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THE OUTSIDER'S EDGE
Have a Nice Day!
In Mick
Foley's auto-biographical novel Have a Nice Day!, there are many
instances of Mick telling his life story (ironically enough).
Through personal experience, Mick tries to show the pain and dedication
he used to become a pro wrestler today. He speaks of falling onto
concrete day in and day out. He preaches from the book of BWire and
quotes from DeathMatch 24:13.
Ok enough
of this English paper introduction junk. What I am trying to say is
two fold. One, the bio is like the coolest book I have read in a
long time and is almost singlehandedly responsible for my english reading
to be behind. I try to read this book every chance I get, but, two,
I have noticed some things weird about it. He makes everything seem
so unreal.
At times,
he will be talking about certain matches and relate how painful some move
was. He will be like, "So I got powerbombed onto the
thumbtacks and barbed wire and it was all sticking into my skin. It
was really painful, so I got up and continued the match". It
makes it seem like he is either God (which may be possible) or the moves
are not as painful. For example, when he is talking about the C4
explosions in the King of the DeathMatches Final, he says that it feels
like being shot with a shotgun. That sounds totally kayfabe, but I
thought that the book is total shoot and at most times it is. It
could be shoot, but then he talks about getting right back up and
continuing the match. I know that if I were shot with a shotgun it
would be really hard to continue. Really, really, really
hard. I have the mach on tape and Foley does continue the match
with what seems like a good level of maneuverability, especially
considering having been "shot by a shotgun". So, it seems
to me like some of it has to be exaggeration, if not outright
kayfabe. When he is fighting HHH at SummerSlam '97 (the cage match)
Mick relates how painful Chyna hitting him in the head with the cage door
was. He says it was one of the most painful thing he ever felt in
his life, but then says he continued to wrestle the match and even did a
huge elbow off the top of the cage. I know that Mick Foley is a
great taker of pain, but it seems too unreal, when he is talking of this
intense pain and then still does other stuff to compound it. I have
a certain level of disbelief in his words, when he speaks on barely
surviving the door attack and then saying he climbed up the fencing and
dove off.
Mick talks
really shoot during most of the book, but when he gets to his time in the
WWF (his current work place), he seems to get a little more
kayfabish. It is like he is trying to protect certain people and
their reputation. One example of this is near the end, where he
speaks about the cage match between himself/ Terry Funk vs. NAO
from the Raw right after WM XIV. He says: Showing the
intestinal fortitude that was my trademark, I battled back against the
odds and was climbing the cage en route to victory." That
seems to me to be a rather kayfabe statement. He battled against
odds, but isn't it just rigged to have Cactus climb up the cage no matter
how bad NAO hurts them. Of course, that was the debut of XPac and
the new DX, but that is superfluous to the situation at hand. It is
little things like that, that make the WWF portion of Mick's book seem
outlandish. He will talk about his true feelings about Rocky or
Mero's contract, but then at some point he will say how it was a hard
fought victory for him or something kayfabe like that.
Don't get
me wrong. I love the book as much as the next guy and wish it was
5000 pages instead of 500. I just think that at some points, Mick
gets unreal with his descriptions. I know he can take unimaginable
amounts of pain, but in his words he just blows off missed EDrops to the
outside or fall onto the BWire like they are nothing more than
scratches. I love the parts about WCW. He makes it sound like
WCW is totally chaotic and out of control, which helps prove my points on
several levels. Those points are another column, though.
Anyway, if
you have any comments, complains, criticisms, or questions or just wanna
talk about how it seems Kevin Sullivan must end every sentence with
Brotha, then email me at talboito@uclink4.berkeley.edu.
PS
Bill Simpson and I both give the book 9 thumbs up.
Matt Talbot
freelance
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