Jim Ross thinks WWE made a mistake with 52-year-old legend
Jim Ross is a WWE Hall of Famer with 50 years of experience in the pro wrestling business. Ross' trusted opinion and expertise led to important roles on-screen as well as behind the scenes, and now he's doubling down on one especially big mistake WWE made.
JR currently works for AEW as a commentator and Senior Adviser. In addition to being a top commentator and analyst for years, Ross worked creative for WCW and was the head of Talent Relations in WWE, among other key roles in various promotions. He was also responsible for bringing top names to WWE, such as Brock Lesnar and Big Show aka Paul Wight.
Speaking on his Grilling JR podcast, the 72-year-old discussed Survivor Series 1999, which was headlined by Big Show securing his first WWE Championship reign by winning a Triple Threat match over The Rock and then-champion Triple H. The seven-foot-tall heavyweight was replacing Steve Austin, who left to have surgery.
Ross was asked why the wrestler formerly known as The Giant was chosen for the role at Survivor Series. Responding to the question he also added that the Stamford-based promotion did not book the 52-year-old well. JR likened his 'Big Show' gimmick to Andre the Giant's character and stated that the former was overexposed while the latter was booked just right.
"Because he's seven-feet tall and weighed 300-plus pounds, Vince [McMahon] loved the size. I thought all along that we had kind of mismanaged the Big Show. I thought we over-exposed him. He was an Andre the Giant-like commodity that should have been seen less to mean more, but we just went whole-hog on that deal, man... and I thought we over-exposed the attraction. You didn’t see Andre getting overexposed, and that’s how Big Show should've been booked, but he wasn’t," Jim Ross said. [From 1:10:18 to 1:10:56]
You can watch his comments in the video below:
Big Show signed a multi-year deal with WWE and debuted on February 14, 1999, at St. Valentine's Day Massacre. His contract expired in February 2007, but he returned one year later and stayed until early 2021. He joined AEW weeks later.
Former WWE star Paul Wight's limited in-ring run with AEW
AEW signed Paul Wight in February 2021 to work as a commentator and in-ring talent. The 52-year-old has only wrestled six matches for the company.
The former Big Show made his All Elite Wrestling in-ring debut at All Out 2021, defeating QT Marshall. His next match took place later that month as he won a three-on-one match against CPA, RSP, and VSK on Dark: Elevation. Wight won another three-on-one match for Elevation a month later, this time against Carlie Bravo, Arjun Singh, and Cole Karter.
His next match took place 159 days later as he defeated Austin Green in another Elevation match. The five-time WCW champion returned to the ring 585 days later with a two-on-one dark match win over Peter Avalon and Ryan Nemeth before Collision.
The former ECW World Champion did perform on Chris Jericho's cruise this year but has not wrestled for AEW since November 15, 2023. Wight teamed with Jericho, Kenny Omega, and Kota Ibushi that night on Dynamite for a Street Fight win over Brian Cage, Kyle Fletcher, Konosuke Takeshita, and Powerhouse Hobbs.