Review: Mick Foley in The Empire

They say you shouldn't meet your heroes. Yet when I was offered the chance to meet one of mine I accepted without so much as an afterthought of the consequences. And no, I was not disappointed. Not one bit.

The Empire was packed to the doors with current and nostalgic wrestling fans as WWE Hall of Famer, Mick Foley, took to the stage for the second of his two sold out Belfast shows on a warm Autumnal evening in September.

The 50-year-old hardcore legend arrived with an unassuming smile and his trademark casual attire of tracksuit bottoms, cheque shirt and trainers. He waved, almost awkwardly, as the whole room chanted, "Foley, Foley, Foley!" with the same passion they would if he was exchanging blows with The Rock or 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin at the height of WWE's "Attitude era" in the late 90s/early 00s.

From there he charmed the crowd with interesting and articulate retellings of his iconic career with comedic anecdotes on the side. One of the highlights of the show was Foley addressing the match which made him most famous with mainstream fans, the Hell in the Cell with The Undertaker in 1998, which for years he refused to discuss.

As a huge wrestling fan myself, I remember being 12-years-old watching that match, giggling at the thought of Foley or The Undertaker falling off the 15ft high cage, only to scream, "Holy shit!" when Foley actually was flung off and landed on one of the brittle commentary tables WWF was so famous for at the time.

Foley's detail of events were not only brutally vivid but over the years he's managed to accumulate the story from several points of view; from the referee, to his friend and mentor Terry Funk and The Undertaker himself, whom apparently said, as Foley lay there unconscious after falling through the cage, to Funk, "Go see if he's still alive."

That quote, in many ways, sums up Foley's wrestling career but not the man himself. As you sit there listening to the former WWE Champion, turned New York Times best selling author (his first autobiography and his debut novel Tietam Brown are highly recommended pieces of American writing) you can't help but smile. For this is a man who isn't just a former wrestler but an author, a storyteller, a comedian, an affable, charitable, human being who might have danced with death more times than he'd like to admit but clearly someone who loves life.

If you're one of the few reading this who isn't aware of Foley's exploits in a wrestling ring, it's fair to say he never fit the archetypal mode of some of his peers like Hulk Hogan, HHH or The Rock. That was perhaps the reason a lanky, overweight, beardless, 13 year old like me in the late 90s took so much from Foley's story. He made me, and many others, believe we could be a champion too.

And as the show ended, his trademark WWE music rang through the venue once more and the crowd yet again screamed 'Foley, Foley, Foley,' you learnt one very important thing that night; pro wrestling might be fake, but Mick Foley is very real.

Andrew Moore.