Mick Foley - Biography

Last Editor: ahamad_ay				Mick Foley Biography -   Name : Mick Foley Profession : Wrestler Birth Details : born June 7, 1965 in Bloomington, Indiana, resides in East Setauket, New York

Mick Foley Trivia -

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Mick Foley Detailed Biography -

Born June 7, 1965 Bloomington, Indiana Died Resides East Setauket, New York Billed from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico; The Boiler Room; Long Island, New York Trained by Dominic DeNucci Debut June 24, 1983 Retired WWE Hall of Fame, ] Michael Francis "Mick" Foley, Sr. (born June 7, 1965 in Bloomington, Indiana, resides in East Setauket, New York) is an American professional wrestler and author. He has wrestled under a wide variety of pseudonyms, most famously Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love. Foley may have been born in Bloomington, Indiana but he didn't stay there for long. His family moved to East Setauket, Long Island, New York soon after he was born. There he attended Ward Melville High School, where he tried out for every sport available but found that the sport that really attracted him was professional wrestling. Mick watched hours and hours of wrestling on television. He would videotape every match he could, and then watch and analyze each of the wrestler's moves. Years later, on Larry King, he was asked what attracted him so much to professional wrestling and he replied that, "I was one of those kids who always loved it. I guess I had it in my blood, too...I thought it was a great blend of drama and sport." This was during the early 1980s when Vince McMahon Jr. had taken over the WWE and began to sensationalize professional wrestling. Foley became introduced to new stars like Hulk Hogan, and more importantly, Jimmy the "Superfly" Snuka, who would become one of Mick's idols. Mick graduated from high school in 1982; afterwards he enrolled in the State University of New York at Cortland in upstate New York. Then a year later in 1983 he hitchhiked all the way to Madison Square Garden for a chance to see his idol Jimmy Snuka in a steel cage match vs. Don Muraco. When the Superfly climbed up to the top of the cage to deliver a body splash to Muraco, it was a pivotal moment for Mick Foley. There is actual archived footage showing Mick cheering his idol as he delivered the body splash off the cage. This would inspire Mick to create a film The Legend of Frank Foley(Frank is a reference to a bad date Mick had where his date called him the wrong name "Frank") trying to imitate the Superfly's jump, but instead of a cage Mick would jump off his then friend Danny Zucker's garage onto a mattress supported by cardboard boxes. The character of Dude Love was created in these films (but this character wouldn't return until over a decade later in the WWE, and also as a tease in a steel cage match against Triple H during WWE Summerslam 1997; but not only did Dude appear he also delivered a big elbow, off the top of the cage as his idol the Superfly did). While Mick made this video for his and his friends' enjoyment, the tape began circulating among the wrestling fans of Long Island until wrestling promoter Dominic DeNucci got ahold of it. He recognized Mick's desire and tenacity and agreed to train him at his wrestling school in Pennsylvania. Mick continued to attend the State University of New York at Cortland and commuted from it to DeNucci's wrestling school. He would graduate with a communications degree in 1987, though he began wrestling in the independent circuit even before then. Mick wrestled as "Cactus Jack Manson" in the independent circuit until he was noticed by the World Wrestling Federation. Mick Foley as Cactus Jack on his Greatest Hits and Misses DVD. Foley, who became a professional wrestler in 1983, was noted for his hardcore matches, which frequently left him injured. These injuries included eight concussions, part of his ear being ripped off, second degree burns from a C-4 explosion, and over 300 stitches. While he is admittedly not one of the most physically gifted wrestlers of all time, Foley gained notoriety for his thoughtful and intense promos, in-ring tenacity, and willingness to put his body on the line for many dangerous spots. He was also known for having three distinct gimmicks as a wrestler: Cactus Jack, a maniacal and bloodthirsty Western outlaw; Mankind, a tortured soul who hid behind a leather mask and inflicted pain on others to ease his memories of his dark past; and Dude Love, a swinging "hip cat" who loved to shimmy and shake. In addition to these, he occasionally also wrestled as "Mick Foley." Foley's first taste of national exposure came as a jobber/preliminary wrestler going by the name "Jack Foley" in the WWF in 1986. He was manhandled in his very first WWF match, a tag match that saw him and fellow jobber Les Thornton lose in a squash match against The British Bulldogs. He also lost a squash match to Kamala in around 30 seconds. After that short run as a preliminary wrestler, he left the WWF, going on to wrestle and gain popularity in Japan, World Championship Wrestling (WCW), several regional wrestling promotions around the USA, and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) as Cactus Jack throughout the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s. In 1995, he won the IWA Japan King of the Death Match Tournament by beating Terry Funk in a no rope, exploding barbwire board death match. He achieved his highest success, however, when he returned to the WWF as Mankind, arriving in 1996 and winning the WWF Championship on an episode of RAW which aired on January 4th, 1999. On the night Foley's title win was to be broadcast, WCW announcer Tony Schiavone announced on WCW's competing Monday Nitro that Foley would win his first championship, which WCW knew because the WWF's RAW had been taped previously and Nitro was live. He then added the sarcastic remark, "That'll put a lot of butts in the seats." This proved to be a mistake on the part of WCW, as Nielsen ratings showed that over half a million viewers switched from Nitro to RAW almost immediately, despite the Hogan vs. Nash main event which led to the reformation of the nWo. Foley later stated that he took great personal pride from this, and "Mick Foley put my butt in this seat" signs were seen in arenas for years afterward. One of his most famous matches occurred during the WWF King of the Ring PPV in 1998, when Foley faced The Undertaker in the second ever Hell in a Cell match. Foley