Today we celebrate a great man's birthday, that man being wrastlin' legend Mick Foley, who was born today in 1965!
Mick started his wrestling career in 1983, working on many independent circuits as well as "jobber" roles for the WWF, one of which had him clotheslined so hard by The Dynamite Kid that he couldn't eat solid foods for several weeks. In 1991 he went full time with WCW as Cactus Jack, and wrestled against the likes of Vader, Abdullah the Butcher, and Sting, the latter of which had with Foley what he considers to be one of his best matches of all time. He also had a stint in one of wrestling's other biggest programmes, ECW, and from '96 entered the WWE.
Over the years Foley has sustained some pretty gnarly injuries in the ring, which include broken wrists, jaw, toes, nose, 300 stitches, second degree burns, torn abdominal muscle, concussions, and he had an ear torn off which he refused to have reattached to ensure continuation of the match, and a tooth flying out into his nose in a Hell in the Cell match, which he also continued to perform post-injury. His kids have only ever seen him fight live once, which unfortunately was a '99 match with The Rock, in which Foley received eleven blows to the head with a chair while they were on the front row. The match disturbed them so much they never went to see him fight again.
Foley is considered not only one of the most dedicated wrestlers going, but also one of the nicest, both in and out of the ring. He's a vocal supporter of equal rights for women in the ring, including equal pay and air time, and was considered by all female wrestlers he worked with in the highest regards, notably because he was happily married and so never tried to hook up with any of them.
Outside of the ring Foley like many other wrestlers has appeared in a number of TV shows, including 30 Rock, Warren the Ape, Squidbillies, and Boy Meets World. Foley is also huge on charity and activism, with a huge emphasis on education for kids. He's made various Make-a-Wish foundation visits, visited schools and hospitals to talk about the importance of reading, and sponsors several kids for the ChildFund foundation. One kid once sent him his backyard wrestling footage and asked him to watch it, and Foley replied saying he'd agree to watch it but only once the kid had finished school. Foley is also a member of the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, raising money for the cause as well as logging 550 hours in a 15-month timespan as a volunteer on the online hotline.
For these reasons, we celebrate Mick Foley's birthday with pride at TTWAAR, and we hope you do too, because Mick Foley most certainly is one of the most raddest of dudes.
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