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Posts Tagged ‘Mick Foley’

With Kevin Nash, Booker T and The Rock all returning to WWE recently, one has to wonder who’s next? Jericho’s return in time for WrestleMania seems a good bet, but I’m thinking of something a little less obvious.

How about the return of Mick Foley? The performer variously known as Mankind, Dude Love and Cactus Jack is one of the few veterans with the mic skills to still pull off terrific promos with The Rock; it’d be great TV to see the two of them in the ring again, even if all they did was trash-talk each other and the rest of the WWE.

One doesn’t need an online business degree to recognize Foley would mean money right now, if they can get him on board in time to share ring-time with The Rock. (Even though getting an online business degree is not a bad idea…)

Mick Foley returned to TNA this past week, but the results were mixed at best. The angle has him positions as a “wrestler’s advocate” of sorts, talking about the concussion issue in pro wrestling. Foley, a hardcore match pioneer, hardly seems a fitting focal point for this debate. As Flair pointed out in the angle, Foley was a main force in pushing wrestling toward the hardcore excesses of the ECW and WWE Attitude era.

Foley made his name by taking falls through tricked-out steel cages, as well as off them; landing on tacks and broken glass; and otherwise redefining pro wrestling as the work of stuntmen rather than the work of athletic-entertainment performers. He’s a nightmare to get decent insurance quotes for as a result. Like all angles in TNA, the roles played in the debate by Foley, Flair and Bischoff are all self-serving and therefore come off feeling disingenuous.

But the main problem with TNA mimicking the WWE format of long, drawn-out sketches to start the show is that TNA uses them to put over retired wrestlers and suits. In recent years, WWE has focused their opening sketches to putting over their in-ring talent… often by focusing on their younger stars rather than established vets like Cena.

If TNA wants to mimic WWE, they should focus on putting over their young, in-ring talent. That’s where the future lies.

Former WWE mainstay Mick Foley, now wrestling for TNA, has announced the title for his newest autobiography: Countdown to Lockdown. Lockdown is a reference to his first title victory in TNA at the Lockdown PPV.

The book is said to focus on his decision to jump to TNA after so many years with WWE. While that move, so long after the decision to retire and write books for a living, made many people wonder whether Foley had been hit in the head by a 115334 vacuum motor… or maybe just one chairshot too many.

But no… he’s serious about it, for better or worse.

Mick Foley lost the TNA title at the Slammiversary PPV on Sunday, with Kurt Angle becoming the new title-holder after defeating Foley, Jeff Jarrett, A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe in a King of the Mountain match. It’s been a while since TNA switched champs without using Jarrett as a transitional title holder, so that was refreshing.

And that’s about the only thing that was refreshing, as the names Foley, Jarrett and Angle were a lot more interesting back when they were new, in the 90s. Until TNA develops and takes more seriously home-grown young talent like A.J. Styles and Samoa Joe, there’s just not much to be excited about here. The Attitude Era is over, and both ECW and WCW are dead everywhere… except on TNA, which is dwelling somewhere in the Outer Banks, where the houses are beautiful, but the wrestling is so 10 years ago.

An over-the-hill Mick Foley finally debuted on TNA last week, and the result was a nice surprise, but little Impact. It’s been almost a decade since Foley’s been an in-ring impact-player, so although his sudden appearance on the big screen at the arena was a nice way of introducing him, one has to wonder at how much Foley can actually contribute to TNA, which needs to be focusing on developing its own young stars and not remain just a hangout for old WWE castoffs.

While at WWE, Foley demonstrated a lot of selflessnes putting over younger talent; but will he do likewise in TNA, where there’s a lot less star power? Only time will tell, but right now Dixie Carter’s crew seems to be throwing everything, including farmhouse sinks, into the mix to see what sticks.

Not a good sign.

The UK Sun is reporting that once Mick Foley’s WWE contract expires at the end of this month, he will make the jump to NWA-TNA, WWE’s only potential competitor, and will become a part-time wrestler with a schedule similar to Sting’s. The article charges that Foley is not content being in an announcing or non-wrestling role at WWE.

But hold your horses! On his blog, good ol’ JR, Jim Ross, claims all of this speculation is a lot of hooey, and he plans to talk to Foley soon to “see how things are going.” That’s WWE-speak for trying to talk him into staying with WWE, of course.

Just like some Web sites that sell auto insurance compare rates from other companies before you buy, I’d hope Mick thinks long and hard about moving to TNA. At this stage in his career, it’s a move that cannot be undone in the eyes of the McMahon family, who would almost certainly lock him out of the WWE Hall of Fame or any potential return to WWE later on.

The UK Sun report claims Foley wants to help put TNA on the map; however, if WWE converts like Christian Cage, Jeff Hardy (before he came back) and Kurt Angle haven’t been able to pull that off, what could a broken-down Foley do for them?

