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Ecelectic Foley Not Your Average Pro Wrestler

Posted: Sep 26th 2010 By: CMBurnham

I?ve known pro wrestling?s hardcore icon, Mick Foley, for many years. I?ve learned even more about him through his three best-selling memoirs, two novels and other assorted writings.

What I?ve always known, to borrow a title from one of his books, is that Foley is good. A genuinely good guy outside the ring, a natural-born stand-up comedian, a family man and an active humanitarian. That might not sound like the resume of one of professional wrestling?s most legendary brawlers, but Foley is a multi-faceted individual.

I recently joked with Foley that, after reading his fourth and latest offering, ?Countdown to Lockdown: A Hardcore Journal? (Grand Central Publishing; $26.99), I was pleasantly surprised to learn something new about the wrestler-turned-author. It wasn?t the fact that he had a keen interest in benevolent and charitable organizations, which I knew he had been heavily involved with for a number of years. What surprised me most was the fact that Foley, known far and wide for his penchant for frugality, donated 100 percent of the advance for the book, a cool hundred grand, to charity.

Mick Foley will meet Ric Flair in a Last Man Standing match on the Oct. 7 live Impact show.
?The hardest thing about it was breaking the news to my wife that we wouldn?t actually be making any money on this book,? he quipped.

But not really.

Foley may drive a beat-up Chevy Centure and may have sought out the more economical motels and restaurants during his wrestling career, even in the midst of his most lucrative runs as a three-time WWE champion, but he?s totally dedicated to helping charities and causes that are close to his heart. The two recipients from this book are RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network) and ChildFund International. Foley actively works with these organizations as a weekly volunteer on the crisis hotline for RAINN and by traveling out of the country to check on the children he sponsors through ChildFund.

He has been aptly described as ?the undisputed literary king of the ring with a heart of gold.?

The ever-smiling father of four readily acknowledges his legendary thriftiness, but his passion for making a difference is clearly genuine.

?I kind of play into the frugal reputation, but starting in 2004 with a children?s book whose proceeds were donated to building a school in the Philippines, I?ve been a lot less stingy with the checkbook,? says Foley. ?I was very happy with the idea that all of my advance was going to help people. It might seem odd that I was picking organizations that mainly help women, but that?s kind of where my heart and my destiny had led me. I felt really good about it.?

He also feels good about putting his money where his mouth is.

?I always felt like there was something important about it because I knew people would be benefiting, and I?m hoping that when I do some of these shows I can let people know how important it is to look into these things, and also to let people know how easy it is to volunteer and to make a difference. I?m looking at it like I?m the kid in ?Pay It Forward.??

Hardcore Journal

The philanthropist?s latest literary effort, slated for an Oct. 1 release, is an honest and enjoyable read. Foley chronicles his choice to come out of retirement and join TNA following a less-than-rewarding announcing stint in WWE. The story builds to his debut at TNA?s Lockdown pay-per-view last year in a steel cage match against Sting. In hindsight, he says, that six-week journey, in which he battled a host of injuries and serious self-doubts, proved to be one of the most important periods in his life.

For the readers, it?s a six-week backstage pass that?s funny, enlightening and sometimes even poignant.

Foley says he is happy with the finished product.

?The approach was similar to ?Hardcore Diaries,? but the story itself was so different. But I think from a writing standpoint, I enjoyed the chapters I wrote following the match the most. Those were the ones where I think I made a little bit of a contribution to the business and maybe to the world. Who knows??

As with any Foley book, readers are going to be regaled with stories from the wrestler?s life outside the business, in Foley?s unique, self-deprecating wit and style. Sometimes he goes off on tangents, veering into unrelated territory, a practice Foley acknowledges, as well as his frequent name-dropping, which has become a Foley staple.

?I have to believe that sometimes people get out of a book what they?re looking to see,? he says. ?I?m happy with it. I might change a few little things and might not repeat the jokes so many times. But if you?re a writer and actually do the book like I do and go through it every step of the way, I think it?s only natural to be exhausted by your own book. I?m still very happy with this one.?

Foley?s favorite chapter, and his impetus for writing a fourth volume, revolved around meeting singer-songwriter Tori Amos. It?s a chapter, he says, that changed him as a person ?in really positive ways.?

