Michael Francis Foley was born on June 7,1965 and is an American actor, author, retired professional wrestler, and color commentator.
150 Facts About Mick Foley
2.
Mick Foley is signed to WWE under the company's Legends program, acting as a company ambassador.
3.
Mick Foley worked for many wrestling promotions, including the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, and National Wrestling Alliance, as well as numerous promotions in Japan.
4.
Mick Foley is widely regarded as one of the biggest stars of the Attitude Era and one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of WWE, and participated in the main event of WrestleMania in 1999 and 2000.
5.
Mick Foley was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2013.
6.
Mick Foley has wrestled under his real name and various personas.
7.
When Mick Foley first appeared in the WWF in 1996, he debuted the persona known as Mankind, an eerie, masochist, mentally deranged lunatic who was masked and spent his spare time dwelling in mechanical rooms.
8.
Mick Foley is a four-time world champion, an 11-time world tag team champion, a one-time TNA Legends Champion, and the inaugural WWF Hardcore Champion.
9.
Mick Foley's dedicated and physical style of wrestling led him to often participate in violent and brutal matches that involved him taking dangerous bumps and putting his body through a considerable physical toll, eventually earning him the moniker "The Hardcore Legend".
10.
Michael Francis Mick Foley was born in Bloomington, Indiana, on June 7,1965.
11.
Mick Foley is of Irish descent, and has an older brother named John.
12.
Mick Foley has said that Snuka's flying body splash from the top of the cage inspired him to pursue a career in pro wrestling.
13.
Mick Foley had a seat close to the front row and is visible in the video of the event.
14.
Mick Foley formally trained at Dominic DeNucci's wrestling school in Freedom, Pennsylvania, driving several hours weekly from his college campus in Cortland, New York, and debuted in 1983.
15.
Mick Foley's run would not last long, as he had not signed a contract with the promotion at the time.
16.
Mick Foley joined the Memphis-based Continental Wrestling Association as Cactus Jack, where he teamed with Gary Young as part of the Stud Stable.
17.
In UWF, Mick Foley teamed with Bob Orton to feud with Don Muraco, Sunny Beach, and Brian Blair.
18.
Mick Foley soon left UWF for Tri-State Wrestling, whose high-impact and violent wrestling style fit Foley well.
19.
In 1991, after a brief time working in the Global Wrestling Federation, Mick Foley joined WCW full-time.
20.
Mick Foley engaged in a feud with Orndorff, winning a falls-count-anywhere match against Orndorff at SuperBrawl III.
21.
Mick Foley had wanted the injury storyline to be serious and generate genuine sympathy for him before his return.
22.
Mick Foley had to choose between reattaching his ear or wrestling in the pay-per-view and winning the titles.
23.
Mick Foley chose to wrestle and won his only championship in WCW.
24.
Later on, Mick Foley was frustrated by WCW and the company's new head Eric Bischoff's reluctance to work a storyline with Vader around losing his ear.
25.
Mick Foley won championships on the Ozark Mountain and Steel City circuits.
26.
Mick Foley continued with ECW and began a feud with Sabu.
27.
Mick Foley then began working the ECW tag team division on teams with Terry Funk, Mikey Whipwreck, and Kevin Sullivan.
28.
At the tail end of 1994, Mick Foley joined Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling as Cactus Jack, causing Boo Bradley to lose the SMW Beat the Champ Television Championship.
29.
Mick Foley often teamed with Brian Lee to feud with Bradley and Chris Candido.
30.
Mick Foley soon returned to ECW to feud with The Sandman.
31.
Mick Foley then continued to have a series of violent encounters with the Sandman while challenging him and claiming that he had never been beaten in a Falls Count Anywhere match.
32.
However, Foley did not enjoy working with Sandman, as Sandman was often intoxicated during matches and could not perform properly; drinking large amounts of beer and smoking cigarettes made up a large part of Sandman's overall gimmick.
33.
Mick Foley said that he was on a mission to save his partner from making the mistake of trying to please bloodthirsty fans.
34.
