Former WBA, WBC and IBF Heavyweight Boxing Champion ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson helped WWE create huge mainstream attention during the Attitude Era, initially after a confrontation with rising mega star ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin that hit the headlines worldwide.
Tyson would go on to become a member of D-Generation X ahead of Shawn Michaels’ WWE Championship defence at WrestleMania 14 against Austin. Ultimately Tyson would reveal his true colours during the bout in which he served as a Special Enforcer, eventually making the three count that saw ‘The Texas Rattlesnake’ lift his first WWE Championship.
In a recent interview, however, one WWE Hall Of Famer has revealed that Tyson would have been involved in WWE matters before that point if Vince McMahon had his way.
Vince McMahon wanted Kevin Nash to box Mike Tyson in New York
Speaking on a recent edition of his podcast Kliq This, former WWE Champion Kevin Nash made the sensational revelation that Vince McMahon was keen for him to box fellow WWE Hall Of Famer Tyson in a charity bout to be held in New York’s Central Park:
“He (Vince McMahon) had told me that I wasn’t going to lose the championship for years. No matter what, I wasn’t going to lose the championship for years. Then he starts telling me about this idea he had where I’m going to box Mike Tyson in Central Park and it’s for charity.
He’s going on and on about this. I said to him, ‘Mike Tyson will knock me the f**k out. He could conceivably kill me.’ I’m a boxing fan. A big motherfu**er like me, he can put two or three fu**ing shots, he does the fu**ing old hook to the body, hook to the body, uppercut. Goodnight Irene. It’s not going to do me any favors.”
Nash, who competed under the name of Diesel in WWE at the time, would go on to imply that his refusal to take on Tyson may have led to McMahon deciding to relinquish him of the WWE Championship:
“I said, ‘I’m not fu**ing fighting him for less than five million dollars. We go back and forth. Then he clears his throat and says, ‘By the way, you’re going to drop the belt to Bret at Survivor Series.’
I said, ‘You fu**ing sat here for 45 minutes and told me this fu**ing horses*t about boxing Mike Tyson to fu**ing tell me that you want me to drop the fu**ing strap to Bret. Motherfu**er, you could have done that on a goddam telephone.’ Like, I don’t care. You can have it. Are you kidding me?”
Hart did indeed go on to defeat Nash for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series, with the 7 foot tall Superstar leaving the WWE to join WCW when his contract expired in the summer of 1996.
H/t to WrestlingNews.co for the above transcription.