Floyd Mayweather risked a real-life beating from WWE legend The Big Show during his wrestling cameo after breaking the giant’s nose.
Boxing icon Mayweather, who boasts a 50-0 career record from one of the greatest careers of all time, was a special guest at WWE’s biggest annual show in 2008.
He was pitted against Big Show, at the time firmly established as one of the company’s top and most dominant performers, in a no disqualification match in Orlando, Florida.
In order to build the bout, Mayweather made appearances on WWE’s weekly television show Monday Night Raw where he faced off against Show – once with dramatic and bloody circumstances.
The towering performer dropped to his knees during one in-ring segment, later explaining to talkSPORT that he’d instructed Mayweather to break his nose for real in order to make their ‘rivalry’ more dramatic.
That’s a story that’s been echoed by another one of the stars of the day, John Bradshaw Layfield, better known to wrestling fans as JBL and for his work as part of the APA during the Attitude Era before a distinguished career of his own.
Telling the story of the Mayweather-Big Show build up, JBL explained that the boxer gave the wrester clear assurances that he’d ‘take care’ of him before delivering the almighty blow that left the 500-pounder’s nose shattered and his face bloodied.
Show had already warned his on-screen rival that, in the immediate aftermath of the blow, the red mist would descend for real, forcing the boxer to flee. Bradshaw is adamant ‘Money’ would, otherwise, have been in serious trouble.
He commented: “Floyd Mayweather told Big Show, who is a big, tough guy by the way, he’s a true giant. Big Show said: ‘I’m just gonna be on my knees, go ahead and hit me.’
“Floyd Mayweather says: ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of you, I won’t even touch you.’ He broke his nose! He just, ‘wham’ – Floyd Mayweather can throw a punch, [but] if Big Show had caught him, he’d have ate him.
“Big Show was furious. When he’s chasing him around the ring, if he’d have caught him – which he had zero chance of doing – Big Show would’ve ate him.”
Mayweather left the ring and Big Show presumably calmed down – their WrestleMania match went ahead and reached its planned conclusion of a KO win for the former, for which he was reportedly paid a staggering $20 million.
3
3
He didn’t leave everybody in WWE impressed with his short stay, however. WWE Hall of Famer Gerald Briscoe went on to add he was a ‘huge’ fan of the star, but his weekend ended in disappointment after a snub from the fighter.
“I was a huge Money Mayweather fan. I told [producer] Bruce Prichard, and he got a pair of boxing gloves and he asked Mayweather to sign the boxing gloves for me.
“Mayweather refused to sign the damn boxing gloves over Hall of Fame weekend, so that’s my memory of Floyd Mayweather. Not a good one.”
Big Show left WWE in 2021 and later joined rival wrestling organisation AEW.
