Paul Wight is grateful that AEW provides a place for him to spread his knowledge to younger talent.
Wight was interviewed by The YES Network on Sunday while attending the New York Yankees Spring Training game. He was asked about his transition to AEW after having spent more than 20 years with WWE.
Wight responded:
It’s been fantastic. I was blessed to work for a big company for a lot of years all over the world. Now, at my stage of the game, to find myself useful in a company that allows me to spread a lot of my knowledge to the younger talent, get a chance to get on the microphone every now and then and enhance them, help their characters along, and then get in the ring and mix it up. It’s probably the single greatest thing that could ever happen to me. I’m blessed, grateful and thankful for the fans who still like to see me do my thing.
Wight made his AEW debut at All Out 2021 in a win over QT Marshall. His last time on AEW programming saw him team with Kota Ibushi, Chris Jericho, and Kenny Omega in a win over Brian Cage and members of the Don Callis Family on the November 15, 2023 Dynamite. He’s 6-0 in his AEW career, 7-0 when counting a match he had on the Jericho Cruise in January when he teamed with Jericho and Mike Bailey in a win over the Don Callis Family.
As Sting’s wrestling career enters its final days, Paul Wight has plenty of good things to say about his long-time friend and former in-ring rival.
Wight recently spoke to Sports Illustrated about Sting’s upcoming retirement. During the interview, Wight explained how important of an influence Sting was on him early in his career:
Somebody has to cook and somebody has to eat, and Sting taught me that core philosophy. I learned that my first job in a match is to get my opponent over, then get the match over. That’s Point A and Point B. If you do that right, you’ll automatically get yourself over. That’s not, ‘You do your stuff, I’ll do my stuff.’
It’s bigger than you. Some guys only take care of themselves, and good for them. But the guys I respect most are the ones who make people better in the ring. That’s someone like Ric Flair, he has to be mentioned. So does Sting. I couldn’t have asked for a better influence early in my career.
Wight said that, when he was inexperienced starting out in WCW, a lot of people didn’t know how to work with him. But Sting loved the story of being the underdog and trying to chop down a giant.
I used to think wrestling was so hard. It’s not when you know your character and know your opponent. Sting is a master at that.
My role was to be the monster that the knight needed to slay. Sting knew that the more he fought from underneath, the better the story would be. He had great timing and patience, which let the crowd really get behind him–then he fed off that energy. He had a way of showing that, the more you cheered for him, the stronger he would be.
Wight believes that the pro wrestling industry wouldn’t be where it is today without Sting’s contributions:
Sting made towns for WCW and became a household name. If you booked Sting in Tupelo, Mississippi on a Saturday night, Sting would show up and do it. He put in the work and became their franchise guy. He became a legend in Japan, too. He’s now an incredible asset for AEW. Sting is a guy who understood what it is like to work against guys who were really good, but the wrestling world didn’t know them yet. He did that for Crockett Promotions, WCW, TNA, and now again in AEW.
Sting’s the guy that always understood what this is about. Whether he was getting his shoulders pinned, or getting his arm raised, he made sure the crowd enjoyed the hell out of a match. He never got involved in the locker room drama. When there were problems, he worked through them. For him, this was never about ego.
I wouldn’t be where I am without him, and wrestling wouldn’t be where it is, either.
Sting’s retirement match headlines AEW Revolution in Greensboro, North Carolina this Sunday (March 3). At the pay-per-view, Sting & Darby Allin are defending their AEW Tag Team titles against The Young Bucks in a tornado tag bout.
Before Revolution, Sting is set to appear on Dynamite this Wednesday. It will be Sting’s final appearance on TBS as an active wrestler.
The 52-year-old Wight is signed to AEW and works as part of their community outreach program. He still occasionally competes in the ring, most recently wrestling for AEW in an eight-man tag team street fight last November.
An eight-man street fight will take place in two weeks on AEW Dynamite.
Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, and Paul Wight will face Don Callis’ family of Powerhouse Hobbs, Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, and Will Ospreay in two weeks on the November 15 AEW Dynamite event that will take place in Ontario, California.
