Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks

Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks is an autobiography of WWE wrestler Mick Foley. It details his life all the way from his upbringing in New York to winning the WWF Title from The Rock in December 1998. Foley had originally wanted the book to be called Blood and Sweatsocks, but this was later added as a sub-title. The book debuted at #3 on the New York Times Best Seller List on November 7 1999 and reached #1 on December 5.^[1] The book is followed by two sequels. Foley is Good: And The Real World is Faker Than Wrestling released in 2001, wraps up the rest of his career and gives a behind the scenes look at the making of Have a Nice Day. The second sequel and third volume to the Foley autobiography is called The Hardcore Diaries and was released in March 2007.

History

Foley's book is the autobiography that sparked WWF's book craze, though only Foley's first 2 books, and The Rock's autobiography hit #1 on the New York Times Bestseller's List. Unlike most autobiographies by other athletes, Foley did not make use of a ghost writer. He wrote the entire book himself, in longhand (over 760 pages; he claimed his typewriter broke).^[2] A ghostwriter was originally intended, but Mick was not satisfied with the ghostwriter's work and wound up writing the book on his own.^[3] Foley revealed in his second book that the ghostwriter was Lou Sahadi, the father of WWF Creative Director of On-air Promotions David Sahadi. The book started a trend that saw several wrestlers including Edge (who wrote his without the aid of a ghostwriter), Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Hulk Hogan, Lita, Dusty Rhodes, and Ric Flair get more involved in writing their biographies but still using a ghost writer to a lesser extent. In the book, Foley is critical of Ric Flair's booking abilities.^[4] In response, Flair wrote negative remarks about Foley in his own autobiography.^[4] The real life tension between the two was later translated into a WWE angle.

Content

The book begins with a quick account of his WCW match with Big Van Vader on March 17, 1994, which cost him his right ear. It then goes back to 1983, when Foley was at the age of eighteen. From there it details his early life in college and the filming of his notorious short film "The Loved One," as well as a piece called "The Legend of Frank Foley" in which for the first time he introduced a character called "Dude Love." According to Foley, at the time the Dude was his vision of what he thought a man should be. "The Loved One" was enough to impress wrestler Dominic DeNucci, who would then train Foley to wrestle. From there, the book goes on to chronologically detail Foley's escapades as "Cactus Jack" on the independent wrestling circuit, as well as his very first match in what was then called the World Wrestling Federation. It then continues to recount his years in World Championship Wrestling, as well as those that he spent in both Japan and Extreme Championship Wrestling. It then goes on to describe his re-entry into the WWF, the creation of his new persona "Mankind," and the reappearance of Dude Love in the WWF. The book details his experience in the "Hell in a Cell" match with The Undertaker that he had at King of the Ring 1998 which truly made him famous as Mankind. Finally, from there, it tells the story of the introduction of his sock puppet "Mr. Socko," and ends with his eventual WWF Championship win over The Rock. Foley also breaks chronological history at a point during the book, writing about Owen Hart's death on the night it happened, rather than editing the news into a previous chapter to fit in with chronology.

Notes

References

• Mick Foley (2000). Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks. HarperCollins, 511. ISBN 0061031011. 
• Mick Foley (2001). Foley is Good: And The Real World is Faker Than Wrestling. HarperCollins, 481. ISBN 0060393009.