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Foley *is* Good

June 03, 2001

I got my copy of Mick Foley's Foley is Good in the mail last Wednesday (via PA, thanks to UPS) and in five days, I finished the 450+ page hardback.

The thing is, I am "in the process of reading" five or six books at any given time. And when I sit down to read, it's usually before bed (or in the "reading room"—you know, the one with the porcelain seat) and I just knock off a few pages (a chapter, at most) and then go to sleep (or flush). But in less than 24 hours, I tore through the first ten chapters of the book, much like I did with his first, Have a Nice Day.

Foley's a damned good writer. He tells a story like that uncle everyone has: when he starts, you're mesmerized until he's done. And then you ask for more.

One theme running through the book is how real life is faker than wrestling. I'm still amazed when people say, "Oh, you watch wrestling? It's so fake." But at this point, it's well documented just how hurt these guys can get. Sure, the endings are choreographed, but the way a match is put together can be a work of art. The fact is, that compared to many things in "real life," wrestling so much more real.

Mick mentions a 20/20 interview he did a little over two years ago. I remember seeing it. It was a story about the phenomenon of backyard wrestling, where bored, untrained kids are beating the hell out of each other with light bulbs, cheese graters, barbed wire, just like Mick has done for years in Japan. In the "investigative report," the interviewer shows Mick a video of these trailer park kids seriously risking their lives. Mick responds, "Looks like a bunch of friends having a lot of fun together."

I was surprised that Mick would answer this way. He was normally very intelligent, and surely he wouldn't condone untrained kids trying stunts like that.

Turns out, he didn't condone it. 20/20 just made it look like he did.

What actually happened was that the interviewer showed Mick a video of backyard wrestling that mainly involved basic stuff like leg drops, flying elbows, and fake punches. To that video Mick responded, "Looks like a bunch of friends having a lot of fun together." When Mick was shown the video with the cheese grater and other dangerous weapons, he said it was rediculous behavior and "even made a plea for the kids to stop."

The moral is: investigative reporting is nothing more than creative editting to draw viewers in.

Mick also discusses his shock at finding out that nearly all sports "autobiographies" are ghostwritten. One such book about a baseball player was written after only a 30-minute interview with the subject.

Writers or lyricists that rely on ghostwriters are fakes. Period.

Mick also attacks our legal system as being particularly "fake" as well as many journalists (like one who repeatedly said that the Rock was a bald-headed racist who was anti-women, anti-black, etc.—not realizing that the Rock is black and has a full head of hair). One particularly poignant moment comes when Mick is talking with fellow wrestler Al Snow while they're at a typical Hollywood party and Al declares that "And they call what we do 'fake'?"

Though generally a collection of wrestling anecdotes and stories about Mick's family, Foley is Good ends with a seething attack on so-called "watchdog" groups that like the PTC, who point to the WWF as the reason our society is going down the tubes. An interesting connection that Foley makes is that the current head of the PTC, L. Brent Bozell III is the son of a former speechwriter for Joseph McCarthy. Yes, that Joseph McCarthy—the staunchly anti-communist senator that made baseless claims in order to ruin other lives and advance his own popularity. Now people like Bozell are taking in six-figure incomes heading up a supposed non-profit organization that vows to get "filth" off your television. Can't get much faker than that.

I enjoyed Foley's second effort quite a bit. Though it wasn't quite as engaging as his debut, it was extremely well-written with a good sense of humor. He has a knack for storytelling and the anti-PTC chapter showed that Mick can do some research as well (the cited sources/bibliography is significant). Foley is good... really good.