Boxing icon, Mike Tyson was quite good at earning huge paydays for his fights and appearances during the peak of his career. However, he was not quite good at managing his finances which led to bankruptcy. Thus, he had to grab on to opportunities that would earn him millions. Mike Tyson once revealed that he earned over $3 million for his appearance on WrestleMania XIV back in 1998. Despite earning such a huge sum of money he didn’t receive much of it.
Tyson during his career made over $400 million from boxing and other ventures. Tyson had built such a brand around him that he would easily sell out his fights. Fans across the world would come to watch the fight and sometimes would leave disappointed because of his first-round KOs.
However, due to several reasons, including his rash spending habit, the boxing icon blew away his fortune and found himself in quite a tough spot. Although Tyson was at the end of his career, fans were still longing for the former WBC heavyweight champion across all combat sports events. Tyson and WWE saw this situation as an opportunity and the former heavyweight champion made an appearance in the famed WrestleMania.
Mike Tyson had nothing left of his $3 million WrestleMania payday
Mike Tyson was taken aback by a fan who asked him if he had received $3 million in purse for his appearance on WrestleMania during an interview with GQ Sports back in 2019. After recalling, Tyson agreed that he had earned millions. However, he also revealed that he did not have the majority of the money left for him.
Tyson said, “Could have. I don’t know. Yeah, I did. I think I did. You’re right. I think I was broke at WrestleMania, I needed some money. I think that was a big thing that we made a lot of money. Yeah, he [Tyson] took a lot of money to pay the bills so he didn’t really receive much of it.“
Tyson had several appearances for WWE. Despite being a boxer, he had some successful appearances for wrestling promotions. The fans were positively taking Tyson’s WWE appearances and this had WWE moving for big show with the boxing legend.
Tyson was going to fight Tripple H
Because of the Holyfield ear bite incident, Tyson was unable to compete in boxing for a while. During, this time, the boxing icon decided to venture into the wrestling promotion. During his time in WWE, Tyson had a bone to pick with one of the WWE superstars Shawn Michaels, eventually knocking him out on one instance. Thus, WWE was prepared to make a redemption fight with Michaels’ partner in crime Triple H.
Triple H said, “We were going to do six rounds. I don’t remember if it was going to be full boxing rules, or whether I was wearing gloves, but it ended up being a deal where the whole thing just would have been a ludicrous amount of money, and it got pushed off.“
WWE was squaring off against WCW at the time and Mike Tyson had a major role in the former’s victory in the feud. For sure, Tyson’s stint in the wrestling promotion would have been heavy on Vince McMahon’s pocket, it’s safe to say that the gamble to include him in the WWE had paid off.
