Paul Wight sat down with Chris Van Vliet this week to talk about his time in All Elite Wrestling so far. The man formerly known as The Big Show was with the WWE across four decades before jumping to AEW earlier this year, and at one point revealed that he was nearly in Ridley Scott’s Oscar-winning film Gladiator way back in 2000. He explained (h/t Wrestling Inc.), “When I first signed with WWE, Nick Cage reached out to me because his son was a big fan of me. Nick Cage was trying to hook me up with this Russel Crowe movie. But it was being shot in Spain so I would have to be in Spain for 6 weeks for it. But I’m thinking ‘Russel Crowe is going to be a star, Nick Cage wants me, I’ve got it.’ I go to ask Vince and he says ‘I’m paying you to be a wrestler, not an actor.’
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“So that was the end of that. So then it’s like ‘yeah you are paying me a lot of money to be a wrestler, I will go back to work sir.’ There wasn’t as much crossover in the wrestling business then,” he continued. “For a while, WWE was very against wrestlers crossing over into movies. Then eventually they got into the program. So I am there watching Gladiator, that would have been good to be a part of. But now with AEW I can be a part of all sorts of projects. Having that freedom to build the Paul Wight brand is good. Because it’s their intellectual property, so when you leave you have to rebuild yourself.”
Eventually, the WWE eased up on their policy of allowing wrestlers to be in films, and Show’s filmography now includes roles in MacGruber, Burn Notice, Psych, Happy! and Fighting With My Family. He also played himself on the Netflix comedy series The Big Show Show, which lasted one season last year.
Wight also discussed what finally convinced him to leave the WWE, believing that there was nothing left for the veteran Grand Slam Champion to accomplish. He’ll compete in his first match in an AEW ring at the upcoming All Out pay-per-view on Sept. 5, taking on QT Marshall.
“I had to leave WWE,” Wight said. “There was nothing there for me to accomplish. There was nothing there for me to do more of. I still like lacing up boots and I still like getting in the ring. Luckily Tony Khan gave me that opportunity.”
