Mankind: Have a Nice Day! - A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks - Hardcover

Foley, Mick

4.29

9,878 ratings by Goodreads

9780007105564: Mankind: Have a Nice Day! - A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007105568 ISBN 13: 9780007105564

Publisher: Willow, 2000

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The autobiography of the Mick Foley, a legend of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) scene, the organisation’s one-time champion, and the face behind the wrestlers, Dude Love, Cactus Jack and latterly, Mankind.

Away from the razzamatazz of the World Wrestling Federation circuit, Mick Foley is a nice man. He is a quiet family man, who loves his wife and children and all the things that go hand in hand with such a life. But beneath the surface he is a warped enigma.

In the adrenaline-crazed world of the hugely popular WWF scene, and to the thousands watching in arenas around America and to the millions tuning in around the world, Mickey Foley is God.

Mankind: Have a Nice Day! is the autobiography of the family man with three deranged personalities and a taste for blood. As Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind, Foley has built a fan base of millions. They are drawn to his ring presence and experimentation with Japanese Death Matches which replace the ring ropes with barbed wire, cover the mats in gold thumbtacks, and feature C4 explosives scattered throughout the ring.

And he has the injuries to prove it. Barbed wire scars zigzag his body, second-degree burns from a C4 explosion cover his arm and shoulder, and a missing ear – torn clean off during a bout. Not to mention missing teeth, numerous broken limbs and over 50 stitches.

This book is an intimate glimpse into the hardcore world of Mickey Foley, his mind, his history and his passions. From his early back-yard wrestling antics, to his candid and grisly descriptions of ring injuries, to remarkable scoops on wrestling legends Terry Funk, Harley Race, Abdullah the Butcher and Ric Flair, this is the story of a legend of the ring who has experienced it all and survived to tell the tale.

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Review:

Frankly, this literary critic didn't expect Mick Foley's memoir of his life as Mankind (and his other wrestling personas, Cactus Jack and Dude Love) to hit No. 1 on Amazon.com's hardcover non-fiction best-seller list in its first literary bout. Do we really need 500-plus pages of Foley's boasts? Yes. Foley gives his all for his calling and he burns to tell his adventures. Take the famous tale of how he lost most of his ear (the bloody result is depicted in the 16-page, colour photo section). It was in his 1994 bouts with Vader (Leon White), after getting a broken nose, a dislocated jaw and 21 stitches in the first match, that Foley did his "hangman" routine, wherein he catches his neck between the second and third ropes and spins them into a twist: "The end result is the illusion of a man being hanged by his neck while his body kicks and writhes in an attempt to get out ... the man actually is hanging by his neck and the body really does kick and writhe in an attempt to get out". Unfortunately, in the prior match, Too Cold Scorpio had had the officials tighten the ropes so Foley tore off his ear to avoid death by strangulation, like "a fox that chews off its paw to escape a trap". Foley also wrestles on 10,000-thumbtack mats with barbed-wire ropes and C-4 explosives and earns the ultimate compliment: "The fans really like the way you bleed". Many fans also like the way his gory story reads. --Tim Appelo, Amazon.com

Review:

‘Mankind is a far, far better read than Fever Pitch’
AA Gill in the Sunday Times

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