Wrestling / Big Show

The world's biggest knockout punch.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEELL... IT'S THE BIG SHOOOOOOOOOOOW!

Paul Donald Wight II (born February 8, 1972) is an American professional wrestler currently working for All Elite Wrestling. Standing at 7'2" (218 cm) tall and weighing 440 pounds (200 kg) (he used to be even heavier, but has dropped a lot of weight recently), he is billed as the "World's Largest Athlete". He had been with WWE from 1999 to 2021 under his best-known ring name (The) Big Show, and had worked in WCW as The Giant before that. (He was even billed as the son of André the Giant, though there's no relation.) His title is not just for show, as he's one of the most athletic "giant" professional wrestlers. He is a 2x WCW World Heavyweight Champion, a 2x WCW World Tag Team Champion^note With Sting and with Scott Hall, a 2x WWE Champion, a 2x WWE World Heavyweight Champion, a 3x WWE World Tag Team Champion^note Twice with The Undertaker and once with Kane, a 3x WWE Hardcore Champion, a 3x WWE Tag Team Champion^note Once with Chris Jericho, once with The Miz and once with Kane and a 1x WWE ECW Heavyweight Champion. He is the only wrestler in history to have won the WWE, WCW and ECW World Championships and he is literally one of the most decorated wrestlers in the history of sport-entertainment.

In 2020, he starred in The Big Show Show on Netflix.

Not related to Our Wights Are Different.

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"WEEEELLL, WELL IT'S THE BIG TROPES! IT'S THE BIG BAD TROPES TONIGHT!":

• Arch-Enemy:
  • In WCW: Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Sting.
  • In WWE: The Undertaker, Kane, John Cena, The Corre, Mark Henry, and Daniel Bryan. Cody Rhodes for their WrestleMania feud and match. Recently has included Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio. Then his main archenemies were The Authority, before he willingly joined them. Big Cass after Great Balls of Fire until Summerslam 2017. Let's not forget his feud against Big Boss Man since it was very personal considering that the man desecrated his father's grave (kayfabe of course).
• The Artifact: Until 2009, Wight kept wearing the black, one strap singlet long after he stopped being billed as André the Giant's son.
• Artistic License – Physics: even his strongest opponents wouldn't be able to lift or suplex him unless Big Show helps them by cooperating with the move.
• Ass Kicks You: Known to attack opponents with his huge rear end by shoving it backwards to break out of a hold from behind, or by smashing opponents into the turnbuckle with it. As Paul Heyman humorously put it: "that's a whole lotta ass comin' at ya!"
• Bash Brothers: (in WCW): "The Taskmaster" Kevin Sullivan, Lex Luger, Sting; (in WWE): The Undertaker, Kane, Chris Jericho
• Berserk Button:
  • Mention his 45-second World Championship reign around him. Go on. We dare you.
  • Prior to signing with AEW in 2021, calling him by his real name would hack him off.
  • He's not too thrilled about his "son of Andre the Giant" gimmick either.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • He showed up on October 14, 2013 of Raw to help Cody Rhodes and Goldust fight The Shield and win their Tag Team Champions. As Triple H came out later and raged at him, Show then led the crowd into chanting "YES!" after the former forbade anyone to do.
  • Subverted during The Undertaker and Stephanie’s "wedding", where he manages to take down most of the Ministry of Darkness but is quickly subdued by The Undertaker with a baseball bat. Ultimately, it's "Stone Cold" Steve Austin who takes down The Undertaker and saves Stephanie.
• Big Fun: In real life, he's a funny guy. In 2000 and 2001, he impersonated other wrestlers (i.e. The Showster, or dressing up as DDP), and he has memorable cameos in The Waterboy and Jingle All the Way. He was even part of The Rock's first Saturday Night Live Appearance (along with Vince McMahon and Mick Foley) and spent most of his first segment carrying Chris Kattan over his shoulder, asking if he could keep Chris as a pet.
• The Big Guy: Usually towered over the majority of heels during his face runs.
• Bigger Stick: In a chairs match against Sheamus, Show pulled out possibly the largest steel chair ever used in a WWE match. It helped him win.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Unfortunately, Sheamus would use the same chair on Show the next day, almost costing Big Show his title.
