Here is an article I somehow neglected to post from March on Floyd Mayweather, Jr. doing WrestleMania: Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in WWE Floyd Mayweather, Jr is being counted on by WWE to be the top draw for WrestleMania XXIV. The amount Mayweather is being paid to do that is up for debate. Dave has a great feature on it in the March 3, 2008 newsletter. The $20 million number is out there, and has drawn attention to this match. Whatever the actual number is, it is what it is and will not be the focus of this article. At this point WWE's job is to maximize Mayweather's value, and that requires altering the way his feud with Big Show is being booked. To begin with, Mayweather is a natural heel and his appearances in WWE so far have solidified that. Many people on this website and others have discussed in part why he has been perceived as a heel, so I am going to avoid most of that discussion. For WWE to dismiss the heel heat Mayweather has received from the crowds so far to the events happening in strongly pro-Oscar de la Hoya areas or crowds full of boxing fans is foolish. WWE could spend all of their television time in an uphill and likely futile attempt to reverse the perception of Mayweather as an arrogant heel or they could simply go with it. The latter option has been proven to draw record money, making that the logical choice. The first part of making this angle work better is for Big Show needs to sharpen the attack of his promos on Mayweather. Big Show is attacking Mayweather in his promos by pointing out the obvious size difference between the two, but that is not enough. Show needs to make fun of the idea of Mayweather as a "fighter". Most boxing fans believe Mayweather wins by trying to avoid engaging and instead employing a hit and run offense. Show needs to tell that story to the wrestling fans. Describe Mayweather as a pure "boxer" and somewhat of a coward in the ring. Show can cut his promos and then taunt Mayweather by telling him to look what boxing experts think of him. Big Show would then point to the Titantron, where WWE can then air video packages similar to the HBO pieces with boxing experts talking about how Mayweather does not like to be hit and mocking the idea of him as a "fighter". Larry Merchant would likely jump at the chance to tell this story to a WWE audience. Max Kellerman and Brian Kenny should be very available for this type of interview, as well. The boxing journalists can then tell the story of how a hit and run boxer in Mayweather will not be able to do that in a wrestling match against a man that stands over 7' tall and weighs roughly 399 pounds. They would love to tell the story about how Mayweather would be hurt facing this giant of a man. A key here is that the interviews with the boxing journalists be done right. The soundbites from the boxing experts needs to be done in a serious documentary style, not in the random pulling someone off the red carpet way WWE does many of their celebrity interviews. WWE may need to pay the journalists to all wear suits, appear in professional settings and be serious even though they are speaking to a WWE audience, that the journalists largely do not respect. To make sure these interviews are done properly, they must not be conducted by Todd Grisham or Mike Adamle. An uninformed interviewer from WWE will create a sense of resentment in the boxing experts and lead to worthless soundbites. Next, Big Show needs to talk about his credentials of destroying legitimate world champion athletes in professional wrestling matches. Here WWE can use its vast film library to even some scores and not waste time with Big Show crushing jobbers in useless comedy matches. Big Show can begin by listing off the list of NCAA All-American and Champion wrestlers he has defeated. He can start with Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. They are two highly decorated amateur wrestlers, and Big Show holds numerous wins over both of them. Big Show probably holds a win over them in a handicap match when they were The World's Greatest Tag Team, too. Then Big Show talks about defeating Brock Lesnar and ending Lesnar's streak of wins. Big Show was the first wrestler to cleanly defeat Lesnar in WWE, and when it happened Big Show ended Lesnar's first reign as WWE Champion. Big Show would then tell the story of how he sent Lesnar packing to UFC. Big Show would then talk about how he has defeated much better fighters in the past then Mayweather, when he beat UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock in WWE. Here Shamrock can be built up as a great shoot fighter and bring up all the misconceptions about what MMA was back in the day. The story will be told of how Shamrock was "The World's Most Dangerous Man" and going through people winning UFC championships when there were no rules. The story would continue with all the usual fallacies of UFC in the early days, that headbutts, hair pulling and shots to the groin were legal, and every match had to end via knockout or submission. In that world Ken Shamrock was the best "fighter" out