WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley became the second WWE talent this week to garner some serious heat at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center. Unlike Roman Reigns, Foley's crime wasn't winning when fans didn't want him to. It was quite different cheating during a competitive eating contest on Friday. The event in question was Phillys Wing Bowl 23, an annual tradition began in 1993 as a way for Philly sports fans to enjoy the week before the Super Bowl since Philadelphia professional sports teams have rarely been in championship games. (Aside from a Philadelphia Phillies baseball World Series title in 2008, no major league team has win their sports title in 30-plus years.) Foley entered the wing-eating competition as a celebrity contestant and was quickly disqualified in the first round for hiding uneaten wings in his fanny pack. The stunt was seemingly pre-planned and designed to get him some attention the radio station that hosts the event had commented in the lead-up to Wing Bowl that Foley had been DQd from a fruitcake-eating contest recently and it worked beautifully. The Hardcore Legend even cut a bit of a promo when interviewed during the competition, doing his cheap pop line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9L58TppjpQ TMZ broke a story about it, while publications such as New York Daily News, Huffington Post and Washington Post picked it up and posted items online Friday. The outlets missed the connection, but Foley is in town also for a Saturday signing and meet & greet in nearby King of Prussia. The press generated by Fridays stunt almost certainly will help drive up attendance. Foley himself joked on Twitter about being disqualified, then plugged his event: https://twitter.com/realmickfoley/status/561260435458908162 https://twitter.com/realmickfoley/status/561305651889319937 Kudos to Mick Foley for generating some mainstream coverage and interjecting some humor into an event that is all spectacle whether that spectacle is predominantly the wing-eating or scantily clad women is debatable. For the record, the winner of Wing Bowl 23, Patrick Bertoletti, devoured 444 chicken wings in 26 minutes. That bests last years record by 81 wings.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fortunately became a fan in time for WrestleMania III and came back as a fan after a long high school hiatus before WM XIV. Monday nights in the Carlson household are reserved for viewing Raw -- for better or worse.
