Floyd Mayweather‘s achievements in the boxing ring are well-chronicled. 49-0. Wins over nearly all his greatest contemporaries. A dozen or so titles.
But what about his achievements in the wrestling ring? Lost in the discussion over legacy and records is Mayweather’s brief run in the WWE and the fact that he had one of the best “celebrity” matches in the company’s history.
The year is 2007. After defeating Ricky Hatton, Mayweather takes a lengthy hiatus from boxing in an effort to spread his wings across the combat sports world.
In the MMA realm, he works as a personality on BET’s short-lived The Ultimate Fighter lookalike Iron Ring. In pro wrestling, however, he teamed up with WWE for a major feud at WrestleMania 24 opposite the Big Show set up by Mayweather legitimately breaking Show’s nose at No Way Out in February 2008.
With Mayweather still the biggest name in boxing, the match is instantly one of the hottest on the card…but this wasn’t unfamiliar territory for WWE fans. Celebrities showing up and working matches wasn’t new, but for every Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow there was a David Arquette waiting to leave fans shaking their heads.
While there was reason to be bearish about the quality of this match, it shook out to be a solid one, as Big Show (who was a heel at the time) reveled in physically bullying Mayweather, while the boxer used as many dirty tactics as possible to make up for it. The action started slowly, as it seemed as though the two were set to work a standard, low-impact match but things picked up quickly after a member of Mayweather’s entourage tried to interfere.
After Big Show stomped on his hands, Mayweather’s crew tried to help him escape up the ramp, only to be dragged back into the ring. The match went off the rails from there, however, as his bodyguards were laid out one-by-one. Their efforts paid off, however, as they successfully introduced a chair and brass knuckles to the match, which allowed Mayweather to steal a knockout victory.
The match itself wasn’t exactly revolutionary and was noticeably designed to be a low-impact affair for Mayweather. Still, it was well-met by wrestling fans (much to the chagrin of boxing stakeholders at the time, who wanted to see Mayweather competing) and is held among the best celebrity matches in WWE history. Just as importantly, it lives on as a testament to how far the Big Show is willing to go in order to deliver entertaining performances, as this feud with a celebrity ultimately saw his nose smashed and his head walloped with unprotected chair shots.
Odds are that Mayweather’s bout with Conor McGregor this Saturday won’t end with his crew storming the ring and chairs getting thrown around. Though, it wouldn’t be the first time for either of those things.
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