Greetings Scott,
Love the blog yada yada yada. Question for you. I was watching WrestleMania Rewind on the network last night and it featured Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show from WM24. I had kinda fallen out of fandom around this time so it was my first time seeing it. Was quite the entertaining match, as far as a non-wrestler vs. wrestler match can be.
My question is that I noticed among Floyd's "entourage" that night was future Nexus member Michael Tarver. I had to do a double-take upon realizing it was him. At first I thought they would have him there so he could take some kind of "trained wrestler only" bump from Show, but he was only barely involved in the match. A check of Wikipedia indicated that he was barely into FCW at that point. So how did a relatively unknown newcomer like him end up as part of Mayweather's entourage in one of the most promoted matches at the biggest event of the year?
Thanks and keep up the great work on the blog.
Sidenote: That was such a weird buildup to a major match, with Mayweather playing the babyface to start and Vince doing a defensive "This is a classic David and Goliath story, you heathens!" interview when confronted by investors over how silly the whole thing was. And then they suddenly switched it to babyface Big Show and arrogant heel Mayweather, which actually somewhat worked. And then they lied about how much money Mayweather was making for some reason.
Anyway, I wasn't really watching at that point, but I recall hearing about Tarver being a legit bodyguard for guys like Mayweather, so maybe he got his WWE gig as a result of being involved in this one? Worked for Test.
Just makes you wonder how on earth Vince thought he could cast FLOYD MAYWEATHER as a babyface.
ReplyDeleteIt was a classic David v. Goliath story! Weren't you listening to Vince McMahon?!
ReplyDeleteIn Vince's world, every celebrity that is willing to show their face and get involved with his product is automatically a good guy. So obviously we should cheer for the Donald Trumps and Floyd Mayweathers of the world, two guys whose have made a career based on villainous caricatures.
ReplyDeleteExcept Pete Rose for some reason
ReplyDeleteHe probably had no idea who Floyd Mayweather was, outside of "biggest ppv draw ever." Do you think Vince has ever watched a boxing match? Even the one he promoted in 1988 with Sugar Ray Lenoard?
ReplyDeleteAnd Kevin Federline.
ReplyDeletedidnt work out for test, though
ReplyDeleteAt least he got to bang Stacy Keibler for a while.
ReplyDeleteAnd Kelly Kelly
ReplyDeleteHer too?
ReplyDeleteand look where that got him!
ReplyDeleteThe match itself was decent. Mayweather was pretty good at selling for Big Show
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wwe.com/classics/mount-rushmore-2012
ReplyDeleteLOL
I figured they inflated how much they actually paid Mayweather in order to make him that much more hate-able.
ReplyDeleteDo you drop Cena for Rock or drop Undertaker for Rock?
ReplyDeleteOrton went on the air one time and said Kelly got around.
ReplyDeleteIf someone can book a situation where KFed is getting cheered by the crowd, they should be handed the book with no questions for at least a year.
ReplyDeleteHate to "go this route", but they probably just snatched up whatever black unknown wrestlers they could for the role
ReplyDeleteAs for the match itself, still my favorite celebrity vs. Wrestler match. Great entertaining stuff
Yup
ReplyDeleteWhenever I think of Vince trying to sell a really bad idea, I always think of that time on The Simpsons when Homer was an inventor:
ReplyDeleteLisa: Dad, women won't like being shot in the face.
Homer: Women will like what I tell them to like.
I was watching at the time but I have no recollection of the Big Show-Mayweather stuff. It must have been when I took my smoke breaks while I was watching in 2008.
ReplyDeleteIn Vince's world, cutting 50% of your roster (Even NXT now), while paying any star a gazillion dollars to pop a rating one tenth of a point makes sense to him.
ReplyDeleteLets start a discussion about where the money to pay Part Time Brock could have went.
Id say drop taker. But I don't know if id replace him with rock or bruno.
ReplyDeleteHow much did Mayweather make for wrestlemania?
ReplyDeletePaying a Brock that wasn't castrated by SuperCena and His HHHoliness immediately?
ReplyDeleteWWF/E only?
ReplyDeleteVince Sr
Bruno
Hogan
Austin
(space for Vince Jr, once he's retired/dead)
DONE.
Mayweather vs. Big Show was one of the most well-booked celebrity matches ever.
