What Would Kevin Do?
10-15-2004, 01:49 PM
So last night Mick Foley was in Toledo speaking for the "Authors, Authors" program. Interesting stuff to say the least. Foley is a great guy, and a great story teller.
When he was being introduced, he had to cut the guy off because he was announced at being 6'2, when he's really 6'4. He then went on to explain that he was probably the first wrestler to be under billed on his height. Apparently in his first match, Howard FInkel announced him as being 6'2, thinking he was shorter. Howard thought he was doing him a favor announcing him as taller, but in fact, he was announcing him as shorter.
Foley made the comment that he felt like "Mick Jagger on a solo tour." Because he wasn't there to talk about wrestling, but if he didn't, he'd have some pretty ticked off fans.
He told an interesting story about when he was in Malaysia. Apparently the WWE had him doing an appearance at a huge shopping center there. When he arrived, there was over 10'000 people there. He was swarmed, and he begins shaking hands like crazy. He's shaking some with his right and some with his left because there's so many. At one point he was this young boy's father yell out "NOT WITH THE LEFT". Throughout the next ten minutes, he heard this 4 more times from the man. Later on, he was having dinner with his agent I believe, and Foley asked what the deal was with the left hand. Eventually, he was filled in that in Malaysia, the left hand was the "wiping hand". Furthermore, being the the poor country that Malaysia is, they don't have a lot of toilet paper. Not to long after this Foley read a statistic in America that 75% of males do not wash their ands after going to the bathroom.
Because of these two experiences, Foley came up with the idea that he wanted to go on Raw and tell the crowd to always wash their hands. Unfortunately he was a good guy at the time, so he really couldn't rip into the crowd for not washing. He pitched the idea to both Kurt Angle and to Chris Jericho, and neither one wanted to run with it. Foley then went onto explain he thought his idea was dead, until he was able to work it into "Tietamn Brown." He then read the passage he was talking about.
He talked about "Wrescal Lane" for a bit, and read some of it. Apparently it was actually written four years ago, but before it was published, Foley left the WWE. He couldn't publish it because it had copyrighted wrestlers, and WWE couldn't publish it, because they didn't have Foley's permission. Foley explained that he originally came up with the idea to piss off Vince McMahon. Foley figured he would pitch this book idea, and Vince would hate it, therefore Foley could get some freedom from the WWE, and they wouldn't take so much of his money off his writings... Of course, Vince loved the idea.
Another interesting tidbit about "Wrescal Lane” is that up to the point it was originally made, Stephanie McMahon that Foley hated her. After seeing how cute and loving she was portrayed as a kid in Mick's book, she called him and thanks him and apologized for thinking he hated her. Mick Foley signed the second copy ever made of the book (this was almost 4 years ago) and gave it to her. The signature was "To Stephanie McMahon, as proof that I never hated you."
The first copy of the book was signed and sent overseas (sorry, can't remember the name of the country) to Mick Foley’s sponsored child.
Another interesting tidbit is that in "Christmas Chaos", the burnt child at the end who wished good will for everybody is actually based off a real person. Furthermore, that child is who the book is dedicated too. It was a four year old child who dumped a pot of boiling oil over his head. Mick met him at an autograph signing in Mass.
There was a small Q&A session, but only one question was really good. That was the question asking Mick how he felt about his matches with Orton and WM XX and at Backlash, and what about his future...
Foley said he loved the angle going into Wrestlmania. Unfortunately, he wasn't thrilled with the match. He said before going out, he thought to himself " I hope I don't embarrass myself" He then said that that was like Michael Jordan throwing a three point shot to win the finals and thinking " I hope I hit the rim at least." or Babe Ruth thinking "I hope I make contact." Mick wasn't thinking about tearing the house down, he was worried, and doesn't think he did as well as he should.
Backlash on the other hand Foley said he was totally into the match and ready to tear the house down. Foley considered the match with Orton one of his best. Foley then said that he loves coming back for those golden story opportunities and matches like he had with Orton. He said he would do it again if something really caught his interest. Unfortunately, Foley doesn't feel that that opportunity is going to happen again. Foley then said that his last match with Orton will probably be his last, and he's very proud of it.
