Paul Wights Roasts WWE for His Final WWE Raw Appearance

Paul Wight (fka The Big Show) has discussed his WWE departure a number of times since he officially signed with AEW. But in a new interview on the Talk Is Jericho podcast, the former world champion broke down his utter disgust for his final appearance on WWE television. That came back in January during Monday Night Raw's Legends Night, in which Randy Orton berated him along with a few other legends (calling back to their brief feud from last summer).

"I needed a restart, after the last Raw that I did that was just absolutely horrendous. I was going through contract negotiations then. Sometimes when you're going through contract negotiations with them, they'll try to, [for] lack of a better term, they'll try to make things a little bit more awkward, difficult, or to prove a point. It's part of the psychology of the game," Wight said [h/t Cageside Seats].

"So they wanted Randy Orton to pie-face me...basically push me in the face and knock me down," he continued. And then I was supposed to just sit there in the chair and take it. And I'm like, well he's not gonna shove me on my ass. No disrespect to Randy, but Randy knows he couldn't do it if I didn't want him to. You know? To do something accordingly, yeah, Randy could put his hand on my chest and I'll sit down, because I'm not gonna fight Randy 'cause he's trying to get in my head. You can always do that story, even though it's the wrong story to tell with me. I mean, [if] Randy put his hands on me, in all seriousness, a giant should have knocked him the hell out in the hallway. That would have been good business. But then to go to the ring and sit on the ramp on the stage with Hogan and Flair and...to sit there on the ramp and then get called a has-been while I sit there and watch a match, it's just...you talk so much about respect for legends and respect for Hall of Famers, but any time a Hall of Famer is around, they get run into the ground."

He also opened up about his frustrations with WWE's promos, which has become a common criticism from wrestlers who leave the promotion.

"It used to drive me nuts during promos in WWE because I had a guy that's 5'8" writing a promo for me, who doesn't understand what it's like to be a giant, and a chairman of the board who thinks I should tell everyone how tall I am and how much I weigh every time...I know how big I am, I just sound like a dumbass because I got to remind everybody...I never got a chance to put any flavor on it, to put any style on it, to be myself, 'cause it was all written out for me. I had to do this, this, and this. And god forbid if it wasn't executed like it was written," he said.