10 Huge Pops WWE Fans Gave To Outsiders

3. Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather and Big Show - No Way Out 2008
WWE.com

For one white-hot moment, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a WWE babyface. It didn’t last long, only for the duration of a quick one-two actually, but ‘Pretty Boy’ garnered a pretty big reaction when his feud with Big Show kicked off in 2008. Sure, it led to Big Show turning heel and then turning face within a week or so, but what’s another turn in the long history of Big Show turns?

Show returned to WWE at No Way Out 2008, making his way to the ring after Edge had defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Rey Mysterio. Show seemed happy to be back before turning his attention to the prone luchador, threatening to chokeslam Rey and taunting the front-row sitting Mayweather as he did. Floyd jumped the ring and the crowd went bonkers, in a way that only a live entertainment audience can.

What was going to happen? Nobody knew. Big Show comically outsized Mayweather, so a fight surely wasn’t going to break out. Show dropped to a knee and began taunting Floyd, but the boxing legend took all of a second to take advantage, hitting Show with a lightning-quick one-two before fleeing the scene. The crowd was molten for it all.

The fleeing certainly hindered any hope of Floyd Mayweather remaining the babyface in this WrestleMania feud, but for one beautiful moment, he was a conquering hero with the crowd on his side.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.