ReplyDeleteVince and Shane went on an investor's call and claimed that he'd be making something like $20 million, which turned out to be a number that he COULD make with incentives if everyone in America ordered the show. The actual number was closer to $1 million, and a lot of people were kind of surprised that they didn't get slapped on the wrist for telling that kind of whopper in the first place.
ReplyDeleteMayweather would have been a great heel cruiserweight had he gone into wrestling instead of boxing.
ReplyDeleteMayweather-Big Show ABSOLUTELY worked, and it stands as probably my favorite celebrity match. The whole deal was far more entertaining than LT-Bam Bam, for my money, because Mayweather is a better character than LT.
ReplyDeleteBrock is worth a thousand JTGs.
ReplyDeleteBruno
ReplyDeleteHogan
Austin
Rock
I believe in you, Dutch!
ReplyDeleteTo a bunch of people who couldn't pop the rating one tenth of a point.
ReplyDeleteBrock is a difference-maker. I'd rather have one Brock than 10 of most guys.
...PAL!!
ReplyDeleteWhich...why? What is the upside to telling your investors you spent $19M you didn't spend? This was 2008; they didn't think they could work a storyline by kayfabing an investors meeting after being public for nearly a decade at this point, did they?
ReplyDeleteThe makeup gun?
ReplyDeleteThat would be it, along with the Everything's Ok Alarm, which MAKES THIS LOUD NOISE WHENEVER EVERYTHING IS OK.
ReplyDelete(stops working)
Although it does break easily...
I always thought they just gave a load of guys one-shot deals to bump around for Big Show and make him look great before Mayweather knocked him out.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember enjoying the K-Fed shit. Was it actually pretty fun or was it so bad I had to laugh?
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Had they just went with Mayweather's true persona from the beginning I think he had one or two good heel promos in him.
ReplyDeleteVince reminds me more of the Krav Kalash salesman. No good ideas, only Krav Kalash.
ReplyDeleteI was in the Citrus Bowl that night, and it was easily the highlight of the card. Had they booked Show to win, that decrepit stadium would have collapsed like the walls of Jericho from the rumble of the pop Big Show would have gotten.
ReplyDeleteJerry Lawler vs Andy Kaufman?
ReplyDeleteNobody ever made a movie about Big Show/Mayweather.
He was a pretty decent heel actually. He looked like he was having fun with it and did a good job.
ReplyDeleteWhat if Test had married into the company? Steph would be a widow, and there would be no clear vision for the future!
ReplyDeleteLawler-Kaufman was more of a feud stretched over an amount of time than a single match.
ReplyDeleteMeltzer said the number was $3 million, I think. He does every year when he recaps WM box office receipts.
ReplyDeleteiknowrite?
ReplyDeletethank goodness there is a cle....
i see what you did there
Battle of the Billionaires II
ReplyDeleteprobably in the so bad category...
ReplyDeleteALTHOUGH--there was this one angle they did, where King Booker kept praising K-Fed as being the most talented rapper he had ever heard, so Cena came out told Booker he had lost his credibility as a black man, and brought back Ron Simmons to say DAMN (who of coarse stuck around). I rarely, if ever, find Cena funny, but that was kinda funny.
Mayweather is such a natural heel I thought that this was actually a pretty good celeb program.
ReplyDeleteIf keeping Lesnar around 5 times a year means we lose some jabronies, I think that's a fair trade.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely way up there on the list. It clicks way better with Show as the hero, despite his size advantage.
ReplyDeleteWas Test actually a bodyguard or was he just a plant?
ReplyDeleteWouldn't you want your investors to think your costs were less than they were?
ReplyDeleteI thought he was just a plant.
ReplyDeleteWhat an original idea. Can someone please post a thread on this?
ReplyDeleteHe must have been, I'm pretty sure he was in the developmental class Edge and Val Venis were in.
ReplyDeleteFunkin' Dojo, I think.
ReplyDeleteFavorite trivia about that feud is that Mayweather wasn't supposed to hit Big Show like he did and when he broke Big Show's nose show got legit mad and when he was chasing him he was shoot chasing him... imagine if he had caught him what would ahve happened...
ReplyDeleteShe was banging Sheldon Souray for a while there. And not even good Sheldon Souray, post-Edmonton Sheldon Souray.
