Paul Wight explains how WWE disrespected him right to his face

Paul Wight was today’s guest on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast. One of the first topics he talked about was his creative frustrations with WWE over the last couple of years. Wight wanted more work in the ring, but WWE preferred keeping him on the sidelines:

“For me, I think creatively it was just frustration. I’ve gone back and forth with Paul Heyman and Bruce Prichard and Vince [McMahon]. I had some medical issues a couple years ago where I had some problems with the hip real bad. And you know how things are there when you get out of the loop a little bit, it’s real hard for them to work you back into the loop, no matter how much talent you have, no matter how much you have to offer. And it was just frustrating to me, because I mean, yeah sure I was making money. I worked once against Drew after WrestleMania there...it’s like, I need more than this guys. I have never been, ever, a sit on the bench guy...I like to work for my money, I like to earn it, and I like to perform it.”

Wight also told a story from a few years back, where someone in WWE’s talent relations department insulted him right to his face:

“I got the speech five years ago that’s a pretty bad speech. I got pulled into a talent relations office. And got told that I will never main event a WrestleMania again, I will never main event a pay-per-view again, and I will only be used to get over NXT talent. That was said to my face. There’s your fucking inspiration, now go work hurt...Vince didn’t say that to me. It wasn’t him...but nothing gets said to you without it...you know where it comes from. So it hurt a little bit.”

WWE’s decision on how to book the Big Show in these later years of his career presents the problem of how to seamlessly mix in older and younger talent. Naturally, the older star feels like he has a lot left in the tank and still has creative desires to fulfill, whereas the company wants to focus more on developing newer stars. Those aren’t two mutually exclusive goals, however, and it’s understandable why Wight felt disrespected by the blunt speech he was given five years ago by a McMahon underling in a suit. From Wight’s perspective, he busted his ass for years in WWE making as many dates as possible and constantly working hurt, so a speech like that only serves to undermine his hard work.

Wight makes it clear that he is not angry at WWE. But it was obvious that they wanted to retire him from the ring, and he wasn’t ready for that. His decision to move on from 20+ years with WWE and sign with AEW happened very quickly, within a 48 hour window. It’s just business.

Wight also jokes in the podcast about botching the name of AEW’s Revolution pay-per-view during his first interview on Dynamite. Doing his best Vince McMahon impression, Wight indicates that he would have been shredded to pieces and called stupid over that kind of error because McMahon is a perfectionist, but it wasn’t an issue at all backstage with AEW.

If you want to hear about some of Wight’s potential dream opponents in AEW, you can check out his full interview on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast right here.