What WWE's Mick Foley Is Up To Today

Who could ever forget the wrestling career of the one and only hardcore legend? Beginning on the indie circuit, Mick Foley and his Cactus Jack character soon came to dominate the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) before finally landing with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). Here Mick would assume the persona of perhaps his best-known character, the mask-wearing madman Mankind, although he'd also take the ring as the comical Dude Love and would finish out his career by wrestling under his own name.

No matter what character he was wrestling as or what company he was working for, Mick earned his hardcore status the hardest way possible, by taking insane bumps, lumps and, as his author bio puts it, "withstand[ing] more pain in one hour than most of us could in a lifetime." Ow, have mercy! So you could hardly blame Mrs. Foley's baby boy if he just chose to take it easy after retiring from the ring in 2012. And this is exactly what Mick ... did not do. Bang bang! If anything, Mick Foley has been busier than ever. Doing what, you may ask? Read on for further enlightenment and, oh yeah, hope you have a nice day!

A cat may have nine lives, but there have been times during Mick Foley's wrestling career when it's seemed he must have at least ten. How else could one human body survive such damage? If you think wrestling is all fake, the f back of Mick Foley's first autobiography (titled Mankind: Have a Nice Day) might convince you otherwise. The back cover points out all the injuries he had sustained up to that point, including five broken ribs, multiple second-degree burns, eight concussions, and over 325 stitches. In fact, two of Mick's mishaps are remembered as some of the worst injuries ever to take place in the ring: the 1994 WCW match with Vader where he had two-thirds of an ear ripped off and the 1998 Hell in a Cell match with Undertaker where he was thrown from the top of the cage and ended up concussed with a bruised kidney, dislocated shoulder, and missing teeth.

Even several years post-retirement, Foley is still undergoing surgeries to replace various body parts. In 2017, he had both a hip and a knee replaced. As befits a man with magical healing powers and multiple lives, he made a good recovery from both and is looking pretty fit these days. And when it comes to coping with pain, the hardcore legend has some words of wisdom: "It's not very fun. But it hurts less in front of a camera."

Mick Foley might have been an amazing wrestler and he's definitely got a larger-than-life personality, but one thing he's never been known for is his looks. Still, there's nothing like a sports career to help an average-looking guy land a smoking hot babe, and Mick was no exception there. His wife, Collette (nee Christie), once had a career as a fashion model. Once they tied the knot in 1992, though, she didn't seem to show any regret at leaving the runway for the ringside. In fact, Mrs. Foley's baby boy's own Mrs. Foley was soon making appearances on RAW and in the documentary Beyond the Mat, and even had a cameo in the short film Deadbeats.

After Mick Foley's retirement from wrestling, Colette and her other half have had a secondary career of sorts as reality TV stars. They appeared in a 2012 segment of Celebrity Wife Swap where Collette switched places with the fiancee (now ex-wife) of Italian actor Antonio Sabato Jr. The Foleys then went on to star in their own miniseries, Holy Foley!, which included the entire family. Their most recent reality TV appearance was on a 2017 episode of Building Off the Grid. No word on what Colette's next venture will be, but, it's most likely going to be something kind of crazy and a whole lot of fun. We'd expect no less from Mrs. Hardcore Legend.

While he hasn't gone full-on comedy/action hero like other retired or not-so-retired wrestlers like Dave Bautista or former tag team partner The Rock, Mick Foley has nevertheless compiled an impressive filmography of his own. In addition to the reality shows he's appeared in with his wife and other family members (and not even counting any of the WWE-related programming), Mick has taken his mic skills to the next level with some pretty legitimate acting roles.

One of his recent roles was in the 2016 wrestling rom-com Chokeslam. Yet another wrestling-themed movie in which Mick Foley had a part is 2019's Peanut Butter Falcon, which stars Zack Gottsagen, a young actor with Down syndrome, as a boy who runs off to follow his dream of being a professional wrestler and ends up on a wacky road trip with Shia LaBeouf. Mick cameos as a referee. Next up is a role in David Arquette's upcoming 12 Hour Shift. The film is billed as a horror comedy, which sounds right up Mick's alley. It deals with nurses stealing organs and selling them on the black market. Not much has been revealed about Mick's role, but it would be kind of cool if he played a guy who gets his heart, lungs, and liver removed and then jumps up off the operating table to go after those naughty nurses and give them the ol' mandible claw.