Wednesday’s show had Omega and Jericho team together to defeat Matt Menard and Angelo Parker. After the match, Callis and his family emerged from the announce desk and challenged the two to an eight-man street fight. Omega said that was fine, and he would bring in Kota Ibushi. After Callis said they were still one man short, Wight came out on the stage and laid out Fletcher as the rest of Callis’ family retreated.
Omega has spent most of 2023 feuding with Don Callis and his growing family, which added Fletcher to their ranks when he joined on Rampage following a loss to Takeshita.
Ibushi and Ospreay last wrestled in AEW at last month’s WrestleDream pay-per-view. Ospreay, Takeshita, and Sammy Guevara defeated Jericho, Omega, and Ibushi in a six-man tag team match.
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WWE announced that Roman Reigns will appear at the Road to WrestleMania house show on March 4 in Toronto, Canada.
Warner Bros. Discovery Europe announced that BT Sport in the UK & Ireland will be rebranded as TNT Sports starting in July. BT Sport is the current home of WWE programming in the area.
Carmella spoke to Yahoo News about the pressure to maintain a certain figure in pro wrestling.
AEW Road to Phoenix, which focuses on the upcoming tag team battle royal and Jon Moxley vs. Evil Uno.
Paul Wight talked to Metro about his recent health issues. ‘Well, I spent 11 weeks in a wheelchair because I was waiting for them to build the implant for my knee because of my size. ‘I had crushed all the bone in the knee, I was bleeding into my shin. So, I’ve got a good pain tolerance, but when I say I rode the tyre down to the rim, that’s exactly what I did. But, luckily I still have all my ligaments in that knee, everything’s good there, it’s a nice, brand new titanium joint so it’s good for 35 years. So, I can parachute if I want to – not that I’ll ever jump out of an airplane, we all saw the movie Operation Dumbo drop, I don’t think that’s me, we’re good!’”
Tony Khan appeared in a photo with Dave Brown at Jerry Jarrett’s memorial service.
NOAH announced an attendance of 30,096 for Keiji Muto’s retirement show on Tuesday morning.
After appearing in the undercard during Tuesday morning’s show, Satoshi Kojima announced that he would be leaving Pro Wrestling NOAH for the time being.
Jake Lee challenged GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya backstage following his loss to Kazuchika Okada on Tuesday morning.
AAA announced that Pagano is undergoing surgery for an undisclosed issue.
Paul Wight said that he hopes to return to the rings of AEW in March after undergoing knee replacement surgery.
Talking to UK news outlet Metro, the 51-year-old said he’s had “a couple of injury setbacks” that included the knee replacement last August.
“That knee was bad for 12 years, so it could’ve gone any day. It’s like kind of like that tire on your car that you know you should change but keep driving anyway. But, we’re good now, and hopefully we’ll be back in the ring in March. Everything’s on schedule, so we’re looking good,” he said.
Wight has been a presence as a commentator on AEW Dark: Elevation in addition to his role as special advisor for AEW’s community outreach division.
After decades in WWE, Wight signed a long-term deal with AEW in February 2021. While not expected to be a full-time wrestler, he has wrestled just four times since then, last competing on an episode of Elevation in March 2022.
Tony Khan approved AEW wrestlers appearing on WWE Raw for John Cena’s 20th-anniversary.
Videos featuring AEW’s Chris Jericho, Paul Wight, and Bryan Danielson speaking about Cena appeared on the show. Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it was WWE’s Bruce Prichard who reached out to Khan to make this happen.
“The basic story behind this is that on 6/24, Bruce Prichard called Khan and asked about having clips from those three guys as well as Mark Henry for Raw for Cena’s 20th anniversary,” Meltzer wrote. “Khan felt that it sounded like they were doing a good show and it was a nice deal, and that he and everyone has a lot of respect for Cena. He said he was fine with it but it was up to the talent if they wanted to do the videos.”