Mick Foley later admitted in an interview in 2015 that after Wrestlepalooza he became indifferent toward ECW and its fanbase.
35.
Mick Foley remained one of Raven's top henchmen for the remainder of his time in ECW.
36.
Mick Foley has said that this exit was his favorite moment in wrestling.
37.
In 1995, during his time in ECW and other promotions in the United States, Mick Foley went to Japan and wrestled in International Wrestling Association of Japan, where he engaged in feuds with Terry Funk and Shoji Nakamaki.
38.
Mick Foley later said that he only received $300 for the entire night.
39.
When Mick Foley got home, his father and wife kept asking him about the awful smell, but he would not say anything, not wanting them to worry.
40.
Mick Foley continued wrestling in Japan, Later on, he teamed with Tracy Smothers, Tiger Jeet Singh, The Headhunters and Bob Bargail for multiple runs at the IWA tag team titles, and a few runs at the IWA championship, where he challenged Tarzan Goto.
41.
True to his hardcore style, other matches Mick Foley took part in were more deathmatches that involved objects like bricks, body bags, thumbtacks, barbed wire and window panes, and some matches even involved fire.
42.
Mick Foley would continue wrestling in Japan until June 1996; the last notable match Foley had as Cactus Jack in Japan was a Caribbean Barbed Wire Barricade Glass Deathmatch against W*ING Kanemura, which Cactus won.
43.
Halfway into the match Mick Foley debuted a new face persona known as Dude Love, who helped Austin take the victory, becoming the new Tag Team Champions.
44.
Austin and Mick Foley vacated their tag team titles when Austin suffered a neck injury in a match at SummerSlam in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
45.
In September 1997, Mick Foley wrestled Sabu at Terry Funk's WrestleFest, an event organized to mark the retirement of Mick Foley's friend Terry Funk.
46.
At the 1998 Royal Rumble, Mick Foley participated under all three personas, Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love.
47.
Mick Foley later admitted that this crowd reaction emotionally hurt him, that his hard work could not compete with Austin's popularity and that he would be just another wrestler to face the company's megastar.
48.
McMahon, displeased with the outcome, required Mick Foley to prove he deserved another shot at Austin's title with a number one contenders match against his former partner, Terry Funk.
49.
The match was both the WWF's first-ever "Hardcore match" and the first time that Mick Foley wrestled under his name.
50.
Mick Foley won, and after the match, a proud McMahon came out to Dude Love's music and presented Mick Foley with the Dude Love costume.
51.
On that same episode of Raw, Mick Foley reverted to his Mankind character, who had become a more human and less creature-like character and began wearing an untucked shirt with a loose necktie, and resumed his feud with The Undertaker.
52.
Mick Foley received numerous injuries and took two dangerous and highly influential bumps - the first being tossed off the top of the 16 feet high Cell by The Undertaker, crashing through the Spanish announcer's wooden table and landing on the arena's concrete floor.
53.
Mick Foley then plunged 13 feet through the Cell and landed on the ring mat, losing a tooth in the process.
54.
Mick Foley began the transition into this character following SummerSlam in 1998 after Kane turned on him and the two lost the tag team championships.
55.
Mick Foley said that the ratings indicate that large numbers of viewers switched from Nitro to Raw to see him win the title and took great personal pride from this- and WCW never beat the WWF in the television ratings ever again.
56.
However, Mick Foley had taken eleven in the span of two and a half minutes, all unprotected, because he had been handcuffed just before The Rock began his repeated onslaught.
57.
Mick Foley then helped Raw achieve its highest ratings ever with a segment featuring himself and The Rock.
58.
Mick Foley briefly reverted to his Cactus Jack persona for a Hardcore handicap match against Ministry of Darkness members Viscera and Mideon on May 10,1999, which Cactus won; the match saw Cactus enter using two basketballs as weapons.
59.
Mick Foley won the WWF Championship for the third time at SummerSlam, pinning the reigning champion Austin.
60.
Mick Foley ended up being attacked by the Mean Street Posse, Billy Gunn and Road Dogg, all dressed up as Santa Claus.
61.
