“Mike Tyson Extremely Controversial”: Vince McMahon Was Unbothered By Boxing Legend’s 1997 Ban for a Special Reason

WrestleMania 14 marks an important Premium Live Event in the history of WWE. This event saw Stone Cold Steve Austin win his first WWE Title, the last match of Shawn Michaels, and also Mike Tyson, who was brought in by Vince McMahon as a major attraction for WrestleMania 14.

This particular WrestleMania was can be said as the one which set the bar high for WWE as they went a notch up to defeat the rivalry with WCW in the coming months. 

However, getting Mike Tyson on the show at that time was considered risky, as he was in a bit of controversy back then.

Bruce Prichard shared why Vince McMahon wanted Mike Tyson at WrestleMania 14

Vince McMahon had made a tradition of having celebrities at WrestleMania. It was to get the event major promotion and a huge audience by keeping the celebrity as one of the main attractions. 

WrestleMania 14 saw boxer Mike Tyson as a celebrity and was in a feud with Stone Cold Steve Austin. Bruce Prichard, recently on his podcast, Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, revealed why Mr. McMahon was adamant about signing The Iron Mike for the grandest stage.

Prichard said, “This was all Vince McMahon, looking at attractions and looking at what will be the next big thing. Steve Austin was on the horizon. Steve Austin was going to be the guy. Vince was looking at a way for Steve to get him more eyeballs on Stone Cold Steve Austin and using who from the outside world can we utilize to get more eyeballs on our product.”

He added, “Mike Tyson extremely controversial, we never really shied away from controversy. So to bring Mike Tyson inn back in pay-per-view after he had banned from boxing for the most part, now Mike returns to inside the ring on pay-per-view. That is intriguing.”

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Mike Tyson first appeared on RAW and quickly started a feud with Ston Cold. They announced him as a guest enforcer of the match at WrestleMania 14 for Stone Cold vs Shawn Michaels WWE Title match. Also, he was an unofficial member of D Generation X.

WWE officials were concerned with Tyson appearing on WrestleMania 14

They banned Mike Tyson from boxing sometime prior to his WWE appearance, as he was in a bit of controversy. Bruce Prichard on his podcast also shed light on how some officials in the company hesitated with Tyson appearing at the WrestleMania.

He said, “I think there was a bit of concern and I think there were some people who thought, ‘man are especially the females or the females going to get behind this guy Mike Tyson.’ There was a little bit of concern, but I think we knew what we wanted to do and in the end Mike Tyson would be heralded a babyface and they would accept and get to know him and that kind of like him.”

In the end, Tyson had a great time at WrestleMania. He helped Austin to win the WWE title and also revealed it was a kayfabe plan of ‘The Rattlesnake’ and Tyson to make Michaels lose the title. He was the babyface that evening alongside Austin.

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