When Randy officially joined Evolution. He was already being groomed to be next up but he needed that program to really catapult him into the next level. Enter Mick Foley.. Foley was likeable, respected, loved and adored by many. He had lost faith in himself and felt like he couldn't keep up anymore. But it was this moment here that officially made Orton:
You SPIT on another man's face? That's next level disrespect.. I remember watching this and was thinking "Damn Mick went out like a bytch?" He basically castrated Foley's dignity and it made him one of the top villians of the company.
Then the following weeks. Foley caught some of the worst ass whippings ever seen on Raw:
Plus Evolution at that time were studs.. They had money, power, bytches, and were arrogant about it so they were easily despised. The ass whippings got bad to where Foley had to literally call the Rock's crib even though he never gave him his number
They would go on and do the Rock and Sock connection vs Evolution match with Foley putting Orton over. It was good for the business but Foley felt he wasn't in the best shape at the time so he had that wicked No holds barred match at Backlash a month later. Foley resurrected himself as Cactus Jack for one night and put Randy Orton through hell:
This also showed that Mick Foley still had some juice left and it gave Orton official stripes as a player. The set up was great for him. Its too bad that they sabotaged him by giving him the belt too soon