• Boring, but Practical: One of his Finishing Moves, the WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) is...a punch. But if you've seen the size of the guy's hands (which Jim Ross has compared to catcher's mitts), you'd probably buy someone not being able to get up for a while after he hits them in the jaw. And to be fair, he does try to distinguish it by only using body-blows and headbutts as his regular strikes now.
• Broken Tears: Shed these when Eddie Guerrero died. Understandable, the guy was beloved by all his collegues.
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • JBL compares opponents who tease and taunt Show to poking a bear.
  • In 2004, Chavo Guerrero Jr. got offended at Big Show, apparently for some observations about small wrestlers he took at face value, and insulted him. Big Show ignored Chavo, but the latter was still fired up and ended attacking him physically, so Paul answered by sending him flying with a single push into a group of wrestlers, who promptly broke it up.
  • During his WCW run as the Giant, Big Show was having a drink in a hotel bar after a show in Nassau when a wannabe tough guy started hassling him. The guy started accusing Show of not being that tough and saying he should go to another wrestling company, and Show politely asked the guy to leave him alone. He was finally set off when the guy shoved him, and broke the guy's jaw with one Megaton Punch. Despite the guy being 6'6" and 220 pounds, Show outclassed him by six inches and 200 pounds of muscle. Show faced assault charges, but was acquitted because he was clearly defending himself. Here's a recap of the story with local news footage.
• The Brute/Evil Is Bigger: As a heel.
• Captain Ersatz: Fire Pro Wrestling put him, or rather the approximate likeness of his WCW Giant days, on the cover of the Gameboy Advance entry.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Most of his Face Heel Turns (and there have been quite a few of them) come from directly betraying supposed friends or teammates in the middle of matches. That betrayal usually comes in the form of a punch to the face.
• Combat Commentator: He was brought into AEW to do colour commentary on AEW Dark Elevation, the company's Monday YouTube show, alongside first Tony Schiavone and later Mark Henry, but he's also been medically cleared to wrestle and has had a few matches, although they've pretty much all been exhibition squashes.
• Continuity Nod: During the Smackdown after Vengeance 2011 (in which Mark Henry superplexed him to destroy the whole ring), he came out to the ring and sheepishly said "I did it again!" All while all the commentators (especially Michael Cole, who was at the first incident) were trying to claim that they've never seen anything like it.
• Cool Chair: During a feud with Sheamus, he unveiled a supersized version of a Steel Chair as his new weapon.
• Create Your Own Villain: Big Show certainly had a small habit of this in 2011. First, during his feud with Alberto Del Rio, he had a match on Smackdown against the already angry and motivated World's Strongest Man Mark Henry, during which he repeatedly Knockout Punched Henry to the point he had to be stretchered out. No wonder Henry went absolutely Ax-Crazy into full-on Scary Black Man territory. Then during Big Show's revenge-for-revenge return feud against Henry later that year, when Henry started having issues with Money in the Bank winner Daniel Bryan, Show was the one who prodded Bryan to cash in against Henry and thus break his promise to wait for the next WrestleMania (although Henry's attacks certainly helped that along). Bryan would try twice against Henry, the first not even getting off the ground and the second being a false alarm. Third time would be the charm…against Big Show himself. Cue Show's dubious distinction of being the shortest-reigning world champion in history and Bryan's recent case of Acquired Situational Narcissism…and dick moves.
• David Versus Goliath:
  • Due to the drastic size difference between him and everybody else, just about any feud he can get into will come off as this trope...and Big Show ain't David; that much is for certain. That said, many of his feuds pit him against wrestlers that are even smaller than normal to accentuate just how much bigger he is than a normal person (a 'small' guy on the wrestling spectrum is usually at or perhaps slightly above the size of the average man). We live in a world where Rey Mysterio Jr. can believably beat Big Show. Outside of the ring, however, he has a good relationship with Rey Mysterio, with them being on Tag Teams together, thus combining his strength with Mysterio's speed.
  • His match with Loch Ness in WCW, and his WWE matches with The Great Khali, Viscera/Big Daddy V, and probably Mark Henry would count as Goliath vs. Goliath.
• Death from Above:
  • Especially given his size, he was incredibly agile and fast in his younger days, capable of jumping from the top rope like a cruserweight, doing Missile Dropkicks and even freakin' Moonsaults. However, he had to stop for the sake of his opponents' safety as not even Kevin Nash was willing to get hit from a guy the size of The Big Show jumping from the top rope (understandably).
