Any WWE Raw highlight reel of substance will feature Mick Foley's first world championship win. The image of the masked Mankind holding WWE's ultimate prize with a sock-covered hand while perched on D-Generation X's shoulders is among the show's most stirring.

A clip of that scene will surely play when WWE celebrates Raw's 25th anniversary Jan. 22. Both the Barclays Center and the Manhattan Center in New York City will host the show. Stars such as Undertaker and Kevin Nash are set to appear.

And during all the basking in nostalgia, Foley's face will pop up several times. He's been at the center of many a major Raw moment, including, of course, that victory over The Rock some 19 years ago.

It's one the Hall of Famer will long treasure. "It was an incredible night," Foley told Bleacher Report.

It was not the only such night for him on Mondays. That was especially clear as the man known as Dude Love and Cactus Jack looked back on some of Raw's highlights.

"I've Got Something I Think You're Gonna Like"

One of Raw's most enduring moments didn't feature a heart-pounding title clash or a pre-match showdown between champion and challenger. It was a strange, goofy ride down a road lined with balloons, one where a grinning purple clown handed out stickers.

Foley's attempt to cheer up his partner, The Rock, in September 1999 turned out to be one of the funniest things WWE has ever aired.

Before the "This Is Your Life" segment began, though, the hired actors involved were uncertain about what they had gotten themselves into. Foley remembered their disbelief as he and The Rock ran through the bit before the cameras came on.

"'OK, I'll bring you out and The Rock will say something, and then I'll bring you out and The Rock will say something,'" he explained to them. "These were professional actors, and they were like, 'This is how you do it?' I just looked at them and said, 'Yeah. We'll come up with something.'"

Leaning on improv turned out to be the right move.

"I think that was part of the magic of that segment," Foley said. "Everything was off the cuff, and I think The Rock and I played off each other really well."

Foley and The Rock went 14 minutes over their scheduled time. The masked man didn't read the names printed for him on the bottom of the screen. He and his agitated partner carved their own course.

"In many ways, the segment was a disaster, but it was a really fun disaster," Foley said.

WWE owner Vince McMahon was not a fan at first. That is until the numbers came in.

"Once the ratings were revealed, he was kind of like, 'OK, you guys can do whatever you want from now on,'" the former WWE champ recalled. "And we had the freedom to pretty much do what we wanted.

"It was just so much fun. It was really clear The Rock and I liked playing off each other. You had these two characters who were polar opposites who were growing before our eyes. Neither of us knew that what we were doing would be remembered. We had no sense when we did that segment that this would be something that would be talked about for a couple of decades."

Today, nearly 20 years later, fans regularly ask Foley about that night.

The first question he usually gets is about falling off the Hell in a Cell and if it hurt (it did). The second is often about being a part of The Rock 'N' Sock Connection and Mankind digging into his partner's past.

"Mankind Has Achieved His Dream"

The underdog finally reached the mountaintop. On an episode that aired Jan. 4, 1999, Mankind outlasted The Rock to snag the WWF Championship.

The victory proved to be a crucial blow in WWE's ratings war with WCW. The rival company looked to spoil the taped results, but it backfired. WCW announcer Tony Schiavone scoffed at the idea of Foley's win. "That's gonna puts some butts in the seats," he laughed.

Famously, thousands of fans switched over to Raw.

Energy buzzed through the Worcester, Massachusetts, crowd that night. A blizzard hit the city. Raw's factions stood at ringside hungry for a brawl.

"I hopped over the railing earlier in the show on the wrong side of the building where there was no security," Foley recalled. "So, I wrestled that iconic match with my clothes all torn. You can see that I have an Al Snow T-shirt underneath that says 'pin me, pay me.'"

Much like their acclaimed "This Is Your Life" segment, Foley and The Rock relied more on instincts than a script.

"We were just kind of going on the fly," the Hall of Famer said. "It was not a match that we had much time to put much thought into. It was just The Rock and I going out there and doing what we did. There was just some great chemistry between the two of us."

It was a freer time for the show. McMahon seemed to trust his talent more than he does today. Rather than micromanage their movements, the chairman cleared the way for creativity.

"There were four or five guys who were all reaching their peak simultaneously," Foley said. "Not just in the ring, but creatively. We were given the freedom to play off each other, and that resulted in some really great moments."

"See If the Magic Is There"

After being a keystone on Raw during the Attitude Era, Foley eventually left the company—to step away, to try his hand at working for TNA. He would still catch the product, though. He never stopped being a fan.

Sometimes the show clicked. Sometimes it bombed.

