On this day in wrestling history (4/22/96), we’re remembering the Giant beating Ric Flair for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. This is one of those moment that are mixed for many, as we often think of world championship victories as being based on what the promotion thinks is the best direction to go in. But there are times when a title changes hands to punish a wrestler or send a message to the locker room.
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Breaking in
While we now know the Giant as WWE’s Big Show, there’s no denying that at one point he had the potential to be the most dominate force in professional wrestling if he was used right. For many, myself included, Paul Wight was better as the Giant in WCW than the Big Show in the WWE. He simply seemed larger and more intimidating, manhandling many of WCW’s wrestlers until his title reigns no long served a purpose and he sank to the mid-card ranks. Or so it felt to us.
While the WWE knew how to use him, changing his name and not having him be as dominate as he could’ve/should’ve been was probably more of a tribute to Andre the Giant (Wight was originally billed as Andre the Giant’s son in WCW but is was quickly dropped). For many, Andre is the only giant, and while that may be true, it didn’t stop the WWE from using The Giant Gonzales, so that’s an argument based more on Vince McMahon’s feelings at the time than not.
Still, the WWE had a chance for Paul Wight as he showed interest in going to the WWE initially, but was turned away as he had no experience. He did go to Larry Sharpe’s Monster Factory (paying $5,000 to do so), but due Sharpe was suffering from gout at the time, so Wight was partially trained. But he did make an audition tape he gave to WWE referee Mike Chioda when the two met at a bar in Philadelphia. Chioda then gave the tape to Pat Patterson, but Patterson thought Wight was another wrestler, Kurrigan, and didn’t watch it.
Interesting enough, thanks in large part to Hulk Hogan, Wight signed with WCW after that, and when Patterson saw him debut he realized he wasn’t Kurrigan. It’s safe to say Vince McMahon wasn’t pleased.
Beating Ric Flair
After a couple of miscues at winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, Paul Wight, now as The Giant, got a shot at Ric Flair and the title.
(Special thanks to @awrestlinghistorian for the excerpt.)
“I was starting to feel like Randy and I had a good feud going. For whatever reason, Hogan wasn’t in Savage’s ear during this period and in the ring, Randy was the performer I had respected in the past. The fans were interested. I was actually looking forward to dropping the title to him one more time. Before that could happen, though, I was ordered to lose the championship to The Giant, Paul Wight, later known as the Big Show in WWE. I was happy to do the favor for Paul because he’s a nice guy, but it was stupid to prematurely end my series with Savage.
“What happened was that I had missed a show in Little Rock, Arkansas, because I’d taken my son, Reid, to compete in an amateur wrestling tournament in Columbus, Ohio. When I got to the airport, the only flight to Little Rock was canceled. This was probably the second show I’d missed in twenty-five years. Still, the company had to punish me. So The Giant became the WCW champion.” – @Ric Flair, To Be The Man book
Sometimes the drama behind the curtain is more entertaining than what we normally see.
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