?It was just an experience that made meeting her in 2008 on the surface seem insignificant, but it just stuck with me,? says Foley. ?I felt compelled to write about it. I sat up in my room in Dublin, Ireland, and started writing on a yellow legal pad. It?s really the favorite thing I?ve ever written, and I feel like it?s led to some incredible opportunities and changes for the better in my life. I think the afterword reflects that. I think if anybody looks at it with an open mind, they don?t have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy it and they don?t have to be a Tori Amos fan at all. I think it?s more a chapter of how it?s possible to be inspired by art or an artist, and how sometimes it?s the little things in life that can go on to have a deeper meaning if you kind of follow your heart.?

Foley says he?s grateful that his previous memoirs have all been received with varying degrees of success and, despite some criticism over a chapter titled ?Repackaging Mick,? he?s certainly not bitter.

?I was happy with the fact the (previous) book hit No. 6 ... especially in this environment. I?m not blaming anyone else for my book not hitting No. 1. I was merely stating that the landscape has changed, people don?t read as often and there are a lot of choices to make. It?s a good chapter, and there?s a lot of humor in it. One writer claimed I was covering up my bitterness with self-deprecating wit. I don?t think that?s what people use self-deprecating wit for. It?s not a means of hiding bitterness. In that case I?ve been hiding a lot of bitterness for many years, because one of the things people enjoy about my books is that I do have that type of wit.?

Unlike some other wrestlers, and athletes in general, who have penned autobiographies, Foley has purposely shied away from attacking his colleagues in print.

?I was lucky that my first editor told me that books were not a place to settle scores. I don?t think all of the wrestling books reflect that philosophy. But a book seems the perfect place for some guys to settle scores. I?m happy with the book. I think the mentions of charitable work are to show how important it is to me, and to hopefully inspire other people to participate.?

As for agendas?

?If people want to say I have an agenda, I do. I want people to read this and just see how easy it is to make a difference.?

Fame came with a price

Mick Foley has permanently carved his initials, and scars, in the pro wrestling history book.

He?s been mangled with barbed-wire baseball bats, slammed on thousands of thumbtacks, thrown through tables and set on fire. He?s literally sacrificed his body for the business, with his suicidal ring actions resulting in a number of broken bones, concussions, dislocated shoulders, herniated discs and even temporary amnesia.

The Long Island native lost most of his right ear after it was severed on the ropes during a 1994 match with Vader (Leon White) in Germany.

They were all risks he was willing to take. He had fantasized about Jimmy ?Superfly? Snuka diving off the top of a cage nearly 30 years ago at Madison Square Garden,

I asked him many years ago what made him take those risks.

?Two reasons,? he said at the time. ?I like it when I think about wrestling ? when I daydream and nightdream ? that?s what I think about. Risky moves. Taking people?s breath away. I visualize everything that?s happened in my career, and that visualization always involves some type of wild moves.

?The other reason is purely business in that when I broke into wrestling in the mid-?80s, if you weren?t a bodybuilder or didn?t weigh 400 pounds, you didn?t have much of a chance of making any money. So I kind of came up with my own style. I don?t think that the risks I take would be taken by someone solely in it for the money because the pain and fear would be too great.?

I also remember 11 years ago when his wife, Collette, told ABC?s ?20/20? that her husband sometimes couldn?t find his way back home from the airport due to the abuse he had taken in the ring.

?He?s 34 years old and he moves maybe like an 80-year-old man, and it?s sad,? she said. ?His knees are the biggest problem, but they can always be replaced or repaired. This (Foley?s head) can?t.?

Foley?s status as wrestling?s Hardcore Legend was cemented with his death-defying bumps off the roof of a cage in a Hell in a Cell match against The Undertaker at WWE?s King of the Ring pay-per-view in 1998. It became one of the most famous matches in wrestling history, but more significantly raised the bar to an alarming level.

Less than a year later, Foley took 11 unprotected chair shots to the head in an ?I Quit? match with The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) while his hands were handcuffed behind his back.

?I think there was some argument to make years ago that taking unprotected chair shots to the head was the right thing to do,? Foley writes in his fourth volume of memoirs. ?I mean it looked so convincing on camera, back in the day when people still could be emotionally swayed by that type of image. Now it?s a ridiculous argument to have.?

Foley suffered a number of concussions during his career, only a few of which were actually diagnosed, but three of them came during a four-month span during a comeback in 2004.

He recently agreed to contribute posthumous samples of his brain to the Boston-based Sports Legacy Institute, a group co-founded by Chris Nowinski, a Harvard grad and former WWE performer with a long history of concussions. The organization was formed in reaction to medical research that indicated brain trauma in sports had become a public health crisis.

