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| Ah, what could've been Photo Credit: Sports Encounter |
The rumored Shaq/Big Show match for WrestleMania seems like it's going to happen (Big Show back injury suffered at Smackdown tapings notwithstanding). I'm a huge proponent of this, given how natural a fit Shaq felt back when he was hosting RAW and a match was first teased. Unlike some folks, I don't mind if celebs come in for extended stints, especially if they respect the business. If Shaq decided he wanted to go on one long run in WWE after enough training, I wouldn't mind it at all.
That got me thinking about the one celebrity that I thought was a great fit for the then-WWF when he had his cup of coffee there. Mike Tyson was in between stints as a boxer after ripping Evander Holyfield's ear clean off his skull via his teeth. I was always a bit biased, because Tyson, along with Mike Schmidt, was the first guy who was my favorite athlete. Still, there was always an unnatural charisma with the Baddest Man on the Planet. He always straddled the line between edgy and crazy, but he did so with a childlike innocence that made him more unique than most any wrestling character out there. The best analogue might have been Mankind, but at the same time, Foley's execution of his gimmick was more deranged, while Tyson's was more skittish.
After prison, it was clear Tyson had lost a step in the boxing ring. He never realized that for himself, so after his dalliance with the WWF, he tried pursuing his boxing career. That was his passion, but in terms of being a success, would he have been better off training for a year and going into pro wrestling full time? Most of wrestling is having a character, and Tyson spent years in the public eye being himself, and luckily for him, "himself" was a perfect pro wrestling character. Imagine him coming back around 1999, with the arrivals of guys like Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle and He Who Shall Not Be Named in addition to guys like The Rock, Austin, Triple H and Big Show all in their primes. Things might've been different, but they also might have been more interesting to say the least. Personally, Rocky/Tyson sounds like it would've been one of the most memorable programs of that era.
Ah, what could've been though. I'm not sure how feasible it could have been anyway, given that Tyson might have been more expensive than what the WWF would have wanted to spend at the time. It might not have been probable, but hey, it's fun to think in what-ifs. There's no doubt that Mike Tyson might have been a fun full-time employee for WWF, just like I feel like however unlikely Shaq could be a great full-timer for WWE today. Then again, one match is better than nothing, and if it makes me a bad person to be looking forward to Show/Shaq at WrestleMania? Then write me a ticket to hell, because I'm jazzed to see this.
