Mick Foley has leant his advice to AEW star Darby Allin. The former WWE Champion is one of the most popular men in the industry and is considered one of the greatest wrestlers in WWE history.
Foley was the master of character work. He managed to play four characters in the WWE almost simultaneously. Whether he was being Mankind, Cactus Jack, Dude Love or as Mick Foley himself, he brought bundles of character to the ring and created some of the most memorable moments in WWE history.
He was also known for having little regard for his own safety. Like Darby Allin, Mick Foley was known for his death-defying stunts and high pain threshold. He made a career out of taking bumps that nobody else would dare, including fall off the Hell in a Cell not once, but twice in the same match.
Once he body began to break down, Foley managed to move more onto his character work, adding years to his career without sacrificing anything for the live crowd. He became more known for his catchphrases and his sock, Mr Socko, than any matches he took part in and was the best thing he ever did for his career.
Speaking on his podcast Foley is Pod, the WWE Hall of Famer handed out some unsolicited advice to the former TNT Champion. Mick Foley suggested that Darby Allin do something similar that Foley did at the end of his career. He suggested that Allin added more “layers to that character” to help temper fans off his high-risk style and focus more on the man behind the face paint.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete and he comes from the world of extreme sports. He’s like a cat and then he lands on his feet. He’s got incredible body control. But I think every performer has to find a different gear that they can go into as much wild stuff as I did. I was able to temper it with the promos and by shifting gears and injecting humor.”
I think almost every guy with a long history, not talking about the guys who could go from territory to territory and basically recreate that same push each time, talking about the guys who had the long runs in WWE, WCW found another gear and that it often involved humor. And so Darby, I haven’t seen him in a couple of years or talked to him, but he’s a soft spoken young man and he probably should find a way to add layers to that character that doesn’t necessitate taking those risks all the time.”