Triple H then pinned an exhausted Cactus for a three-count, winning the match and Mick Foley's career was over.
62.
Mick Foley left for a few weeks, but returned at the request of Linda McMahon to wrestle for the title by replacing Chris Jericho's spot at the main event of WrestleMania 2000 against Triple H, The Rock and Big Show.
63.
Triple H won, and Mick Foley did not wrestle again for four years.
64.
Mick Foley has said that he intended for his Commissioner Mick Foley character to be a "role model for nerds," cracking lame jokes and making no attempt to appear tough or scary.
65.
Mick Foley had a knack during this time to have no one spot for his office; rather, Mick would have an office in all sorts of odd places.
66.
Mick Foley left the position in December 2000 after being "fired" onscreen by McMahon during which he received a brutal beat down.
67.
Mick Foley made a surprise return on the Raw just before WrestleMania X-Seven and announced that he would be the special guest referee in the match between Mr McMahon and his son Shane at WrestleMania.
68.
Mick Foley returned as commissioner in October 2001, near the end of The Invasion angle.
69.
On September 11,2004, Mick Foley made his debut for Ring of Honor and cut a promo, praising ROH and referring to it as "Ring of Hardcore", thus establishing himself as a face.
70.
Whitmer representing Mick Foley, which was won by McGuiness and Collyer.
71.
On January 15,2005, Mick Foley turned heel after being confronted by Samoa Joe and hit Joe over the head with a steel chair.
72.
Mick Foley acted as a direct line to Vince McMahon, attempting to convince Punk to defend his title one last time on McMahon's orders before he departed from ROH.
73.
Mick Foley was then attacked from behind by Alex Shelley and The Embassy until Austin Aries and Roderick Strong chased them off.
74.
Mick Foley returned to WWE in June 2003 to referee the Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and Kevin Nash at Bad Blood.
75.
The evening ended with Mick Foley taking a beating and kicked down a flight of stairs by Randy Orton and Ric Flair.
76.
In December 2003, Mick Foley returned to replace Stone Cold Steve Austin as co-general manager of Raw.
77.
Mick Foley soon grew tired of the day-to-day travel and left his full-time duties to write and spend time with his family.
78.
In 2004, Mick Foley returned briefly to wrestling, competing in the Royal Rumble and eliminating both Orton and himself with his trademark Cactus Jack clothesline.
79.
Mick Foley appeared as a color commentator at WWE's ECW One Night Stand, which aired on June 12,2005, and subsequently renewed his contract with WWE.
80.
The fans voted for Mankind, who went on to win the match- this was the last time Mick Foley ever wrestled as Mankind.
81.
Mick Foley then engaged in a storyline rivalry with Ric Flair, inspired by real-life animosity between them.
82.
Shortly thereafter, Melina betrayed Mick Foley and announced that he was fired.
83.
Seven months later, Mick Foley returned to Raw as a face on March 5,2007, with the storyline being that he tricked McMahon into giving him his job back.
84.
At Vengeance, Mick Foley wrestled in a WWE Championship Challenge match involving WWE Champion John Cena, Randy Orton, King Booker, and Bobby Lashley.
85.
Mick Foley then made an appearance on SmackDown the same week, where he defeated Coachman with Hornswoggle as the special guest referee.
86.
Mick Foley debuted as a color commentator for SmackDown alongside Michael Cole at Backlash in 2008, replacing Jonathan Coachman.
87.
Mick Foley told Long Island Press pro wrestling columnist Josh Stewart in August 2008 that "creatively, the announcing job wasn't working out too well".
88.
Mick Foley expanded with Dave Meltzer on the Observer radio show that the environment was creatively frustrating.
89.
Mick Foley allowed his contract with WWE to expire on September 1,2008, and quietly left the company.
90.
Mick Foley claimed in the statement to be "very excited about the specifics of this agreement and the potential it holds".
91.
Two weeks later, Mick Foley made his full television debut in a promo making comments about the WWE roster, Vince McMahon and Kurt Angle.
92.
Alex Shelley ended up being pinned by Rhino, and Mick Foley handed Rhino the check.
93.
