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Recap of Mick Foley's Lecture at MIT

Posted: Apr 12th 2007 By: CMBurnham

I just got back from seeing Mick Foley speak at MIT this evening. This was an open forum in conjunction with a class entitled "American Pro Wrestling" that is being offered at MIT. The class has a blog they must post on every week. Here is a link the blog: http://mitcmsprowrestling.blogspot.com.

The following are some notes I wrote down through out the forum:

The crowd was mostly made up of college students. There were a few older people there as well as three young kids. It seemed like a majority of the crowd were long time fans. Any time Foley mentioned Cena the crowd would let Mick know that they weren't Cena fans.

Sam Ford, the professor of the class, introduced Mick Foley and had Foley come out to Dude Love's theme music. Everyone applauded but Mick said he was embarrassed and wanted to do his entrance again. The second time he came out to Kurt Angle's WWE theme music and encouraged the crowd to chant "You Suck".

Mick told a few stories from the road and then brought up the study done by Indiana University a few years ago. The study followed WWE programming for 52 weeks and found that there were 157 counts of the middle finger being used. 434 "suck it's", 1,658 counts of gesturing toward gentile, 128 acts of simulated sex and 609 wrestlers hit with foreign objects.

Foley said he was confused by the study so called up the professor who did the research. The professor cleared up some things by saying that he counts the acts of violence based on not just the live show but also replays and entrance videos. Foley goes on to explain that he is the only wrestler who is seen getting beat up in his entrance video. Foley tried to defend the DX crotch chop by saying that when they make the X with their arms it points away for their crotch, though Foley admitted his argument there was pretty weak.

Foley said he was confused by the 128 acts of simulated sex. The professor said any gesture, such as a woman rubbing a man's shoulders, is considered simulated sex if its done provocatively.

Foley also said he wasn't sure what the study mean by simulated drug use. The professor said simulated drug use also counted beer drinking. Foley said not one of the 37 newspaper articles he read about the study ever mentioned that the 609 counts of simulated drug use related to the drinking of beer.

Foley decided to do his own little study. He had his mother tape a week's worth of General Hospital and a week's worth of Cheers. He found that General Hospital had 4.2 acts of simulated sex an hour compared to WWE's 1.8 per hour. Cheers had 27 acts of "simulated drug use" per hour compared to WWE's .42.

Foley then opened up the forum to questions.

The first question was about Dave Meltzer and is impact on the business. Mick said that Dave had been helpful in getting him a job with the WWE (by mentioning him in his reports) but overall Mick felt Dave hasn't had that great of impact on the industry.

The second question had o do about promos in the WWE and why some guys are so terrible compared to every guy back in the day who could go out and cut a promo every night. Mick said that back in the old days the wrestlers would cut hundreds and hundreds of promos before ever reaching a national audience. Today guys spend 6 months in the development camps and then are thrown on national TV.

Mick mentioned that Cena takes all the heat he gets from fans very well and the WWE makes a lot of money from him.

In 2001 when Mick asked for his release from the WWE him and Vince ended up getting in a yelling match.

Foley feels the best characters are just guys who amplify their own persona.

Timing, luck, talent, and belief in oneself is the most important thing in making it in the business. The creative team can help but it's mostly up to the wrestler.

Foley stated he hasn't said no to any angle presented to him. It was mostly the creative team saying no to angles he proposed.

The only time he was knocked unconscious during a match was his Hell in the Cell match with the Undertaker.

After the hell in the cell match Vince McMahon came up to him and said, "I appreciate what you did but never do that again."

When asked about becoming a writer for the WWE Mick said to not do it. When he joined the WWE he tried to meet everyone in the creative department but quickly learned the turnover rate is so high it's impossible to get to know everyone.

Mick mentioned how his latest book "Hardcore Diaries" has only been on the bestseller list for 4 weeks and will fall from the list next week. He said he would rather be misquoted than not quoted at all, because he as at least gets publicity when misquoted.

When asked what one wrestler he'd pick if he were to start his own wrestling promotion and could pick any wrestler Foley said he'd pick Edge. He said Edge has at least a few more years left to be in his prime and he is one of the few guys that love it when the fans hate him and hates it when they cheer for him.

When asked about his choice to boycott the Raw after the Montreal screw job Mick said it was obvious that when he was watching Raw from his hotel room last night he hadn't made the best decision as everyone else had showed up. When Vince found out Mick wanted to leave the WWE because of what happened he called Foley and tried to convince him to stay.

Another fan asked if there would ever be a time when Mick wouldn't want to talk about wrestling. Mick said as long as people are asking about the hell in the cell match he doesn't have to get a real job.

Mick feels that 12 PPVs a year are too much. He said there should only be 5-6.

Foley feels the business is on an up surge again with guys like John Cena and Batista leading the pack.

The last story Mick told was one that is in his first book (I think anyway). It was the one about Bob Holly suplexing Al Snow and Holly grabbing Snow's trunks and pulled them to the side so Snow was exposed to the sold out crowd.

Foley got a great ovation at the end and signed a few autographs for fans. He also gave the notes he had written in preparation for the lecture to the 3 kids in the audience.

All in all it was a pretty awesome event and Foley was surprisingly candid. I'd love to be able to take this course in pro wrestling, as it seems pretty interesting. I believe later this month they will be holding another open forum with someone in the business, I just don't think it is someone from the WWE. I'd also like to point out that I overheard someone from the channel 7 news say that WWE is helping to fund these forums and the class.