The Hardcore Diaries
by Mick Foley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mick FoleyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN: 1416556788
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: World Wrestling Entertainment
Book Reviews of The Hardcore Diaries
Book Review: Skip it
Summary: 2 Stars
I was lucky enough to grow up in the 80s, seeing every major current star and the ones starting to retire (Flair/Savage), in their primes.
Mick became a favorite of mine when he returned with the Mankind gimmick. I knew him as Cactus Jack, but didn't remember him being that special on the microphone or in the ring at that time. I do have Have a Nice Day and enjoyed it 100%. I missed the rest of the books as life got in the way, kids, marriage, divorce, marriage etc..
Now that life has settled back down for me, I stumbled across this book at a major bookstore on a bargain table. Though I still watch wrestling with our son, I'm not as much into it as I used to be, which I think is understandable.
I take the book home and start reading. Disappointment would be an understatement. I'm not a scholarly writer or person, so it isn't about amateur writing level or anything like that. I like the fact that Mick doesn't try to be the next Issac Asimov or Ayn Rand. His first book was one of those you could just sit back and enjoy, it probably isn't making you any smarter or improving your culture awareness, but hey, it was fun to read.
Where this book fails is first in the title, Hardcore, to a wrestling fan that means chairs, tables, ECW in Philly, Funk, Sheik and so on. I don't know if Mick is trying to be clever with the title that the stories within are more hardcore than wrestling is, but either way, you audience, Mick, is wrestling fans. Like the Rock used to say, "Know your role".
The book has a few wrestling stories here and there. It also has numerous mentions of how Katie Couric held his baby and how incredible it was to be on her show. I work in the daytime so I had to look her up, not kidding. Had no clue who she was. So Mick, here are the wrestling fans, ask them if they think Mick Foley, the hardcore legend, the icon, the man who flew off the cell is a bigger star than Katie Couric is. See what I mean? It is to the point that I wanted to reach into the book and smack Mick across the head, "You're a huge star, Mick!" Maybe he is using that part to show that he is still the "every man"?
Either way, it is annoying. Then he continues this by talking about all the charities he works with and how he met former baseball players and Olympic competitors. I don't care Mick. I really don't. I help build houses through my company for poor families, but I'm not writing a book about it.
So there Mick, a pat on your back. You made millions of dollars and now you share some of it and some of your time with people less fortunate than you.
The wrestling stories are scattered about. Including the same focus on Ric Flair and how Flair hates him, so what if he talked about you in his book, you talked about him first you big crybaby.
Seriously, my mood by the end of the book was to go find Mick and throw him off a cell, hoping it would knock some sense back into him.
Audience: Wrestling fans, blood loving, violence loving, fighting, kicking and wrasslin' loving fans, not someone who think Katie is a bigger star than Foley. Failed there.
Stories: Less than half are about wrestling, book written by a wrestler, with 50% of the stories about what a saint he is. Failed there.
Sorry Mick, you'll always be a favorite, but I no longer think you are America's best kept secret in storytellers. I'll put this book under my Cactus Jack shirt in the closet, so no one will read it.
Summary of The Hardcore Diaries
What was I thinking? Another autobiography? A third? Who did I think I was, Winston Churchill? Why would I want to set my pen loose on hundreds of sheets of notebook paper unless I really felt I had something worth writing about?Besides, I had a wrestling comeback to prepare for, mentally and physically, provided I could get Vince McMahon and the WWE creative staff to embrace what I was sure was the single greatest storyline of my career.
Then it hit me: the storyline. I would give WWE fans unprecedented access to World Wrestling Entertainment, covering everything from conception to completion. I would recount how I felt about specific interviews and matches, whether they helped or hurt. I would expose the backstage politics, shed some light on my rocky relationship with Vince McMahon, offer insights into my personal dealings with WWE Superstars, and tell stories about my favorite Divas.
But I wasn't interested in writing just a wrestling book. I wanted to share moments from my personal life as well, from a humorous look at my unlikely dinner with polarizing neocon Paul Wolfowitz, to my haunting meeting with a severely burned boy in Afghanistan, to my peculiar obsession with a certain jolly old elf.
I knew I could make the fans care about this storyline, provided I could once again find the passion to make the story come to life in arenas around the country and on television sets around the world.
Most importantly, I had to ask myself a vital question, one upon which this whole idea, and therefore the book you hold, hinges: Was I willing to become the first voluntary member of the Vince McMahon "Kiss My Ass Club"? I sat on the idea for a few days, to let the idea ripen and mature in my mind, like a fine vintage wine, and to figure out if I was really willing to kiss his ass. I mean, literally kiss a man's ass. Sure, I'd been kissing the same guy's ass figuratively for a decade. But this was different. Did I really have the testicular fortitude required for such a task? In front of millions? Including my wife and kids?
I made the call.
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