During a recent episode of the “Kliq This” podcast, Kevin Nash reminisced about his time in WWE and revealed that he was initially supposed to hold the WWE Championship for several years. However, plans changed, and he was told that he would be dropping the title to Bret Hart at Survivor Series 1995.
Nash shared details about the conversation he had with Vince McMahon regarding the title change, which was quite an interesting one. McMahon had initially approached Nash with an idea for him to box Mike Tyson in Central Park for charity. Despite McMahon’s enthusiasm for the concept, Nash was skeptical and expressed his concerns about getting knocked out by Tyson, who he believed could kill him with just a few punches.
After a back-and-forth discussion, McMahon eventually cleared his throat and told Nash that he would be dropping the championship to Bret at Survivor Series. Nash was taken aback by this sudden announcement and expressed his frustration with McMahon’s previous elaborate story about the charity boxing match with Tyson, which he felt was unnecessary.
“He (Vince McMahon) had told me that I wasn’t going to lose the championship for years. No matter what, I wasn’t going to lose the championship for years. Then he starts telling me about this idea he had where I’m going to box Mike Tyson in Central Park and it’s for charity. He’s going on and on about this. I said to him, ‘Mike Tyson will knock me the f**k out. He could conceivably kill me.’ I’m a boxing fan. A big motherfu**er like me, he can put two or three fu**ing shots, he does the fu**ing old hook to the body, hook to the body, uppercut. Goodnight Irene. It’s not going to do me any favors.”
Nash continued, “I said, ‘I’m not fu**ing fighting him for less than five million dollars. We go back and forth. Then he clears his throat and says, ‘By the way, you’re going to drop the belt to Bret at Survivor Series.’ I said, ‘You fu**ing sat here for 45 minutes and told me this fu**ing horses*t about boxing Mike Tyson to fu**ing tell me that you want me to drop the fu**ing strap to Bret. Motherfu**er, you could have done that on a goddam telephone.’ Like, I don’t care. You can have it. Are you kidding me?”
In the end, Nash was fine with dropping the title and felt that McMahon could have just informed him of the change over the phone, as opposed to wasting 45 minutes discussing the charity boxing match idea. The revelation from Nash sheds light on the inner workings of WWE’s creative process and how plans can change at a moment’s notice, even after being promised years-long championship reigns.
