Kevin Nash Says Vince McMahon Pitched Him a Charity Fight With Mike Tyson

– Kevin Nash spoke with Sports Illustrated for a new interview. Some highlights are below:

On his size helping him get a big push early on in his career: “When I became the world champion, I guarantee you that I had less than 150 matches. I was green, and this was also the period of time where we were being drug tested. The government was really down our throat. You were not allowed to use anything. Period. A guy like me now could probably get away with being on hormone replacement, but back then there was no leeway. As everybody whittled down during the time of the trial, I was still 315 pounds. I was the same size, and that had a lot to do with me getting the push.”

On Vince McMahon’s idea for him to fight Mike Tyson for charity “They brought me up to WWE Headquarters, which was called Titan Tower at the time, and Vince went into this elaborate idea of me fighting Mike Tyson in Central Park. I asked him, ‘How much am I going to get paid?’ Vince said it was for charity, and I said, ‘F—. I ain’t fighting Mike Tyson and getting knocked the f— out for charity.’ Then he told me, ‘By the way, you’re going to drop the strap to Bret at Survivor Series because we’re going to put it on Shawn at WrestleMania.’ It was an incredible smoke-and-mirrors move. So, I asked him, we just went over a bunch of horses— for an hour to distract me? I didn’t care about losing the belt or getting it back. I’m not a mark. If you want to beat me, beat me—as long as I can turn my character back after I get beat.”

On the decision to leave WWF for WCW: “I had a wife who was due. I was living year-to-year on whether I got a payday at ‘Mania. I didn’t know what I was going to make, and I’m driving a used Mercedes. Then, all of a sudden, I’m going to get a minimum of $850,000 from WCW, and it was for 180 days, which was considerably more days off than Vince at over 300. I was coming from a world where I’d sit in the car and watch guys come back from the phone booth after making a collect call home and say, ‘My kid walked today.’ Then we’d drive off to Binghamton, New York or wherever else. I didn’t want that to be my life. If you’re in this business, you’re already on the road way more than you should be. The majority of our time was Waffle Houses and getting lost with no GPS. You had a map.”