Foley told a great story to wrap up the night. Basically, he's part of the "Big Brothers, Big Sisters" organization. He visits this young man who suffers from Cerebral Palsy. Foley always went over to his house, and they watched wrestling, and talked about wrestling. Foley started feeling bad, because he never asked the kid how he was, or what he was feeling, and he was basically "Ignoring the elephant in the room."
Eventually, the boy was about to have another big surgery. Before the surgery, the boy's father asked Mick if he would take him to an Islander's game. He did. At the game, Mick brought up the surgery. An outpour of thoughts and emotions came out of the kid. They talked more, and Foley found out a lot about the kid, including what kind of music he liked. Foley asked the kid if he liked Twisted Sister, and he loved them, and wanted to know if Foley knew Dee Snider (as they're both from Long Island.) Foley then went on to talk about how one of his two famous friends is actually Dee Snider. So Foley told the kid that he was going to try to get Dee Snider to call him at the hospital.
Long story short, Dee Snider owed Mick a favor from back when Dee was filming a movie for VH1. Apparently Mick drove 7 hours round trip to host Dee Snider's house of hair for 2 hours while Dee was off filming. So Mick was able to get Dee Snider to go with him and visit this kid at the hospital.
Mick talked about how Dee was sitting down with the kid, and telling him all about the golden days of rock and roll. Mick said this wasn't one of those television playmakers, who visits the kid for 3 minutes, takes their medication with them, and leaves (He then cracked a Rush Limbaugh joke about stealing the kids medicine.) After a few hours, Mick and Dee left. When Mick dropped Dee off at his home, they said their goodbyes, and Mick drove off. In his rearview mirror he saw Dee calling him back. So he stuck the car in reverse, and rolled down his window.
Dee Snider puts his head through Mick's window, and Mick can see he's nervous. Dee's voice is actually quivering when he's talking. What he says is "Mick, I want to thank you for making me a better man today."
Mick ended his speech with saying " So when I'm introduced, I'd like to be introduced as the 2 time WWE heavyweight champion, a 2 time New York Times #1 bestseller, and the guy who made Dee Snider a better man."
Anywho, that's about the jest of it. There's a lot more I could type, but a lot of it has been said in his books (like the story about the man who wanted to write his book originally, etc.) Afterwards, he did a book signing. I got my copy of "Have a Nice Day" and "Foley is Good" signed, and I have a picture with My girlfriend, Mick, and I. Great night and Foley is an awesome guy.
When he was being introduced, he had to cut the guy off because he was announced at being 6'2, when he's really 6'4. He then went on to explain that he was probably the first wrestler to be under billed on his height. Apparently in his first match, Howard FInkel announced him as being 6'2, thinking he was shorter. Howard thought he was doing him a favor announcing him as taller, but in fact, he was announcing him as shorter.
Foley made the comment that he felt like "Mick Jagger on a solo tour." Because he wasn't there to talk about wrestling, but if he didn't, he'd have some pretty ticked off fans.
He told an interesting story about when he was in Malaysia. Apparently the WWE had him doing an appearance at a huge shopping center there. When he arrived, there was over 10'000 people there. He was swarmed, and he begins shaking hands like crazy. He's shaking some with his right and some with his left because there's so many. At one point he was this young boy's father yell out "NOT WITH THE LEFT". Throughout the next ten minutes, he heard this 4 more times from the man. Later on, he was having dinner with his agent I believe, and Foley asked what the deal was with the left hand. Eventually, he was filled in that in Malaysia, the left hand was the "wiping hand". Furthermore, being the the poor country that Malaysia is, they don't have a lot of toilet paper. Not to long after this Foley read a statistic in America that 75% of males do not wash their ands after going to the bathroom.
Because of these two experiences, Foley came up with the idea that he wanted to go on Raw and tell the crowd to always wash their hands. Unfortunately he was a good guy at the time, so he really couldn't rip into the crowd for not washing. He pitched the idea to both Kurt Angle and to Chris Jericho, and neither one wanted to run with it. Foley then went onto explain he thought his idea was dead, until he was able to work it into "Tietamn Brown." He then read the passage he was talking about.
He talked about "Wrescal Lane" for a bit, and read some of it. Apparently it was actually written four years ago, but before it was published, Foley left the WWE. He couldn't publish it because it had copyrighted wrestlers, and WWE couldn't publish it, because they didn't have Foley's permission. Foley explained that he originally came up with the idea to piss off Vince McMahon. Foley figured he would pitch this book idea, and Vince would hate it, therefore Foley could get some freedom from the WWE, and they wouldn't take so much of his money off his writings... Of course, Vince loved the idea.
