed to be a star in WWE. I have it on good faith that Mr. McMahon wasn’t a fan of mine, at all, and I think the direct quote was, ‘Cactus Jack will never step foot inside a WWE ring.’ So as Mick Foley, I stepped inside as Mankind, and even then, it was just a concession to Jim Ross. Bruce Prichard told me this about four years ago, JR would bring up my name at every booking meeting as a potential talent, and finally Mr. McMahon in the fall of 1995 slammed his hands down on the table and said, ‘Alright, I’ll bring him in, but I’m covering up his face.'” (h/t 411mania.com)
Mick Foley later went on to talk about how the Mankind mask was a prototype for The Undertaker who had fractured his orbital bone. The Undertaker, instead of taking time off, wanted to wrestle with the injury and the mask was made to keep him safe. But when Vince McMahon ordered for Mick Foley's face to be covered, the creative team wanted to do it in style, giving birth to the Mankind mask.
Mick Foley also addressed that he would not have gotten his break had it not been for The Undertaker. Besides the fact that The Undertaker's orbital bone fracture gave Foley another chance, The Deadman was the one who threw Mankind from the top of the cell in their Hell In A Cell match. It was during that match that the WWE Universe realised how resilient and tough Mick Foley is.