It is often said that modern wrestling lacks surprises and the ‘anything can happen’ feeling since the advent of social media, but AEW are on a mission to prove otherwise. First Sting appeared at Winter’s End, then Paul Wight left WWE after over 20 years with the company, before Christian Cage followed suit, just a few short weeks after appearing at the Royal Rumble.
Ever since the news broke that Wight had signed with AEW there has been a steady drip of information of how the deal came to be. The former WWE Champion has revealed that he left on good terms with the company while AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes detailed how Wight spoke to him about the move going to Tony Khan.
Appearing on the Oral Sessions podcast with Renee Paquette, Wight has now lifted the lid a little further on his frustrations with WWE as his time there came to an end. The veteran detailed how he was told that he wasn’t going to be used to headline pay-per-views or appear on NXT, and that his in-ring career was essentially going to be wound down.
“I got pulled into the Talent Relations office, and got told I will never Main Event a WM again, I will never main event a pay-per-view again, I won’t be used to get over NXT. That was said to my face, there’s you f***ing inspiration now go work hard. Vince didn’t say that to me, but nothing gets said to you without it, y’know, you know where it’s coming from. So it hurt a little bit like ‘so that’s where we’re at’. They had to think about the future. Then I went and got in shape, I had the abs and all that sh*t. I made a joke, when I chainsmoked two f***ing packs of cigarettes a day, drank Jack Daniel’s like water and weighed 500lbs: I was a f***ing World Champion. I got abs; I can’t get a f***ing match now. Again, not making excuses but I understand where they’re coming from on their end, you know what I mean. They were trying to give me the heads up like ‘hey, y’know, you’ve done everything that we can do with you – you’ve had a great career. Maybe it’s time for you to start thinking about slowing down’. F*** that Jack.”
Elsewhere in the podcast which covered much of Wight’s illustrious career, he recalled meeting Hulk Hogan and an infamous moment in a match against Brock Lesnar where he “s**t his pants” taking an F-5.
As well as appearing in the ring Wight’s deal with AEW will see him make his commentary debut alongside Tony Schiavone for AEW’s new show AEW Dark: Elevation. The debut episode of the show will premiere on AEW’s YouTube channel on Monday March 15th.