Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks

*Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks*
	First edition cover
Written by:	Mick Foley
Central Theme:
Synopsis:
Genre(s):	Autobiography
Series:	Mick Foley autobiographies
Followed by:	Foley Is Good
First published:	October 31, 1999
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Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks is one of the first of several autobiographical works by now retired wrestler Mick Foley. It covers the period from his birth to December 1998, with later books covering more. It covers his upbringing, education, marriage to wife Colette, and his Professional Wrestling career during the time period of the book's coverage.

It was one of the first wrestling non-fiction works to become majorly successful for its time and gave inspiration many other wrestling autobiographies since.

The next book that covers where this left off is Foley Is Good.

Tropes used in Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks include:

0% Approval Rating: Invoked deliberately in ECW as part of angle to get Tommy Dreamer over, as he had been seen as a joke by ECW fans. Mick decided to purposely eliminate anything about his own character that fans liked so Dreamer could shine kicking the crap out of him for being a boring shell of his former self. It worked.
Alter Ego Acting: Mick Foley had his Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love roles, even As Himself at times. He even recalls having to switch between several over the course of single night.
- Ironically, part of the reason he remained "in character" as Dude Love and at times Cactus Jack was he considered their personas more charming than his own real life character, though he also admitted he knew they were a mere facade over the Mick Foley underneath.
As Himself: Mick once wrestled as "Mick Foley". It qualified for the trope due to the Kayfabe of Mick being but one of the many "aspects" of the characters he portrayed, including Dude Love, Cactus Jack, and Mankind.
Badass: Mick describes a lot of wrestlers he admired as this or similar terms, like Terry Funk. As for himself, he admits he'd likely qualify based on the insane things he's done but made very clear multiple times throughout the book he did not want to be imitated on that score because others could be maimed or killed trying to do so.
- Badass Bookworm: Foley has not only written several books, he casually mentions several books on varying scholarly topics he read to keep himself intellectually busy when not wrestling.
- Determinator: By his own admission, he was willing to sleep in a car during freezing weather for months just to complete his wrestling education and his college education. He also admits this was the only reason he went through as much self-inflicted agony in Hell in a Cell in 1998, he was determined to not only finish the match but also walk out under his own power.
Bloodier and Gorier: His entire Japan run in the IWA was this by default. When he won the "King of the Death Match", he was nearly drenched in blood from head to toe.
Cluster F-Bomb: Not only does he recount several profane moments by many people, but he also noted one thing about the book is that he once was afraid to write one because he didn't know if he'd be allowed to put bad words in it as a kid when he was younger.
Cowboy: Cactus Jack was meant to have aspects of this, including the iconic "Bang Bang, You're Dead!" Catch Phrase.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: Mick often stopped at several key points of the book to emphasize just how dangerous actual wrestling could be and why some things should never be attempted, even by professionals, no matter how "cool" it looked.
Even Evil Has Standards: While he honestly tore Vince McMahon a new bunghole over his more reprehensible moments like the Montreal Screwjob, he did note, as much as Vince had a well-deserved reputation for being callous at times, he was legitimately horrified at the damage Mick did to himself in the 1998 Hell in a Cell match and sincerely begged him to never do something like that again.
Face: While he has been a Heel during his career, he's more often than not been a Face because, by his own admission, he had to work to be the bad guy in the ring, but wasn't struggling too hard to be the nice guy.
Garbage Wrestler: Mick discusses this trope, saying he does have a legit wrestling background, as he was trained by the veteran Dominic DeNucci, but he is not above this form of wrestling and has employed it often whenever he needed to. He does also elaborate on how while he's not ashamed of some of the risks he took at the time he did them, he does mention at length how dangerous a lot of the things he used as weapons during this type of wrestling were not all good ideas, and some he warns others to never attempt in his place.
Holy Shit Quotient: Remarks Hell in a Cell 1998 got this reaction, which he considered personally ironic since he was convinced the match was gonna suck prior, but it became one of the most talked about events in his career and Professional Wrestling in general.
In The Hood: The initial concept for Mankind involved this, an idea he hated but found interesting nonetheless. It was modified into a brown rawhide leather mask, which he came to accept and even embrace.
Lighter and Softer: Dude Love, especially his official wrestling debut.
Happily Married: To his wife Colette since 1992.
Made of Iron: It was remarked by several people Mick's body was able to take far more punishment than anybody should ever be able to take.
- Dented Iron: But Mick himself repeatedly emphasized through his book at length about how this was not true, detailing the agony of his injuries and the recovery periods down to the date in some cases.
Memetic Mutation: How "Mr. Socko", Mankind's sock puppet (done as a once-off joke) took off in popularity. Ironically, Mick noted he wore a long tube sock on his arm a few years back in Japan during barbed wire matches to protect his arm, but no one really noticed it then.