  • During his match with WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan at NWO Souled Out in January 1997, he actually did a flying elbow drop from the freaking top rope. OHGODRUN. The problem was that this PPV was hosted by NWO heels Eric Bischoff and Ted DiBiase (Sr.), and they made no effort to put it over on commentary, as the idea of the show was to bury the regular WCW guys.
  • He brought the top rope elbow back years later against Mark Henry.
  • On occasions he'll try the Vader Bomb like drop from the second rope
• Defeat by Irony: The WMD-user was himself punched out by a brass-knuckle-using Floyd Mayweather, Jr. at WrestleMania XXIV.
• Deadly Dodging: Show both suffered and benefited from this in his match against Rhyno for the Hardcore title. Show charged at Rhyno outside the ring, only for Rhyno to dodge and make Show injure his arm on the ring post. Rhyno then started attacking Show's arm with weapons, in between bashing him over the head. Eventually, Rhyno moved Show into the corner and ran at him with the Gore, but Show got a steel chair up between them. Rhyno rammed head-on into the chair, and was too dazed to keep Show from kicking a trash can in his face and then chokeslamming him to win the title.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: One Show's proudest achievement in his 20 plus year long career is giving Brock Lesnar his first pinfall loss in singles match in Survivor Series 2002. He is also one of the few wrestlers in history who can claim to have defeated The Undertaker clean during The Deadman's 30+ years career.
• Determinator: There's a very good reason he's only been competed against in Last Man Standing matches three times in WWE history; it took chloroform, a beat-down from Test and a 40-plus-foot elbow drop for Shane McMahon to beat him the first time. The second time, it took Alberto Del Rio flinging a set of solid steel steps at him three times and dumping an entire announce table on top of him to keep him from getting up for the 10-count. The third time, Roman Reigns would dump the announce table on Show as well to win the match. Otherwise, it's nearly impossible to keep this giant down for long.
• Disproportionate Retribution/What the Hell, Hero?: Big Show destroying Jack Swagger's trophy collection. Sure, Jack Swagger was acting like an obnoxious jerk, but to destroy the man's life work may have been going too far.
  • The Great Khali once gave him a feast and a goat as a present. Big Show responded by giving him the Knockout Punch.
  • Averted with his actions toward Mark Henry; pretty much an eye for an eye...or, in this case, an ankle for an ankle.
  • Really, Show, it probably wasn't necessary to knock out Alex Riley and Yoshi Tatsu just for making fun of you backstage.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": One of the trope namers (the other being Triple H).
  • However, once appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and, at the end of the segment, Leno referred to him as "Paul 'The Giant' Wight".
  • In the credits for The Waterboy, he was credited as "Paul 'The Giant' Wight."
    • It should be noted that, upon his introduction to WWE in 1999, he was introduced as "Big Nasty" Paul Wight, and then as "Big Show" Paul Wight, before dropping his real name.
  • When he signed with AEW in 2021, he did so as "Paul Wight"- obviously he couldn't go by the name "Big Show" outside of WWE, and he hadn't been "The Giant" for over 20 years.
• The Dog Bites Back: He got real tired of being Triple H's mook and doing his business. This led to him getting fired, of course; this also led to him not being afraid of doing more harm, like making sure the tag team titles ended up in the hands of Cody Rhodes and Goldust.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: His exit from WCW happened when Eric Bischoff, who'd been temporarily demoted to ring crew, sabotaged the ring in such a way as to cost Show a match. After that he was kept off the air until his contract expired.
• Enemy Mine: Provokes this on the last Smackdown. After pulling a Screw This, I'm Outta Here on a vengeful Alberto Del Rio. Sheamus and later the Smackdown roster comes out and attacks him.
  • Ironically, he later forms one with Sheamus and Randy Orton to combat the Shield. He admits he hates both of them, but he hates the Shield more.
• Evil Is Hammy: When The Giant was in the Dungeon Of Doom, he was an absolute hoot to watch, particularly when he crushes Hogan's motorcycle in his monster truck. The lengthy Evil Laugh he does just shows that Paul Wight was having a blast in that role.
• Evil Is Petty: The Giant and Kevin Sullivan shaving off Hulk Hogan's mustache.
