Volume 1, No. 5. April 6, 2001
The ultimate takedown
Mick Foley was, frankly, getting a little fed up with his fans. The World Wrestling Federation superstar, who once wrestled under the monikers Mankind and Cactus Jack, would inevitably get in a roller coaster queue and be confronted by WWF aficionados. "These days they are everywhere," Foley said. "In a line they can be frustrating, a buzz killer. They always want to ask me about some match. I’m tired of talking about wrestling. Better to get me into a discussion about books and amusement parks."
Next Wednesday Foley will get to talk as much as he likes about his coaster "obsession" as the official celebrity guest for the opening of the Bolliger & Mabillard coaster Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. Foley landed the gig when he called the park asking if he could ride the coasters without standing in line. "A movie star can put on a pair of sunglasses and not be recognized. I can’t do that."
Not that Foley bemoans his fame. The 35-year-old former wrestler, now serving as a WWF Commissioner, has used wrestling tours as an opportunity to visit amusement parks with fellow wrestler Al Snow. "Instead of looking at our travel schedule as being grinding we looked at it as a way to ride as many roller coasters as possible." Foley, father of two children ages 9 and 7, at first hesitated to hit the parks. "I had the feeling that going to amusement parks without my kids was kind of like cheating on my family. It wasn’t until three years ago I realized there were worse things a guy could be doing on the road." He has now visited 36 parks - 26 of those with his daughter - and ridden 60 coasters.
On May 8 his second book is due to hit bookstores (his first, Have A Nice Day, released in 1999, made the New York Times Bestseller List) and he plans to schedule a book signing tour to correspond with park visits. He also wants to get a guest refereeing job in Japan so he can ride the coasters in that country, which in the past he could only gaze longingly at through the windows of WWF touring buses.
So, is there any relation between wrestling and coastering? "In the wrestling business we like to think of a really good match as taking the fans on a roller coaster ride," Foley said. "You’re looking for little peaks and drops, and ultimately you want the big peak followed by the big drop that creates an ‘Oooh! Ahhhh!’ from the crowd. And, like any good coaster ride, no two wrestling matches are alike."
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