Mike Tyson in 98 or Floyd Mayweather in 08 better in WWE?

[The Rick Jericho]

So which boxing icon and big time player did you enjoy better in their big Wrestlemania build?

1998's DX build up with Austin towards Wrestlemania 14?

2008's build up with Big Show towards Wrestlemania 24?

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Tyson.

Tyson was absolutely one of the biggest names on the planet when he was there. He was on the downside of that fame, but Mayweather while super famous himself, wasn’t a cross media star like Tyson.

[theghostofalwilson]

The Floyd/Big Show match was actually shockingly good, but the build-up was a mess so I'll go with Tyson.

[Renslayer]

Tyson helped take the federation to the stratosphere along with Steve austin. He wins

[A Platypus Rave]

Tyson was a huge star, You didn't need to know boxing to know who Mike Tyson was.

[The Rick Jericho]

I wonder how different and this card would've been historically if Tyson actually worked a match against someone.

It totally would've overshadowed Austin's place on the card for the WWF title, unless it was Austin vs. Tyson for the WWF title. Geez, WWE would STILL be talking about that today if that happened in 1998.

[tirtefaa]

While Mayweather is an icon in his own right, I doubt that 30% of the general public who know who Tyson was, would know who Mayweather is.

[Tiger Millionaire]

Austin getting in the face of Mike Tyson put him into that Hulk Hogan level of wrestler.

[chazraps]

The Mayweather build itself was terrible and the match being as entertaining as it was overcame it, making it a tremendous feat.

Tyson was entertaining from his first appearance through Mania.

[KingPooper]

Yeah I had no idea who Mayweather was (see also Tyson Fury.) I really don’t remember the build to the Mayweather match at all, there’s only so much you can do when something is introduced as “Rey Mysterio’s friend”

Tyson was a household name, and even though wrestling is fake, nobody knew how Tyson would handle it. Seriously the pull apart between Tyson and Austin is one best worked shoot segments in wrestling history.

[Mozenrath]

Floyd Mayweather was a very famous boxer.

Mike Tyson is, and especially in this time period was, a very famous person without any necessary qualifier.

It's sort of like asking if Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jason Statham was the bigger deal. One's got a lot to hold their head up high about, but they're not an ascended icon.

As for their use themselves, I voted Tyson. They were smart about how they used him. Floyd was probably overexposed in the build in a way that revealed too much about how Floyd is an extremely unlikable person.

[Billie Gein]

I'd go with Tyson just because the build was so good. Tyson obviously took 'Cold Stone' to another level, and all the TV between them was white hot, it all felt like a huge deal and paid off well at the end. Whereas with Floyd, he didn't really 'make' anybody by being there and the build was meh with some of those promos, but he did throw himself into the match with Show and it was a really entertaining spectacle that made it worth the investment IMO. I still remember that one guy in Floyd's entourage freaking out outside the ring and yelling 'HE CAN'T BE DOING THAT' to the ref when Show was stomping Floyd, that was too funny.

[Zombie Mod]

Tyson, the build up had two planned turns for him (heel turn to DX's side, face turn to Austin's side.) with him doing little for the build up.

for Mayweather they got the booking of the build up wrong as they had Big Show as the heel defending wrestling, while Mayweather as the face (who once they swapped him to heel, made a great unlikeable heel.) was crapping on wrestling. wwe at this point started to take on tna/impact's dumbass booking style of missing the obvious easy alignments.

[The Ichi]

Floyd was originally going to be the babyface against Big Show, but came off as so incredibly unlikeable that WWE, in pretty much their peak "IT'S THE CHILDREN WHO ARE WRONG" period, had to re-adjust.

[salz4life]

No disrespect to Floyd.... but Tyson, easily!

[Sephiroth]

It’s kind of a bizarro land situation:
Tyson, who was never all that well spoken as a boxer, at least seemed to be enjoying himself and genuinely thrilled to be a part of the action. He was already “retired” from the ring for the first time but still had relevance that helped lift WWE to new heights.

Floyd, who was charismatic as a boxer, came across as totally uninterested and was just phoning it in. He was still an active fighter but his sheer lack of enthusiasm and not really fling any promotions skylights for it made the whole thing fall flat.

[thecrusherwi]

As others have said, Tyson's star power was pretty incomparable. It's not an exaggeration to say Mike Tyson was probably one of the 50 most famous people in the world at the time. In terms of celebrity, he was closer to Donald Trump than he was to Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather was the best boxer in an era where boxing was fading in popularity in the mainstream.

Plus Tyson's involvement was to enhance the wrestlers involved and allowed for more intrigue. While it was interesting to see Floyd in the ring, there was no way he was going to lose, especially working against the Big Show. Floyd was a bit of sideshow novelty. Tyson was an add on to one of the biggest and most important main events of all time.

["Evil Brood" Jackson Vanik]

Floyd was a better performer but Tyson meant more than almost any other celebrity in modern wrestling history.