After 22 years with World Wrestling Entertainment, former WWE champion Paul “Big Show” Wight has departed the company to join the competition, signing a long-term deal with All Elite Wrestling.
The Big Show arrived in WWE after a four-year stint in World Championship Wrestling and made a big impact in his debut, attacking Stone Cold Steve Austin during a cage match at the In Your House: St Valentine’s Day Massacre pay-per-view. After his debut it was revealed that Wight signed a 10-year deal with WWE.
During his two-decade career with WWE, Wight won 18 titles in total, including the WWE title twice, the ECW title once, the World Heavyweight title twice, the Hardcore title three times, the Intercontinental title once, the United States title once, and the Tag Team titles eight times.
His last appearance came on the Raw Legends Night on January 4, 2021 and prior to that he appeared at the Survivor Series during The Undertaker’s retirement ceremony. His last wrestling match was an “unsanctioned” one against Randy Orton on July 20, 2020 while his last proper match was on July 3, 2020 where he teamed with The Viking Raiders to take on Andrade, Angel Garza, and Randy Orton.
In All Elite Wrestling, the 49-year-old Wight will be doing commentary for the new AEW Dark: Elevation show and is also signed to be an in-ring performer. His switch to AEW brought in a lot of media attention and he was trending worldwide on Twitter under both Big Show and The Giant.
The website PWInsider.com adds that Wight was offered a new WWE deal but the two sides did not agree on the financial side of it. His existing deal expired a few days after the Legends Night Raw and Wight was vocal backstage about being unhappy.
