This is a summary of the article written by Dave Meltzer. Originally it is entitled as "Boxers in wrestling a rich tradition"
1.
Muhammad Ali: Ali was the only boxer besides Ma
yw eather to do a high-profile pro wrestling match while still in his prime, when he faced Antonio Inoki on July 25, 1976, at
Budokan Hall in Tokyo in a match broadcast on closed-circuit television throughout the
U.S . The match was supposed to be scripted, with Ali losing. The match, officially called a draw, was a farce, but in Japan it is considered one of the most famous pro wrestling matches ever, as well as the birth of mixed martial arts.
2.
Mike Tyson :
Tyson’s participation in
WrestleMania 14 in Boston in 1998, as a referee for a match where Steve Austin beat Shawn Michaels for the WWF title, may have been the most historically significant appearance by a boxer on a wrestling show on a long-term basis. It was the popularity of Austin that was the key in the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) , at the time behind in a heated wrestling war with rival World Championship Wrestling, that started turning the corner in a battle Vince McMahon’s company won.
3. Primo Carnera:
A
dubious heavyweight champion in 1933-34, long after his boxing career was over and he was left broke, turned to pro wrestling from 1946-63.
4.
Joe Louis :
The former heavyweight champion was used more often as a main event referee, working at many of the biggest arenas in the country into the early ’70s.
5. Jack Dempsey:
On July 1, 1940, in
Atlanta, a 45-year-old
Dempsey , whose boxing career ended a dozen years earlier, destroyed a pro wrestler with no boxing background, Clarence “
Cowboy ” Luttrell, for two rounds under boxing rules in what videotape evidence seems to indicate was not a choreographed match, even though it was part of a pro wrestling show. Dempsey also did boxing matches with famous pro wrestlers
Bill Longson and
Wild Bull Curry on pro wrestling shows, which were likely more along the lines of traditional pro wrestling.
6.
Archie Moore :
Moore’s pro boxing record shows two knockout wins over pro wrestlers on pro wrestling events, a 1956 win over “
Professor” Roy Shire , and a 1963 win over “Iron” Mike DiBiase, the stepfather of ’80s wrestling star
Ted “Million Dollar Man” DiBiase .
7. Joe Frazier:
Frazier refereed a famous
Ric Flair vs.
Dusty Rhodes match on November 22, 1984 in Greensboro, N.C. He stopped the match due to Rhodes’ bleeding, which was done to set up a Rhodes vs. Frazier match, which never materialized. The former heavyweight champion did lose a scripted boxer vs. wrestler match in the
Caribbean to Carlos Colon in 1984, the father of current
World Wrestling Entertainment star
Carlito .
8. “
Jersey” Joe Walcott :
While in his late 40s, long after his boxing career ended,
Walcott participated in what were billed as former world heavyweight champion boxer.
9.
Leon Spinks :
Spinks, while still active but long past his prime as a boxer, wrestled extensively in both the U.S. and Japan, including high-profile matches with Inoki in Japan and Jerry
“The King” Lawler in Memphis during the late ’80s and early ’90s.
10.
Evander Holyfield :
As recently as August 13 in
Madison Square Garden ,
Holyfield did a mock boxing match with
WWE wrestler Matt Hardy in Madison Square Garden, which was taped for airing a few nights later on
NBC.