As anyone who's ever watched his promos or heard his in-ring banter knows, Mick Foley has always been an entertaining guy. Now that he's retired from wrestling, what could be a better fit than taking the mic once again, this time as a stand-up comic? And yes, that is exactly what Mick has done in his copious spare time when he's not acting, writing, fundraising, etc.

According to Bleacher Report, as a comedian, Mick is a ... pretty darn funny former wrestler. His act is basically built around telling stories from his wrestling career, to the extent where a non-WWE enthusiast might find him to be "speaking quite a bit of gibberish." But then, how likely is it that the crowd at a Mick Foley show would consist of anyone other than wrestling fanboys and fangirls? Mick knows his audience, and he gives them exactly what they came for. Everyone goes home happy, and Mick, for once, gets to leave the venue without any part of his body broken or bleeding.

Mick's daughter, Noelle, has been in the public eye since preschool. Her earliest appearance was in an episode of WWF Shotgun Saturday Nightat the age of 3, which was followed by a more substantial role in the documentary Beyond the Mat when she was 5. After appearing on several episodes of RAW and NXT Takeover, not to mention having been around the wrestling business her entire life, Noelle decided she'd like to train for a wrestling career herself. Unfortunately, her training coincided with filming Holey Foley! with her family, and she found the extra attention her training received as a result of this to be a bit much. She did go through with a WWE tryout, but ultimately decided not to pursue her wrestling career any further. Daddy Mick later revealed in an interview with Wrestling Inc. that she gave up that dream due to some serious injuries.

Noelle these days is still very much in the spotlight, though, as an Instagram model, a YouTuber and even an aspiring Sports Illustrated swimsuit girl. What's more, she's still part of the WWE Universe, appearing on shows such as Wrestling with Wregret and WWE Kitchen Smackdown. When it comes to star power, she's her daddy's daughter, all right. Lucky for Noelle, she seems to have inherited 100% of her looks from her mom.

Mick's first book, the 1999 autobiography Mankind: Have a Nice Day! was pretty well received by his fans –- in fact, so much so that it went right to the top of the New York Times' bestseller list. That kind of success deserves a sequel, so in 2001 he followed up with volume two of his autobiography, Foley Is Good and the Real World is Faker Than Wrestling. This book, too, also hit the top of the Times' bestseller list.

Mick then decided to branch out a bit into fiction, but his 2003 novel Tietam Brown was a bit less of a hit. As Mick admitted, "It's not a real big niche audience that enjoys the violent coming of age story." Turning to something a bit lighter and less bloody, Mick began writing wrestling-themed children's books including Mick Foley's Christmas Chaos, Mick Foley's Halloween High Jinx, Tales from Wrescal Lane, and A Most Mizerable Christmas. He also published two more autobiographical works: Hardcore Diaries in 2007 and Countdown to Lockdown in 2010. He even revisited the coming-of-age genre (still violently) with 2007's baseball-themed historical novel Scooter. Mick's most recent book is 2017's Saint Mick: My Journey from Hardcore Legend to Santa's Jolly Elf.

Mick has always been Santa's biggest fan. From his home's special Christmas room to his penchant for year-round holiday music to his annual pilgrimages to the Santa's Village theme park in Jefferson, New Hampshire, Mick goes all-out to celebrate that most wonderful time of the year. He's always happy to dress up in a red Santa suit for a good cause, whether that cause be giving JBL a beatdown at the 2005 Tribute to the Troops or visiting hospitalized children on Christmas Day.

One of the accomplishments of which Mick is most proud is his membership in the International Brotherhood of Bearded Santas. He not only appeared in I Am Santa Claus, a 2014 documentary about the lives of some of his fellow professional Santas and Brotherhood members, but promoted it by dressing in Santa-themed clothing for nearly an entire year. His autobiographical work Saint Mick: My Journey From Hardcore Legend to Santa's Jolly Elf tells the story of how he found a new ho-ho-home outside the ring after his body finally tapped out and ended his wrestling career.

Like quite a few retired wrestlers, Mick Foley has taken a turn as a WWE exec. In July 2016 he was named RAW general manager, a role he served in for the next eight months. While some really loved his turn as the RAW GM due to his passion, knowledge, experience and just Mick being Mick, his boss begged to differ. Or rather, Stephanie being Stephanie, demanded to differ.