However, Shelley "flipped off" Mick Foley and proceeded to beat him up.
94.
Mick Foley got the pin when he hit Scott Steiner with a double arm DDT onto a chair.
95.
Mick Foley did not lose the championship, but Sting became the new leader of the Main Event Mafia by pinning Kurt Angle at Sacrifice.
96.
Mick Foley received a rematch at Victory Road, commenting he had only submitted once in his career and swore he'd never do it again.
97.
Mick Foley lost the match when Angle forced him to submit again with the ankle lock.
98.
At Hard Justice, Nash defeated Mick Foley to regain the title, following interference from Traci Brooks.
99.
Mick Foley revealed Abyss as the one who tore up his picture and beat him to a bloody pulp with a videotape and the baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.
100.
Two weeks later, Mick Foley turned face by turning on Dr Stevie and saved Abyss from him.
101.
At Final Resolution, Abyss and Mick Foley defeated Stevie and Raven in a "Mick Foley's Funhouse" tag team match.
102.
On January 4,2010, the day of Hulk Hogan's debut for TNA, Mick Foley was assaulted by the reunited Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, when trying to get a meeting with Hogan.
103.
At first, Mick Foley was seemingly going along with the plan, but at the last second he shoved Mr Socko down Bischoff's throat, put him on the barber's chair and shaved him nearly bald.
104.
In reality, Mick Foley was taken off television due to him being on his way to exceed the maximum number of dates per year on his contract, at the pace he was making appearances.
105.
At the event Mick Foley refereed a Final Showdown match between Tommy Dreamer and Raven.
106.
At Bound for Glory, Mick Foley was in EV 2.0's corner, when Dreamer, Raven, Rhino, Richards and Sabu defeated Fourtune members Styles, Kazarian, Morgan, Roode and Storm in a Lethal Lockdown match.
107.
On October 24,2020, Mick Foley made a brief return to Impact Wrestling at the 2020 Bound for Glory via video message to congratulate Ken Shamrock for his induction into the Impact Hall of Fame.
108.
Mick Foley returned to WWE at a house show in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, taking a break from his UK comedy tour, on November 2,2011, making an in-ring promo with The Miz and R-Truth and then guest refereed the tag team match, appearing again in Manchester on November 5.
109.
Mick Foley participated in the Royal Rumble match at the 2012 Royal Rumble pay-per-view where he entered at number 7 and eliminated Justin Gabriel, Epico, and Primo, eventually being eliminated by Cody Rhodes after 6 minutes and 34 seconds.
110.
Mick Foley later appeared in a segment alongside Santino Marella during WrestleMania XXVIII.
111.
Mick Foley returned to Raw on June 18,2012, announcing that he would be serving as the temporary general manager of both Raw and SmackDown for the week.
112.
Mick Foley's hand-picked Survivor Series team of The Miz, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston and Team Hell No failed to defeat Team Ziggler in the Traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series Elimination Tag Match.
113.
Mick Foley left the position in May 2013 when the show was canceled Foley returned on April 22 episode of Raw to confront Ryback until he was saved by John Cena.
114.
Mick Foley appeared as part of the Extreme Rules post-show to provide an analysis.
115.
In 2015, Mick Foley appeared at SummerSlam, where he kicked off the event with host Jon Stewart.
116.
Mick Foley returned to Raw on March 14,2016, in a backstage segment with Dean Ambrose, in which he gave him a pep talk for his upcoming WrestleMania 32 match against Brock Lesnar and a passing of the torch in the form of his iconic barbed wire baseball bat, "Barbie".
117.
Mick Foley has since unveiled new titles exclusive to the Raw brand, while making fair decisions to favor the faces and occasionally disagreeing with Stephanie McMahon.
118.
Zayn would then tell Mick Foley he was pondering going to SmackDown because Mick Foley did not believe in him.
119.
Later that night, after Zayn defeated Jinder Mahal, Mick Foley would tell him he has arranged a trade with SmackDown for him in exchange for Eva Marie.
120.
Mick Foley chose to fire Stephanie McMahon herself, which prompted Triple H to come out and confront Mick Foley.
