Have A Nice Day ! A Tale of Blood & Sweatsocks Have a Nice Day : A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks is an autobiography of former WWE and current TNA wrestler Mick Foley . It details his life all the way from his upbringing in New York to winning the WWF Championship from The Rock in December 1998 . Foley had originally wanted the book to be called simply " Blood and Sweatsocks " , but this was eschewed in favor of his long time catchphrase " Have a Nice Day " , with the former being added as a sub - title . The book debuted at # 3 on the New York Times Best Seller List on November 7 , 1999 and reached # 1 on December 5 . The book is followed by two sequels . " " released in 2001 , wraps up the rest of his career and gives a behind the scenes look at the making of " Have a Nice Day " . The second sequel and third volume to the Foley autobiography is called " The Hardcore Diaries " and was released in March 2007 . History . Foley did not make use of a ghost writer , writing the book himself while on the road . He wrote the entire book in longhand ( over 760 pages ; he claimed his typewriter broke ) . Foley , Mick . Have A Nice Day : A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks . A ghostwriter was originally intended – Lou Sahadi , the father of WWF Creative Director of On - air Promotions David Sahadi , but Foley was not satisfied with his work . The book started a trend that saw several wrestlers including Edge ( who also wrote his without the aid of a ghostwriter ) , Shawn Michaels , The Rock , Stone Cold Steve Austin , Hulk Hogan , Lita , Dusty Rhodes , Ric Flair , and Chris Jericho writing their biographies . In the book , Foley is critical of Ric Flair ' s booking abilities . In response , Flair wrote negative remarks about Foley in his own autobiography . The real life tension between the two was later translated into a worked feud . Content . The book begins with a quick account of his WCW match with Big Van Vader on March 17 , 1994 , which cost him his right ear . It then goes back to 1983 , when Foley was eighteen . From there it details his early life in college and the filming of his notorious short film " The Loved One , " as well as a piece called " The Legend of Frank Foley " ( Frank because a beautiful girl he had gotten a date with could not remember his real name ) in which for the first time he introduced a character called " Dude Love " . According to Foley , at the time the Dude was his vision of what he thought a man should be . " The Loved One " was enough to impress wrestler Dominic DeNucci , who would then train Foley to wrestle . From there , the book goes on to chronologically detail Foley ' s escapades as " Cactus Jack " on the independent wrestling circuit , as well as his very first match in what was then called the World Wrestling Federation . It then continues to recount his years in World Championship Wrestling , as well as those that he spent in both Japan and Extreme Championship Wrestling . It then goes on to describe his re - entry into the WWF , the creation of his new persona " Mankind " , and the reappearance of Dude Love in the WWF . The book details his experience in the " Hell in a Cell " match with The Undertaker that he had at King of the Ring 1998 which truly made him famous as Mankind . Finally , from there , it tells the story of the introduction of his sock puppet " Mr . Socko , " and ends with his eventual WWF Championship win over The Rock . Foley also breaks chronological history at a point during the book , writing about Owen Hart ' s death on the night it happened , rather than editing the news into a previous chapter to fit in with chronology .