Paul Wight, formerly known as The Big Show in WWE, isn’t exactly renowned for his promo skills. Throughout his career in WCW and WWE, he built up an impressive résumé as one of the most daunting giants in the wrestling world, but the creative teams at both companies mostly focused on his size rather than his ability to speak. For this reason, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that Wight once spoke up when he was expected to cut a lengthy promo without much practice.
During a recent appearance on Wrestling With Freddie, Wight looked back on his legendary career with actor and former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. In one highlight, the giant shared his side of the first time Prinze Jr. met him. As the host told it, shortly after he started working for WWE, he wrote a promo for The Big Show. Evidently, the script was far too long for the former world champion, who burst into the writer’s room and angrily asked, “Who the f— wrote me ‘War and Peace?'” Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, as Wight noted that he realized that he didn’t need to worry about “silly s—” with Prinze Jr.
“…Now understand at the time, Freddy, I talked in WWE once in a while for whatever reason. I guess Vince didn’t like the way I did promos, didn’t like the fact that a giant talked, whatever the reason was, I didn’t talk that much,” said Wight. “I didn’t have promo segments every RAW, that wasn’t my gig. So when I got this promo, I was like, ‘Are you f’ing kidding me? Like, I haven’t done a promo in like four months, and now I’ve got four f—— pages to try and memorize, and I’ve got segments of wrestling I’ve gotta do. Like who the f—wrote this? And why? Is this bound to light me on fire?’
“And it was funny because then when I found out you wrote it, it was kinda cool, like f—, well, Freddie wrote it, so I need to get a better attitude. Because Freddie’s not gonna come in day one and try to cut my head off.’ Because there I was always worried about a bunch of silly s—-.”
Wight and Prinze Jr. recalled how they worked together to “trim the fat” from the promo to make it more manageable. In hindsight, Wight stated that he’s sure they’d did a great job with it, though he doesn’t remember anything he said.
“So when we paired together and did it, I just remember Frank and the Tank [inaudible] it like crazy, you know,” said Wight. “I remember us, I don’t remember doing it, I don’t remember anything other than it couldn’t have been better, however it turned out. We did a great job with it, and I don’t think I remember one f—— thing five minutes after I said it.”
Prinze Jr. then noted that everyone involved, including Vince McMahon himself, seemed quite happy with the way the promo it turned out. At the end of the day, despite the intimidating way his first meeting with The Big Show started, it’s fair to call this experience an early win for Prinze Jr. in his career as a WWE writer.
