Foley Is Good
And The Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling
Author: Mick Foley
Published: 2002
Pages: 608 (paperback)
Synopsis: A look at Mick Foley's final year and a year as an active wrestler, plus his thoughts on industry detractors.
Wrestlers are no different from anyone else, and quite honestly, this is the part about prescription drugs that I find most confusing and bothersome.
Aren't there restrictions on how much medicine one doctor can prescribe? And shouldn't there be some sort of national data system that ensures that the same drugs are not prescribed to the same person by multiple doctors? I've been trying to find out for weeks now, and it seems like the answers to both questions are no.
Why not? Well, I don't have an intimate knowledge of the pharmaceutical business in this country, but it would seem that the answer would point to money. The more drugs they sell, the more money they get.
So we can send a man to the moon, we can have five-year-old kids access hardcore pornography on their computer, but we can't stop a drug addict from getting the same legally prescribed drug in multiple states?
I didn't rush out and buy Foley Is Good: And The Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling, the sequel to the critically-acclaimed Have A Nice Day, when it first came out (Foley would probably call me a cheapskate who waited for the paperback version). But honestly, I just didn't think there was a lot of ground for him to cover after writing about the bulk of his career -- at least to that point -- and he was barely retired.
To an extent, I was right (and Foley admits as much). Yet, only the first half of this book covers his programs with The Rock, Big Show, Al Snow and Triple H; hilarious jabs at The Mean Street Posse; and packing the pages with funny stories, top ten lists and the like. His anecdotes about Britney Spears and the "penis suplex" aren't to be missed.
Foley even describes the hurdles he had in writing his first book (WWE had commissioned a ghostwriter to pen Have A Nice Day.) And as the book title suggests, Foley sets out to prove that other industries are just as phony, if not more, than the business he loves.
The second half of the Foley Is Good, however, is where its real charm lies. Tired of the public drubbing that the then-WWF took from the Parents Television Council in the late-1990s and early-2000s, Foley launched his own research project to counter their claims.
Now... forget for a moment that Cactus Jack is a man after my own heart, airing very similar grievances to what I've said for years about some types of wrestling journalism. It's one thing for a wrestler to give their thoughts on their career, but to actually do honest-to-goodness research on an issue, contacting university professors and pointing out faults in their studies? Outstanding!
As a former reporter, I have to concur that the shots Foley takes at the mainstream media are valid. We'd learn five years later, of course, how much damage reporters can do when they aren't informed about wrestling, but the information news outlets took verbatim from the PTC and elsewhere is actually quite remarkable. Which is to say, remarkably awful.
In addition, the paperback edition of Foley Is Good features a bonus chapter on why he eventually cut ties with WWE (circa 2001 and following his run as Commissioner), his reflections on his first and second novels, and a special section all about meeting Katie Couric. Seriously.
Rating: Oh Hell Yeah! While I enjoyed his first biography more, this sequel packs quite a bit of information in there. Plus, it keeps with the Mick Foley style of writing that you've come to expect, so it's all good.