Jericho, Wight, Danielson, and Mark Henry all agreed to submit videos for the show. Henry’s did not make air, however.
“Megha Parekh of AEW contacted the three wrestlers and told the that Khan was okay with it, but they also had to be okay with it, and they were all okay with it. Henry filmed one but it didn’t air on Raw,” Meltzer continued.
AEW stars Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho, and Paul Wight appeared via video on Raw tonight congratulating John Cena on the 20th anniversary of his debut.
Danielson and Wight, who appeared under their WWE names Daniel Bryan and The Big Show, were the first to congratulate Cena. Later, Jericho appeared in another segment, also congratulating Cena.
Others that appeared throughout the night to congratulate Cena include Trish Stratus, John Bradshaw Layfield, Kurt Angle, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Randy Orton.
Cena appeared at the start of tonight’s Raw, with the roster appearing backstage to congratulate everyone. He also appeared in backstage segments with The Street Profits and later Theory, who ran down Cena. He attempted to take a selfie with Cena, but he walked away before Theory could take the photo. He later appeared in an in-ring segment thanking the fans.
Cena made his televised main roster debut on the June 27, 2002 episode of SmackDown, where he faced Kurt Angle in his debut match.
Paul Wight said he had hip replacement surgery back in December, with both hips now being replaced.
Speaking to Submission Radio, Wight spoke on why he hasn’t competed regularly on AEW television since signing for the company last year.
“I had another hip transplant in December,” Wight said. “So now I have two fake hips, so I’m like Wolverine. “
“My thing coming over here honestly is that I came [to AEW] to work on my commentary skills, because that is where my future lies, that’s where I want to contribute to the business,” he said further. I came over to compete periodically, in small doses. I don’t see myself running for championships, that’s not my gig. Maybe if it works out , a younger talent for the tag team championship maybe. I’ve done my five nights a week for decades.”
Wight last wrestled on the episode of AEW Dark Elevation that aired on March 30, where he defeated Austin Green in under three minutes.
Paul Wight is set to be part of AEW Dark: Elevation this week.
He is scheduled to face Austin Green on the show. This will be Wight’s fourth match since joining the promotion in February of 2021. Matches for the episode were taped Wednesday night from the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina. Wight is from nearby Aiken, South Carolina.
Other matches scheduled to air on Monday include Ruby Soho teaming with Anna Jay and facing the team of Diamante and Ashley D’Amboise. Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor of the Best Friends will also take on Anthony Henry and JD Drake.
The full lineup for Monday’s edition of AEW Dark: Elevation is as follows:
Paul Wight vs. Austin Green
Red Velvet vs. Brittany Jade
“Legit” Leyla Hirsch vs. Ella Envy
The Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta) vs. The Workhorsemen (JD Drake and Anthony Henry)
Frankie Kazarian vs. Lucky Ali
Lee Johnson & Brock Anderson vs. The Factory’s QT Marshall & Aaron Solo
Ruby Soho & Anna Jay vs. Diamante & Ashley D’Amboise
Paul Wight will look to keep his undefeated streak alive in another handicap match as part of Monday’s AEW Dark: Elevation.
Wight will take on Arjun Singh, Cole Karter and Carlie Bravo in his third AEW outing. He has another 3-on-1 handicap match victory and a win over QT Marshall on his record thus far.
Ahead of his World title eliminator tournament match this Wednesday on Dynamite, 10 of the Dark Order will take on the aforementioned Marshall.
AAA Tag Team Champions and future AEW Tag Team title challengers FTR will look to keep their winning ways going against Mike Reed and Toa Ianua.
The card is rounded out by Ryo Mizunami and Leyla Hirsch teaming up against Diamante and Xtina Kay while Emi Sakura battles Reka Tehaka.
