Foley is reading it.....shouldn't you be?!

Hello all

So this past week I was watching RAW and they had a very clever angle. They brought back Mick Foley for one of the most successful segments to ever be on RAW, “This is your life”. The original segment was on RAW in 1999 (which still is the highest segment of RAW ever). Foley was excited about him and the Rock winning the World Tag Team championships, and was showing his appreciation to the Rock for being his partner and his “friend”.

Last week Foley tried to do the same thing for John Cena. This segment was not quite as funny, but still entertaining. Foley brought out a few people from Cena’s life. But the friends and family that Foley brought out did not show the same respect for Cena. The thing that got my attention was something Foley said in the beginning of the segment. In the beginning, Foley said John Cena may be the best WWE superstar of today. He said he was one of the most well respected men in the business. From the main eventers to the jobbers (guys who always lose), Cena shows every man the same respect. But it was what he said earlier that caught my attention. When he said Cena has had some of the best matches he has seen. Does that sound familiar to any of you? For those of you who have read my blog (which I hope is a lot more than 5), you will remember that I wrote a blog about how great Cena has been on Pay Per View. So that tells me one thing, Mick Foley is reading my blog. Shouldn’t you be? Mick Foley will be the blog topic today.

Foley started out as a wrestling fan, who famously hitchhiked to Madison Square Garden to see a Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, steel cage match. He began training in 1983, working in a lot of the small promotions for almost an entire decade. Then in 1991, he made his debut in WCW. He started as Cactus Jack and had a few epic matches with Sting. He was the original extreme wrestlers. Back in WCW he would do a lot of work outside of the ring. He would drop flying elbows on wrestlers (including Sting) outside the ring, on the concrete. Foley had a pretty good run with WCW, then he went to ECW. In ECW, Foley got his chance to really get extreme, and help popularize the extreme movement that was ECW. But Foley did not get much of a run in ECW. So he left there and went to Japan, before he got his chance at the big time.

In 1996, Foley made it to the WWE. In the early part of his WWE career, he was not as big of a star as I’m sure Vince McMahon thought he would be when he brought him in. Foley started out as “Mankind”, I guess a take off of the Hannibal Lecter character from “Silence of the Lambs”. Mankind would have a few good matches, battling Vader, and even fighting Shawn Michaels for the WWE championship, but he still not did not get the respect he deserved. Foley would go back and forth as this character, Cactus Jack, and a 3rd Dude Love. Foley seemed destined to be a mid-carder until the match that changed his life. In 1998 Foley finished a feud with the Undertaker. They had every kind of match you could imagine. So what match would they have to end it all? Hell in the Cell. This is the famous Cell match where Taker throws Foley off the top of the cage. 16 feet in the air, on to an announce table. But that was not the end of the match. Later in the match, somehow Foley got back on top of the cage, only to get choke slammed through it by Taker.

After this you would have thought Foley was done with wrestling, but no. As a matter of fact, this was the beginning of Foley’s rise in popularity. Fans were starting to make signs that read “Foley is God”. And they would all rush to their feet when his music would play. And while doing this, Foley’s character became more of a baby-faced character. He would get on the mic, and speak. He would do segments that really showcased his personality. McMahon even came up with a title for him, and made him the 1st Hardcore Champion. This did not satisfy Foley because he set his sights on the WWE title. After he got screwed out of the WWE title by the Rock and McMahon, he made it his mission to win the title. On an episode of RAW that aired on January 4th 1999, Foley defeated the Rock for the WWE title. During an episode of Monday Nitro, which was WCW’s rival show, the announcer gave away the surprise that Foley would win. Instead of it making more people stay, it made everyone tune in to RAW and watch Foley win the WWE title. Foley would go on to become a 3 time WWE champion and would have a long run with the company, until he left for what seemed like greener pastures at TNA.

After arriving in TNA, Foley hit the ground running. He joined the company in 2008, and got involved in a big storyline between Jeff Jarrett and Kurt Angle. Foley also stared working with “the monster” Abyss. Abyss seemed to have a lot in common with Foley, and Foley was acting as his mentor, coming out to the ring with Abyss and even giving him his signature look, the plaid lumberjack shirt. Later with that company, Foley became the top guy, defeating Sting (déjà vu), to win the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. After losing the title to Angle, Foley helped bring some of the former ECW guys to the company, and even helped them have their own ppv named “Hardcore Justice”. After bringing all of the old guys back to TNA for another shot at glory, Foley was used sparingly on TV until he asked for and was granted his release from the company the past summer.

I know Foley is not exactly reading my blog, but he should be. There is great stuff here. But on a more serious note, Foley is one of the innovators in this business. He ushered in the Hardcore Era. All of the stuff that Jeff Hardy, Dudley Boys, Edge did when he was popularizing the TLC match, even fans of the ECW movement, owe a debt of gratitude to Mick Foley. He was the common man, who worked his tail off, and rose to the greatest of heights in this business, becoming a multiple WWE champion. Not because he was a good politician, but because he gave everything he had in that ring, and in doing so he captured the hearts of millions. And in the process lost a few teeth, brain cells, and part of his ear.

AND THAT'S THE BOTTOM LLLLIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!