Jim Ross On Vince McMahon Signing The Big Show

The Big Show is one of WWE’s most popular stars. After spending time in WCW, The Big Show aka Paul Wight signed with WWE in 1999. 

During a recent episode of Jim Ross’ podcast, JR opened up about signing The Big Show.

Here’s what he had to say:

On how hot Vince McMahon was to sign Show: “Very hot. Shane was probably hotter. Shane, when I started talking to Paul Wight, aka The Big Show, or The Giant, creatively named … Shane asked me every day how things were going. And I said, ‘Shane, I told you the other day I’m gonna meet him on Friday. Today’s Wednesday. Things are going exactly the same as the last time you asked me yesterday afternoon. So everybody was motivated to get him.”

On making the pitch to recruit Show: “I remember going down and recruiting him, and I think Jerry Brisco was with me in Tampa. Because Jerry knew his way around, and there wasn’t no Uber at that point. And we went to Big Show’s condo on the water. Beautiful place. And he was eating protein, like unbelievable amounts of protein. Like beans and meat. Beans and meat. I told him, I said, ‘Man, I wouldn’t want to go on any long car trips with you with all those damn beans. Because your farts could contain methane and could shatter glass.’

“And then we found out that his junior college basketball coach at Northern Oklahoma Junior College was the guy that I officiated basketball for when I was working the [junior college] circuit. And Paul played for him at Northern Oklahoma JuCo in Tonkawa, Oklahoma before he went to Wichita State. So we had a little common ground there, but he was a big get for us, no pun intended. But we really, really wanted Paul Wight in the company. And it was a good hire, because even though he wasn’t always booked strategically. Even though I thought he was drastically overexposed.”