Big Show 1999

[The Brain]

After becoming an instant success and spending three years in WCW as The Giant, Paul Wight debuted in the WWF in early 1999 as The Big Show. While Wight was in WCW Vince McMahon made a comment that WCW had no idea how to book a giant. Even though I was 100% behind the WWF during the Monday Night War, I always found this comment interesting because I felt Vince had booked the Giant pretty poorly upon his arrival to the WWF.

The Big Show made his first appearance at the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre pay per view when he interfered in the steel cage match between Steve Austin and Vince McMahon. It was quite a visual to see a giant emerged from underneath the ring as we saw the WWF score their biggest steal from the competition since the war began. It wasn’t exactly a successful debut as Big Show threw Austin through the cage allowing him to win the match. Show was supposed to be McMahon’s secret weapon and within a minute after appearing on screen he made a mistake that cost McMahon the match. This would have been easy to overcome as the mistake at least displayed Show’s awesome power and Austin simply had to win that match but the following months didn’t do much to help Show either.

Despite the mistake during his debut Show was the newest member in McMahon’s Corporation. During the weeks leading to WrestleMania Show had tension with the leader of the Corporation, WWF Champion, The Rock. Rock would regularly belittle The Big Show taking away some of the intimidation factor from the giant. Big Show made another huge mistake at Mania when he was disqualified in his match against Mankind. The winner of the match was supposed to referee the title match later in the night. For the second month in a row McMahon had counted on Show to be his weapon in a huge match and for the second time Show made a stupid mistake to blow it. This time Vince publicly humiliated Show scolding him in the ring after the match. Show knocked Vince out and just six weeks after debuting as who we thought would be a new top heel the Big Show had turned face. Not so surprisingly the fans didn’t really seem to care that much. Normally a major star like Show turning face would be a big deal but in this case we barely got an opportunity to hate Show so turning had little impact.

For the next few months Show would just kind of linger while occasionally crossing paths with the main event stars but he didn’t have anywhere near the impact you would expect a wrestler of his stature to have. I think it would have been more interesting to keep Show heel and make him the top heel throughout at least a few months of 1999. He could have wrestled and defeated Mankind at WrestleMania which would have given him a very credible win at the biggest event of the year. The referee stipulation was not necessary. Show could have destroyed Mankind and stayed in the good graces of McMahon. Shortly after mania The Rock turned face and Austin went on to feud with Undertaker. Austin and Taker feuded throughout the second half of 1998 and I thought that feud had run its course. Besides, I was never a fan of the higher power angle anyway. I think Austin having to defend his title against a dominant giant heel would have been a better program. They had a fresh new credible challenger for Austin and decided not to use him.

Doesn’t Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Big Show seem like a natural title match and ppv main event for 1999? Would you have preferred the WWF taken this route instead of rehashing the Austin vs. Taker feud? I know a lot of people liked the higher power angle but I just wasn't buying it. Big Show would have been fresh and natural instead of a weird angle full of swerves.

 

[SharpShooter083]

I don't think WWE realized just how green Big Show was until he started with them. WCW (circa mid-late 90's) wasn't really known for their 5 star matches. Not saying they didn't have a few but it was rare. When Show came to WWE he had to step his game up big time and stumbled at first. It was a little over a year into his debut when WWE had enough and sent him down to OVW for a few months to sharpen his skills. He was nowhere near ready for a WWE Title angle in '99.

 

[NEW YORK 1989]

i love the higher power angle..i think bigshow should of be the referee for the match and cost the rock the wwe tittle and their feud would of started

 

[justtxyank]

I don't think WWE realized just how green Big Show was until he started with them. WCW (circa mid-late 90's) wasn't really known for their 5 star matches. Not saying they didn't have a few but it was rare. When Show came to WWE he had to step his game up big time and stumbled at first. It was a little over a year into his debut when WWE had enough and sent him down to OVW for a few months to sharpen his skills. He was nowhere near ready for a WWE Title angle in '99.

Hahaha.

This is called Vince-washing right here. It wasn't that Vince booked Show poorly, it was that WCW was second rate and Big Show just wasn't ready for a real promotion!

