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Fury came to the ring dressed in a full Arab thawbA batman costume, jazzy shirts and plain old boxing shorts – Fury’s wardrobe has been varied down the years. So what clobber would he bust out for his WWE debut?
Always one to try to ingratiate himself to the locals, Fury emerged in full Arab thobe, including headdress, and stepped out from the curtain to the soothing soul sound of the Isley Brothers’ It’s Your Thing, with pyrotechnics blazing.
Was it subtle? No. Was it very Tyson?
The match
“Forty-five years after the Rumble in the Jungle, we can call this the Showdown in Saudi!” cried commentator Michael Cole as the match started, rather optimistically referencing Muhammad Ali’s win over George Forman in DR Congo in 1974.
This wasn’t a classic of the spandex genre, or any genre come to think of it, but Fury showed off a few tricks he’s learned along the way, pulling off a headlock, a kip-up and even a drop toe hold.
Fury even threw in an Undertaker-style, back-from- the *** dead sit up.
“This is my ring, you piece of trash,” yelled Strowman at one point. Charming.
Fury took a few blows but eventually prevailed by clocking Strowman with a right hand as he was getting back into the ring.
Strowman may have been embarrassingly beaten but was he going to take this lying down? Of course not. This is the predetermined, soap opera world of wrestling where attacking your opponent after the match is almost obligatory. And Strowman let nobody down by planting Fury with his signature move, the running powerslam.
But Fury’s commitment to consistency in his character can’t be questioned as, almost a year since he inexplicably got up from a knockdown against Deontay Wilder, he was at it again, dancing around the ring just a few moments after being thrown to the floor by a man mountain.
After the match he refused to rule out a return to WWE, but said he wants to focus on his rematch with WBC world heavyweight champion Wilder, which is set for 22 February.
“I’ve got a big fella called Deontay Wilder to see to, and then we see where we go from there, “he said.
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