Mick Foley is on top of the world these days.
The retired WWF superstar has a new book out, Foley Is Good, and the Real World is Faker than Wrestling, and it’s expected to top the New York Times non-fiction best-sellers list.
He’s the subject of a new video release from the WWF — Hard Knocks And Cheap Pops — he’s making up for years spent on the road away from home by spending more time with his wife and children, and for his next book release he plans to write a fictional novel.
Even in retirement, the legendary brawler is keeping busy.
So it was a treat for SLAM! Wrestling to be invited to take part in a TNN media conference call Thursday afternoon with the acclaimed author and WWF icon.
Fielding a variety of questions from the current state of the WWF to his thoughts on the WWF buyout of WCW, Foley offered his candid and honest view of this Sunday’s Judgement Day pay-per-view scheduled to air from Sacramento, CA live on Viewers Choice.
The overwhelming discussion leading into Sunday’s pay-per-view is the controversy over the angle from this week’s RAW and Smackdown! where police informed the Undertaker that his wife Sara was in an automobile accident. Many pundits feel that incorporating Undertaker’s real-life wife into a wrestling storyline crosses the line of what is acceptable programming.
Foley, a devoted family man, thinks the WWF may have crossed the line with this angle.
“I really hope that it’s revealed that Stone Cold or HHH or Vince was behind that phone call. At least then I could justify it,” Foley said during the conference call. “I think the fans made it clear during the Big Show angle with his dad having cancer that they don’t care for storylines being taken that far. That’s kind of the way I felt about it. I just hope they cover this by making it a mean trick on Stone Cold’s part, which is what I think it will turn out to be.”
While Foley likes the traces of reality that the WWF infuses into their storylines, he feels the line has to be drawn when it comes to families.
“When we had the Big Show’s dad dying of cancer, when we had (Roadwarrior) Hawk as a drug addict, those are things that are not acceptable on the show, I think. We are a strange amalgamation of fact and fiction… but as soon as you enter (The Undertaker’s) real-life wife into it, it takes on a strange feeling of reality and I’m not sure that that works well with that character.”
Foley is also aware of the complaints from WWF fans that their product has grown stale and the subsequent lack of interest and enthusiasm from fans over this weekend’s pay-per-view. Foley is quick to point out that whether the show can be labelled a success or not will be indicated “by the buy rate and the television ratings because with the fans, actions always speak loudest.”
The health of the WWF roster is also a hot topic of discussion among fans lately, as the WWF reportedly cancelled a house show in Columbus, OH last Sunday due to injuries to several key performers. As a result, speculation began to circulate on the Internet that the Undertaker isn’t 100 per cent and that he might not be able to work this Sunday’s main event against ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
While Undertaker is expected to wrestle in the main event this Sunday, there’s no denying that he isn’t completely healthy.
“The Undertaker’s body is really banged up and battered,” admitted Foley. “He’s a very big man who’s done a lot of athletic stuff for a long time.”
