Foley
Is Good (and The Real World Is Faker Than Wrestling)
Review
by : Russ
Ray
Written
by : Mick
Foley
|
As Mick
Foley begins his second journey towards the top of the nonfiction
best-seller list, it's astounding to see how much he's grown
and learned as a writer. In Mick's first book, Have a Nice
Day, Mick basically scrambled to put together the story
of about 20 years of his life and cram it into 500 pages.
While Foley Is Good tips the scales at about 50 less
pages, half of the book covers the last two years of his life,
including the actual process of writing his first book, his
retirement, and his subsequent return to the World Wrestling
Federation. However, the other half of the book is kind of
a "World According to Foley" manifesto. Mick tackles
issues in and out of wrestling, thus proving that his latest
novel will entertain both wrestling fans and non-wrestling
fans alike.
The book
begins immediately where the original leaves off in 1999.
Mick discusses his first reign as WWF Champion and learning
to live with Barry Blaustein following him around to film
the documentary Beyond the Mat. He goes on to discuss
working with the original ghostwriter on his book and how
his writing style didn't exactly mesh with the way Mick wanted
the book to appear. He also goes through his recovery from
knee surgery in preparation for his final run in the WWF in
late 1999/early 2000 and the night that he was almost forced
into retirement by Vince McMahon and the reasons why it was
held off in favor of his final run with Triple H.
Mick says
that of all his accomplishments in his life, the fact that
he wrote a book and that it became a best-seller is one of
his proudest. It's interesting to see Foley (a literary outsider)
having to deal with book editors, marketing people, book signings,
and book critics. Despite having a number one book, he was
disappointed that he couldn't get booked on such shows like
The Late Show, The Tonight Show, Oprah, and Rosie O'Donnell,
although he goes into great detail on appearing on Howard
Stern and Larry King.
However,
it is the frank and candid discussion of such topics as backyard
wrestling, parental responsibility, and the assault on wrestling
by the media and the Parents Television Council. In fact,
most of Mick's 78-page epilogue is a research paper "In
Defense of the World Wrestling Federation". First, he
discusses the Indiana University research study that was released
a couple of years ago about the number of references to drugs,
sex, satanic activity and extreme acts of violence in a year's
worth of Raw episodes. Mick conducted a similar study
of his own (though probably not scientifically valid) with
the help of Linda McMahon and some old tapes of WWF shows
and came up with fewer results. Mick then called Dr. Walter
Ganz, the man who headed the study, to discuss his results
and what he based his findings on.
In comparison,
Mick watched General Hospital, Cheers and both
Home Alone movies to see how they measured up with
Raw. Yet again, he found more instances of offending material
on a soap opera that airs at 3 in the afternoon, an all-time
classic TV show, and two movies that are rated PG. The Home
Alone study proves to be interesting, as Mick asks a doctor
to compare the possible real-life injuries resulting from
violence in wrestling compared to the violence in Home Alone.
Here's a spoiler: most of the Home Alone stuff involves
the word "death".
Mick then
goes after the PTC and the relationship of leader L. Brent
Bozell's father to a certain Joe McCarthy. He then makes a
valid point of comparing the threatening tactics of the PTC
to those of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Unfortunately,
he couldn't reach anyone at the PTC, because they're told
not to speak to anyone from the World Wrestling Federation.
He also researches Bozell's other past activities with the
Conservative Victory Committee, where in support of Clarence
Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court, he attempted to run
an advertisement that assaulted Ted Kennedy's character in
regards to a certain auto accident that we all know about.
Even President Bush tried to get Bozell to stop running the
ad, but he wouldn't. Mick basically makes the argument that
the reason the PTC picks on wrestling so much is because it's
an easy target that no one will come to the defense of in
the media.
Mick himself
admits that his second-go-round features less wrestling, foul
language, and blood than Have a Nice Day. However,
it's all the other stuff Mick says that should make wrestling
fans stand up and take on the PTC. Mick basically feeds everyone
an argument to use for whenever you happen to see one of these
unrealistic, moralistic creeps or you hear about them targeting
an advertiser or whatever they try and do to censor television
programming. The idea that parents should take responsibility
for what their children watch on television instead of letting
it be a babysitter is not a new one, yet when Foley makes
the statement, he's got plenty of authority given he's a wrestler
and a father. Foley Is Good and so's this book, and
it should appeal to fans and non-fans as well as his first
one.
|
