A Story of Winnie the Pooh and Cactus Jack

Bob laces up his boots and climbs into the ring - sorta

- by Bob McLain, January 15, 2011

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In the countless times I've been to Disney World, I've met famous people ... once.

Probably, that's my fault. I'm terrible with faces. Friends tell me that I've seen famous people at Disney World numerous times. It's always from a distance, and they're always frantically pointing to someone, somewhere in a crowd.

But unless a person is very recognizable, say with a livid scar on his cheek or two horns protruding from his head, I'm going to need to see a name tag, please.

Imagine, then, my surprise when in 2002 (or thereabouts) I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to behold... Cactus Jack!

Yes, Cactus Jack, the hard-core professional wrestler. For a guy like me brought up on Bruno Sammartino at the Catholic Youth Center in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a professional wrestler, especially a hard-core professional wrestler missing body parts (in this case, an ear and some front teeth) is worth the entire Disney Channel roster of teen stars.

I was standing in line with my young son Robby for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. We had just queued up behind a strikingly beautiful woman and a little boy about the same age as my son. That's when I got the tap on the shoulder.

I'm 6 feet tall and weigh around 200 pounds. Cactus Jack is taller by a couple of inches and was then heavier by about 150 pounds. At the time, his greasy black hair hung past his shoulders and he wore a full beard and moustache.

(Today, he's well-groomed and has written books - under his real name, Mick Foley - that have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List.)

"Can I get up there with them?" he asked.

The 'them' was his wife, the strikingly beautiful woman (with a French accent), and little boy. He apparently had parked the stroller while they got into line, giving me time to dart between. Now he stood there, with his second child, asking for passage.

"Like I'm going to say no", I said.

He laughed at that, after a moment, and joined his family. When it came time to board, he filled almost entirely the vehicle ahead of mine and I saw him smiling and his head rocking from side-to-side (in time either with the music or voices) as we went through the ride.

Nothing is more surreal than enjoying a Winnie the Pooh attraction in the company of a man notorious for bashing his opponents with a flaming barbed wire bat and leaping from twenty feet in the air onto a table strewn with thumb tacks. Heffalumps, indeed!

I saw him a few more times that day pushing the stroller. Once, he nodded at me and smiled. At least, it looked like a smile: he might just have been hungry.

You know, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm amazed by how much Cactus Jack and Winnie the Pooh have in common.

Cactus Jack battles monstrous opponents like the Undertaker and Abdullah the Butcher. Winnie the Pooh battles monstrous opponents like Heffalumps and Woozles.

Cactus Jack has no front teeth. Winnie the Pooh may have no teeth at all.

Cactus Jack beats his foes burnt and bloody with a flaming barbed wire bat. Winnie the Pooh ... well, this is where the comparison starts to break down.

What could top my adventure with Cactus Jack and Winnie the Pooh?

Abdullah the Butcher in It's a Small World. Ah, make my magical day...

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