received numerous injuries in the course of the match, including minor kidney damage, and took two dangerous and highly influential bumps. Both wrestlers received a standing ovation for the match (which Foley lost), and the event is often said to have jump-started Foley's main event career. Many future matches attempted to replicate some of the spots from this match (a detailed description of the match is available in the Hell in a Cell article). In his autobiography Have a Nice Day! A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, Foley remarks that he couldn't remember half of what happened in the match, and that, while writing the book, he had to go back and watch the match again. In 1998 Mick Foley was a contender for the TIME Magazine Man of the Year title, which was to be decided by an online vote. A huge turnout of wrestling fans gave Foley over 50% of the vote. However, before the final count Time removed him from the competition. "I was told that Time magazine did not feel that I had done anything to make me worthy of being man of the year," said Mick. After retiring from active competition, Foley served as storyline WWE Commissioner and later replaced Stone Cold Steve Austin as co-general manager of RAW. He eventually tired of the day-to-day travel and left his full-time duties to write and spend time with his family. Throughout his career, and under all of his aliases, Foley has proved extremely popular to his fans, even when he wrestled as a heel. Foley has always been accessible to his fans and will spend long periods of time with them signing autographs and posing for pictures. His hard work is often credited with helping to re-establish pro wrestling's popularity after the steroid and sex scandals of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Foley has made numerous appearances in the Ring of Honor promotion, having been involved in feuds with Ricky Steamboat, Samoa Joe and The Embassy, and appeared at Shane Douglas's Hardcore Homecoming as a guest referee. He also appeared as a color commentator at WWE's ECW One Night Stand PPV, which aired on 12 June 2005, and would later begin negotiations with WWE Creative regarding a storyline for his return. Foley has the reputation of "putting over" younger wrestlers, losing to them to solidify their place as main eventers, Triple H and Randy Orton being some of the foremost examples. Aliases Mick Foley as Dude Love. Foley has only wrestled under his own name on a handful of occasions, and is best known for the three "Faces of Foley," Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love. Foley most famously wrestled as Cactus Jack in the independent circuit, at times billed as Cactus Jack Manson during those early years. He was just Cactus Jack when later wrestling in Smoky Mountain Wrestling, WCW, and ECW, however. When he joined the WWF he debuted as the heel gimmick of Mankind in March 1996, later turning face and becoming Dude Love, his former teenage alter ego and then the babyface gimmick of Mankind with his "friend" Mr. Socko in early 1998, and finally bringing back Cactus Jack in a match against Triple H in Madison Square Garden on September 22, 1997. His one appearance as 'Super Zodiac #2' occured during an event in World Class Wrestling in Dallas, Texas in 1989. Foley, having already wrestled as Cactus Jack earlier on the card, was also featured in the main event, a scaffold match. (He wore a different outfit with a mask to try and disguise his indentity) Foley was thrown off the 20ft high scaffold, losing the match and breaking his wrist in the process. Dude Love first appeared on July 14, 1997 on an episode of RAW is WAR. He came to the aid of Stone Cold Steve Austin in a match against Owen Hart and the British Bulldog. The Dude Love character was actually created by Foley when he was a teenager growing up in Long Island, New York. A big fan of pro wrestling, Dude Love was Foley's wrestling alter ego among his friends, and Foley appeared as the Dude in home movies, portions of which were later shown on WWF television. He admitted that Dude Love was not his favorite character to play. The Dude Love persona was different from his other characters. Foley last appeared as Dude Love in 1998, but recently appeared as Dude Love on an October 2005 episode of RAW hyping a match "Pick the face of Foley" with Carlito at Taboo Tuesday 2005. At the 1998 Royal Rumble Foley appeared as Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love, the only time in which one performer appeared in the Rumble under multiple gimmicks. As Cactus Jack, he lost a Hardcore match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship against defending champion Randy Orton at Backlash 2004. Foley brought out a bat covered in barbed wire, affectionately called "Barby", and lost when Orton used his finisher on Foley onto "Barby". He faced Carlito at Taboo Tuesday 2005 in a match where fans were able to vote on which persona he would appear as: Mankind, Dude Love, or Cactus Jack. The fans voted for "Mankind", and Foley went on to win the match with the Mandible Claw (Foley added an afro to Mr. Socko in an attempt to mock Carlito, who has an afro). Mick Foley as Mankind. On the December 5, 2005 edition of WWE RAW, Foley was the prosecutor in the Trial of Eric Bischoff. He won the case, and Bischoff was thrown in the back of a garbage truck by Vince McMahon. At the RAW "Tribute to the Troops" on December 19, 2005 Foley, dressed as Santa Claus, defeated John Bradshaw Layfield with the Mandible Claw. Foley would return to RAW on February 16, 2006 (in the U.S., RAW was re-scheduled to Thursday because of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show). Foley was scheduled to be the Special Guest Referee between the WWE Championship match between Edge and reigning champion John Cena. In Canada, the match, along with the rest of the RAW program, aired on February 13, 2006. After Foley counted the pin which helped John Cena retain the WWE championship, Lita low blowed Foley from behind which gave Edge the opportunity to spear the hardcore legend. On February 20 edition of RAW, Edge publically challenged Foley to a match at Wrestlemania 22. Edge told Foley that he had one week to respond to the challenge or else he would beat the hell out of him in front of his entire family in Long Island. On February 27 edition of RAW, he rejected the challenge, saying he had nothing to prove. However, after some banter, he came back with a challenge of his own, a hardcore match against Edge at Wrestemania.