Nice Guy: IRL and professionally. He remarks in the book he made a point of not making an ass of himself in the hopes he'd not make any real enemies in his career, knowing it would be a bad idea.
Old Shame: The Lost In Cleveland skits he did in WCW. They were so terrible he begged fans with copies of them to destroy them.
One of Us: Admits through the book he's a shameless fanboy of amusement parks.
Psychopathic Manchild: How the character of Mankind began. Partially due to Mick adapting to circumstances and partially due to other reasons, this atrophied with time.
- Cactus Jack had some qualities of this, but his "insanity" was more focused and downplayed compared to Mankind, where it was a defining trait in the beginning.
Real Men Wear Pink: Mick, by his own admission, let Chyna look good fighting him in the ring because he's not hung up on the masculine ideal of looking weak compared to a woman.
Religious Bruiser: Curiously averted. While Mick is a relatively devout Catholic IRL, it never came up in his wrestling career.
Screw the Money, I Have Rules: Why he refused to wrestle the night after the Montreal Screwjob. He knew he might suffer for it, but he was that offended on Bret Hart's behalf. Bret was greatly humbled and impressed by the gesture and made warm reference to it later on. Even Vince let it go and paid Mick in full for the night he didn't wrestle because he understood why Mick did what he did.
Serial Killer: Aspects of Mick's Mankind character took notes from Hannibal Lecter as depicted in The Silence of the Lambs. Specifically, Mick's intro music was going to be frenetic and violent like how Lecter was when he murdered his jailers in the movie, but end on a peaceful note like Lecter did swaying to classical music after, to show Mankind was perfectly at peace after destroying his foe.
Serious Business: While Mick did admit wrestling was something he took seriously, his book even stops at a few points so he can deliver a dead serious lecture on the importance of having a good education to fall back on if one dreams of being a wrestler, as he pointed out that it took him over six years before he was earning more than minimum wage at best as a wrestler. He even mentions making a point of doing this to fans sending him amateur wrestling videos, as he was insistent he would never watch them until they finished their college degrees.
So Bad It's Good: Mick and Owen Hart once had an utterly hilarious match where both guys were trying to make Steve Austin laugh. Initially, it was going to be a regular match, but given Mick was wrestling as Dude Love, who was "supposed to suck", he and Owen decided to instead make the whole match a hilarious parody of wrestling. Given Steve Austin was later seen failing to contain his mirth at the utter comedy, they considered their purposeful stinker of a match a success.
The Sociopath: Mick stops the book cold at one point to go into a long rant about bad wrestling trainers who made a point to be this, deeming them absolute, Moral Event Horizon crossing scum.
Stalker with a Crush: Was the target of one early in his career, which Mick admitted both infuriated him and creeped him out.
Stating the Simple Solution: When the Mandible Claw was invented for Mick's Mankind character, one problem with the move was the simple "why couldn't I just bite your fingers" as a means to prevent it, since it required reaching into the opponent's mouth to execute. The Hand Wave Kayfabe (albeit based on the real-world medical knowledge of nerves in the mouth) was that it was a nerve hold that would paralyze the wrestler hit with it and serve as an effective finisher.
Suicide by Cop: Mick admitted at one point of his career, he was so despondent over how badly it was sailing down the tubes he literally tried to end his career with a Game-Breaking Injury. He admitted he was quite sure he couldn't be arrested for it, though it still fit the trope in the sense it could have killed him if his induced stupidity had been worse and that it could have possibly counted as insurance fraud, which never came up because he managed to pull through.
Take That: As a Running Gag, he'd insult Al Snow throughout the book in creative ways, saying he fully expected Al would return the favor if he wrote a book of his own.
- In a more serious variation, he was quite critical of several of his former managers and bosses, even then making a few comments on his current boss Vince McMahon and took more a few opportunities to skewer their dumber decisions with a fair amount of snark and derision. Vince and most others reportedly took it well after the book's release, though Ric Flair was definitely not happy about how Mick portrayed him as a booker of very questionable competence.
Title Drop: The first half comes from his tenure as Mankind, where this was his catchphrase, referenced later in the book.
Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: By his own admission, he's not the most pleasing person to look at, while his wife is, a fact he likes to ring up with pride at several points.
Universal Ammunition: In a rare, real-world application of the trope as applied to wrestling, he had to find a move that fit this description as Mankind, as he needed to distinguish himself from Cactus Jack and dropping elbows all the time was passe. The Mandible Claw was the solution, as, like the Stone Cold Stunner, it could be " done anywhere, on any day, to any guy". This was deemed preferable to a move that could only be used in select circumstances, like The Undertaker and the Tombstone Piledriver, which was impossible to do above a certain weight class of the opponent.
You Bastard: His promos where he did his best to make Tommy Dreamer look good involved making himself look like a heel by doing this trope to the ECW fans. It worked, but not as well as Mick hoped. To quote him on why it failed:

The fans already know they were bloodthirsty, uncaring SOBs and enjoyed the acknowledgment.