• Finishing Move: Originally, it was the Chokeslam (or Showstopper as it was first named in WWE). It's currently the WMD/Knockout Punch.
  • He also used a spinning headlock elbow drop that he called the Final Cut, and a legdrop takedown also called the Showstopper.
• Flashback Within a Flashback: After weeks of Cody Rhodes playing Big Show's embarrassing WrestleMania moments on the Titantron, Big Show finally beats Rhodes at WrestleMania XXVIII. On a subsequent RAW, Big Show comes out and plays a highlight of that match. The next week, Big Show shows a clip of himself showing the WrestleMania clip from last week.
• Fleeting Demographic Rule: Hey, remember when Big Show was supersuplexed off the top rope by his opponent in which the ring broke? Now, are we talking his 2003 match with Brock Lesnar, his 2011 match with Mark Henry, or his 2017 match with Braun Strowman?
• Friend to All Children: As a face. He usually picks one out of the front row of the crowd to give his skullcap.
• Friendly War: With Mark Henry. Big Show had a long period of tension with him, even with some spites between theme here and there. However in the 2010's, it's shown that Henry is one of his best friends in the WWE, with Show even saying that they're like brothers from another mother, and in April 2018, when Mark Henry retired, he took the honor to induct him in the Hall of Fame. After Mark Henry showed up, Big Show gave him a brief hug and kissed his bald head, as seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLgQnFreGWo.
• Fun with Acronyms: At the time Big Show went over to WWE, WCW was still in action - with both Thunder and WCW Saturday Night running on Turner station TBS.
• Gentle Giant: In Real Life, the guy is a big teddy bear. Sometimes, this appears in the ring or on camera (such as his cameo on SNL when the Rock hosted where, despite being a heel, he acted like a big goof.), like in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxCwZ2bz2cQ, where he gives his hat to a young boy in 2012 while entering the ring. He also loves to meet his fans and would do everything to entertain them.
  • Watching him bawl over Ric Flair's retirement comes to mind, as well as his show of emotion at Eddie Guerrero's memorial show.
  • This.
• The Giant: Well, duh. He was born with acromegaly, the same disorder that made (and ultimately killed) André the Giant (hence why he was billed as André's son in WCW). Pituitary gland surgery when he was a teenager stopped his out-of-control growth. It was only his ring name in WCW. They still call him this by way of a pseudo-Red Baron in WWE, too. Incidentally, he used to wrestle in a fairly traditional manner and had to learn "giant wrestling" while in WWE.
  • Flair had him in the Figure Four, and Show broke it by just reaching out and grabbing him.
• Giant Mook: Is often the obvious go-to guy for when a Power Stable needs one of these. This may be a partial reason for his constant tiptoeing through the Heel–Face Revolving Door.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: During his WCW feud with Sting when they still held the WCW World Tag Team Championships and had aligned with separate nWo factions, he'd come to the ring puffing on a cigarette to demonstrate his general evilness.
• Graceful Loser: Despite Daniel Bryan cashing in Money In The Bank on him, he took it rather well. Of course, his goal was to take the title from Mark Henry as revenge, so he still won.
  • Subverted. Mentioning the fact that he held the World Heavyweight Championship for all of a couple of minutes (in storyline, they exaggerate it a bit and say 45 seconds) after a nine-year drought...tends to get Show a bit irritated.
• Groin Attack: Sometimes become a victim of this because Big Show is just too strong for them if they don't play dirty, either from his opponent like Ric Flair here or just a cheating third party like Trish Stratus here. Most of the time, however, he appears to be keep his stand instead of crumple on the ring and still able to continue the match, unless his opponent is disqualified (which unfortunately often not for various reasons).
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Makes sense that he's tagged with Kane on multiple occasions; only Kane has gone through the door more times than Big Show over the last decade in the company.
  • He was like this in WCW too. He started as a heel in the Dungeon of Doom against Hulk Hogan, became a face to fight Hogan and the nWo, became even more of a heel when he joined the nWo, became a face when the nWo kicked him out in early 1997, then went heel again by rejoining the nWo in mid-1998 and stayed that way until he left in early 1999.
    • He hung around Lex Luger a lot in WCW, who has a long history of this.
    • His various turns have been chronicled by wrestling historians. His total turn count: 33 and counting.
