One of the best biographies I've ever read. Tells a story about a man who found his passion and went to great lengths shedding literal blood and tears to share it with us. Kinda makes me want to follow my own passion is much more zealousness. It makes a point that when you've found what you love doing, even a 25-foot drop through a steel cage or a second-degree burn won't stop you from going out the next day and tear the place apart. The pain it seems is as addicting as any drug.
Mick Foley's charming and lovable personality oozes from each sentence and you can't help but smile with him. His journey is awe-inspiring and at the end who can't say, wrestling is indeed romantic.

Mick Foley's "Have a Nice Day!" is generally viewed as one of the best wrestling autobiographies ever, and not without reason. Unlike most biographies, it wasn't ghostwritten but written by Foley himself, with a pen no less. Foley also has a capability for reflection that's pretty rare, especially among wrestlers. I personally bought the book when it was originally released, and really loved it. Back then I would have given it an easy five stars. But now, re-reading it again 20+ years later, my feelings are a bit more complicated.

The best parts of the book are still Foley's recollections of his time spent in the indies and in Japan, even though they too display some attitudes towards gay people and women that honestly seem very regrettable in 2024. A lot of people had really bad views back then, and while we've grown and moved on (and I certainly like to believe Foley has as well), the book is still of course a time capsule locked into those views. And to be clear, there's nothing glaring or especially bigoted, just the typical millennium era shitty jokes and gay panic about being seen in a restaurant frequented by gay people. It sucks.

But my bigger problems with the book begin after Mick Foley joins the WWE. Like most Western wrestling fans, I too grew up in a world where the WWE (and the WWF before it) WAS wrestling. 25 years ago I would have shared Foley's enthusiasm for the promotion. But these days? After we've heard detailed accounts of the monstrous and criminal things Vince McMahon has done, including but not limited to covering up a paedophile ring and doing his best to silence and discredit its victims and sexually abusing workers? Reading about how he was such an upstanding fellow and and great guy is unpalatable. And sadly, this is one area where Foley's opinions don't seem to have changed over the years.

So yeah. The book has unfortunately aged rather poorly, and the current day champion of wrestling autobiographies is Jon Moxley's incredible "Mox", and especially its audio book version.

As good as I'd remembered

A must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in professional wrestling.