I'm sure your paycheck is in the mail!

To address the real issue, it was just poor booking. They made a mistake by letting him burn up his momentum so quickly. He came in at a bad time really because it was a time where Austin was superman and the Rock's character didn't allow him to show any respect to anyone else. It doesn't help that Vince notoriously doesn't like to promote stars from another promotion as being better than his own.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Big Show was green, but the WWF certainly didn't book him well after his debut, with him making mistakes costing matches. He should have come in and absolutely decimated some of the top faces on the roster, Mankind especially and I agree with Brain's comments on him being booked as an opponent to Austin, instead of Undertaker.

Big Show's whole career has been a let down for me. I know he has won alot of titles but he has never achieved the heights that he could have, due to lazyness, gaining weight, bad booking etc. He has always struck me as someone who is happy doing the bare minimum and coasting along instead of working hard and using his attributes to achieve great things. He's had a good career but it could have been great, and it's a damn shame it hasn't been.

 

[HBsam31]

I had to look it up but Big Show lost to Austin on a march edition of Raw in 1999 with mankind the guest ref. It was just over a month after his debut and he already had a loss to Austin under his belt. I was never a fan of Big Show, not in WCW and not in WWE, but he was booked horribly. I remember being excited that WWE finally took a guy from WCW, and I just never thought they mad Show look strong right out of the gate. The should have built he and Austin up to be a big ppv feud, not right after his debut in a match on Raw.

 

[dWs]

Hooking him into the McMahon-Austin feud immediately probably hurt a little bit. That feud already had its two big fish and McMahon had used a number of chronies to that point (Mankind/Dude Love, The Rock, Big Bossman, etc),

As an alternative to this, they could've had Big Show debut with the usual "undefeated" streak-- like how Brock Lesnar did in 2002. Have Big Show win KOTR 1999 (I know, that would've taken away Billy Gunn's KOTR win. Sorry).

A very small thing, but I think his lack of a ring name didn't help. He was first "Paul Wight", then they tried to call him "The Big Nasty" before settling on "The Big Show".

 

[Wald]

Honestly they should have held off debuting him until the night after Mania. Rock vs Austin was the nailed on feud for Wrestlemania that year so debuting just before it was always going to leave it a little flat.

I loved the image of Big Show coming up through the ring and throwing Austin off the cage however. Instead of having that in the Vince match why not have Rock vs Austin in a cage rematch the night after Mania or even at Backlash? Gives Rock an out for losing again, gives him a reason to become resentful of Mr.McMahon's new number one guy in his fight against Austin and sets us up for a Summerslam main event.

Also, the WWF debuted Big Show as Paul Wight for the first two or so weeks. Big mistake as it was confusing switching his name so early and hightlights to me that the WWF hadn't much in ways of a plan for him

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

I remember there were online rumours in 1999 that they were going to name him The Titan when he joined WWF. I was always fine with that name, because it was just that... the WWF version of The Giant. And it would have been better than using his real name. And better than The Big Show, even though Big Show eventually grew on all of us.

He lost all of his momentum almost immediately after his debut. By the end of WrestleMania XV, he was dead in the water. Just another midcarder. It took almost a year to build him back up again as a challenger, winning the WWF title at Survivor Series that year and eventually being a part of the WM2000 main event. Which, to be honest, things worked out just fine for the big man.

Perhaps he was too green. But they could have protected him better out of the gate. As some have already mentioned above he could have debuted the same as he did and then destroyed Mankind at WrestleMania, giving him some credibility as a monster big man. He then could have feuded with Austin after Backlash instead of Undertaker. He could have main evented Over The Edge and King of the Ring as Vince/Shane's monster vs Austin. It was the attitude era, so I doubt they would have dragged that feud on until SummerSlam. The rest of 1999 could have occurred as it did, with the rise of Triple H and babyface Rock. Big Show could have tagged with Undertaker as they did before the Shane/Big Show alliance eventually getting him the title in the fall.

In the end, things would have turned out the way they did anyways. Just that they could have made some more money off of the mystique of the Big Show earlier on in 1999.