Mick Foley has ‘new lease on life’ with improved health
Mick Foley feels like he has a new lease on life with how much his mobility has improved.
The 60-year-old Hardcore Legend appeared on a new episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, discussing how his quality of life has increased due to weight loss and hip and knee replacements. Foley called the two operations “game changers” for much of a difference they’ve made.
“Well, the crazy thing is I’m moving better,” Foley said. “I dropped like 90 [pounds], at one point I had gone from 372 to 273. And then I may have taken it too easy for the next four or five months and crept up towards 300. But I think I’m down around 275.
“And the hip and knee replacements, those were game changers. I remember talking to Kevin Nash and saying, ‘Kevin, something amazing happened to me today.’ He said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘I passed somebody in the airport.’ I was always the guy, people are like, ‘Hey, sir, can you move to the side?’ And I was starting to pass people — which didn’t mean I was fast. And I don’t want to over exaggerate the amount of pain I was in, but I think I’ve got a pretty high threshold. So when I say it was — I don’t want to say agonizing, but it was more than severe. If it was not agonizing, it was agonizing at moments.”
Foley said he got his hip checked out at the request of a friend who is a physical therapist. When he saw the orthopedic doctor, Foley was told that his hip was the worst the doctor has ever seen. The doctor didn’t know how Foley was able to walk, but finding out what the issue was and knowing it could be fixed gave Foley hope.
“And once I realized there was hope, and then once I had the hip followed by the knee, it was like a new lease on life,” Foley said.
Now that his hip and knee have been replaced, Foley’s body is still worse off than most people who haven’t taken his level of damage — but he feels so much better than he did 10-15 years ago.
“If you were to suddenly transform someone else into my current body, they might think it was hell on earth,” Foley said. “But compared to how I felt for like 10-15 years, yeah, I am doing a lot better.”
A WWE Hall of Famer, Foley has not competed in the ring since his appearance in the 2012 Royal Rumble. He had been planning to come out of retirement for one last death match in celebration of his 60th birthday — but Foley called off those plans last year after suffering a concussion while doing light training.
Foley is not competing in the ring, but he’s staying busy on the convention circuit, even telling Van Vliet that he’s on the road more now than during his wrestling days. He’s been doing a “40 Years of Foley” tour of one-man shows this year celebrating the anniversary of his debut.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.