WWE: For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

WWE: For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley Blu-ray Movie Review

You'll have a nice day with this fantastic release.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 20, 2014

The toughest man to ever lace his boots.

Sometimes, the true story of wrestling is better enjoyed behind the scenes. Sure, clotheslines and crazy stunts are fun, the money pay-per- view events are awesome, and all of the character drama is juicy, but sometimes stars transcend their time in the ring and prove just as interesting outside of it. Skill and charisma can take a wrestler far, but something more substantial below the surface can take a wrestler even farther. A few have mastered that -- superstars like The Rock have soaked up the wrestling spotlight but gone on to bigger, though not necessarily better, things away from the WWE logo -- but even fewer still have mastered life both in the ring and outside of it. Perhaps the quintessential life superstar is Mick Foley, wrestling hardcore legend who came out of nowhere, without a wrestler's body, and armed only with a passion and drive to be his best, to become one of the most beloved figures in wrestling across a wide, arcing career and within an enviably fulfilling life outside the arena. For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley tells his story the way only he can, with a grace and polish that's quite contrary to his in-ring personas but befitting a man of his stature in what is one of the absolute best WWE Home Video productions yet.

Cactus Jack meets Leatherface.

The film begins with a brief look back at Mick's life, learning to walk before he could fall through steel cages. It glimpses at his participation in high school athletics -- including wrestling on a team with Actor Kevin James (how's that for high school star power?) -- and the creation of his "Dude Love" persona. The film examines his professional wrestling inspiration, a classic Madison Square Garden match featuring Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Soon thereafter, Foley's ascendancy began under Dominic DeNucci's tutelage, followed by a quick rise to prominence in the WCW, highlighted by a career-defining match with Sting and his rivalry with Vader and the subsequent loss of his ear. Foley's success with his "Cactus Jack" character launched a career that would see him transition to the hardcore ECW before finally making the jump to WWE and the birth of his "Mankind" persona. The piece follows his major rivalries and matches with wrestlers like The Rock, Triple H, and Stone Cold Steve Austin, as well as "post-retirement" battles with Randy Orton and Edge. Also highlighted is Foley's writing, time as WWE commissioner, charity work, and family life.

For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley rivals the Steve Austin release for the title of "best WWE star Documentary." This package is practically its equal all the way, that other one offering a little more in terms of bonus content but otherwise not outclassing this title by any significant measure. As expected, the film is first-rate. It doesn't simply recall Foley's time in the ring, highlighting the many times he sacrificed his body in the name of sports entertainment, instead exposing the true man behind the unruly hair, the sloppy attire, the slovenly appearance, and, sometimes, the face mask. It unearths the very essence of the individual who brought those personas to life. Foley opens up and exposes the soul behind the mayhem and the purpose behind the bodily harm. Foley comes across as one of the most well-spoken and genuine human beings to ever grace not only the professional wrestling ring but the wider world around it. A man of the utmost dedication to a craft, his fans, and the world in which he lives is perhaps the most revealing element presented in the film. Foley puts everything in context, from his tour of the wrestling landscape all the way to his career-defining cell match against The Undertaker and all of the bloody, no-holds-barred battles that would follow, but these are mere pieces of a much more fascinating man, a man fans may already know but who will enjoy taking the journey all over again through this terrific release.

WWE: For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley features a 1080i transfer that's a mixture of newly produced (or relatively new) HD 1.78:1-framed content and older SD 4:3 content. Unlike many other WWE Blu-rays that reformat 4:3 material to 1.78:1 for use in a main program, this one, thankfully, retinas original aspect ratios throughout. The older material varies wildly in quality from low-end VHS to top-of-the-line broadcast SD. The newest SD material looks rather good, all things considered. It's the new HD material that lags behind its peers. Even though they're all 1080i resolution, combing has never been a problem with WWE titles, until now. It's not heavy, but a light interlacing effect is evident in most of the Foley interview scenes. Otherwise, detail is only adequate. Facial and clothing textures fall rather flat. Colors -- dominated by a warm background and Foley's trademark red and black checkered shirt -- don't have much variation for vitality. The HD footage is few and far between outside of these interviews; a few clips of Foley performing his stand-up routine late in the film represent the highlight of the 1.78:1 footage. As always with WWE titles, light compression issues and noise are evident in spots. This isn't a troubling release, but it's one of the lesser in the WWE catalogue.

WWE: For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley arrives on Blu-ray with a fairly basic, no-frills Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. There are some light, scattered elements drifting into the back during the opening montage music, but nothing all that exciting. Music more or less lingers through the program, playing with adequate clarity and space only. There's not much more to the track beyond the spoken word. Whether new interview clips with Foley and friends or some throwback interview highlights and ringside commentary, the presentation produces the spoken word with commendable presence and accuracy, even all the way back to the earliest videotape of Foley's career.

