Sports Illustrated recently interviewed WWE Superstar Big Show after his WWE TV return about a variety of topics. Below are some highlights.
Big Show on his move to WWE from WCW in 1999:
“It was a lot different in WCW, which had guaranteed contracts. WWE was a shark tank, it was competitive. It wasn’t a locker room where everyone went to Chipotle after the show together. People legitimately didn’t like each other. I was so young in WCW, I was 22, 23 years old at the beginning. The only other young guy was Alex Wright. Macho, Hulk, Flair, Paul Orndorff, they were all in their 40s or older. It was like I was everybody’s kid brother. And I made a lot of mistakes back then. My real training happened when I got to work with Undertaker.”
Big Show on The Undertaker used to chew him out during live tours:
“I used to come through the Gorilla position after a match against Undertaker on our live tours, and Undertaker would be there waiting for me. He’d wave me over with that crooked finger, and he’d chew out my ass for the next 15 minutes. This happened night after night. It seemed like I couldn’t do anything right, no matter what I tried. And I’m a little more hard-headed than most, so it took me a while, but a lot of the lessons I learned from Undertaker put me in a position now where I can help a lot of people not make the same mistakes I made.”
Big Show on how the business has changed:
“The business isn’t quite as ruthless or individualistic as it used to be. Now there’s a lot more of a team attitude in the dressing room. People are working hard together. We got it done back in the day, but that’s just because a lot of us were competitive and didn’t like each other. The work environment is a lot nicer now. And for me, for lack of a better term, I was banned for doing a lot of what I wanted to do.
That’s because a lot of what I wanted to do didn’t make sense. I was supposed to be playing the role of a giant. I got cussed out for doing dropkicks off the top, I got cussed out for doing nip-ups in the ring. They didn’t want that from me, and that’s because the giant before was Andre, who had set a precedent [in his post-WrestleMania I run with WWE]. I wanted to bump and feed and be exciting. But one of the biggest advocates for me to be more creative in the ring is Vince.”
On how he’s not looking for wins:
“I’m not here to get wins. Heck, I don’t know, I think I’ve won two matches in the past five years. It’s not about the win-loss record, it’s about the quality of work. No one has ever come up to me and said, ‘I can’t believe you lost that many times!’ People talk to me about what I’ve done, or cool moments like breaking the ring with Brock or Braun. They care about the moments, not about the win-loss record. And if I do it right, I’ll get myself over.”
On doing what he loves:
“I’m living a blessed life and I have zero complaints. I’m doing what I love, working with some great people, and doing it on my terms. It can’t get any better than that—I’ve still got a lot to prove.”
