WWE Legend Big Show Paul Wight on AEW, Acting, Tony Khan

Fred: fans can check out Marcus on iTunes and available video on demand. Of course, you are a legendary pro wrestler as well. You’re no stranger to being on the mic. I would imagine that preparing for a role though that’s mainly scripted compared to wrestling is a bit of an adjustment, isn’t it?

Paul Wight: It’s a little bit of adjustment in the fact that you don’t have the instant gratification. When you’re doing wrestling, you know right away if you’ve done something good or bad. And sometimes you can alter it and fix it because you can feel it’s going the wrong way because you have that audience. You have that audience vibe. As an actor on film, you have to trust in your other actor. You have to trust in your director. You have to trust in your own performance. Then you have to trust in the editing room. What happens in the editing room? Whether they picked the take that you thought was best or they picked the take that worked the best for the scene.

And then it has to go on film and then it’s presented to the fans. And you have to trust that in the work that you did that the fans will receive it accordingly. It’s a little bit stressful. It’s also difficult for me. I’ve never been one that can sit and watch my matches because I’ll pick it apart. I’ll expose 45 things wrong with everything in my own match. I’m brutal. I don’t watch my own stuff. Though probably some of the guys think I probably should. But anyway, same thing with acting. Like when I do a performance, I trust in the people I work with and I leave it there and then it’s up to the audience to enjoy it.

I don’t, for the lack of a better term, I don’t go sit home and mark out and watch it, you know, because I’m going to be overly critical. I’m going to ruin whatever I found in the moment that worked at the moment, you know, and I didn’t have time doing the Big Show show. Like, we had a different, you know, we were getting three rewrites a week on the Big Show show and I’d have about a day to spend with the full script and then we went straight to shooting Thursday and Friday. So, I had to learn to forget what I did last week to work on this week. And I think that was the greatest for acting and studying and preparing.

That was one of the greatest boot camps I ever could have gone through because when you’re doing a film and you’ve got a few weeks to digest the script and really understand the character, it’s completely different than, oh, I got a day and a half to get all this in and make sure I hit all the jokes and do all that. So, I look at it like the film as it’s the more time I have to prepare, the more comfortable I am.

Fred: I kind of like this recurring theme over the last one to two years for you. Getting out of your comfort zone. Did a drama, did an indie film. Another thing you’ve been doing that it’s completely new is commentary. It’s been a little over a year now since you joined All Elite Wrestling. Has your first year or so with AW been everything you expected or more?

Paul Wight: It’s been more. It’s been more actually because I, you know, when I talk to Tony and I love Tony because he’s just got this positive can do attitude that’s almost infectious. You know, he doesn’t blow smoke up your ass. You know what I mean? Or try to con you into something. You know, he’s just like, you know, when I talked to him, I says, “Well, I really want to get into commentary.” I said, “I think for me, I always want to be a part of wrestling, but I know that I can’t wrestle forever. You know, at some point, I need to still be in the business. I don’t want to be a coach. I don’t want to be a producer.

That’s not my gig. But how do I be how do I contribute and still be a part of the business?” And I said, “I want to do the commentating thing and compete a little bit.” Tonyy’s like, “Okay, I got an idea for a show for you. We’re launching this new show called Elevation, and you and Tony Schiavone will host it.” And it was like, “Okay.” Then like a week later, I was on Elevation commentating. You know, no prep time. Here it is, kid. Trust in your instincts and go. And it’s been great. Learning with Tony Schiavone, watching JR, watching Tad, learning from Excalibur. I’m starting to find that comfort role that I’m getting into and I’m also trying to copy and learn a lot from old Gorilla Monsoon stuff.

I think Gorilla Monsoon is more my style hopefully of commentary where it’s about enhancing the talent and giving some some insight onto what they may be thinking or doing and why they’re doing it from a practical sense. So hopefully it’s working. You know, just got to get the reps in. Just got to get the reps in. Definely got to get the reps.

Fred: And what was the biggest adjustment for you going from wrestling full-time or even semi-regularly to commentary?

Paul Wight: Not talking about myself. You know, for so many years in wrestling is about getting yourself over. Getting yourself over, getting yourself over. That is not the case in commentary. You’re not there to get yourself over. You’re there to get the talent in the ring over. You might not know the talent in the ring. I know when I came to like in WWE, I knew everybody that came through because I’d been there so long. I was like a concrete pillar that you had to walk through to walk into the door. So, I knew everybody from NXT. I knew when they were coming up because I was part of all those conversations that were naturally going on.

