12 Times American Football Crossed Over Into Wrestling

In the WWF’s worst year financially, Vince McMahon reached out to NFL legend Lawrence Taylor to not only wrestle on the card, but main-event it.

Beginning at the 1995 Royal Rumble, the WWF started this crossover angle by having Bam Bam Bigelow shove LT, who was seated in the front row, following an upset loss. Vince McMahon played up the altercation as legitimate, apologizing to the future American football Hall of Famer on the air and solemnly announcing the suspension of “Scott ‘Bam Bam’ Bigelow” the following night for his unprofessional conduct.

LT reluctantly accepted Bigelow’s challenge to a match, setting up a contest that, despite pitting a non-wrestler versus a career-long mid-carder, overshadowed that year’s WWF title match between Diesel and Shawn Michaels, especially in terms of mainstream media coverage.

To counteract the expected interference of the Million Dollar Corporation (the ineffectual faction led by Bigelow’s manager Ted DiBiase), LT recruited his fellow NFL buddies (including future WCW US Champion Steve McMichael) to surround the ring.

With McMahon insisting that the match was a battle for supremacy not between the NFL and the WWF, but between LT and the Million Dollar Corporation, LT used forearm smashes almost exclusively to defeat an actual pro wrestler, sending Bigelow away with a big payday but destroying his credibility.

Would you believe that the NFL did not return the favor by letting a team of WWF superstars beat the AFC all-stars at the following year’s Pro Bowl?