"Hey Media Sellout! Why didnt u mention Wrestlemana in yor last two columns? What ahhepoend did the WWE take u off there payroll??? Who cares what u think about the Diodes whoever they are ROFL!!!! or did they pay u more to write about them insetad u crook??"
That dippy epistle is just a small sampling of the anonymous hate mail I received after MB113 hit the streets.
Now before I address the matter of my supposedly "selling out" to corporate America, I'd like to explain why I didn't review WrestleMania 23. If you were there or if you watched it — exclusively on pay-per-view — you probably noticed an empty seat at ringside. It was mine because I never made it to Ford Field.
Instead I was reading a book in my spacious penthouse suite at the luxurious five-star Omni Detroit River Place Hotel. What hardback kept me so transfixed that I lost track of time and forgot that I had a VIP seat at the biggest stage of them all which was taking place at that very moment, right here, in Detroit city?
That book was Mick Foley's latest New York Times best-selling autobiography, The Hardcore Diaries. Which is why, at the risk of sounding like a future promotional quote on the cover of the paperback edition, I'd like to officially state that The Hardcore Diaries is Mick Foley's greatest book yet! In it, the Hardcore Legend is at his heartfelt best as he candidly describes what went on behind the scenes leading up to one of the greatest events in sports entertainment history, ECW's legendary One Night Stand.
As for the charges that I've sold out, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their media columnist is a crook. Well I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got. To take payola is abhorrent to every instinct in my body, which is why I'll never accept a bribe or shamelessly shill for anyone. And that's the bottom line, 'cause Jeffrey Morgan says go out and buy a copy of Mick Foley's The Hardcore Diaries today!
NEXT WEEK: DO YOU SMELL WHAT MY NEW GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL IS COOKING?