A study of the brains of two late WWE performers ? Chris Benoit and Andrew Martin ? indicated that they both suffered from a brain trauma syndrome known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy ? stemming from repeated blows to the head.

Foley says he hopes that his life and career can be of some use to others after he?s gone. His message to those seeking a career in the wrestling business is relatively simple.

?The chances of making a decent living are small, the chances of ending up broke are good, and the chances of living the rest of your life in some degree of pain because of the foolishness of pursuing this dream are almost guaranteed.?

In his book he touches on a number of weighty subjects including steroid use in pro wrestling and the Chris Benoit tragedy. He makes an appeal to young performers in the business to not go down the road that so many have taken.

Foley was lucky in that he didn?t have to crash-land at the end of his career. He neither recommends nor advocates the daredevil path he followed to wrestling fame.

?Obviously, there is an upside to the realization of those illogical dream pursuits,? he writes. ?But there is a heck of a price to pay for those who willingly go through life with blinders on ? even when those dreams come true.?

?Magic Headsets?

One of the most enlightening chapters in ?Countdown to Lockdown? involved Foley?s departure from WWE. He says he left the company disappointed ? ?but not bitter.?

Foley debuted as a color commentator for Smackdown alongside Michael Cole at the Backlash pay-per-view in 2008. But his ill-fated announcing stint was short-lived. He allowed his contract with WWE to expire on Sept. 1, 2008, and quietly left the company.

?It just didn?t feel fulfilling,? he says. ?I know it?s a tough economy, and sometimes people have to do what they have to do to make ends meet. So if I had either loved the job or really needed it, I would have stuck it out. But I didn?t particularly like it and I didn?t particularly need it.?

Foley also didn?t need WWE boss Vince McMahon screaming and yelling expletives into his headsets on a weekly basis.

?That?s his style, and it?s his company. I think Jim Ross really liked the couple of occasions (in the book) where I take the reader behind the scenes into the heart of conversations I had with Vince. That last one I had backstage at the Nassau Coliseum was pretty intense. But I tried to keep it as respectful as I could.?

Foley also made it a point to stand up for Hall of Fame announcer Ross, who had been unceremoniously moved from Raw to Smackdown, during his last meeting with McMahon.

?We talked for about 20 minutes, the conversation intense but never heated, until I implied that WWE hadn?t treated J. R, with the respect I thought they should have,? Foley writes in his book.

When McMahon couldn?t understand how Ross had been treated poorly, says Foley, he knew it marked the end of any attempt at broadcast reconciliation.

Foley now believes McMahon did him a favor. It was inevitable, he says, that he would have made the move to TNA. It was a move that afforded him less days on the road, considerably more money and the opportunity to once again make a difference.

?It seemed like at that point I had done everything I could possibly do in WWE. I was a little disappointed they didn?t offer me anything in developmental or somewhere else in the company. But I think anyone who reads the chapter ?The Magical Headsets? would see that I?m kind of laughing about how crazy the whole thing was. I just look at it now like it was a unique opportunity to tell funny stories about Vince.?

Will Foley?s departure have a negative impact on his potential consideration for a spot in the WWE Hall of Fame?

?You know what? Assuming the Hall of Fame is on ongoing project, there?s a pretty good chance that fences will be mended sometime in the next 20 years,? says the man variously known as Cactus Jack, Dude Love and Mankind during his career. ?It is a big deal to some guys, and the truth is, it would be a big deal to my younger children. I?m pretty sure there?s going to come a time when all will be forgotten.?

Finishing strong

One of Foley?s highlights since joining TNA in September 2008 is his impending program with Ric Flair.

?I really have enjoyed it,? he says. ?I haven?t really worked with Ric until the last few weeks. I sent out a tweet saying the recent interview I did with Ric was one of the great moments of my career. I followed it up with a little essay on how great it was for the way it made me feel. It?s not necessarily an interview that people are going to say was one of the best interviews of all time. It?s great because it made me feel so alive and made me look forward to a match in a way that I hadn?t in such a long time.?

The promo, which will air on the Sept. 30 edition of TNA impact, will set up a match between the two on TNA?s live Impact show the following week.

?It?s quite possibly the single most violent and bloody interview segment ever delivered,? Foley announced on his blog.

TNA, says Foley, has given him another chance to make a difference in the wrestling business. His opinion is respected, his contributions are appreciated and, as Foley describes, his ?boss (Dixie Carter) looks like a movie star.?