In March 2017, things came to a head. Stephanie thought Mick was too soft on his wrestlers and insisted he fire a superstar from the roster. Mick turned the tables, saying he would fire McMahon herself. This didn't sit too well with hubby Triple H, who attacked Mick but ended up eating Mr. Socko. The ensuing brawl involved not only Mr. and Mrs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley and the GM-whose-days-were-now-numbered, but even Seth Freakin' Rollins coming in to bat for Team Mick. Perhaps not too shockingly, an announcement came from Ms. McMahon just a week later that Mick Foley had been relieved of his managerial duties. Still, it was all for the best (and probably -– shhh! — even premeditated), since Mick had been planning to undergo his hip replacement surgery anyway and would be taking a lot of time off to recover. Stephanie McMahon, good sport that she is, gave him all the time he needed, and then some. With enemies like these, who needs friends?

Perhaps Mick's most famous match ever was the notorious 1998 Hell in a Cell vs. the Undertaker. While that match arguably made Mick's career at that point, it also came close to ending it, due not only to the severe damage he suffered but also to his extremely upset wife. Mick has said he avoided even talking about that match for years afterward, afraid he'd be stereotyped as the guy who just did death-defying stunts. Yep, that's definitely the kind of thing that would get real old real fast.

Twenty years later on, though, Mick had come to terms with that match, not only granting interviews about it but even touring with a one-man show which was filmed and aired on the WWE Network as Mick Foley: 20 Years of Hell. When he agreed to referee the 2018 Hell in a Cell matchup between Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns, though, things got a little weird. Mick's referee stint ended in him being pepper-sprayed by Paul Heyman, at which point the match had to be called off.

Although Mick has teased the possibility of a rematch with Taker if the price were right, don't hold your breath. As Wrestling News points out, it's extremely unlikely that WWE medical would clear this to happen. Chances are Mick Foley's wife probably wouldn't give it her blessing, either.

In May 2019, Mick Foley made a special guest appearance on Monday Night RAW to announce the newest WWE championship title, an announcement that was met with ... a chorus of boos. What? Why? How? While Mick blamed himself and felt that he just didn't do a good enough job of putting across the promo, later comments by fans and wrestling websites revealed a different story.

For some, it may have been a bit of disappointment in the fact that the newest title would be called the 24/7 Championship instead of reviving the name of the old Hardcore Championship (of which Mick was the very first winner). Most fans and fan sites, however, were put off by the appearance of the belt itself. Fatherly called it "trash" and compared it to "the sign for a random roadside diner," while Barstool Sports said it was "hideous" and Kayfabe News joked that it had been designed by a second grader. On Twitter, comments ranged from "ugly" to "hella ugly" to worse. Sensing a theme here? Still, nothing for Mick to be ashamed of.

Throughout his wrestling career Mick Foley's had a number of heel turns, but in real life he's nothing but a big ol' babyface. Even back during his early days when he wasn't exactly playing to packed houses, Mick was sponsoring needy children through ChildFund International. This charity remains such a priority for him that he not only discussed it in his book Countdown to Lockdown, but donated 50% of the proceeds from his advance to that organization. Did the other 50% go into Mick's pocket? No, it went to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. As well as being a donor, Mick serves on RAINN's board and has worked as a volunteer counselor for their online hotline.

What's more, this man who has frequently been wounded in the "battles" of sports entertainment takes time to honor the real wounded warriors whose injuries have been earned in service to their country. During his wrestling days Mick was known for visiting military hospitals as well as entertaining the troops. Even after retiring, he has remained active in supporting the Wounded Warrior Project. It all just makes Mick even more legendary.

When it comes to raising money for charity, Mick doesn't just talk the talk or even walk the walk. He'll go so far as to mow your lawn if the price is right. He first made this offer in 2011 in an effort to raise money for RAINN: for a donation of $5,000, you could have "a big guy with long hair mowing your lawn in front of your friends." It seems that at least one fan took him up on the offer.

More recently, Mick has been raising funds for a tragedy that struck much closer to home. Fellow former wrestler Ashley Massaro (above) took her own life in May 2019, leaving behind her 18-year-old daughter, Alexa. Mick, devastated by the loss of a good friend, immediately began spearheading efforts to raise money for Alexa Massaro's college tuition. This time he offered to come to any fan's house for $5,000 to hang out and watch TV with up to 10 of the donor's friends. In an interview he granted TMZ, Mick also offered to do yard work again if necessary, but here's hoping he didn't have to make good on that particular offer since he's had a knee and a hip replaced since his last lawnmowing stint. The fundraiser, with Mick's help, was extremely successful, exceeding its goal in just one month. A fitting tribute to a diva who died much too soon.

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