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WWE Vs Boxing: From Hulk Hogan to Floyd Mayweather JR

By Geno McGahee

I’m a fan of the old school pro wrestling. I grew up on it. I especially liked the 1980s, both the WWF at the time, even though they “Got the F out” after being sued by another WWF, and the NWA, which was a more sophisticated brand. Being in New England, I didn’t get a chance to watch much of the NWA or the AWA, but the WWF was on all of the time.

Boxing and professional wrestling are connected. They are automatically associated with each other because they both take place in a ring with ropes and they are combat sports, although the wrestling is fake. Well, I believe it is. I once knew a guy that insisted that the majority was fake, but the main events were real. He was an idiot.

Pro wrestling has always been frowned upon and with good reason. The game has never been politically correct, with many wrestlers using some stereotypical gimmick. Being so disrespected, many boxers have lost a lot of respect by stepping into the wrestling ring.

In the 1950s, one of the greatest boxers of all time, Joe Louis, became a professional wrestler to pay his bills. It was disgusting. In Rod Serling’s REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, a heavyweight boxer retires but is forced into pro wrestling to turn a buck and save his manager’s life. His one time trainer cries as he watches on and his fighter does a rain dance around the ring with a Native American head dress on his head. This is how wrestling was and strands of it remained and still do remain.

In 1976, a near fight happened between 400 pound wrestler, Gorilla Monsoon and Muhammad Ali, where the giant took the self proclaimed “Greatest” and put him into an airplane spin. A most likely staged event, leading to Ali vs. Antonio Inoki, a dreadful fight where Inoki remained on his back the entire time and kicked Ali’s legs. Initially, the bout was supposed to be a scripted match with Ali winning, but Inoki made it a fight and it ended up being a big mess, but a good payday for Ali.

In 1985, Wrestlemania was created by the then, WWF. It would feature some decent matches, but I didn’t enjoy how King Kong Bundy jumped the underrated SD “Special Delivery” Jones. He never got the chance to unleash his “Special Delivery.” Bundy caught him with that avalanche and it was over in just 23 seconds. Bundy was the fat, white, bald Mike Tyson of his time.

Muhammad Ali was brought back as a special guest referee, which was the equivalent of his guest appearances at the Don King boxing cards in the 1980s. People always wanted to see Ali because of what he meant to so many people and just having him there would sell tickets.

Lou Duva, Hall of Fame Trainer, was brought in for Wrestlemania II to train Roddy Piper for a bout with Mr. T, who would have former Champion, Joe Frazier, in his corner. Pro wrestling can be choreographed very well and can look convincing at times, but the Piper-T match was ridiculously bad and did no favors for either boxing or wrestling.

The event was saved by a spirited effort on the part of King Kong Bundy to defeat Hulk Hogan for the title. He deserved the shot after his win over SD Jones the year before, but came up short. They put a fat guy into a cage and ask him to climb over it? He had no chance.

On Saturday Night’s Main Event, James “Buster” Douglas, the new Heavyweight Champion, would step in for a beaten Mike Tyson, to referee the match between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. Douglas noted before the fight that he needed to step in because Tyson backed out and was making boxing look bad. The horribly written script in the pre-fight interview was spoken awkwardly by Douglas, but at least he was having fun. He would end up climbing in the ring and knocking out Randy Savage after the “Macho Man” challenged him to a fight.

In 1998, the boxers began to be used a little wiser. When the WCW was competing in a ratings war with the WWE, Vince McMahon relied on his Wrestlemania XIV to help him rebound. He brought in Kane facing his older brother, the Undertaker, as an attraction, but the main event was Shawn Michaels with Mike Tyson in his corner against “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Mike Tyson was the sale and he sure did bring in the sales.

Tyson was a natural in the unusual world of pro wrestling. He enjoyed it, made a lot of money off of it, and liked the idea of being involved with something that had very little pressure. He appeared on a few Monday Night RAW episodes and brought the ratings up and the Wrestlemania he was featured in was, arguably, the event that turned around the WWE/WCW War.

The very next year, we had an oddity. At Wrestlemania XV in 1999, we had an actual boxing match between a boxer, Butterbean, and a wrestler in Bart Gunn. Gunn usually sported a mustache and looked like he walked right out of a Village People music video, while Butterbean was a boxing novelty, fighting no-hopers in four round events and making boatloads of money in the process.

Vinny Paz was brought in to referee the match or “The Brawl for it All,” which began as a tournament mixing boxing and wrestling. Gunn won the tourney and was now facing the prize, but after 34 seconds, Gunn was knocked cold. Butterbean easily won over a guy that had absolutely no idea what he was doing.

The Wrestling/Boxing connection was quiet until 2008, when Floyd Mayweather, JR., entered the WWE in a feud with “The Big Show” a seven foot, 400 pound wrestler. Somehow, the 140 pound boxer was able to defeat the Big Show at Wrestlemania XXIV, and once again proved that the combination of wrestling and boxing is a good sale. The PPV buy rate for that event was very good and it brought Floyd to another audience. He would return to RAW several times afterwards.

Pro wrestling, especially the WWE has been a friend to boxing and vice versa, promoting each other for quite a while. Of course, the Joe Louis wrestling days were rather disgusting and so too were the in ring exploits of the Scott Ledoux in the AWA, but for the most part, it’s been all for fun and introducing a new audience to the sweet science.

On a quick side note, if you want to see the most terrible thing ever recorded look up “Wrestle Rock Rumble” on Youtube and you can watch Scott Ledoux rap about his upcoming bout with Larry Zbyszko. There are some things that are so bad that they’re good. This is not one of them.

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