    • Even Show himself has talked semi-jokingly about being dizzied and confused by all the turns.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Lampshaded by Show the night after TLC, explaining that he can't really complain about losing the World Title right after he won it, since he was the one to encourage Bryan to cash in the MITB briefcase before WrestleMania. Doesn't mean he's any less ticked about it, though...
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: When he had Joy Giovanni as his on-screen girlfriend. He was the Huge Guy to her Tiny Girl.
• I Did What I Had to Do: His attitude toward his betrayals towards Cena. Also his breaking a wannabe tough guy's jaw with a single punch in a bar, because the guy kept harassing him and eventually got physical.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: At Survivor Series 2014, he betrayed Team Cena by punching out John Cena and walking away from the ring because he thought Team Authority would win and he'd be fired. Ironically, Team Cena won and the Authority was stripped of their power. Needless to say, this made things the next night awkward.
  • One month later, Seth Rollins, who was still aligned with the Authority at the time, threatened to curbstomp Edge, who had retired due to multiple neck injuries that would leave him paralyzed, and Cena, who was the only one that could bring back the Authority, had no choice but to yield to Seth Rollins' demands to re-instate Stephanie and Triple H, with Team Cena's short-lived victory lasting only one month.
• Incoming Ham: His theme music starts with "WEEELL, WELL IT'S THE BIG SHOW!"
• Jerkass: His Heel persona is much more effective than most giants - he takes the usual monster heel persona that most giants play as heels and adds a very liberal helping of smugness.
• Karma Houdini: Mark Henry takes him out for three months in retaliation for the Big Show constantly punching Mark Henry with his finisher move over and over and over and over again. Though when he returns, the Big Show is able to somehow seek revenge on Mark Henry and the whole thing about Big Show being the instigator of the entire thing is wiped from his history. So Big Show gets to be the innocent victim and his initial unprovoked violent attack on Mark Henry doesn't get a mention.
  • To be fair Big Show warned Henry not to come into the ring but Henry came in anyway.
  • Not to mention Mark Henry lost any kind of sympathy he would have garnered once he started making a habit of breaking people's ankles with chairs.
• Large Ham: His Heel–Face Turn in 2000 had him imitating various wrestlers a la the Blue World Order, climaxing with him dressing up as Hulk Hogan for Backlash.
  • Oh my god, most of his recent promos, period.
  • The Heel–Face Turn mentioned above came about as a result of a Saturday Night Live episode featuring The Rock as host and guest appearances from a variety of other WWF talent. Of all the wrestlers to appear, Show was the biggest ham by far (in more ways than one), and most viewers agreed he had stolen the show.
• Laser-Guided Karma: His brutal treatment of Kofi Kingston, Brodus Clay, Alex Riley, R-Truth, Santino Marella, and Zack Ryder in the weeks leading up to his match with John Cena came back to bite him in the backside when all six of them came to Cena's aid during the steel cage match to help Cena win.
  • He betrayed Team Cena at Survivor Series 2014 because he thought they were going to lose...they didn't, and the Authority was powerless.
• Legacy Character: Before joining WWE and receiving his Big Show title, originally got his big-league start at WCW as "The Giant", the son of the late André the Giant (who had been dead for only two years before the gimmick was pushed). Part of this was sold on Wight having suffered from acromegaly, a disorder giving both men their immense size, and he would boast that he was "the son of a giant", wear the iconic one-strap singlet of his "father", do things like rip off Hulk Hogan's crucifix necklace (evoking the image of Andre ripping Hogan's shirt as a challenge to WrestleMania III), etc. To this day, Wight apparently still receives awkward comments from fans about how much they loved his dad.
• Lightning Bruiser: For a giant, especially one who's clearly gained some pounds over the years, he's surprisingly nimble. When Andre was Big Show's age, he could barely move. In his younger days, Big Show was just as fast and agile as any wrestler despite his immense size, and could even do some over the top moves you'd normally expect from a cruserweight like Missile Dropkicks and Moonsaults.
