In this surprisingly listless behind-the-scenes memoir, Lawler, a veteran wrestler and a commentator for WWE Raw, delivers the standard run-down of the show business behind the “sport”: matches are tightly choreographed, trash-talking interviews are scripted and simmering wrestler feuds are plotted out months in advance by the same folks who concoct the sociopathic characters the wrestlers impersonate in the ring. The premise of the wrestler tell-all genre is that the making of wild spectacle is more interesting than the spectacle itself. That may be true, but in Lawler’s telling the rollicking charlatanism of the wrestling world gets bogged down in aimless anecdotes, bad one-liners (“I wanted to ask a fan, “Who did your makeup? Bozo?”) and unfunny practical jokes in which he douses people with water or spikes their food with laxative. A big Memphis celebrity, Lawler dutifully plugs a local vinyl siding companies and a few eateries (“Half a slab of pork ribs with slaw and beans is $8.95″ at Cozy Corner); and much of three late chapters is taken up with the Lawler’s increasingly shameless post-divorce quest to scare up groupies. Wrestling fans and connoisseurs of kitsch will swoon over the many photos of big men in trunks and tights, but others may find it a chore to wade through this slackly written story.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Himself a former wrestler, Jerry Lawler is now a TV, radio and video presenter who is known to millions as a ringside commentator for the WWE. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
The full story of one of wrestling’s most colourful and outspoken personalities. An often controversial figure, Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler has been at the top of his profession both as a wrestler and most recently as a commentator for over 30 years. Holder of more than 90 regional or national titles over the course of his career, he is as well known for his feuds, both in and out of the ring, as he is for his achievements and his expertise. No stranger to the airwaves, he has hosted his own show both on radio and on television, and he is also a successful commercial artist whose work can be seen on several sites around his home city of Memphis. Outside the WWE arena perhaps his most famous dispute was with actor and comedian Andy Kaufman, a long-running conflict that at one point put Kaufman in hospital and culminated in a televised brawl on ‘Late Night With David Letterman’. Now in a no-holds barred autobiography ‘The King’ is prepared to tell all both about his sometimes stormy career and about the backstage secrets of the WWE.
It’s Good to Be the King…Sometimes 
Have A Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
Frankly, this literary critic didn’t expect Mick Foley’s memoir of his life as Mankind (and his other wrestling personas, Cactus Jack and Dude Love) to hit No. 1 on Amazon.com’s hardcover nonfiction bestseller list in its first literary bout. The cover is cluttered and confusing, and do we really need 500-plus pages of Foley’s boasts? Yes. Foley gives his all for his calling, and he burns to tell his adventures. Take the famous tale of how he lost most of his ear (the bloody result is depicted in the 16-page color-photo section). It was in his 1994 bouts with Vader (Leon White): after getting a broken nose, a dislocated jaw, and 21 stitches in the first match, Foley did his “hangman” routine, wherein he catches his neck between the second and third ropes and spins them into a twist. “The end result is the illusion of a man being hanged by his neck while his body kicks and writhes in an attempt to get out… the man actually is hanging by his neck and the body really does kick and writhe in an attempt to get out.” Unfortunately, in the prior match, Too Cold Scorpio had had the officials tighten the ropes, so Foley tore off his ear to avoid death by strangulation, like “a fox that chews off its paw to escape a trap.” Foley also wrestles on 10,000-thumbtack mats with barbwire ropes and C-4 explosives, and earns the ultimate compliment: “The fans really like the way you bleed.” Many fans also like the way his gory story reads. –Tim Appelo –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Mick Foley is a nice man, a family man who loves amusement parks and eating ice cream in bed. So how to explain those Japanese death matches in rings with explosives, golden thumbtacks and barbed wire instead of rope? The second-degree burn tissue? And the missing ear that was ripped off during a bout-in which he kept fighting? Here is an intimate glimpse into Mick Foley’s mind, his history, his work and what some might call his pathology. Now with a bonus chapter summarizing the past 15 months-from his experience as a bestselling author through his parting thoughts before his final match. A tale of blood, sweat, tears and more blood-all in his own words-straight from the twisted genius behind Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind.
