The Big Show used to go as The Giant in his WCW days. But what might be unknown to fans is that he was a heavy smoker back then too, which was one of the main issues WWE had with him when he first signed, due to health-related issues.
Eric Bischoff on 83 Weeks, discussed a particular segment where Big Show had smoked a cigarette on TV and explained his reasoning behind it. This is what he said:
“It wasn’t random because Paul smoked like a chimney and that was as much my idea, I don’t think that was part of a group discussion. I was trying to get Paul over. I was trying to figure out what to do with Paul to try and give him a unique character other than being 7’4, 400 pounds or whatever he was.”
“To create this character that is so strong, so powerful, but didn’t really care because he would beat people so easily that he didn’t really have to work at it and was almost loathsome as a result where he was just arrogant and nasty and out of the ordinary just coming to the ring and smoking a cigarette and just crush people. That was my attempt to make him dis-likable, good or bad, clearly bad, I don’t think it is up for a vote, but that was my reasoning behind it.”
“Nobody else was really doing it. I know you are going to throw The Sandman in my face but I wasn’t watching [ECW] back then, so I couldn’t get it on Channel 92 at 3 o’clock in the morning. That didn’t exist in my world. That was really Paul Wight’s personality, but let’s just turn the volume up on this and see if we can make him this big stinky, despicable giant. That was my call.”
Here is an image of the said event below, in case you didn’t remember or just didn’t know.
Remember the good ol' days when smoking cigarettes on TV was solid bad guy stuff? #WCW #TheGiant #TheBigShow #WWE pic.twitter.com/U0yBZggNHw
— Cassidy Haynes (@Casshooole) November 12, 2018
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h/t to Wrestling Inc for the transcription.
