Foley Is Good and the Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling

If you ever want to really impress distinguished foreign visitors - Cambridge dons, Japanese business executives, European Union bureaucrats, Indian rajahs, Tibetan lamas, etc. - show them two things: professional wrestling and square-dancing*. They will come away with a whole new perspective on American culture. Assuming, of course, that they don’t go bat-guano crazy right there.


I did not buy these books myself; they were given to me as a gift. I’ve never seen a professional wrestling match, either in person or on TV, so I have no idea why somebody thought I might be interested in this. That being said, I found them to be amusing in a sophomoric sort of way. Mick Foley spent years “paying his dues”, driving hundreds of miles show more and living out of his car for the privilege of going into dingy small town arenas and getting the snot beat out of him so that he could eventually fly first class and stay in nice hotels for the privilege of entering big city venues and getting the snot beat out of him. Mr. Foley, who wrestled under the names Cactus Jack, Dude Love and Mankind, makes an interesting point; professional wrestling is fake as it could be but you have to be a pretty good athlete to be that fake. Several wrestlers have been killed or crippled in matches. And Mr. Foley has had half an ear torn off and sneezed one of his front teeth out his nose, things which are unlikely to happen in many sports considered more legitimate than wrestling - such as, say, golf. (Although golf TV ratings would certainly go up immensely if a player lost an ear now and then. Or if more of them adopted stage names and colorful costumes. Or looked like Chyna.) When you think about it, professional wrestling is really not much different than grand opera or noh plays or Greek tragedies or Elizabethan drama - stylized portrayals of Good versus Evil, Guile versus Credulity, Youth and Enthusiasm versus Age and Treachery. (For that matter, there’s a wrestling scene in As You Like It; I wonder if anyone’s ever staged it with a professional wrestler as Charles? It would be a hoot.)


Of the two, Have a Nice Day is the better; it has more of a plot and tells Foley’s story from the beginning. Foley is Good although still mildly amusing, reads a little more like afterthoughts from the first book. Both of these made the New York Times best seller lists, which says something about the prevalence of professional wrestling fans. And their literacy, I suppose.


These are good enough to buy in an airport bookstore to read on the plane, but not good enough to take home with you; leave them in the seat back pocket for somebody else.


*Someday, an inspired promoter will figure out a way to combine the two activities. show less

[b:Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling|218495|Foley is Good And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling|Mick Foley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172796558s/218495.jpg|211550] is the follow up to Foley's first autobiography (the book that blazed the trail for the multitude of professional wrestling biographies that would come about in the last 10 years). He basically brings you up to speed on the time since his intial book release, his retirement, his on-screen return as WWE Commissioner and his personal life.

While not as good as his previous outing, [b:Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks|340587|Have A Nice Day A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks|Mick show more Foley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173889597s/340587.jpg|330972], Foley still manages to be entertaining. Especially when he breaks down the Home Alone movies and what REALLY would have happened to poor Harry and Marv. show less

Mick continues where he left off in 'Have a Nice Day'. His work is an easily read insiders look into the business of sports entertainment, with a kind of "Hey Buddy, let me tell ya a story" type of delivery.

Mick Foley does it again! He is such an incredible writer and shows that life is all a work.