Foley explained that's simply part of the game: "We don't connect every time. That's part of the beauty of the show. It's live and you do see some strikeouts, but no one goes down with the bat on their shoulder. Everybody goes out there and takes their swings."

He noted that when something does hit, "It is really fun and powerful."

It's a sensation he knows well. As a stalking monster or gutsy long shot, authority figure or supporting player, Foley has been a part of a number of memorable Raw moments.

In the fall of 2016, he was Raw's GM and had to make a tough choice when Cesaro and Sheamus' best-of-seven series ended with no clear winner. Foley paired the two rivals up as a tag team. Looking back, he's proud of the boost he gave that duo.

"I think I really made it clear that I believed in Cesaro and Sheamus early on when both those guys were taken really late in the draft," he said. "I explained to both of them outside of the ring what my mindset was."

"I was supposed to dismiss them in my office, but instead I gave them what I thought was a heck of a pep talk. Scott Armstrong stopped me in the hallway, and he said: 'That was really good. I'm assuming that was you because that sounded real and that sounded from the heart.'"

The speech proved to be prophetic. The European bruisers went on to win the Raw Tag Team Championship three times together and became key cogs in a tag team revival on the red brand over the next year-plus.

"I'm Mick Freaking Foley!"

When WWE split the Raw and SmackDown brands into separate entities in the summer of 2016, the company called on a familiar face to head its marquee show. Foley, who had been both a commissioner and a GM in the past, came back to serve in the latter role.

The position entailed a lot of verbal abuse from Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon. And Foley relished the drama that created.

"I really love interacting with Stephanie McMahon," he said. "It's a shame I had to have some body parts replaced or maybe that role could have run a little longer."

The former champ needed hip surgery and so left his post in March 2017 ahead of WrestleMania 33. In true WWE style, he didn't just walk out quietly. McMahon slammed the door on him loudly and dramatically. Foley loved it.

"The best you can hope for is to have a spectacular departure," Foley explained. "Being fired by Stephanie and the Raw that preceded it were two of my favorite episodes I've ever been a part of."

Today, Kurt Angle runs the ship on Monday nights. Foley is a fan of what the Olympian has done in that spot so far.

"I think Kurt's doing a good job," he said. "There's always a learning curve. It seemed like he was really finding his feet."

Much of Angle's early tenure saw him struggle to hide a secret after receiving text messages that alarmed him. Eventually, he revealed that Superstar Jason Jordan was his long-lost son. The soap opera-like angle provided a compelling mystery and met its share of criticism.

"The audience kind of scoffed at this story with his son Jason Jordan," Foley reflected. "Now it's becoming something people look forward to every week. He's doing more than just being an authority figure; he's contributing to the show."

Raw in the New Era

With Angle holding down the GM spot, it's not clear when Foley will settle into the Raw spotlight again. For now, he can enjoy the freedom of not having to travel from city to city every night. And he can just take in the show as a viewer.

A good number of the talent on Raw's roster excites him.

One half of the Raw tag team champs is on that list. "Seth Rollins does things that defy the boundaries of human exertion," Foley said. Rollins' partner has impressed him, too. "I'm a big-time Jason Jordan fan," he noted. Of Braun Strowman, Mrs. Foley's Baby Boy noted, "He does some really impressive stuff for a guy that size."

The women's division as a whole has won him over.

"They have been able to think outside of the box and create compelling rivalries," Foley said of Team Raw's female stars. Seeing wrestlers like Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Sasha Banks and Nia Jax thrive contrasts with what women's wrestling used to look like on Raw.

"We had some great female wrestlers when I was there, but there wasn't the focus on the women that there is today," Foley explained. "There was the occasional rivalry that would come along and catch people's attention. Trish and Lita were able to co-headline either a pay-per-view or Raw, but the attention being given to women in the last few years has created a much better overall women's division than we had."

That division will be in the spotlight on Raw's 25th anniversary. Among the fundamental changes the show has experienced, a more balanced representation gender-wise is one of the more obvious.

The juxtaposition of how much creative freedom Foley and his peers had compared to the rigid scripting of today stands out, too. As WWE celebrates Raw's past in New York on Jan. 22, it would be wise to reflect on how fun the show was when Foley, The Rock, Steve Austin and others were allowed to paint outside the frame and see what came of improvisation and experimentation.

It sure worked for The Hardcore Legend.

The 25th anniversary of Monday Night Raw will air live on USA Network on Monday, Jan. 22, at 8 p.m. ET.

Ryan Dilbert is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. The subheadline quotes are from segments on Raw. All other quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.