Big Show Talks Being On TV Too Much, His Career Winding Down, Brock Lesnar Vs. The Undertaker, More
The Big Show recently spoke with Digital Spy to promote WWE Studios' Vendetta. The full interview is at this link. Below are highlights:
You shut down Michael Cole before Battleground when he said the "R" word – retirement – but is Vendetta where you start to wind down your in-ring career and do more movies?
"I think absolutely. I've had a fantastic career – I'm still competing on a full-time schedule, but nothing good lasts forever. So eventually I'm going to have to transition out of this industry and do something else that's entertaining and exciting for me. I think a natural evolution for me would be to try to transfer over into the film and TV world and start playing different characters. Hopefully that way I can keep entertaining my fans that are fans of me, in different avenues and different spotlights. It's a natural evolution.
"Am I a little sad that my wrestling career is towards its end? Well, yeah, because this has been my life for 20 years. But I think I can continue to help some of the younger guys get over and develop and find out who they are then find a pleasant transition for myself. I'm not quite in the old folks' home yet, I've still got more to do."
You've been in the main event for a long time and have been an ever-present. Do you think because you're always there people take you for granted?
"I think so – I think the uniqueness and the special things that I bring to WWE is sometimes a little bit downplayed because you see me every week. I think that's one of the things that will happen to me eventually. I'm going to start not being on our programming as much, not being on TV every week. Hopefully when I do get a chance to come back, I'll be able to have a little bit more impact and a little bit more fun. That's part of what I should have been doing my whole career anyway. I think quite frankly I have been on TV too much, but part of it is necessity and part of it's ability.
"I'm able to work, I am able to get other talent over. I am able to carry storylines. When you're good at what you do you're going to work. That's a good thing. But from the standpoint of being an attraction, sometimes too much isn't good. So it's a difficult fine line. "I've had a great career with it and been very happy, I'm not complaining, but I think as I'm getting older – I'm 43 now – I don't wanna be on the road five days a week anymore. I really don't.
"It's one of those kind of things. I have time left on my contract here and I'll work that out, and when that contract ends I'll always be a part of WWE as long as they want me, but I think I'll go into more of a limited role. Who knows? Maybe even go into commentating or something like that. Maybe I could do pay-per-view commentating or something – special event commentating. I've only got three moves! I've only had three moves for 20 years so I don't think I can do much more."
As a man who's beaten The Beast what do you think of Brock Lesnar vs The Undertaker at SummerSlam – I'm excited but some people aren't as hot on it – what are your thoughts?
"You've got Lesnar – he's such a monster right now. He's coming off the stuff he did in MMA in the UFC and how well he did there, and the dominant Superstar he was before he left. Since he came back they've done a really good job of making Lesnar everything that he is. He is a tremendous athlete, a guy that is strong, fast and powerful, and knows how to wrestle, and has a mean streak. They've been able to capitalise on it and the biggest thing is trying to find opponents for Lesnar that are credible. Let's face it, you can't put Brock in the ring with just anybody. It's got to be somebody credible or else everybody's going to know right away that it's just not going to work.
"The fact that Lesnar broke The Streak, who is the only guy that should have, or could have ever broken The Streak – personally I would never have liked to see The Streak broken ever – but all good things come to an end. The Streak got broken. So now you have Undertaker who's making his comeback. I think Undertaker's going to be hopefully a lot more involved, and doing a lot more with us. So this should be exciting to see what those two guys pull out at SummerSlam. You've got Undertaker who's without a doubt the greatest big man of all time, versus Lesnar who's without a doubt one of the best shooters of all time. So it's going to be really interesting for me as a fan, as a friend of both of them to see what kind of match they put on at SummerSlam. It should be absolutely amazing."
Source: Digital Spy