Another interesting tidbit about "Wrescal Lane” is that up to the point it was originally made, Stephanie McMahon that Foley hated her. After seeing how cute and loving she was portrayed as a kid in Mick's book, she called him and thanks him and apologized for thinking he hated her. Mick Foley signed the second copy ever made of the book (this was almost 4 years ago) and gave it to her. The signature was "To Stephanie McMahon, as proof that I never hated you."
The first copy of the book was signed and sent overseas (sorry, can't remember the name of the country) to Mick Foley’s sponsored child.
Another interesting tidbit is that in "Christmas Chaos", the burnt child at the end who wished good will for everybody is actually based off a real person. Furthermore, that child is who the book is dedicated too. It was a four year old child who dumped a pot of boiling oil over his head. Mick met him at an autograph signing in Mass.
There was a small Q&A session, but only one question was really good. That was the question asking Mick how he felt about his matches with Orton and WM XX and at Backlash, and what about his future...
Foley said he loved the angle going into Wrestlmania. Unfortunately, he wasn't thrilled with the match. He said before going out, he thought to himself " I hope I don't embarrass myself" He then said that that was like Michael Jordan throwing a three point shot to win the finals and thinking " I hope I hit the rim at least." or Babe Ruth thinking "I hope I make contact." Mick wasn't thinking about tearing the house down, he was worried, and doesn't think he did as well as he should.
Backlash on the other hand Foley said he was totally into the match and ready to tear the house down. Foley considered the match with Orton one of his best. Foley then said that he loves coming back for those golden story opportunities and matches like he had with Orton. He said he would do it again if something really caught his interest. Unfortunately, Foley doesn't feel that that opportunity is going to happen again. Foley then said that his last match with Orton will probably be his last, and he's very proud of it.
Foley told a great story to wrap up the night. Basically, he's part of the "Big Brothers, Big Sisters" organization. He visits this young man who suffers from Cerebral Palsy. Foley always went over to his house, and they watched wrestling, and talked about wrestling. Foley started feeling bad, because he never asked the kid how he was, or what he was feeling, and he was basically "Ignoring the elephant in the room."
Eventually, the boy was about to have another big surgery. Before the surgery, the boy's father asked Mick if he would take him to an Islander's game. He did. At the game, Mick brought up the surgery. An outpour of thoughts and emotions came out of the kid. They talked more, and Foley found out a lot about the kid, including what kind of music he liked. Foley asked the kid if he liked Twisted Sister, and he loved them, and wanted to know if Foley knew Dee Snider (as they're both from Long Island.) Foley then went on to talk about how one of his two famous friends is actually Dee Snider. So Foley told the kid that he was going to try to get Dee Snider to call him at the hospital.
Long story short, Dee Snider owed Mick a favor from back when Dee was filming a movie for VH1. Apparently Mick drove 7 hours round trip to host Dee Snider's house of hair for 2 hours while Dee was off filming. So Mick was able to get Dee Snider to go with him and visit this kid at the hospital.
Mick talked about how Dee was sitting down with the kid, and telling him all about the golden days of rock and roll. Mick said this wasn't one of those television playmakers, who visits the kid for 3 minutes, takes their medication with them, and leaves (He then cracked a Rush Limbaugh joke about stealing the kids medicine.) After a few hours, Mick and Dee left. When Mick dropped Dee off at his home, they said their goodbyes, and Mick drove off. In his rearview mirror he saw Dee calling him back. So he stuck the car in reverse, and rolled down his window.
Dee Snider puts his head through Mick's window, and Mick can see he's nervous. Dee's voice is actually quivering when he's talking. What he says is "Mick, I want to thank you for making me a better man today."
Mick ended his speech with saying " So when I'm introduced, I'd like to be introduced as the 2 time WWE heavyweight champion, a 2 time New York Times #1 bestseller, and the guy who made Dee Snider a better man."
Anywho, that's about the jest of it. There's a lot more I could type, but a lot of it has been said in his books (like the story about the man who wanted to write his book originally, etc.) Afterwards, he did a book signing. I got my copy of "Have a Nice Day" and "Foley is Good" signed, and I have a picture with My girlfriend, Mick, and I. Great night and Foley is an awesome guy.