How Steve Austin Shoving Mike Tyson On WWE Raw Changed Plans
A WWE RAW episode from January 1998, featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin, became the reason why Mike Tyson went on to appear at WrestleMania 14.
The Texas Rattlesnake was positioned as the superstar who was completely anti-authority. He was the best person to disrupt Vince McMahon’s plans of having Mike Tyson on RAW, especially during a time when RAW was at war with WCW.
Mike Tyson was invited as a celebrity guest to align with DX. However, it was interrupted by Stone Cold, who was DX’s rival at the time, and confronted Tyson. He flipped off Tyson, and a brawl erupted with Tyson shoving The Texas Rattlensnake. The security team had to hold them back. However, this incident grabbed headlines.
The shoving incident led to a bigger creative angle with Mike Tyson and Stone Cold Steve Austin
During an episode of Something To Wrestle With, Bruce Prichard spoke about the episode and revealed that after the shoving incident with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mike Tyson, Vince McMahon wanted to do more with the renowned boxer. That led to them pitching the creative angles to Tyson, who immediately agreed.
The Mike Tyson deal changed the night that we were in — where the hell were we after the Royal Rumble? Whatever that California town was where Mike, we had the shoving thing with Steve. We changed the deal that night. Vince came back and said, he goes, ‘We’ve got to sit with him. Do you think he’ll do more? Because if we can get him to do more, oh my god, the things we can do.’ And we laid out a plan in Vince’s office.
We talked to Mike, we talked to his management that night, and when Mike heard he could be more involved and do more things, and just, ‘We do this, and we do another thing, and then we go to WrestleMania. Mike, could you do TVs? Could you do this? This and this and this and this and this and be a part of this promotion all the way through?’ And his manager didn’t make that decision; Mike made that decision. Mike was like, ‘Yes. Whatever we can do, I want to do it all.’ [H/t: 411Mania]
Mike Tyson was a fan of pro-wrestling and had huge respect for the business.
It was supposed to be Steve Austin vs. Mike Tyson at WrestleMania 14, but WWE nixed it. Tyson was the enforcer at the premium live event. He turned on DX and helped Stone Cold Steve Austin win.
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