NYCC 2023: Mick Foley Fan Experiences At The Headlocked Comics Booth

There are two basic kinds of interactions you can expect from celebrities and creators at conventions. There are those who treat their time with fans as purely transactional. You pay the fee, wait in line, present the item to be signed, snap the photo, and move along so the next superfan can get their moment. Those interactions are fine, and with some of the huge draws, absolutely necessary to make sure that everyone who wants to rub elbows with their favorites gets a chance to. 

Then there are the celebs that always have a line because they spend a few extra moments with each person who comes through their queue, talking a little about the fan’s favorite memories of the celebrity, or their favorite shared fandom, or the weather and what they had for lunch. Mick Foley is of the latter variety. 

My earliest memory of professional wrestling is of Mick Foley. My grandfather was in the hospital for heart surgery. I was probably 10 or 11 years old. I was alone in the ICU waiting room a lot that week, which meant I had control of the tiny little TV. I found World Championship Wrestling on one of the channels, and I had never seen anything like it. The first match I saw was a cage match, and I couldn’t tell you who the grapplers were in the ring if you had a gun to my head.

What I can tell you is that a few minutes into the match, a man crawled from under the ring with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat and went to work on one of those men, and then disappeared back under the ring. “That’s… That’s Cactus Jack Manson!!!” screamed Jim Ross. “What the hell is he doing in there?!”

Something about the man in the leopard print captivated me from that point forward. I have since very much enjoyed his various runs in WWE as Mankind, Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and his feuds and rivalries with The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Big Show, and the late, great Terry Funk, among others.

When I see that Mick is attending a show that I’m either attending or covering, I always try to make time in my schedule to stop by to get something signed or take a photo. It is always worth it.

At NYCC 2022, I purchased a Mick Foley photo experience from Epic Photo Ops. This experience is one of very few things I remember from last year’s Con. Two days prior to the trip, I cracked my head pretty hard on a tile floor, and I unknowingly had a skull fracture and a severe concussion. I remember being at the Javits, and I remember meeting Foley, and just how kind the man was. He was asking every fan questions about where they were from, where they got their shirt, what their favorite WWE belt design was… that kind of thing. Every single person went away with a connection, however small, to Mama Foley’s baby boy.

That experience, and a few foggy vignettes from the show floor, a couple afterparties, and a really questionable Gyro from a street cart are the sum of my memories from an entire week in NYC.

There is a photo of this meeting, and it is… not flattering. I have a huge green lump on my forehead, I am grinning like a madman, and my eyes are glossed over. It has been brought to my attention that this is the image that comes up in my Google Image search. There’s my profile pic from socials, my concussion pic with Foley (that someone has inexplicable uploaded to a wallpaper site), a pic with 3x WWE Tag Champs Demolition, and a pic of me threatening someone with a giant corn dog. 

Headlocked Comics creator Mike Kingston shares his NYCC booth each year with professional wrestling legends and current talent. The lineup is always noteworthy, with names like Trish Stratus, The Dudley Boyz, Lita, Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Rikishi, Jerry “The King” Lawler, and more. When I found out that Mick would be at Mike’s booth this year, there was no question I’d carve out time to go see him.

As expected, Mick’s line this year was ever present, regardless of time of day, or what other panels and attractions were happening. There were always people queued up, waiting for their moment. Mick was selling 8×10” photos and various exclusive prints. He was also taking photos with fans for an extra fee. He brought one of his Mankind masks, and was taking multiple pics with every fan, with and without mask. 

One fan came to the table cosplaying as Mankind, with his own replica mask. I asked if I could also grab a shot of this interaction to publish here, and Mick not only said yes, he asked me to send the pic to Mike so he could have a copy of it for himself. That kid will always have the memory of the moment he stood next to Mankind, dressed as Mankind, and didn’t get a Mandible Claw for his efforts.

I waited until Sunday to get my own glossy 8×10” photo. I told Mick about the previous year’s concussion pic, and that my wife bought me a Mick Foley Cameo for my birthday because she knows I’m a huge mark and Foley is my favorite of all time. We chatted for a few, and the nice lady who was handling the money took 4 pics of me and Mick, half with his Mankind mask and half without. One signed 8×10” glossy of your choice, a little bit of conversation, and several pics on your cell phone runs $80. Worth every penny, and if Mick is there next year, I will gladly pay it again.