• Manly Tears: When he won the Intercontinental Title against Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 28. By itself, it wouldn't have been a big deal for someone of his tenure and accomplishments, but up to that point, Show had put together a spotty-at-best record at WrestleMania (a fact brought up by Cody during the feud). Not to mention his win of the Intercontinental title made him a WWE Grand Slam Champion ^note To become a Grand Slam Champion, it is required to have held a tertiary (European/Hardcore) title, a tag team title, the Intercontinental Championship, and either the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship, one of only twelve men to hold such an honor under the original system. ^note The other eleven are Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kane, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, Jeff Hardy, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, and Christian. Given that, due to some of the belts being permanently retired, there are only four active wrestlers left that could possibly accomplish the feat (those being The Undertaker, who is short the Intercontinental Championship; William Regal, who needs the Heavyweight or WWE Championship; Mark Henry, who needs a tag team and Intercontinental champion; and R-Truth... yes, you read that right, he needs the Intercontinental and either the Heavyweight or WWE Championships), all four of them are over 40 and the only one that works a full-time schedule is the least likely to do it (R-Truth^note He held the WWE Hardcore Title as K-Kwik, the WWE Tag Team Titles with Kofi Kingston, and the WWE United States Title, and thus would need to hold the IC Title and either the WWE Championship Title or the WWE World Heavyweight Title and has been largely a career midcarder), Show may well be the last one to accomplish the feat under the original rules. ^note It was amended in 2015 to include the United States championship as the new tertiary and in 2016 to include the Universal Championship. Show qualifies for both with his US title reign.
• Megaton Punch: His current finisher. And it's just as devastating in real life. Show broke a man's jaw with one punch, and the man he hit was pretty big himself. See Bullying a Dragon above for details.
• Mighty Glacier: Despite the multitude of injuries over his long career slowing him down and staying as a commentator most of the time, he's still a credible threat and is by far the largest man in AEW. With majority of the AEW roster being comprised of cruiserweights, this means that the rare cases where he actually steps into the ring has him absolutely squash his opponents.
• Mood-Swinger: Show is an absolute master of selling emotions. His facial expressions can be read from a mile off. And when the script has him cry, damn it if he doesn't go all out with that either.
• Mundane Made Awesome: A punch becomes the Weapon of Mass Destruction due to the size of his hands.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Had this reaction after accidentally bowling over A.J. Lee in an attempt to chase Daniel Bryan. He got yelled at for doing so, but his regret was genuine, and he even cried. Also had this reaction when he was forced to KO Punch Dusty Rhodes, as seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO4dE-L2yy4. He even murmured I'm so sorry... while hugging him in tears before doing it, and when he hit him, he gently layed him on the ground.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero / Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While he typically averts Does Not Know His Own Strength, every now and then Show will be so focused on destroying his opponent he'll accidentally throw himself under the bus. Prime example, his entrance into the WWE was interfering in a steel cage match to cost "Stone Cold" Steve Austin the victory... Only to accidentally throw him against the side of the cage so hard it broke open and Austin landed on the outside.
• Oh, Crap!: He reacted this way when Cody Rhodes dropkicked him off the apron in a tables match at Extreme Rules 2012 for the Intercontinental Championship Show won at WrestleMania from Cody. His foot promptly proceeded to go through a table. The referee saw this and the victory went to Cody, along with the Championship. Show was not happy afterwards.
  • He also tends to CAUSE this reaction whenever he appears in the Royal Rumble, every wrestler in the the ring uniting to attack him due to the rules saying that a wrestler can be defeated only by being thrown out of the ring over the third rope.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Had this towards Sheamus in their feud for the World Heavyweight Championship. He even prevented Ziggler from cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase.
• Papa Wolf: For the brief time he protected Joy Giovanni from JBL and The Cabinet. He also did something similiar with her when Kurt Angle walked in on her in the locker room. This infuriated Big Show, as he chased him into the ring and beat him up for it.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He had some shades of this in his 2012-2013 WWE World Heavyweight Championship run, mocking Sheamus's and Del Rio's respective Irish and Hispanic heritages.
• Potty Emergency: Eddie Guerrero once gave The Big Show a tainted burrito as revenge for Big Show spitting in Eddie's. Later that night in the middle of a match, Big Show had to flee the ring clutching his butt to find a bathroom backstage, losing the match by a count-out. While he eventually did find a bathroom in time, Eddie walked in to inform the Big Show that he'd conveniently removed all of the toilet paper, and then kicked the door to Big Show's stall in.
