“Mike Was Looking To Be…..”: Wrestling Legend Recalls the Reason Mike Tyson Refused For a Match in WWE

Vince McMahon has always made sure he gets major celebrities to take part in WrestleMania every year. Similarly, at WrestleMania 14, WWE featured the legendary boxer, Mike Tyson, to be a part of the Grandest Stage.

They brought in Mike Tyson at WrestleMania 14 as the enforcer for the match WWE Championship between Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Shawn Michaels. 

However, many thought why Mike Tyson didn’t have a match in WWE back then. The storyline with Stone Cold was almost ready and their match could have minted major money. Bruce Prichard recently commented on this question on his podcast Something To Wrestle With Bruce Prichard.

Prichard said, “The media sources definitely jumped to conclusions on their own there. However, internally, it was discussed. There were lot of what if scenarios? If you would have Mike Tyson in a wrestler vs boxer match, man that’s gold, that’s the s**t, that’s platinum. That’s something that’s everyone’s dream. You know one-on-one, who’s gonna win, the wrestler or the boxer?”

He added, “To be able to do that and pull that off with someone of the likes of Mike Tyson would have been incredible, believe me. But at this time, Mike wasn’t interested in that. Mike still wanted to pursue a boxing career. Mike was looking to be able to get his name out there, get a good payday, participate and have his name in a positive light.”

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They banned Tyson from boxing for a few years prior to his WWE appearance, as he was a controversial sports person at the time. He wanted to wear his gloves again and win the world championship in boxing.

Why did WWE pay huge money to Mike Tyson for being a match enforcer at WrestleMania 14?

Mike Tyson in 1998 at WrestleMania 14 was an enforcer for the match WWE Championship between Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Shawn Michaels. Vince McMahon was adamant about having Tyson at the grandest stage despite him being a controversial boxer at the time.

They paid Tyson $3 million for his appearances in WWE. In the same podcast, Bruce Prichard talked about why WWE paid this amount to Tyson. He said, “Mike Tyson was an instrument to get eyeballs on the product.”

This was indeed true, as, after the RAW segment between Mike Tyson and Stone Cold Steve Austin, everyone was talking about it. There were also speculations made Tyson will have a match in WWE against Austin but it didn’t happen as he wanted to focus on boxing.

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