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Mick Foley Is Back With His Weblog

Posted: Aug 14th 2010 By: mikeiles

COUNTDOWN TO COUNTDOWN....49 DAYS

Hello everyone, and welcome to "Countdown to Countdown", my weekly weblog (still fighting the good fight against the word "blog") devoted to TNA and other things wrestling - while simultaneously reminding readers of the imminent arrival of "Countdown to Lockdown", due to hit the shelves of bookstores everywhere October 1st. Don't worry, this won't be just a shill for my personal projects. While there may indeed be a little shilling from time to time, my main goal here is to share my thoughts of the week on the world of wrestling. I have been away from www.tnawrestling.com for over four months and have plenty to talk about...like the fact that I am now tweeting. Yes, tweeting, at www.Twitter.com/realmickfoley. After months of prodding from my good friend JB, I caved in, sold out, and started sending out random thoughts in 140 characters or less. It's fun, and I appreciate the feedback, but there are times when 140 characters just isn't going to do the trick. And one of those times is now.

I really didn't know what to expect out of "Hardcore Justice". A show with little in the way of advertised matches, featuring talent that much of our TNA fan base was not overly familiar with, seemed to offer up the potential for dissapointment. I'm glad to report that my fears were unfounded. I didn't see the entire show, but from the action I caught, reports I received from other wrestlers, and from the genuine enthusiasm of the crowd on hand, "Hardcore Justice" was clearly something special. Perhaps most telling of all, my wife, (who was in attendance with the two youngest Foley boys) whose opinion can be painfully honest from time to time, gave it a big thumbs up. "I've never seen some of those guys", she said. "But that was a really good show."

Just a few mental notes:
1) CW Anderson is a hell of a worker. Believe it or not, I'd never actually seen him in the ring before. I had assumed he was good - honestly, you don't get over with the fans, looking like that (hello kettle, it's me, pot) unless you are really good. But all it took was a minute or so of action and I "got" the CW Anderson thing. Well done.
2) 2 Cold hasn't aged at all. Has this guy been sleeping in a barrel of pickle brine? He looked exactly the same. More importantly, he moved almost as well as that kid from Colorado, who showed up on the Clash of the Champions in '93 or '94 and blew everybody's mind with a move (the 450 splash) that didn't even have a name at the time.
3) Raven and Dreamer bring out the best in each other. Sure it was violent and sickening (I was closer to it than anybody) but when it comes to telling a compelling story with sickening violence, these two have done it together as well as anybody.
4) Sabu never really got his due. How this guy, with what he's put his body through, was able to step up to the Hardcore plate and hit it out of the park, is beyond the scope of rational thinking. Especially knowing that he found out only hours before the show that he would be in the main event. Add a little music at just the right time, and it's a Hollywood movie - Randy the Ram without the heart attack. Maybe we'll have to recast Fonzie for the big screen rendition. Sure, he was hilarious and added greatly to the match in the role of dual manager, but come on, would moviegoers really believe that such a creature existed without four or five hours in the special effects chair.

IMPACT

Wow, what a show! I know I've been writing about the Beer Money/Motor City Machine Guns series on my Typepad account (http://mickfoley.typepad.com/) but what these guys have been doing in the ring, week in and week out deserves as many mentions as I, or anyone can give them. I kind of thought I'd run out of superlatives after their "Ultimate X" match, but this week's two out of three falls was just incredible; so good that you can compare it to the best of all time without sounding like Don West on the stick on Impact, before he assumed the role of "Merchandeister Deistermercher". Really! I would love for big-time fans, the kind like I was in the mid-eighties, to dust off their old VHS tapes of Kernodle and Slaughter vs Steamboat and Youngblood, or some of the great match-ups from the All-Japan glory days, or even their old Riggs/Bagwell "American Males" stuff and see how this new series of matches compares. I'm sure some will point to the psychology of some of the older matches, or the sheer beauty of Buff in his prime, but for athleticism, innovation, and for quite simply, making tag-team wrestling seem relevant again, this series of matches belongs up there with the best of the best. Yes, I am kidding about Riggs/Bagwell, even if Riggs was incredibly helpful in helping me move from my apartment in Austell, Georgia to my rented lake house in Cumming back in 1991. Little story for you - back in '96, at the Foley Halloween party (by this time we were living in Acworth, Georgia) my wife was talking with Miss Terri Runnels, thinking back to our days on the lake. "How do you feel about Cumming?", my wife asked Miss Runnels, who at the time was Marlena aka Mrs Goldust. Terri took about a second, and with a big smile, gave the only answer she could. "Oh..I LOVE IT!"

How good was that Money/Guns match? So good that no one was talking about a great AJ/Kurt match. So good that even a really good, brutal "Stairway to Janice" match with RVD and Abyss couldn't compete. Hey, I was part of that heated destruction at the end of the show, and even I was talking about the tag match. What a beatdown, too! It will be interesting, to say the least, to see where this one heads. I will have more to write about this and much more on the next edition of COUNTDOWN TO COUNTDOWN.

But before I go, let me get in a cheap plug for my upcoming appearance on "Warren the Ape" on MTV at 10:30 pm. I know that might interfere with your regular viewing habits, but fire up that DVR, because this is one you won't want to miss. Honestly. I had such a great time filming the show, and think if there was any type of television justice that Dan Milano, as Warren - laying on a gurney, looking at a monitor, manipulating the puppet, while simultaneously ad-libbing lines that had me spit-taking with laughter - would take home a liitle gold at this year's Emmy's. He's that good! If you'dlike a little sample of what Warren and I have on tap for you, check out www.warren.MTV.com, and go to the "Putt Putt Adventure". Probably not suited for children under thirteen, Oh, and look at what happens when a 300 pound body does not crush a giant fiberglass hamster...it's not pretty.

Finally, on Tuesday, check out "Growing Up Twisted" on A&E at 10 pm. My buddy Dee Snider has a great show on his hands; his kids are great, and his wife is one of the most beautiful, likeable women on television.

Thanks alot. I will be back in a week, with a weblog called COUNTDOWN TO LOCKDOWN...42 DAYS.

Wait, am I crazy? Did I completely forget to plug my appearance at Wizard World in Chicago? I will be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday, pretty much all day long. This is one of those deals where each autograph and photo-op is $20 including the stuff you bring. It can be a little expensive, but unlike alot of appearances that are in and out, with no time to hang out and talk, there is quite a bit of hang time involved here. Plus, you can talk YRG with DDP, and a host of other wrestlers/actors, etc. will be on hand. For more information, check out www.wizardworld.com

Tags: Mick Foley, TNA, Sgt. Slaughter, A. J. Styles