Paul Wight Says WWE Offered Him A One Year Deal, Details Original Legends Night Plan

Paul Wight (The Big Show in WWE) made his last televised appearance for the company in January 2020 at WWE Raw Legends Night. In a backstage segment, Wight was talked down to by Randy Orton, enhancing Orton’s “Legend Killer” gimmick. 

Wight took the verbal abuse, not responding to Orton’s threats. 

Speaking to Chris Jericho on Talk Is Jericho, Wight detailed the original plans for the segment. 

“I was going through contract negotiations and when you’re going through contract negotiations with them, they’ll try to make things more awkward and difficult or to prove a point. It’s part of the psychology of the game. They wanted Randy Orton to pie face me into a chair, basically push me in the face and knock me down, and I’m supposed to sit there and take. I’m like, ‘He’s not going to just shove me on my ass.’ No disrespect to Randy, but he knows he couldn’t do it. I said Randy can put his hand on my chest and I’ll sit down because I won’t fight him. We could do that story, even though it’s the wrong story to tell with me. If Randy put his hands on me, I would knock him out in the hallway. That would’ve been good business. Then, to go to the ring and sit on the stage with the legends, they were trying to shove me down the road. They wanted to use my notoriety to do overseas media and were taking my passion away from me. To sit on the ramp and get called a has been while I watch a match. You talk so much about legends and Hall of Famers, but when Hall of Famers are around, they get run into the ground. The machine moves forward and any blood they can get out of the stone, they’ll get the last drop until there’s nothing left for anyone. That was the icing on the cake,” he said. 

When discussing his negotiations with WWE, Wight revealed that he was offered a Legend’s Contract, but never spoke to Vince McMahon during the negotiations. 

“They offered a Legend’s Deal. Even if they offered more money, it’s at the point where there was nothing for me to do. To sell out would’ve been to take more money and stay because I would’ve been giving up on a lot of passion. Vince and I didn’t talk. I dealt with Mark Carano, we went back-and-forth, and that was that. The money was okay. The term was a little light. It felt like they weren’t looking at me as a talent they want to invest in, they looked at me as something disposable. When they give you a year, they aren’t investing too much and the writing was on the wall,” he said.

Wight previously revealed that Vince called him after his signing with AEW was announced, believing Wight was a good fit for the company and that there was no animosity between the two parties. You can find his full comments by clicking here. 

Wight currently works alongside Tony Schiavone in the announce booth for AEW Dark: Elevation. 

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