Foley’s journey from the ring to stage
Wrestler reminisces on a storied career
As one of pro wrestling’s biggest stars, Mick Foley excelled at two things: creating mayhem inside the ring, and thrilling fans with a microphone.
The three-time WWE champion, WWE Hall of Fame inductee and hardcore legend is bringing the same blend of wit and wrestling memories with him in his oneman spoken-word stage show, Tales From Wrestling Past to Yuk Yuk’s for four shows this weekend.
Based on his three wrestling memoirs — Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks (1999), Foley Is Good: And the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling (both of which topped the New York Times’ non-fiction bestseller lists), and The Hardcore Diaries — Foley’s stage show is a night of behind-the-scenes stories culled randomly from Foley’s 28year career.
Over 80 minutes, Foley shares stories about his favourite matches, best improvised promotional interviews and the evolution of his many wrestling characters including the tortured psychopath Mankind, the tie-dyed California stoner Dude Love, wild man masochist Cactus Jack, as well as his sock-puppet partner Socko.
He also covers his idol Dusty Rhodes, his tempestuous relationship with WWE boss Vince McMahon and his current favourite character, Santa Claus, whom he plays for his four children and for children’s charities every December. But after more than 200 performances, the one story he’s asked to repeat most often is the shocking bump he took for 1998’s Hell in a Cell.
With a reputation for cartoonish, barbaric violence and a wanton disregard for his own well-being, Foley was already well known for using outlandish instruments to torture opponents (and himself ) including barbed wire, explosives, and even a cattle prod.
Looking to give the fans a bigger thrill, he outdid himself at the WWE’s Hell in a Cell match, when wrestling the Undertaker, he took a fall from the top of a 16-foot steel cage onto the announcer’s table below, leaving him a senseless, bleeding mess with a dislocated shoulder and jaw, severe concussion, a bruised kidney, missing teeth and a torn lip.
After the match, a groggy Foley asked the Undertaker if he had remembered to cover the wrestling mat with thumbtacks, unaware that he was bleeding profusely from the dozens of thumbtacks still stuck to his body.
Thinking back to that fateful night, Foley says that he didn’t realize just how dangerous the fall would be until he was standing on top of the cage over the ring.
“If I had gone up to the top of the cell that afternoon, there was no way I would have done it,” he admits. “As soon as I climbed to the top of the cage I was terrified. I thought it was the worst idea I had ever concocted.” Yes, at the time it was a terrible idea, but it’s also one of the many stories that wrestling fans still can’t get enough of in Tales From Wrestling Past. Also in the works is a reimagining of Will Ferrell and John Reilly’s The Step Brothers characters as wrestlers. The show ends with a Q&A and autographs.
According to Foley, it’s storytelling that even non-wrestling fans can enjoy. And if anyone asks, he’ll talk about his latest film Chokeslam, which was shot in Regina. In it, he plays a grizzled, old wrestler.
“It was not much a stretch,” he laughs.
“At heart, I was always a performer, not a competitor. My goal in wrestling was always to take people on a journey to get a reaction and make people feel like they had seen something special.