Tales From Wrescal Lane; Come One, Come All, to Wrescal Lane. It's the Bestest Place to See Your Favorite WWE Superstars as Kids Like You and Me!

Business Wire, Oct 11, 2004

STAMFORD, Conn. -- New York Times bestselling author Mick Foley(TM) returns to WWE(R) publishing with TALES FROM WRESCAL LANE (WWE/Pocket Books; October 26, 2004; $19.95) an exciting illustrated book for both children and adults.

Spend time with your favorite WWE Superstars as they grow up on the imaginary street of Wrescal Lane. Mick Foley transports readers to a fantasyland where they will join the young Rock(R), Stephanie(TM) and Shane McMahon(TM), Kurt Angle(R), Triple H(R), the Dudley Boys(R), and others as they learn important lessons, including the importance of sharing and humility. This is a wonderful tool for parents to use as they read TALES FROM WRESCAL LANE to their children; in which some of life's lessons can be taught. Children will be educated through the pages of this book in a fun and educational way, and they will in fact enjoy the stories that Mick Foley has written, and hopefully utilize them on a daily basis in and out of the schoolroom.

Award-winning artist, Jill Thompson has crafted adorable illustrations that bring the world of TALES FROM WRESCAL LANE to life.

About the Author

Mick Foley has already become a successful author. His 1999 autobiography, Have A Nice Day--written in longhand on 760 pages of notebook paper during a European tour--became No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. His second book, Mick Foley's Christmas Chaos, a whimsical children's story devoted to a four-year-old burn victim Foley befriended, made the chart in 2000. Mick has written other titles including the follow up to the 1999 New York Times Best Seller, Have a Nice Day, entitled Foley is Good. He is also the author of the acclaimed novel, Tietam Brown. Mick lives in New York State with his wife and four children.

Foley--alternately known by his ring personas Mankind(TM), Cactus Jack(TM) and Dude Love(TM)--was a three-time World Wrestling Entertainment(R) Heavyweight Champion, the first WWE Superstar to become a bestselling author, and, arguably, the performer most willing to sacrifice his body for the business he's loved since childhood.

Growing up as a child Foley loved the world of wrestling and over time he got natured in the business and eventually joined World Wrestling Entertainment. In the early years, Foley would show up at WWE television tapings and lose to whichever Superstar the organization was promoting at the moment. As Cactus Jack--an unruly character said to be from Truth or Consequences, New Mexico--he began making a name for himself at small shows in high school gymnasiums, as well as at arenas as far away as Japan and Africa. It was in the Land of the Rising Sun that Foley became a cult figure by battling in a ring surrounded by flames, suffering second degree burns on his shoulder in a 1995 King of the Death Match. By then, word had spread throughout the wrestling community that Foley was relatively indifferent to pain. Over the years, he received over 300 stitches, six concussions and one broken jaw. In 1994, part of his ear was ripped off when he got his head caught between the top and middle ropes in a match in Germany.

In 1996, he entered the WWE as Mankind, a tortured figure in a leather mask who rocked back and forth in the sewer and was said to have smashed his piano-playing fingers with a hammer to thwart his mother's attempts to turn him into a perfect gentleman. Mankind's finisher was the Mandible Claw(TM)--a maneuver that required him to jam the mangled fingers down an opponent's throat until he submitted. Later, he'd also win with "Mr. Socko(TM)," placing a dirty sweat sock on his hand and executing the same move. Unfortunately, all the torture he weathered in the ring eventually caught up with him, and Foley retired in 2000, becoming the World Wrestling Entertainment Commissioner not long afterwards. He would relinquish this post in December 2000 to pursue his aspirations as a novelist.

Pocket Books/WWE Books is a division of Simon & Schuster, the publishing operation of Viacom Inc.

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