Foley also comes to the defense of the much-maligned TNA booking team. He solidly backs the creative staff, calls it a thankless position and claims he was a supporter of creative head Vince Russo during both his WWE and TNA tenures, although he wasn?t as complimentary of Russo during his WCW tenure.

?I can actually go back to the first book after Vince had left (WWE). I still had good things to say about Vince when he was no longer with the company. So it?s not like I?m changing my tune. I think it?s a much tougher job than people realize. TNA is produced on a fraction of the budget WWE is. It?s a pretty thankless job, and I?m not sure many people realize that.?

And, as unlikely as it may sound, Foley would prefer a little more wrestling on the shows.

?I thought for a long time that they needed to let the wrestlers wrestle more, and have less talking segments and skits, and a little less comedy, although I?m as guilty as anybody for doing the backstage comedy stuff. I like the more serious stuff.?

At 45, Foley may not be able to handle the physical and emotional trauma of plunging off cages anymore, but he can still turn a pretty good phrase and tell a pretty good story.

Foley, who penned his previous books the old-fashioned way ? ?with a trusty pen and several pads of paper? ? has always preferred a mind-to-pen connection over a mind-to-keyboard connection. But he now has a computer, a Facebook account and actually tweets.

?The harsh realities of the book world have forced me into this age of technology,? he laughs, adding that it?s the last memoir he?ll write with pen and notebook pads. ?I wish I could just walk out with a book in my hand the way I did in ?99. I have to say you cannot underestimate the importance of having your opponent drop an elbow on your book ... which will air one day before the book debut. I may have looked bad, but on the inside I was smiling and thanking him.?

Foley?s first book, ?Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks,? topped The New York Times bestseller list for several weeks and remains Foley?s favorite to date.

?I think ?Have a Nice Day? is going to be my favorite,? says Foley, who has also written three children?s books. ?When I wrote ?Foley Is Good,? I thought at that time it was better because I cut out the curse words and there wasn?t as much blood and guts. But looking back on ?Foley Is Good,? I describe it as a self-congratulatory lap around the track. I hadn?t had enough bad times to appreciate how fortunate I was.?

Everything, however, didn?t go exactly as Foley had planned. Situations have forced him to see things in an entirely different light.

Unlike his last book, which chronicled a frustrating period in Foley?s career, ?Countdown to Lockdown? covers a particularly enjoyable and fulfilling time in his career.

He believes the changes have made him a better writer.

?By this time I?ve seen the economy collapse twice, I?ve had a lot of dreams that were not fully realized. I?ve had enough disappointments to really appreciate the things I do have. I think the writing has continually improved, and that some of these chapters are really something I can be proud of.?

Foley says he?s no longer sure he has one really great match left in him, but he does believe he still has a few pretty good ones left. He doesn?t have to go out anymore and have matches that are risky and physically debilitating. Being mangled and bloodied is no longer part of his daily routine. Now he just wants to entertain the fans.

Foley has come a long way since his humble beginnings of ten-dollar payoffs and nights sleeping in the back of his car.

What?s next for wrestling?s Hardcore Legend?

I?m thinking of taking my collected writings that haven?t been published and just putting them in a self-published book called ?Mickellaneous? and try to raise some money for some people.?

-- The main event for TNA?s Oct. 3 show at Blackbaud Stadium will feature ?The Charismatic Enigma? Jeff Hardy against ?The Phenomenal? A. J. Styles with 16-time world champion ?Nature Boy? Ric Flair in his corner. Other top bouts will pit ?The Pope? D?Angelo Dinero against TNA co-founder ?Double J? Jeff Jarrett, and a TNA Knockouts championship match with The Beautiful People?s Angelina Love against Madison Rayne.

Also appearing will be TNA tag-team champions Motor City Machine Guns, Beer Money, Samoa Joe, Rhino, Shannon Moore, Doug Williams, Brian Kendrick, Eric Young, Magnus and more.

-- Jorge ?Giant? Gonzales, who at 7-7 was the tallest known pro wrestler in history, passed away last week in his native Argentina. Gonzales, who suffered from diabetes and other health issues stemming from his height, was 44.

Gonzales, who was a basketball star in Argentina before being drafted by the Atlanta Hawks, worked in WCW as El Gigante from 1990-93. He competed briefly in WWE in 1993 as Giant Gonzales.

Tags: Mick Foley, Ric Flair, WWE, Jim Ross, TNA, WCW, A. J. Styles, Jeff Jarrett