Bad career move, Mick. Hope you don’t opt that direction.

WWE typically does this once every few months or so; they company has announced the release of several workers from their WWE contracts. The list includes:

1) Braden Walker (f/k/a Chris Harris)
2) Nunzio
3) James Curtis
4) Shannon Moore
5) Domino,
6) Big Daddy V
7) referee Nick Patrick

Add Mick Foley’s non-renewal coming up, and that’s a significant number of folks on the bus out of town. One would think they needed a couple of these guys in order to make sure they don’t fall into TNA hands. But better to have WWE trim talent like someone on Anoretix, than to have WWE retain too much talent, overextend their budget and then decide to can the whole deal, I guess.

Apparently, working as an announcer for Vince McMahon is an avocation that could lead you straight into needing a pulse oximeter, if Mick Foley is to be believed. Despite being only a few months into being Smackdown’s color commentator, Mrs. Foley’s baby boy has announced on his own Web site that, through mutual agreement, he will not be renewing his contract with WWE in a few weeks, when it expires on September 1.

“Creatively, the announcing job wasn’t working out too well,” Foley said.

Behind the scenes, it is believed Foley didn’t care for Vince’s treatment of him; the elder McMahon is apparently known to be very demanding with announcing talent within the company.

So Mick Foley takes a hike, and Mike Adamle gets promoted to Raw GM? Something smells rotten, and it’s in the vicinity of Vinnie-Mac’s trousers.

Mrs. Foley’s baby boy is back in the WWE; this time, he’s not promoting a book or taking chairshots to put some young superstar over. Instead, Mick is the new SmackDown color commentator, filling in a role that has been in turmoil since JBL un-retired and returned to the wrestling ring as an in-ring competitor.

You don’t have to worry about going through laptop rental to get a glimpse of Foley anymore, as he is on-air two hours a week on the WWE Smackdown broadcast. Foley’s role as SmackDown commentator is an unexpected turn; the company has tried out Mike Adamle, among others, in that role, all to mixed reviews.

But Foley is legit on color commentary, and brings with him a fan base that may boost SmackDown’s ratings a notch. He has remained on Raw’s roster of “retired superstars” for the past several years and whenever he’s done a one-week cameo, it has been on that broadcast that he has appeared.

Although I’d hoped Foley would return as an announcer one day, I always kind of expected it would be on Raw; his presence on SmackDown immediately makes that broadcast, despite its under-talented roster, more intriguing.

Tonight, WWE Monday Night Raw will celebrate its 15th anniversary. After 15 years on the air, surviving the Monday Night Wars against WCW, the celebration is set to run three hours plus overrun, and the guest list is growing by the hour.

Currently confirmed to appear in some way, shape, manner or form tonight on Raw are the following:

* Hulk Hogan
* Stone Cold Steve Austin
* The Undertaker
* Mick Foley
* Sunny
* Trish Stratus
* Lita
* Eric Bischoff
* Evolution Reunion (Ric Flair, Triple H, Randy Orton, Batista)
* 15-person gimmick Battle Royale featuring stars from the last 15 years

All in all, it’s building up to be a great show, and even greater if The Rock decides to make a cameo. C’mon, Dwayne Johnson, don’t make us beg! Cat5E!

Well, sounds like you can put a tablecloth over the WWE as we know it. With so many wrestlers falling by the wayside, it’s inevitable that there will be a lot of new talents brought in.

Here’s a decent recipe for better success: stop hiring superhuman-sized body-builders and start focusing on things like talent, personality, charisma, and the ability to entertain in the wring.

Folks like Mick Foley weren’t fan favorites because he was the largest, most cut body builder around; he was was a fan favorite for his humor, his personality, his passion and his talent. The wrestling skills were passable in the ring, but it was his sense of entertainment that made a Mick Foley match a “wow” match.

One of the best moments in Raw history had nothing to do with big biceps and Hogan-style 26-inch pythons. It was Foley interacting with The Rock in the “This is your life” segment.

Or when Chris Jericho debuted on Raw by out-talking The Rock with his mic skills.

Let’s forget about who as the sharpest, most defined abs and get back to putting the entertainment in sports entertainment.

I always enjoy Mick Foley. There’s not a better comic on the WWE roster, plain and simple. And Mick could have fun with the revelation, talking about his struggle to reconcile his image of his parents… especially his mom… with the idea that Vince slept with Mrs. Foley.

It’d be great fun with Mick, something worth watching from the comfort of theater seating. But there are some problems with it.

Most obviously, Mick’s a part-timer now, at best. He might show up for the payoff, kind of like Stone Cold did for Saturday Night’s Main Event a couple weeks ago, but he’s not coming back full-time again, so it’d be the waste of a good storyline.

So, I doubt it’ll be Mick.