Chris Jericho revealed he invited Big Show aka Paul Wight to an AEW show when he was still under WWE contract to try to get him a pay raise with Vince McMahon with a new contract.
MIBer3 recapped on the Squared Circle Reddit quotes from Talk is Jericho.
Paul says it was “brutal” leaving WWE. “Because you do have friends, and you do have family, because you’ve got people you’ve spent over 20+ years with. You have relationships, you have people that you look forward to seeing. And then you have to know that, look, I have to leave. There’s nothing here for me to do anymore, except go in a direction that I’m ready to go in. I didn’t want to be a Sgt. Slaughter.”
Paul talks about his experience doing “The Big Show Show.” He says that it was nerve-wracking but something he really wanted to try, and was very happy with it. He confirms that “The Big Show Show” was not renewed by Netflix, and cites some unfortunate circumstances around the show and it’s timing. He says that WWE was supposed to promote it more, but it was around the same time they were in a panic trying to figure out what to do with WrestleMania. “We had a billboard in Times Square, but Times Square was shut down due to Covid.” He says that he’s been in talks with a writer about putting together “a different kind of show.”
Chris talks about inviting Paul down to an AEW show in Miami (which Paul’s wife actually came to), “I told [your wife] if he wants a raise, tell him to come down here and take a picture with me – he’ll get a raise the next day.” Paul says, “Even if they would have offered more money, it’s just a point where there’s nothing there for me to do. To sell out would have been to take the money and stay, because I would have been giving up on a lot of passion.”