A former WWE legend and World Champion spoke about crossing over to AEW from the sports entertainment juggernaut several years ago. The star in question, Paul Wight, reportedly signed a new deal with the Tony Khan-led company some time earlier this year.
The Giant had signed with All Elite Wrestling back in February of 2021, signing with the promotion as an announcer for its YouTube streaming program Dark: Elevation. He serves AEW as a sporadic broadcast personality, and was even featured on Ring of Honor as a member of the company’s on-screen “Board of Directors”. Furthermore, the former World Heavyweight Champion has been in action a few times in All Elite Wrestling as well, although he has not been inside the squared circle in over a couple of years.
During his recent interview with Joey Franchize, Paul Wight was asked for his thoughts on why he had jumped ship to AEW following his WWE exit. The World’s Largest Athlete explained that one major reason why he signed with All Elite Wrestling was his desire to continue competing. He then brought up some of the veterans who were on call and at work backstage in the company, including Billy Gunn, QT Marshall, Adam Copeland and Christian Cage.
“When I started in AEW, with Tony Khan, the biggest thing was, I could compete. That was the biggest hang-up for me, I wanted to still compete. There’s a lot of guys that are great trainers, and great guys backstage- Billy Gunn, amazing trainer, QT Marshall, amazing trainer…. There’s great producers backstage. You got, Bryan Danielson’s around there a lot. There’s a lot of.. Adam, Christian, there’s a lot of great minds back there. That’s not my gig.”
Wight explained that his personal specialty as a mentor figure lay in coaching budding talent and refining their timing and presentation while sharing the ring with them.
“My thing where I can help out is being in the ring with guys. ‘Cause you understand, when I worked, and did my best work, was working five days a week, for twenty five years, work with all the young talents who were coming through, from Kofi and Woods and Big E, all those guys, Rusev, Cesaro, all those guys I was on the road with five nights a week, we were working and I was in there with them mixing it up,. And we were learning about timing and presentation, and a lot of that stuff is where I can help the younger talent.” .
When was Paul Wight last seen in action in AEW?
Paul Wight’s last AEW match till date took place on the November 15, 2023 edition of AEW Dynamite. On the show, The Giant teamed up with his former WWE tag partner Chris Jericho, and with The Golden Lovers, to take on and defeat Brian Cage, Powerhouse Hobbs, Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher in a Street Fight.
More recently, Wight appeared as an announcer at last year’s Full Gear PPV pre-show to call the action for RPG Vice vs Big Boom AJ and QT Marshall. A report from this past May claimed that the legend had signed a new deal to continue his tenure in All Elite Wrestling.
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Edited by Anurag Mukherjee