Paul Wight knew his WWE career as a wrestler was over the moment Vince McMahon used his first name. In sixteen years, McMahon had never done it once.
“I’ll tell you when I knew I was done with WWE. Vince called me Paul one day during the COVID era. In all the years that I knew Vince McMahon, he never called me Paul. He always called me Show or Big Show. He never called me Paul.”
It happened in a production meeting, in passing, while they were putting something together.
“We were doing something, I think it was maybe during the Randy Orton angle or something like that. They said, well, Paul can do an interview here.”
He understood immediately.
“In my brain, I died a little bit in my soul, because I knew my opportunities to compete in the ring were pretty much done. Vince didn’t see me as a talent anymore.”
“Vince was going to start moving me into ambassador roles and all these things that at the time I didn’t want to be a part of.”
Wight was explicit that there was nothing hostile in it.
“There was nothing mean or malicious about it. I could have rolled into that nice role at the time. I wasn’t ready to give up competing, and that’s where I went to Tony Khan.”
He signed with AEW in February 2021, ending a run with WWE that had begun in 1999. He debuted for WCW in 1995 as The Giant, in a match against Hulk Hogan for the World Heavyweight Championship, and was 23 at the time.
What has happened since has not been easy. Wight is 54 and has had both knees and both hips replaced, and has spent most of his AEW tenure on commentary rather than in the ring.
“I’ve had knee replacements, hip replacements, and I’ve been through hell the past six years. I would have fired me three years ago, if you want to be honest about it.”
“But Tony Khan still sees value in me, and sees value that I can give to younger talent, things that I can help within the company on doing different things, and also the potential to get back in the ring.”
What he wants from that is not what most wrestlers in his position want, and he said so before anybody could suggest it.
“I’m not going to get back in the ring and win championships and have one last title run or tell my story or some short-sighted s*** like that. It’s not about doing that. It’s about me being able to do something that’s important to my heart and still contribute in a positive way.”
His argument is that some of the job cannot be taught anywhere except in a match.
“I can get in the ring in tag situations. There’s a lot of teaching that I can do in the ring, which is hard for me to teach outside of the ring.”
“There are things that we can do in the ring. I can tell someone in the back, we’re going to do this, this and this. When I go out and execute it, I’ll say, did you hear that? Did you feel that? Did you see the timing on that? Because there’s a different pace to working things.”
That is what he says the weight loss and the training are for.
“That’s why I’ve gone through all the hell I’ve gone through to lose weight and be under 360 pounds and do all the dips*** drills that I’m doing now at my age. And it’s not for money. It’s not to be more famous. It’s because of the love I have in my heart to get in the ring and help those kids and help them be stars and help them be successful.”
“And it’s fun. Let’s be honest, it’s fun. Because if it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t be doing this s***. I wouldn’t be hopping on planes and flying all over the world.”
Wight held the WWE Championship twice, the World Heavyweight Championship twice, and is the only man to have held the WWE, WCW, ECW and World Heavyweight titles. He returned to AEW commentary this month.