there. Then Shamrock came and tried pro wrestling. After years of dominating (and a video package could be shown here of Shamrock beating whoever else WWE currently wants to bury) Shamrock faced Big Show and was defeated. Big Show beat Shamrock back into MMA, as a shell of his former self. Finally, the fun one for WWE. Big Show will talk about Mayweather having only won a silver medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, but Big Show has beaten 1996 Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle repeatedly. As ECW Champion Big Show chased Angle off ECW, out of WWE, and into obscurity. How much of this whole story is true does not matter. This is wrestling and making up your own narrative is part of the game. Now for Mayweather's part. First is turning him heel. This can simply be accomplished by the camera catching a backstage conversation or series of backstage conversations between he and Rey Mysterio on the next Raw. Mayweather would constantly suggest outrageous and/or expensive things for he Mysterio to do after the show. Mysterio would continue to turn down the ideas. Mysterio can site the outrageous costs or the fact that he has a wife and kids. Mysterio can then point out that Mayweather has kids and should not be doing that stuff. At that point Mayweather will get fed up and decide to leave Mysterio. Mayweather would then say that he does not know why he was ever a Mysterio in the first place. This would be the point to insert some sort of easy insult towards de la Hoya. For Mayweather's heel persona to be fully realized, the next step I suggest is creating a sort of hybrid of JBL and Raven's Flock. Mayweather should keep his posse, and potentially grow it. HBO told the story that the posse is a group of friends Mayweather charitably has rescued from financial ruin. The posse needs to be transformed into a group of friends into followers that have no choice, but to do anything Mayweather tells them to do. HBO showed that whenever Mayweather felt like running and training at 3 AM or whenever, the posse all got up to run with Mayweather to keep him company or do anything else he needed. The story needs to be told, with a spin that in exchange for Mayweather's charity and to stay off the streets these men are obligated to do anything he wants them to do. It can be sold to Mayweather as a Mafioso type deal to help him go along with it. Now for the JBL part of the hybrid. Mayweather needs to wear as much expensive jewelry as possible when he shows up on television and is not going to do anything physical. At No Way Out it took 10 seconds and a camera cutaway for Mayweather to take off the several hundred thousand dollars worth of diamond jewelry he was wearing, before he could jump the rail. When Mayweather is announced to the crowd his self given moniker of "Money" needs to be emphasized, to set him off from the average fan. Mayweather needs to be made as removed from the average WWE fan as possible. WWE needs to play the tape of Mayweather throwing $100 bills at the camera for a photo shoot. WWE needs to talk about how Mayweather does not carry an American Express Black Card. Mayweather's idea of a credit card is the rolls of $100 bills he carries with him at all times that will take care of all of his and his associates expenses. Mayweather has nightly bets at the Vegas sports books. Frequently, Mayweather will have $35,000 in play at the sports books in one night. They need to show the pictures of Mayweather using a Segway, which retails for $6,175, to chase his kids around the house. Mayweather while having less money, lives a life of greater extravagance and excess then Vince McMahon. That point needs to be made and emphasized. The next part is that Mayweather needs to show he can physically handle Big Show, again. Beating up Big Show on his knees at No Way Out was a good start, but only a start. Mayweather needs to be shown practicing wrestling, so people at least believe there will be a match. Then Mayweather needs to begin to prove his true "fighting" credentials that will stand up outside of the controlled boxing ring. This is where WWE needs to tell the story of Mayweather's tough time growing up in Michigan. WWE needs to talk about all the people in Mayweather's life who have gone to jail including his father, Floyd Mayweather, Sr. and his uncle and current trainer, Roger Mayweather. Then WWE needs to tell the story about a Floyd Mayweather, Jr. that is potentially dangerous outside of the boxing ring. He has 3 (or so depending on how you count) convictions for some form of assault. There have been numerous other arrests or allegations of assault against Mayweather that have not resulted in convictions. WWE needs to paint the picture of a truly dangerous Mayweather with a group of followers that will do anything to defeat Big Show. Then WWE needs to have Mayweather use all of the usual heel gimmicks to further give himself the advantage against a physically superior opponent. Mayweather should do run ins from the crowd to interfere during Big Show matches. These should be limited to hit and