The Big Show On His Issues With The NWO In WCW, Advice From Randy Savage
As previously noted, WWE Hall Of Famer Steve Austin recently welcomed WWE Superstar Big Show to Broken Skull Sessions. Among many other things, Big Show talked about the difficulty he faced coming up in WCW.
According to Big Show, he faced many challenges being an inexperienced big man in WCW and having to deal with the promotion's big stars. 'The Giant' admitted that he was not equipped to deal with the politics of WCW.
"Everybody I was working with were my heroes and I'm not going to tell Ric Flair what to do. I'm not going to say 'no' to Hulk Hogan giving me a bodyslam." Big Show continued, "it's a very difficult place to be in. [Turning down a big star's idea] has to come from a place of respect and you have to have a valid reason that makes sense in a psychological way in the match of why you shouldn't do it right then or why you shouldn't do it at all.
"When you're green, you don't have that skillset. You don't have that skillset to politick, you don't have the experience to hold your ground, and if there is a good top guy that's working with you, that's concerned about you, they'll listen, 'yeah, maybe you're right.' If it's a top guy that [thinks], 'ha, screw this kid – I'm going to get over,' well, it doesn't happen."
During the interview, Big Show shared some of the advice he received from WWE Hall of Famer Randy Savage during their time together in WCW.
"Knowledge seeped in, but it took a while for me to process it and put it in the right place. Like, I listened to everything everybody said. But, again, everybody is giving me all these numbers and equations, but no one has taught me how to do math yet. So I got everything, and once I got the formula, I put it all together and knocked it out." Big Show recalled, "but Randy was always really big on, [imitating Savage] 'less is more, brother. Less is more.' And, 'if you think you're going too fast, slow down.' What was the other one? 'Don't try to run with the Joneses. Keep that credit card in your wallet. If Hulkster wants to pay, let him pay' because I used to always get upset. We'd be eating, and Hulk would always pay, and I would try to carry my own weight because, 'hey, I'm not a freeloader,' but Randy would [say], 'keep that credit card in your pocket. Don't spend it. Don't run with the Joneses. Let Hogan pay.' Years later, I found out that Randy still held onto his communion money."
Also during the conversation, Big Show expressed to Austin his negative view of nWo. In retrospect, Big Show sees that he should beaten one of 'Hollywood' Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, or Scott Hall after dropping the world title rather than joining the faction.
"The nWo is going into the Hall Of Fame for WWE this year and that's great. I'm happy for those guys, but the nWo, now that I'm older, I want to give them a double 'Stone Cold' salute. I mean, and this is me personally talking, great faction in the Attitude Era, but if you look at what the nWo did business-wise, it kept the Attitude Era hot – all that stuff – I join the nWo because they beat me, and threw a party on me, and then they didn't want to give me a return, so they didn't want the comeuppance back, so the best way [around it], 'yeah, brother, come on, too sweet.' I was young and naive. Those guys weren't naive, Scott [Hall], Kevin [Nash], and [Hogan]. They weren't naive. 'We'll put this big guy on our side' because I was green and I was easily pushed along. It should have been, 'yeah, I'll drop the title, but one of y'all is going to have to feed me eventually.'"
Big Show noted, "yeah, they got one over on me a lot and they got one over on a lot of guys too."
Big Show, who served as the 2020 Children's Gasparilla Parade, found that WCW was no walk in the park and was looking to leave WCW as soon as the nWo began to get out of hand.
"I was disillusioned by WCW. I was the youngest guy there by 10, 12 years anyway. I was like everybody's kid brother in WCW. Like, I was a young kid. I had a good personality. I wasn't a jackass. Everybody had fun with me."
Big Show recalled, "I knew the writing was on the wall when all the nWo stuff was going on. Before, when a heel talked trash to a babyface, the babyface gave him a look, and the heel would sell or react. With the nWo stuff, if a babyface did that, the heels would go 'ooh?' The babyfaces are buried. It's done. They're cool. That's awesome, but those were guys that were experienced. They weren't bumping and feeding. They were getting over on promos on the microphone. The fans were loving it because, 'oh, these guys are cool,' but they're heels, so your babyface are buried. Who gets your heat? If you're doing cool stuff with an attitude, you're not going to be a heel. You're going to be a babyface."
With respect to Bischoff, Big Show divulged that he had generally positive dealings with Bischoff in WCW, but 'Easy E' was highly influenced by others at the time.
"Good, I mean, I think Bischoff, at the time, working with me, saw a lot of potential with me and what we were doing, but I think, at the same time, it was a hard position for Bischoff to be in because he had a lot on his plate that he wasn't prepared to handle, in a lot of ways because he was young then too. And, Eric, I felt like, at the time, was very influenced by who was sitting next to him, whether he was sitting next to [Hogan] or whether he was sitting next to Scott and Kevin. And those guys are the greatest [at] making you feel like the most important guy in the room." Big Show remembered, "and he was like a pendulum swinging left, swinging right, swinging left, swinging right."
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