"I'm making John Cena look good… can I have a shirt too?" - Former WWE Superstar on his lack of merchandise
AEW’s Paul Wight (f.k.a. The Big Show) believes he should have been given more merchandise during his time in WWE.
While some WWE Superstars have dozens of shirts available for fans to buy, Wight’s Big Show character rarely had new merchandise. After joining AEW in February 2021, Wight debuted a new shirt which includes the phrase, “No more BS.”
Speaking on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast, Wight said he was “not a merchandise guy” in the eyes of WWE's higher-ups. However, in his opinion, he was just as deserving of new merch as top WWE Superstars like John Cena:
“It seemed apropos [the 'No more BS' shirt] because you’re trying to think… I never got merch [in WWE]. I got paid to sell tickets, not sell merch. ‘You’re not a merchandise guy.’ What does that mean? I’m the one that’s making John Cena look good... can I have a shirt too? But that’s the kind of thing, you know, you take those lumps and you [say] okay and move on. You accept it because it’s written on the wall, it’s written in stone, that’s the way it is.”
Wight has previously spoken about the respect he has for Cena. His merchandise comments were said in jest and not meant as a dig at the 16-time WWE World Champion.
Paul Wight’s current WWE merchandise
Although Paul Wight is now contracted to AEW, three Big Show shirts are still available on WWE's online store.
WWE often removes WWE Superstars’ merchandise immediately after they leave the company. For example, Brock Lesnar’s merchandise was taken off the site after he became a free agent in 2020.
In Wight's case, his merchandise has remained on WWE Shop despite his recent switch to AEW.
Please credit Talk Is Jericho and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.