Foley Is Good (and The Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling) by Mick Foley
As Mick Foley begins his second journey towards the top of the nonfiction best-seller list, it’s astounding to see how much he’s grown and learned as a writer. In Mick’s first book, Have a Nice Day, Mick basically scrambled to put together the story of about 20 years of his life and cram it into 500 pages. While Foley Is Good tips the scales at about 50 less pages, half of the book covers the last two years of his life, including the actual process of writing his first book, his retirement, and his subsequent return to the World Wrestling Federation. However, the other half of the book is kind of a “World According to Foley” manifesto. Mick tackles issues in and out of wrestling, thus proving that his latest novel will entertain both wrestling fans and non-wrestling fans alike.
The book begins immediately where the original leaves off in 1999. Mick discusses his first reign as WWF Champion and learning to live with Barry Blaustein following him around to film the documentary Beyond the Mat. He goes on to discuss working with the original ghostwriter on his book and how his writing style didn’t exactly mesh with the way Mick wanted the book to appear. He also goes through his recovery from knee surgery in preparation for his final run in the WWF in late 1999/early 2000 and the night that he was almost forced into retirement by Vince McMahon and the reasons why it was held off in favor of his final run with Triple H.
Mick says that of all his accomplishments in his life, the fact that he wrote a book and that it became a best-seller is one of his proudest. It’s interesting to see Foley (a literary outsider) having to deal with book editors, marketing people, book signings, and book critics. Despite having a number one book, he was disappointed that he couldn’t get booked on such shows like The Late Show, The Tonight Show, Oprah, and Rosie O’Donnell, although he goes into great detail on appearing on Howard Stern and Larry King.
However, it is the frank and candid discussion of such topics as backyard wrestling, parental responsibility, and the assault on wrestling by the media and the Parents Television Council. In fact, most of Mick’s 78-page epilogue is a research paper “In Defense of the World Wrestling Federation”. First, he discusses the Indiana University research study that was released a couple of years ago about the number of references to drugs, sex, satanic activity and extreme acts of violence in a year’s worth of Raw episodes. Mick conducted a similar study of his own (though probably not scientifically valid) with the help of Linda McMahon and some old tapes of WWF shows and came up with fewer results. Mick then called Dr. Walter Ganz, the man who headed the study, to discuss his results and what he based his findings on.
In comparison, Mick watched General Hospital, Cheers and both Home Alone movies to see how they measured up with Raw. Yet again, he found more instances of offending material on a soap opera that airs at 3 in the afternoon, an all-time classic TV show, and two movies that are rated PG. The Home Alone study proves to be interesting, as Mick asks a doctor to compare the possible real-life injuries resulting from violence in wrestling compared to the violence in Home Alone. Here’s a spoiler: most of the Home Alone stuff involves the word “death”.
Mick then goes after the PTC and the relationship of leader L. Brent Bozell’s father to a certain Joe McCarthy. He then makes a valid point of comparing the threatening tactics of the PTC to those of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Unfortunately, he couldn’t reach anyone at the PTC, because they’re told not to speak to anyone from the World Wrestling Federation. He also researches Bozell’s other past activities with the Conservative Victory Committee, where in support of Clarence Thomas’ nomination to the Supreme Court, he attempted to run an advertisement that assaulted Ted Kennedy’s character in regards to a certain auto accident that we all know about. Even President Bush tried to get Bozell to stop running the ad, but he wouldn’t. Mick basically makes the argument that the reason the PTC picks on wrestling so much is because it’s an easy target that no one will come to the defense of in the media.
Mick himself admits that his second-go-round features less wrestling, foul language, and blood than Have a Nice Day. However, it’s all the other stuff Mick says that should make wrestling fans stand up and take on the PTC. Mick basically feeds everyone an argument to use for whenever you happen to see one of these unrealistic, moralistic creeps or you hear about them targeting an advertiser or whatever they try and do to censor television programming. The idea that parents should take responsibility for what their children watch on television instead of letting it be a babysitter is not a new one, yet when Foley makes the statement, he’s got plenty of authority given he’s a wrestler and a father. Foley Is Good and so’s this book, and it should appeal to fans and non-fans as well as his first one.
