Floyd Mayweather is an unlikeable Rocky, Big Show is a fat Thunderlips

If you didn't see, unbeaten welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather signed a contract with the WWE for a "match" against The Big Show at Wrestlemania. The cost to get the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world to be a part of the biggest wrestling PPV of the year? A cool $20 million.

You really can't blame Mayweather - he's pretty much made for this sort of activity, and it's a ton of free publicity for his upcoming rematch against Oscar De La Hoya. And by "free" I mean "getting paid $20 million." It's a better version of "free" than getting a "free" Rhapsody download with an upsize combo at Wendy's.

Of course, when you think boxing and wrestling coming together, there's one thing that comes to mind: Rocky Balboa vs. Thunderlips in Rocky III. Certainly Hulk Hogan's best cinematic work, with Santa with Muscles coming in a close second:



I don't know about you, but when I'm feeling sick, nothing picks me up more than a Leroy Neiman sighting...

Now, this isn't the first time that real life boxers have mixed it up with "fake" wrestlers in forms of cross-promotion. Even The Greatest "lowered" himself to taking on wrestlers, not once but twice. The first was against the legendary Gorilla Monsoon, where he got involved in a match after watching at ringside. Needless to say, Ali does not fare well against the big bruiser:



This was all part of the build-up to Ali's match against Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki. Was it worked (i.e. fake) or shoot (real)? If it was worked, then it was made to be terribly, terribly boring. Rules were set and then changed at the last minute that limited Inoki's abilities to grapple or kick. So he basically just took on a crab-like position on his back and kicked a bit for 15 rounds, while Ali refused to get close enough to land a punch. Theater at its most absurd:



Part of the undercard to the fight was Andre the Giant vs. "The Bayonne Bleeder" Chuck Wepner. While probably more of a work at first, make sure that you watch the second part, when Wepner actually clocks Andre and pisses him off. Bad idea.

Part 1 (also, check out the sweet-assed Harley Davidson a young Vince McMahon is hawking between rounds):


Part 2:


Vince McMahon had wanted Mike Tyson in the 1990s. Bad. And a deal was in place for him to work as Special Guest Referee in match pitting Hulk Hogan versus "Macho King" Randy Savage on NBC's Main Event III in February of 1990. Right after Tyson took care of dispatching a certain tomato can in a fight in Tokyo named James "Buster" Douglas.

History tells us how that turned out. McMahon quickly recovered, and offered Tyson's spot to America's Favorite Underdog, who probably wishes his first title defense was against Randy Savage instead of Evander Holyfield:



And can we please, please get Jesse Ventura back doing WWE matches?

Vince McMahon eventually did get his man, post-jail. It started off great with the first confrontation between Iron Mike and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Although things went south when Tyson, in his first "promo", kept referring to his opponent as Cold Stone, a devastating blow to the wrestler, a lifelong fan of Thrifty's ice cream:



I'm sure there are other examples that I'm blanking on, right? I'm pretty sure I've seen Hector "Macho" Camacho or Jorge Paiz on Lucha Libre while flipping through the Spanish channels.

Posted by The Duke of Everything at 11:22 PM