Shaquille O’Neal is one of the biggest basketball stars – both metaphorically and literally – in recent memory. He’s also a big fan of professional wrestling, as seen with his many appearances over the decades.
And even though he hasn’t been seen in over a year in any wrestling promotion, Shaquille O’Neal still has unfinished business with a very specific wrestler in AEW.
Shaquille O’Neal wants a tag team match with one of AEW’s biggest stars
In a video shared on Twitter, a wrestling trainee named the Diamond Sheik went to Shaq’s house and presented him with something called the Billion Dollar Belt. In response, Shaq accepted the belt and issued a challenge to none other than Paul Wight, a.k.a. The Big Show.
“Cody, whoever else wants it, Big Show. As a matter of fact, oh no, he’s in LA. Tell you what, Diamond Sheik and Shaq vs. Big Show and whoever else you want. Let’s go, AEW.”
A Big Show vs. Shaquilli O’Neal match has been teased many times throughout the years. The first tease took place in July 2009 when Shaq was RAW’s guest host for a night. That episode of RAW ended with a basketball-themed tag team match and also included a short physical confrontation between Shaq and big Show.
The two met again years later at WrestleMania 32 in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Big Show was already in the ring when Shaquille O’Neal was announced as a surprise entrant.
They teased getting physical again but then both of them were eliminated separately by the rest of the match’s participants.
Shaq and Big Show continued their feud off wrestling programming when they had another confrontation at the 2016 ESPY awards. Then after some back-and-forth on social media, a match between them was planned for WrestleMania 33 in 2017. However, that match fell through, allegedly due to monetary disagreements.
Shaq’s most recent involvement in wrestling was in a tag match for AEW in May 2021. In that match, Shaquillo O’Neal and Jade Cargill defeated Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet.
h/t WrestlingNews.co for the transcription