The 7-foot-tall athlete Paul Wight first joined Ted Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1995 as The Giant, the son of WWF Legend André The Giant.
He left WCW in early 1999 and joined the World Wrestling Federation, where he became known as The Big Show.
Big Show left the (renamed) WWE in 2007, but returned the next year in 2008 and stayed loyal to the company until he left for Tony Khan’s All Elite Wrestling in 2021.
During a recent episode of his weekly ’83 Weeks’ podcast, WCW Legend Eric Bischoff revealed that it was actually Hulk Hogan who came up with the idea to portray Paul as André’s son at the beginning.
Here’s what Bischoff said:
“Hulk was the one that really brought Paul in. I can’t remember the details of how they came together, I think Hulk was at a charity basketball game in Chicago, and Paul was playing on that game.
Hogan caught sight of Paul and thought Paul was interested in wrestling. I don’t know enough of the details to even sketch it out, but at the end of that conversation it was Hulk Hogan who said ‘Hey you got to see what I found’. Hulk was so excited about Paul White.
Hulk or anybody else that’s been successful is going to go with what they know. What’s worked for me in the past? How do I recreate that? Make it feel a little different, but do something that I believe the audience is going to respond to based on my experience in the past. Which is not a bad way to make a decision, generally.
Hulk wanted him to be the son of Andre, or whatever he was. That was all Hulk, so there was no discussion of maybe we should make him something else. That never happened.”
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