In one of the more surprising moves in recent times, Paul Wight, aka The Big Show left WWE after more than 20 years with the company. Wight is not averse to making out of the blue moves between promotions however, having switched from WCW to WWE in shocking fashion in 1999.
Wight’s most recent switch will see him move to the commentary booth for the new AEW Dark: Elevation show, while also still being eligible to compete in the ring.
Jim Cornette who tried to sign Wight in the 1990’s before he joined WCW, reflected on the move on his Jim Cornette Experience podcast. The legendary former manager of The Midnight Express, praised Wight saying that’s he’s known him for 25 years, before comparing the situation to when Randy Savage famously left WWF for WCW in 1994.
“He’s a big name and what Tony Khan brought was a bunch of publicity. And i’m not going to knock Show, i’ve known show for 25 years or whatever and he’s been wonderful…
Now, the problem is that I can pretty much tell you how he got away from the WWE, because this has been Vince’s [McMahon] Achilles heel, soft spot, weak spot, blind spot, whatever. When Hogan jumped, when Savage jumped, in this instance now, a number of em,’ Vince starts thinking that somebody’s over the hill, past their prime, too old, need to be moved down, somebody needs to come up and take their place whatever, without bothering to make sure that the talent he’s trying to move out isn’t on the same page. It’s the same reason that Savage left.”
Cornette later theorised that Wight made the move for financial reasons, as well as dissatisfaction at how WWE had been, and were planning to use him in the future.
“Vince probably and the WWE made an offer to Big Show i’m sure, that they felt was good for them but not for Big Show. I’m sure Vince was probably thinking ‘Well, it’s been 20 years, Paul will want to stay here, make him and ambassador, we’ll sign him to a moderate contract where he can make appearances or whatever…’ and they made him a financial offer i’m sure that reflected that standpoint. And Big Show looks at it at goes ‘Well I could do that, or since i’m pretty much done with wrestling anyway,’ he’s 50 and he knows it. He’s had injuries and it’s not like going to wrestle for even five more years or anything on a full-time basis he hasn’t been doing that for some time. But he has to look at that offer and think ‘If i’m done with f***ing wrestling, why don’t I cash in and get a big f***ing deal, from the billionaire down there.'”
Wight’s move to AEW has paved the way for many potentially fresh and interesting match-ups. However, Cornette believes a clash with former foe Cody Rhodes would make more sense.
“Cody verses Big Show is the one match that they could probably have and work and not be an offensive cluster f**k because both those guys know what they’re doin’ but then Cody’s the closest thing to a babyface they have,”
Paul Wight is set to make his debut on the March 3rd episode of AEW Dynamite. As always you can follow all of the action as it happens here at Inside The Ropes.
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