121.
Mick Foley is a multi-time New York Times bestselling author, particularly known for his ongoing series of memoirs.
122.
The follow-up, Mick Foley Is Good: And the Real World Is Faker than Wrestling, was released on May 8,2001.
123.
WWE's promotion of a product released by an employee of a rival company was a quite unusual move and a welcome surprise for Mick Foley, who has since stated that he was delighted at the respect shown by his former employer.
124.
On November 10,2010, Mick Foley appeared on The Daily Show and Off the Record to discuss the book and his charity work.
125.
Foley himself occasionally appears in Mickey's videos, including one parodying the 2010 LeBron James special The Decision in which Foley teases announcing Al Snow as being his WWE Hall of Fame inductee before announcing the real inductee, Terry Funk.
126.
Mick Foley is a longtime fan of women's professional wrestling and has campaigned for their equality with men.
127.
Mick Foley is a supporter of the Stony Brook Seawolves college basketball team and frequently attended home games.
128.
Mick Foley's father taught at Stony Brook University's school of professional development.
129.
Shortly before he joined the WWF, Mick Foley appeared in Atlanta filmmakers Barry Norman and Michael Williams' short subject Deadbeats as "Bird", an armed robber turned debt collector.
130.
Mick Foley appeared in the Insane Clown Posse vehicle Big Money Hustlas as Cactus Sac, which was the same character as his Cactus Jack persona.
131.
Mick Foley appeared in an episode of Boy Meets World as Mankind, advising to Eric Matthews before giving Eric the mandible claw and an airplane spin.
132.
Mick Foley was a voice in an episode of Celebrity Deathmatch where he was an animated version of Mankind doing a stunt from the ceiling, and later in the same episode he fought and defeated Ernest Hemingway.
133.
Mick Foley had a small role in the 2007 thriller movie Anamorph starring Willem Dafoe.
134.
Mick Foley has frequently appeared on Air America Radio's Morning Sedition, including several stints as a guest host and has appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show.
135.
Mick Foley appeared in the 2009 wrestling documentary, Bloodstained Memoirs.
136.
In 2009, Mick Foley had a guest voice appearance on Adult Swim show Squidbillies as Thunder Clap, a former pro-wrestler, who had recently gone through some tough times, during the Season 4 episode "Anabolic-holic".
137.
The money Mick Foley made from the event went to Wrestler's Rescue, which creates awareness and helps raise money to support retired professional wrestlers' health care needs.
138.
In October 2009, Mick Foley was guest DJ on E Street Radio, a Satellite radio station dedicated to the music of Bruce Springsteen.
139.
On November 19,2009, Mick Foley made his first appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
140.
Mick Foley showed up again on March 15,2010, to help correspondent Wyatt Cenac compare politics to pro wrestling, giving speeches for and against the use of the filibuster.
141.
On June 18,2013, Mick Foley again appeared on the Daily Show now hosted by temporary host John Oliver.
142.
In mid-2010, Mick Foley appeared at Chicago Comic Con, where he had his own booth promoting TNA.
143.
Mick Foley was interviewed by Victory Records, mentioning his interest in Swedish hard rock band Sister Sin.
144.
In November 2010, Mick Foley was a contestant on an all TNA week of Family Feud, teaming with Jay Lethal, Matt Morgan, Mr Anderson and Rob Van Dam against Angelina Love, Christy Hemme, Lacey Von Erich, Tara and Velvet Sky.
145.
In 2014, a documentary starring Mick Foley was released by Virgil Films entitled, I Am Santa Claus.
146.
Mick Foley had a small role as a wrestling referee in the 2019 film The Peanut Butter Falcon.
147.
Mick Foley has visited US troops at various military bases and military hospitals.
148.
For several years Mick Foley visited wounded soldiers at Washington DC-based military hospitals on almost a monthly basis, becoming known as a "Legend among hurt troops," according to a Washington Times article.
149.
Mick Foley has been outspoken in his support for the Democratic Party.
150.
Mick Foley was a contributor to Barack Obama's campaign for the US presidency in 2008.