Big Show made his WWE debut 20 years ago today on February 14, 1999 at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre pay-per-view. Formerly known as The Giant in WCW, Paul Wight interfered on behalf of WWE CEO Vince McMahon in a steel cage match against his chief nemesis ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin.
Paul Wight recently took some time to celebrate his WWE debut, “We’re celebrating twenty years of Big Show in the WWE. It feels like yesterday. I showed up at the arena that day. I believe it was in Memphis, Tennessee and I had no idea what to expect because I had never worked with Vince or any of the WWE staff, so I didn’t know what to expect.”
Big Show opened up about how his debut was pitched to him by Mr. McMahon, “We’re gonna hide you under the ring, and you’re gonna cut through the bottom of the ring, and you’re gonna tear through, and you’re gonna emerge, and you’re gonna throw Stone Cold through the cage.”
The legendary WWE Superstar continued, “It was unreal to come up through the ring and then the interaction I had with Stone Cold, and the way the crowd reacted, it was one of my favorite things that I’ve done in WWE, just because it was my first introduction. It was such a cool impact because no one really saw it coming. No one knew that I had committed to WWE. No one expected me to show up at Valentine’s Day Massacre and the way they introduced me was pretty cool. I come through the ring, and take the top guy in the company, and throw him through a steel cage, so it was a great way to make an impact.”
Big Show took the opportunity to fully reflect on his time in WWE, “There’s so many good times, and so many fun shows, and so many amazing people that I’ve had the chance to work with, and really I’ve had, I think, one of the most fortunate careers ever in the business. To have a career that’s lasted that long, and still be competitive, and still be on the road working, I can’t put into words. I know a lot of people would probably think differently because I don’t have enough wins. It’s never been about winning and losing for me. It’s been about the show and the talent that I work with.”
Readers may watch footage from Big Show’s WWE debut below:
READ MORE: The Big Show Talks Wrestling In The Attitude Era vs Today
Big Show
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Big Show and Randy Orton
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - AUGUST 15: WWE wrestler Randy Orton (L) and Professional wrestler Big Show attend WWE & E! Entertainment's "SuperStars For Hope" at the Beverly Hills Hotel on August 15, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images for WWE)
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Big Show
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - AUGUST 15: Wrestler Big Show attends the WWE SummerSlam VIP party at Beverly Hills Hotel on August 15, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
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Big Show and Mark Henry
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - AUGUST 13: WWE Superstars Mark Henry (L) and Big Show attend the WWE SummerSlam Press Conference on August 13, 2013 at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Barry King/FilmMagic)
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Big Show
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 10: WWE Superstar Big Show attends FOX's 2014 Teen Choice Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on August 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
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Big Show
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 10: WWE Superstar Big Show attends the Backstage Creations Celebrity Retreat At Teen Choice 2014 at the Shrine Auditorium on August 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mark Sullivan/WireImage)
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Big Show
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 10: WWE Superstar Big Show attends the Backstage Creations Celebrity Retreat At Teen Choice 2014 at the Shrine Auditorium on August 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mark Sullivan/WireImage)
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Big Show
LOS ANGELES, CA - AUGUST 10: WWE Superstar Big Show attends the Backstage Creations Celebrity Retreat At Teen Choice 2014 at the Shrine Auditorium on August 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mark Sullivan/WireImage)
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Big Show
NEW DELHI, INDIA - FEBRUARY 13: American professional wrestler Big Show during an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times on February 13, 2014 in New Delhi, India. Big Show, whose real name is Paul Randall Wight, interacted with 10 lucky HT City readers, all of them over six-feet tall, who won the contest. He revealed the secret behind his popular wrestling move, choke slam, to one of the fans. Well, the choke slam was given to me in 1995 by Paul Michael Levesque (Triple H). That time, we were looking for something which was exciting, had a lot of agility involved, and at the same time looked powerful, he said. (Photo by Waseem Gashroo/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
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Big Show
NEW ORLEANS, LA - APRIL 03: Paul Randall Wight Jr. aka Big Show attends WWE's 2014 SuperStars For Kids at the New Orleans Museum of Art on April 3, 2014 in New Orleans. (Photo by Josh Brasted/WireImage)