WWE: For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley contains several bonus matches on both discs one and two, several with optional commentary tracks. Disc two additionally features a handful of Foley career promotional pieces and a number of "stories" that amount to deleted scenes from the main feature.

Disc One:

• Career Match: Jack Foley & Les Thornton vs. The British Bulldogs. Superstars -- September 1986. With optional commentary by Mick Foley & Joey Styles.
• Career Match: Cactus Jack & Gary Young vs. Scott Steiner & Billy Travis. AWA All-Star Wrestling -- October 1988.
• Career Match: Cactus Jack Manson vs. Brickhouse Brown. Wild West Wrestling -- April 1989.
• Career Match: Cactus Jack vs. Keith Hart. Power Hour -- March 1990.
• Submit or Surrender Match: Cactus Jack vs. Sting. Power Hour -- November 1991.
• Falls Count Anywhere Match: Cactus Jack vs. Van Hammer. Clash of the Champions XVIII -- January 21, 1992.
• Barbed Wire Match: Cactus Jack vs. Sandman. Ft. Lauderdale, FL -- May 1995.
• Career Match: Cactus Jack vs. Shane Douglas. CyberSlam -- February 1996. With optional commentary by Mick Foley & Joey Styles.
• Career Match: Mankind vs. Rocky Maivia. In Your House: Cold Day in Hell -- May 11, 1997.
• Career Match: Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst-Helmsly. In Your House: Canadian Stampede -- July 6, 1997.

Disc Two:

• Career Match: Dude Love vs. Rocky Maivia. RAW -- November 17, 1997.
• Hell in a Cell Match: Mankind vs. Undertaker. King of the Ring -- June 28, 1998. With optional commentary by Mick Foley & Joey Styles.
• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Mankind & Kane vs. New Age Outlaws. RAW -- July 13, 1998.
• WWE Championship Match: Mankind vs. The Rock. In Your House: Rock Bottom -- December 13, 1998.
• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Mankind & The Rock vs. Triple H & Shane McMahon. SmackDown -- September 2, 1999.
• Career Match: Mankind vs. Al Snow. SmackDown -- December 16, 1999.
• Hell in a Cell -- Retirement Match: Cactus Jack vs. Triple H. No Way Out -- February 27, 2000.

Disc Two Blu-ray Exclusives Promos:

• Sting's Birthday Cake: WCW World Championship Wrestling -- October 5, 1991.
• No Ear Surgery: WCW Saturday Night -- September 10, 1994.
• Barbie: RAW -- April 5, 2004.
• Cutting Edge: SmackDown -- August 1, 2008.
• Relevancy with CM Punk: RAW -- September 24, 2012.

Disc Two Blu-ray Exclusive Stories:

• Frank Foley.
• Snowed In.
• DeNucci Training School.
• Arrested in Italy?.
• Cactus Jack -- The Name.
• Africa.
• Birth of Bang Bang.
• Losing Teeth.
• On the Spot.
• Wanted T-Shirt.
• Smoking Flight?.
• Anti-Hardcore ECW.
• Farewell in ECW.
• Vicious Suplex.
• Kevin Sullivan -- Mentor.
• Rock 'n Sock Jacket.
• Disneyland.
• Loogie Heard 'Round the World.
• Commentator.
• Mr. Socko vs. The Cobra.
• Comedy Show.
• Favorite Mick Foley Persona.
• Sheamus Meets Mick.
• Christmas Cheer.
• Wardrobe.
• Thrifty Mick.
• Great Dad.

WWE: For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For All Mankind - Life & Career of Mick Foley is one of the unquestionably great products to come out of WWE Home Video. That's saying something considering the plethora of first-class productions that the outfit releases on a regular basis. Yet few of them are so detailed and none of them are home to one of the most charismatic, gentle, well-read, and articulate people in the WWE universe: Mick Foley. He also happens to be the legend of hardcore wrestling. That's quite the dichotomy, and a welcome one. Foley exposes his life's ride with a passion, humility, and gratefulness that should be a model for anyone in the spotlight. Several of his contemporaries, including Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Vader, Paul Heyman, Jim Ross, Big Show, CM Punk, and John Cena help fill in a few gaps, but this is Foley's story and, outside of his terrific book, the best way to come to know one of the all-time greats in sports entertainment history. WWE Home Video's Blu-ray release of For All Mankind - The Life & Career of Mick Foley delivers solid video and audio. Plenty of bonus matches, moments, and deleted scenes are included. This release earns my highest recommendation.