Here’s the full card for Monday’s 7 PM Eastern show on YouTube:
Ryo Mizunami and Leyla Hirsch vs. Diamante and Xtina Kay
FTR vs. Mike Reed and Toa Ianua
Emi Sakura vs. Reka Tehaka
Dark Order’s 10 vs. QT Marshall
Paul Wight vs. Arjun Singh, Cole Karter and Carlie Bravo
It’s Monday and you know what that means: a three-match AEW Dark: Elevation that was taped last Wednesday at Queens, New York’s Arthur Ashe Stadium prior to Dynamite: Grand Slam.
This week, Mark Henry took over Paul Wight’s duties as an Elevation commentator as Wight was set for in-ring action.
Thunder Rosa defeated Kayla Sparks
This was Sparks’ AEW debut. The crowd was really hot for this match, cheering a lot for Thunder Rosa. Rosa (28-2) dominated and won with the Fire Thunder Driver.
Dark Order (John Silver, 10, Alan “5” Angels, Alex Reynolds) defeated Dean Alexander, Kevin Tibbs, TJ Crawford & Eric James
This was the AEW debut for James, Tibbs and Crawford. Silver, 10, 5 and Reynolds got a great reaction for their entrance and one of the biggest reactions of the show when they hit four shoulderblocks to their opponents. Dark Order won by submission with a full nelson from 10.
Paul Wight defeated CPA, RSP & VSK
This was CPA’s AEW debut. At the beginning of the match, the Gunn Club came out. This was basically like an older brother bullying his younger brothers. It was fun to watch with Tall Paul chopping the living hell out of his opponents. Wight won this match with a double chokeslam to remain undefeated.
Final Thoughts:
This was a short show with the Dark Order match as the best of the night. Wight’s match was also very fun to watch.
After the three matches, there were taped promos from Britt Baker, MJF, Bryan Danielson and Men of the Year talking about last week’s Dynamite and Rampage. This were all very well done and hinted about future things ahead for these wrestlers. Scorpio Sky, in particular, was really good.
There was also some web exclusive content with Eddie Kingston, Homicide, Brian Pillman Jr., Ortiz, Anthony Bowens and others talking about being excited to wrestle in a 20,000-seat stadium.
The lineup for tommorow’s edition of AEW Dark: Elevation has been set.
Paul Wight will make his Elevation debut when he faces RSP, VSK and CPA in a three-on-one handicap bout. This will only be Wight’s second match in AEW following All Out earlier this month, when he defeated QT Marshall.
Also on the card, the Dark Order will look to get back on the same page when John Silver, Alex Reynolds, 10, and Alan “5” Angels team up to take on TJ Crawford, Eric James, Kevin Tibbs, and Dean Alexander in a eight man tag match.
Thunder Rosa will look to continue a 26 match winning streak when she faces Kayla Sparks, who will be making her promotional debut.
These matches were all taped before last Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. The show was the most attended event in AEW history, boasting an attendance of 20,177. According to our own Dave Meltzer, the show brought in a live gate of just over $960,000.
Paul Wight will return to in-ring action at All Out next month.
Wight made the announcement on tonight’s Dynamite, where QT Marshall confronted him as he was being interviewed by Tony Schiavone. QT said he knew why Wight returned to wrestling as an announcer and not a wrestler, showing x-rays and pictures of Wight’s surgically repaired hip. Wight said he wasn’t embarrassed by QT showing those pictures. He then revealed he had talked to Tony Khan and a match between himself and QT had been set.
The rivalry between Wight and QT began last week when QT and the rest of The Factory (Aaron Solow and Nick Comoroto) targeted Schiavone’s son, attacking him in the ring in front of Schiavone. Wight then came out for the save, driving them away.
All Out will take place on September 5 in Chicago. Already announced for the show is Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage for the AEW World title, PAC vs. Andrade el Idolo, and a women’s Casino Battle Royale.
As part of the post-WWE podcast tour, AEW broadcaster and eventual wrestler Paul Wight went into details about when he knew his WWE career was coming to an end, being turned down at bringing in Justin Bieber for a SummerSlam match, and how his AEW deal came together in 15 minutes.
