Eric Bischoff reveals the reason for not matching WWE’s offer for Big Show In 1998

Big Show, who went by The Giant in WCW, would jump ship to WWE from WCW. This was the opposite from what used to happen back in those days, where WWE wrestlers would go to WCW.

 


 

On his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff talks about the efforts made to retain Big Show.

“I didn’t write it in my personal diaries, I don’t remember the date but it was sometime in the summer – maybe June or July [of 1998],”

“I think Hulk Hogan had mentioned it to me. Paul was generally pretty, I don’t know, he was negative: pouty. That is the best way to describe Paul Wight.

“Paul was not a b—-. He never came to me and complain, or corner me in my office or in a locker room or on a plane. He wasn’t that way; he wasn’t pushy, but he was mopey, and you can see it. If he wasn’t happy it was pretty obvious.

Not in a mean, aggressive way. He wasn’t putting on a show, but he wore his emotions on his sleeve, which a lot of guys do that, but he was pretty obvious. He was just unmotivated is another characteristic I noticed about him. You can just tell, he didn’t want to be there.”

Bischoff said WCW had a better creative approach than WWE during that time, so he didn’t expect WWE to come up with a way to take Big Show to a new level.

“It wasn’t like, oh my God if he goes to WWE, Vince McMahon is going to sprinkle the Andre the Giant dust on him and make him the next Giant. I didn’t believe it, and when Paul came to me and told me about the offer he had received I had encouraged him to take it because there was no way I could match it despite the ‘****’ knock that I got.

There was no way I could match the money Vince McMahon offered. But number two, even if I could have I wouldn’t have because had I matched or beat the offer I would have been stuck with the same challenge that I would have leading up to that.”

Big Show has been with WWE for almost 20 years now. He recently came back on Smackdown Live and helped The Bar win the SmackDown Tag Titles.

Harrison Carter
Harrison Carter
Harrison Carter has been a huge pro wrestling fan since 2002, and it's been his first love ever since then. He has years of writing experience for all things pro wrestling. His interests outside of wrestling include films, books and soccer.

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