Mick Foley has poured every ounce of himself into anything he’s done, from putting his body on the line as a legend in the wrestling ring, writing his best-selling books on legal pads and creating the most unique Cameo videos possible for fans. The same will apply to his new venture into podcasting.
Foley, 56, is launching a weekly podcast aptly named “Foley is Pod” as part of co-host Conrad Thompson’s Ad Free Shows family of podcasts starting June 3. The debut episode will center around Foley’s “retirement” match against Triple H inside Hell in a Cell at the “No Way Out” pay-per-view in 2000.
But Foley, who grew up on Long Island, is able and willing to go the extra mile to make his show unique. He is traveling an hour and a half every two or three weeks from his home near Nashville to Thompson’s mortgage office in Huntsville, Ala., to record all of the shows in-person. He stays over at a hotel nearby so they can record around three episodes per visit. That differs from the setup of Thompson’s other nine pro-wrestling podcasts, which are predominantly recorded remotely.
“With Mick, he doesn’t do things for business, he does this out of passion and that was apparent when you saw his wrestling,” Thompson said. “Nobody drops the elbow on concrete night after night after night because it’s a smart business decision. They do it because they are passionate about putting forth the best product and Mick has approached the podcast that way.”
They already have around 13 episodes taped and the trips are something Foley wants to do for the duration of the show. In addition to the more organic live interactions with Thompson, it will allow them to use a green screen, a boom mic and 4K video to enhance the product for their subscription patrons at AdFreeShows.com, where you can also get the video of the show along with other perks for a monthly fee. Thompson said all of it has resulted in “some of the best podcasting that I’ve ever been a part of” and Foley has seen the benefits.
“It’s been a really natural chemistry and something I enjoy very much,” Foley said. “Especially for those people who are in-depth fans who choose to get the video in addition to the audio, they will see the smile on my face is very genuine and it’s very obvious that I enjoy doing the podcast.”
Thompson planted the seed for this venture in 2018 as a guest at one of Foley’s one-man shows in Huntsville, but the hardcore legend wasn’t yet ready to jump into the medium. Foley said one of the reasons he was slow to accept the invitation was he is not an avid podcast listener himself and Thompson felt he didn’t believe in the business model at the time. Since then, Thompson has seen his podcast empire — which began with Bruce Prichard’s “Something to Wrestle” — expand rapidly to include some of pro wrestling’s top names, including Eric Bischoff, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Arn Anderson, Kurt Angle and more recently Jeff Jarrett, “Diamond” Dallas Page, Jake “The Snake” Roberts and Thompson’s father-in-law, Ric Flair. When Foley was ready, Thompson convinced him that his show would not get lost in the shuffle.
“I realized I really enjoyed telling my stories on the stage across the country and different countries around the world,” Foley said. “I think it just took a little bit of encouragement that there was a market for taking a stroll down memory lane through my career.”
Thompson said he’s hoping to take more of an autobiographical approach to Foley’s show, which will go in-depth on a career that made stops in WWE, WCW, TNA, ECW, Japan and the tailend of the territory days, and touch on things outside the wrestling business such as his writing, shows and movies roles.
Thompson isn’t concerned with oversaturating an already crowded market because “there’s something for everybody.” He feels Foley’s unique career, already polished storytelling skills and being a “genuinely nice guy” fans love and respect make him the prototype for what a wrestling podcaster should be.
“Man, it jumps off the screen how passionate he is about his career in the industry and his recall is phenomenal,” Thompson said.
Foley, as is his nature, has also added his own twist to the close of his shows where he has filmed a Cameo video that usually comes with a song, mostly “Happy Birthday.” But the wrestling legend turns other songs, such as “My Way,” into a birthday song.
“They are unlike anything else that I’ve ever seen on Cameo, my man has a soundtrack and he makes a custom song and does lyrics and there are wardrobe changes like it’s a J.Lo concert,” Thompson said.
Foley said he’s composed around 10 different birthday songs for them. It’s another example of the special care he puts into anything he does, to continue his deep connection with fans. Podcasting will be no different.
“I think one of the things that really helped me in my career is that fans felt they knew me and liked me not just as a character, but as a person,” Foley said. “Therefore, I think they will feel like they are spending some time with an old friend.”