Appearing on both Talk is Jericho this week and Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette last week, Wight said the writing was on the wall for him roughly five years ago when he was told by a “higher up” that wasn’t Vince McMahon that he would never main event a WrestleMania or a pay-per-view and would only be used to get over NXT talent. That was after he had worked hard to rehab from hip surgeries and infections.
He started contract negotiations with WWE’s Mark Carrano and while the money was ok, the terms and length of the deal (a year) were light. He felt like they were pushing him into a Legends contract, but given how they treat Hall of Famers, he had no interest, bringing up turning them down on Randy Orton piefacing him onto a chair during a Raw segment. He felt like they wanted to use his notoriety to do media and community work but take his passion away from him in the ring.
He reiterated several times that he wasn’t bitter about his WWE run, saying he made a good living but was sad he couldn’t do all he could as he never felt like WWE took advantage of his recognizability and size.
“I went from not being able to tell stories to becoming a seven foot enhancement talent,” he said.
Wight recalled a story about wanting to use the Big Show brand to create a online Big Show Burger company with Wolfgang Puck helping out, a venture that would have expanded into food trucks at WrestleMania. He was surprised by the reaction he received when he brought that up, saying WWE wanted seven figures up front, seven figures 18 months later and a large percentage of the profits.
He also went into details about working out a deal with Justin Bieber and his manager Scooter Braun that would have seen the megastar appear in a six-man tag team match at SummerSlam alongside he and John Cena against the Wyatts. However, decision makers told him they didn’t see how Justin Bieber would related to their audience. He said they “jacked’ Braun around for two weeks on money before Braun moved on. Jericho then told a story of how WWE had a chance to bring in Will Ferrell for a WrestleMania moment, but they wouldn’t pay an appearance fee that would have gone to his charity.
He brought up the potential of an angle with Paul “HHH” Levesque based off a staredown they had on the Raw stage that he felt could have played out in the ring, but was told other than knocking Levesque out, there wasn’t any interest in doing it.
He loved his Netflix show experience, but said he didn’t get to negotiate any of the terms as that was handled by WWE and joked that he didn’t even get a parking space on the set. He was forced to park in a visitors’ lot and a golf cart would come get him.
After his contract was free and clear, his first conversation was an in-person meeting with Tony Khan that ran three hours late at night. Afterward, they talked three or four times on the phone for hours at a time before he drove up to Jacksonville on an off week to watch Dynamite and eat dinner with Khan. After 15 minutes, the deal was done and was the easiest negotiation of his career. He told Khan that he wanted to wrestle but also do color commentary as that’s how he sees his career eventually going in, similar to Gorilla Monsoon.
While he never talked to McMahon during his negotiations, the WWE chairman called him when the AEW deal was done — the first time they had spoken in six months. He said McMahon congratulated him and said he would do great for AEW. There’s no animosity or heat between them, but he said he knew things had changed over the last year when McMahon started calling him “Paul” as opposed to “Show.”
As part of his first appearance for AEW, Paul Wight announced on Dynamite that a new signing will take place at Sunday’s AEW Revolution pay-per-view: one that would be “Hall of Fame worthy”.
In an interview with Tony Schiavone, Wight talked about teaming with Schiavone on commentary for the new AEW Dark: Elevation show. He then said that he had a “big scoop” that Sunday, the company would sign a “a Hall of Fame worthy talent that is a huge surprise and a huge asset” for AEW.
Later in the show, it was clarified that Wight would be at Revolution to talk about the signing.
Here is the current card for AEW Revolution, which airs this Sunday:
World Champion Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley in an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch
Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida vs. Ryo Mizunami
Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks vs. MJF & Chris Jericho
Hangman Page vs. Matt Hardy for the loser’s Q1 2021 earnings
Team Taz (Brian Cage & Ricky Starks) vs. Sting & Darby Allin in a street fight
Casino Tag Team Royale for a future Tag Team title shot
Miro & Kip Sabian vs. Orange Cassidy & Chuck Taylor
Pre-Show: Britt Baker and Reba vs. Thunder Rosa and Riho