In AEW, I didn’t really know any of the talent. A lot of it was indie talent. A lot of it was new talent. A lot of them I had to build relationships with, become fans of, and just learn. So, that stressful part of it, I think, was great in doing my job because it really made me buckle down and focus on enhancing the talent and not myself.

Fred: I know you’ve mentioned in some interviews you’d like to get back to wrestling at least a little bit again. How’s your body feeling? And are the rumors true and are the rumors true about this whole Captain Insano reigniting your old Waterboy character in the ring?

Paul Wight: The rumors are true about Captain Insano. Tony and that’s one of the things Tony and I were talking about. He was talking about wrestling. I said, “Well,” I said, “We, you know, we don’t own the big show moniker. That’s WWE’se’s intellectual property.” And, you know, I still like to compete a little bit here and there. That was one of the things I wanted to do more of in WWE the last year and a half I was in WWE. I really didn’t do much. I think I wrestled Drew McIntyre after Wrestlemania and I wrestled Randy Orton. So, it was like, you know, in a year and a half, I wrestled like twice. And that was not at the time that wasn’t what I wanted.

I wanted more more interaction, more storyline. I want to compete more. But then on a serious note, I’d done everything I could do there in WWE. I need to get fresh territory and fresh things. And Tony had the idea, hey man, what about Captain Insano? And I was like, that would be fun because it’d be completely different than the big show is completely different than Paul Wight. I said, you get Captain Insano, I’ll do it. And then, you know, we worked on jumping through all the legal hoops. He got Captain Insano. We’ve designed the gear and now it’s finding the right storyline, the right talent to plug it into where it enhances the talent, doesn’t take it away from it.

Because that’s my thing. I want to enhance the AW talent. I don’t want to come in and quote unquote take anybody’s spot or become a champion and fight for championships. I think that’s I mean, of course, if business happens, you know, if that works out, I’ll do what’s best for the company. But personally, I would like to do Captain Insano a way that’s entertaining the fans and helps enhance and help bring attention to someone AW that can help them grow.

Fred: What’s the best piece of advice you give anybody for success?

Paul Wight: For success. It’s funny, I got this advice, when I first got to WWE, treat every day like your first day on the job. Every day, your first day in the job, you’re open to ideas, you’re friendly with your colleagues, you’re not too friendly, you’re open to suggestions, and you have a desire to work hard to prove yourself. That’s what most of us do our first day on the job. You know, we have that we have the right attitude. We don’t let you know, personal grievances or other people’s drama or lose our passion after doing things for a certain amount of time. And to try to keep that excitement and keep that open mind and positive.

You know, you got to keep your passion going and I think that’s the key for success is not dragging unnecessary, pardon my language, into your job, you know, enjoy your job, be thankful, especially doing it, you love doing it, then enjoy it. Don’t bring misery to it. That makes any sense? Definitely long-winded. Long-winded, but enjoy what you do. How about that?

Fred: Why should everybody watch Marcus?

Paul Wight: Well, you should watch Marcus definitely for one, it’s a great dramatic film. It’s great great acting by Owen. But it’s a great way to understand what people with mental health issues are going through. You know, it’s a great blueprint or pamphlet to understand really what’s going on with someone with mental health issues and how to have a little bit more empathy and how to help support that. I think that’s the thing and the key thing is Marcus is about a man that’s dealing with mental health issues, but Marcus is also about hope. And I think that’s important because, you know, we all struggle with things in our lives. We all have things that are daunting, but you know, the thing that keeps us going is hope.

And I think that’s a key message with Marcus as well. Hope.

Fred: You can check out Marcus via Gravitas Ventures available on demand via iTunes and all major platforms. Before I let you go, where can fans find you online and where can we find you next?

Paul Wight: Oh, well, I mean, you know, I’ve got my standard social media handles, Paul Wight at Twitter, Paul Wight at Instagram. You know, next you can catch me on AW. That’s where I’ll be. So, excellent. We’re moving and grooving. More things to come.

Fred: Love that. And hey, maybe we could do a raid, too. You know, as fellow hunters in Destiny 2.

Paul Wight: Yeah, we can do a raider, too. I’m down with that. No, that long as you know a