Shays says he can take a punch, but from Iron Mike?

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WWE (formerly World Wrestling Entertainment) is inducting Iron Mike Tyson in its 2012 Hall of Fame class, an honor that will be bestowed upon the former heavyweight boxing champ-turned-Hangover star during WrestleMania XXVIII in Miami at the end of March.

The Stamford-based wrestling conglomerate ballyhooed Tyson’s selection today on its website.

No word yet on whether two-time Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Linda McMahon, the company’s former chief executive officer and wife of WWE impresario Vince McMahon, plans to take take off from the campaign trail to attend what is the Super Bowl of wrestling.

Perhaps the more burning question is whether former Congressman Christopher Shays, McMahon’s chief competitor for the GOP Senate nomination, will try to make political hay out of Tyson’s association with the WWE.

In an interview with Hearst Connecticut Newspapers earlier this month, Shays had this to say about his looming primary tete-a-tete with McMahon, the GOP’s 2010 nominee for U.S. Senate in a race won by Democrat Richard Blumenthal.

“I’m going to be taking some punches but all it will do is toughen me up for winning the general election,” Shays said.

Will Shays now be channeling his inner Zach Galifianakis?

Neil Vigdor