Ex-Pro Wrestling Champ Mick Foley to Compete in Wing Bowl

The wrestler known as Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love is this year's celebrity entrant into the annual celebration of gluttony in South Philly.

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Just when you thought Philadelphia’s annual pageant of the grotesque couldn’t get any weirder comes this news: Former world pro wrestling champion Mick Foley will compete at this year’s Wing Bowl.

Foley — who also wrestled as Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love — was best known in wrestling for his battles with The Rock over the WWF Championship, as well as losing two-thirds of his right ear in a match in 1994. He also wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling, a popular Philadelphia-based promotion in the 1990s.

This morning on WIP, Foley said he’s no celebrity stunt contestant: He’s in it to win. “I believe, as they say, on any given Sunday in the game of football,” Foley said on the station. “On Wing Bowl, it’s on — on any given day I believe I could stand my ground with the best in the world … I already have a doctor on hand ready to give me the Heimlich maneuver if needed.”

WIP morning show host Angelo Cataldi promised Foley he’d have a “big float” for his entrance at the event, held this year on January 30th. Foley said he’d heard Wing Bowl was “insane in a good way — not insane as a locked away and killed his family type of way.” Hmm.

Since leaving wrestling, Foley has authored several popular memoirs and embarked on a career as a stand-up comedian and motivational speaker. He still occasionally appears on WWE television as an authority figure or in a promotional capacity. He recently produced a documentary, I Am Santa Claus, that was directed by 94 WIP’s Tommy Avallone. He has competed twice in a fruitcake eating competition, and recently appeared on The Daily Show.

Last year, the Wing Bowl celebrity contestant was the Eagles’ Jason Kelce, who ate 65 wings. Molly Schuyler won last year’s contest by eating 363 wings.

Naturally, Foley will be making an appearance at SugarHouse Casino after Wing Bowl. “They’ve always accepted me with open arms,” Foley said of Philadelphia sports fans on WIP. “And win, lose, or draw, they know that I’m not going down without a fight.”

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