ReplyDeleteK-Fed was awesome, that's why.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was ironic that John Cena was the guy that was going to teach the obnoxious white boy poser a lesson.
ReplyDeleteBut was it a slice of Americana?
ReplyDeleteI think Kelly Kelly was dating him when he died, she was real young at the time, 22 or 23...
ReplyDeleteMayweather would've whooped his ass?
ReplyDeleteI know Big Show is large, but Mayweather is the best boxer alive.
Boxer vs Wrestler still hasn't changed, IMO.
ReplyDeleteI LOVED their match, with Mayweather wearing the mink to the ring and stopping to drink water out of his chalice.
ReplyDeleteI still do not know how they bungled the build. The "Money" persona he used on HBO 24/7 at the time was a better heel act than anything WWE had going.
And it started with him taking a cheap shot at a returning Big Show!!
In terms of WWE misses in recent years, that one is forgotten. Should have been a mainstream, Tyson-like buzz.
I misunderstood Kyle's statement as the booking leading to the match, as opposed to the booking of the match itself.
ReplyDeleteHard to think of an example that better played to the strengths of the celebrity than Show/Mayweather.
Maybe Show/Akebono, but the match itself wasn't very good.
Wrestlemania 31: Floyd Mayweather vs Akebono, to determine once and for all who is the best Big Show dominating celebrity of them all!
ReplyDeleteK-Fed is actually one of my favorite wrestling celebrity appearances ever. The guy played a perfectly detestable unlikeable heel. He was an absolute natural. I actually wanted him to make more appearances.
ReplyDeleteWhen the wrestler has a hold on the boxer, the wrestler will win.
ReplyDeleteWhen the boxer has separation from the wrestler, the boxer will win.
The exception was when Muhammed Ali and Antonio Inoki bored the crowd into submission, and nobody won.
Is the boxer Antonio Tarver who was interviewed in the video package leading up to the Mania match Michael's father? I don't know anything about boxing.
ReplyDeleteHe can't be doin' that!
ReplyDeleteGood job.
ReplyDeleteI could really use the toilet/chair composite as well as the chair that doesn't tip over.
ReplyDeleteI do a lot of sitting.
Mayweather's reach: 72 inches
ReplyDeleteBig Show's reach: 84 inches
I think Mayweather is a fighting machine, but the fist of a 450 pound giant hitting a 160 pound body with an entire foot distance as an advantage is a tough call.
He'd also probably be $270 million poorer, so he made the right call.
ReplyDeleteI was there too and I thought Flair/HBK was the highlight of the card...
ReplyDeleteI would think Antonio would be too young to have a son that age. They might be brothers or cousins, though.
ReplyDeleteNo one should have made a movie about Lawler and Kufman. Man on the Moon sucked.
ReplyDeletePossibly unpopular opinion, but I'd consider WM24 to be a top-four Wrestlemania.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Show could even hit Mayweather.
ReplyDeleteI really don't want to go down the dark road of fantasy booking, but I think Mayweather could've kept dancing around him all fucking day.
ReplyDeleteIt's Bronn vs. Ser Vardis, not Oberyn vs. Gregor.
Floyd Mayweather is my favorite WWE celebrity involvement ever, even more than Tyson. you can't fault Mayweather for going along with the initial plan (because the WWE morons will likely have told him something like "you are going to get crazy cheers for going against that giant!") and once they figured out that him being the douchebag made more sense he heeled it up perfectly for that match.
ReplyDeleteFloyd Mayweather is my favorite WWE celebrity involvement ever, even more than Tyson.
ReplyDeleteI think you can't fault Mayweather for going along with the initial plan (because the WWE morons will likely have told him something like "you are going to get crazy cheers for going against that giant!") and once they figured out that him being the douchebag made more sense he heeled it up so perfectly for that match.
The promoter won.
ReplyDeleteI think Remy Bonjasky settled that question years ago.
ReplyDeletethats true jim ross has confirmed that, goes to show you not everything happens is work!
ReplyDeletecome on you cant be serious big show would have destroyed him in a real fistfight!
ReplyDeletehe wasnt selling show probably hurt him floyd isnt used to taking falls and having a 450 pound guy stand on his chest
ReplyDelete