run spots designed to highlight Mayweather and potentially weaken Big Show for Mania. It would also, reinforce the idea of Mayweather being a coward and not wanting to actually have an even fight with Big Show. A good idea for a run in would be to send the entire posse to the ring from multiple angles to distract Big Show, Mayweather would then catch Big Show unaware with a drop kick. Mayweather is a phenomenal athlete and showed great leaping ability entering the ring at No Way Out. He should be able to do this move and Mayweather may throw a punch to follow up the dropkick, before running up the ramp untouched. Big Show would then come looking for Mayweather in the back only to be ambushed by Mayweather and the posse. This would work best on SmackDown! where any mistakes could be edited. The next week Mayweather could hire someone or a group of someones to go after Big Show. This might be an opportunity to use JBL. JBL has enough money, but would be attacking Big Show in exchange for a ringside seat to the de la Hoya match in September. I am sure JBL would like a ringside seat for that match, and it would make sense with his character. JBL has had a gimmick of hating Mexicans, and if Mayweather splits from Mysterio, who originally retired JBL, it can set up some long term storytelling. JBL would follow his work with an anti-de la Hoya and anti-Mysterio promo and sew the seeds for potential angles around September and Mysterio's return. It also works well into JBL's current storyline of hurting people for fun. Furthermore, if absolutely necessary JBL can act as a proxy for Mayweather to attack or lead an attack on Big Show at one additional show. After the attack, JBL would get on the mic at the top of the ramp or in the back and deliver one line smiling, "I needed a ticket for my wife." He would then get in his limo, and leave. Mayweather could pay wrestlers to go after Big Show a few other times, because he is "Money" Mayweather. The Las Vegas resident would come in at the end of those beatings to lay in some kicks to Big Show to prove he (Mayweather) is to be taken seriously, and Big Show's promos have made this angle personal. Mayweather should never be hit in any of these encounter. Big Show can win the matches where Mayweather interferes, depending on the level. However, if there is an attack in the back Big Show must be left hurt in some way, and not allowed to get the upper hand on Mayweather. The idea of the cowardly heel must be reinforced, and that Big Show will not be 100% going into WrestleMania, against an angry fighter willing to do anything to win. Finally, WWE needs to stop have Mayweather attempt to give scripted promos. Every attempt to have Mayweather follow a script on a live promo has not worked to some degree. However, Mayweather gave the best promos of anyone in 2007 and none of them were scripted. Very few of those promos were going to be acceptable to a basic cable censor, though. To get the most out of a Mayweather heel promo, WWE needs to let him be himself. Mayweather has developed a heel character to play for a long time and knows it inside and out. The opponent is interchangeable the heel Mayweather character can cut promos on any of them. For the sake of safety after Mayweather's run ins all of his post attack promo's should be backstage with WWE television authority figures in vignette form, like Shane and Vince McMahon, or William Regal. Mayweather should never do a promo with Grisham or Adamle. The usual backstage WWE interviewers will be unable to adjust to Mayweather on the fly and it will come off looking bad or be unusable. Mayweather can interact with other WWE talent, but it should only be the elite talent, that can improv and stay with him, like a John Cena, Edge or JBL. Following these suggestions might be a way to maximize the value of Mayweather with the remaining television time. However, to enact these changes Mayweather and his management team would have to go along with it and it is unlikely they would be willing to go to these extremes. Even if Mayweather's people fully cooperated with these ideas, WWE may have squandered too much time already with the current angle to maximize Mayweather's effectiveness. News and Notes: On March 4, 2007 my first boxing recap was published on wrestlingobserver.com. After doing this for 1 year, I would like to thank Dave Meltzer for allowing me to keep doing the best job in the world for 1 year. Special thanks to Mike Sempervive for all the help he has been in this past year. He has been an invaluable resource to me and people should look for big things out of him in the future. A very special thanks to Kyle Warneck, who has been primarily responsible for my improvement as a writer. The next recap will be out Sunday of the HBO event on Saturday. The recap from Saturday's Showtime event will be out on Monday. Sincerely,
Jereme Warneck
Boxing and Video Game Correspondent for wrestlingobserver.com and f4wonline.com
Hidden Valley Lake, CA
I can be reached for feedback and comments at ZurRoadie@aol.com or as JeremeW on XBOX Live. I read everything. | 
