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The Hardcore Legend

Image: Mick Foley: WWE legend

WWE star Mick Foley dropped by Soccer AM to talk all things wrestling, including his sock!

WWE star talks sock puppets and stand-up

Completing this week's line-up in the Soccer AM studios was WWE legend Mick Foley! A four-time Wrestling Heavyweight Champion, Foley is one of the most famous wrestlers in the world. His different personas, including Dude Love, Cactus Jack and Mankind have been entertaining the wrestling viewing world for over 20 years, while in recent years he has become a New York Times bestselling author. The father of four has also embarked on a career in comedy and Helen and Max had a host of topics to cover with him. Here's what he had to say...

Foley on...

His famous sock puppet: I used a sock puppet to cheer up Mr McMahon, my boss, in 1999 in the hospital when he was being the world's crankiest hospital patient. He was hooked up to a respirator and a heart monitor for a bruised ankle bone, so I brought the sock to cheer him up because I knew deep down he hates sock puppets. But I think the idea of a guy like me showing up, kind of with some wear and tear on the body, with a sock puppet was endearing and something that the audience took to at a time when my knees were shot, my back was bad and I didn't have a lot left in me. Then all of a sudden it was like 'wait a second I could be thrown off cell structures or I can use a sock puppet'! So pretty much the sock is putting my children through university! His most painful wrestling injury: Probably the most graphic injury was when I lost two thirds of an ear in Munich, Germany. The irony is that wrestling is entertainment, but real sports sort of stop when someone loses a body part, and this one kept going! His stand-up material: I try and segue, like last night we had a really nice moment in Liverpool because I solved the international terrorism problem, through lessons I learnt in wrestling. So it was a little bit of political and social humour, but it wasn't offensive it was a type of observation. So I do learn a lot of things through wrestling. I like to talk about subjects not wrestling related but I tie them in so therefore the people that come in and see me - and the vast majority are wrestling fans - they don't feel alienated when I go off on different subjects. But I try and make it very inclusive so that the brave few whose boyfriends have dragged them out to see the show will go out of their way to tell me they enjoyed themselves.

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