• Power Stable:
  • (in WCW): The Dungeon of Doom
  • (in WCW): The NWO. Twice
  • (in WWE): The Corporation
  • (in WWE): The Union
  • (in WWE): The NWO. Again.
  • (in WWE): The Authority. Twice.
• Put on a Bus:
  • He was sent down to WWE's developmental territory, Ohio Valley Wrestling, in 2000 to lose weight. This is why he was absent from WWE television for a good chunk of 2000 and from both WWF No Mercy and WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role, although his leftovers were still sneaked in both. The Bus Came Back at the Royal Rumble in 2001.
  • Happened again in 2006, when Show left the WWE due to continued injuries sustained on ECW. After a nearly year-long hiatus, Show returned to WWE at No Way Out in 2008.
• Rage Quit:
  • Did this during a tag team match not long after losing his last World Heavyweight Title. Alberto Del Rio threw a bucket of water into his face. Show's response was to fume for several seconds until finally going "screw it all" and just walking back up the entrance ramp. Since Show was actually the legal man in the match, he lost by countout.
  • On the Raw before the Rumble, Show had a match against Zack Ryder, which he won decisively, and since it was announced he would be in Last Man Standing match against Alberto Del Rio, he did the whole, count to ten over the fallen victim thing, only he got five before the "What" chants annoyed/pissed him off enough, that he stopped counting and left the ring all together.
• Ramming Always Works:
  • Uses the Spear as part of his moveset. Justified as he's, well, huge.
  • During their Triple Threat Hardcore match at Wrestlemania X-Seven, Show also bulldozed Kane through an arena door.
  • Subverted when he won the Hardcore Title from Rhyno. He tried to ram Rhyno outside the ring, only for Rhyno to dodge and make Show injure his arm on the ring post. Rhyno got the upper hand in their match until he tried ramming Show with the Gore. Show got a steel chair between them, and Rhyno crashed into it head-on. Rhyno was too dazed to stop Show from kicking a trash can in his face and then chokeslamming him for the win.
• Red Baron:
  • "The World's Largest Athlete" in WWE.
  • "No More BS" in AEW.
• Rejected Apology: During a 2012 angle, after John Laurinaitis accused him of mocking him, he was made to get on his hands and knees, driven to tears and made to grovel to save his job. Laurinaitis is amused before he cruelly fires him.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After returning from injury at the hands of Mark Henry, he went on one of these, destroying everything and everyone in his path to get to him. He then proceeded to beat the living tar out of Henry and sent him through the announcer table in a berserker rage.
  • Took it to the next level at Survivor Series 2011 where he KO'd Henry after the man low-blowed him to get the DQ and tried to break his leg again. Show then proceeded to wrap a chair around Henry's leg and leg-drop it, nearly breaking Henry's leg.
  • And again on the 28/05/12 episode of Monday Night Raw when he annihilated Brodus Clay, R-Truth and Kofi Kingston at the end of the show. And on the June 1st episode of Smackdown he laid out Santino Marella and Zack Ryder. However, this backfired big time, when the those he had attacked intervened at No Way Out to prevent him from taking advantage of some outside interference by John Laurinaitis and winning the match, leading to his defeat.
  • After weeks of being used as a chained dog for Triple H and Stephanie McMahon to boss around, he got back at them on October 6, 2013 Raw, by coming out to fight The Shield after being fired. And once he powered out of their triple powerbomb, he KO-Punched the boss.
• Running Gag: He's really, really big, so one of the things WWE likes to do to put guys over as strong is have Show take a superplex from them. On three different occasions, the ring has imploded from the sheer force of him and the other guy hitting the canvas; Brock Lesnar in 2003, Mark Henry in 2011 and Braun Strowman in 2017.
• Self-Serving Memory: Claims that he betrayed John Cena at Over The Limit 2012 and turned heel as revenge for none of the fans or superstars giving him any support whatsoever over Laurinaitis firing him... when it was clearly not the case. In addition, he says John Cena didn't call Laurinaitis out for firing him...except that he did, rather bluntly. Trent Barreta lampshaded this selective forgetfulness in a Twitter post shortly after Show's first explanation.
• Spiritual Successor: To André the Giant. He was even pushed as Andre's son for a while.
• Strawman Has a Point: Pointing out the various things that happened after his firing, Brodus Clay's match that came, which was a massive Mood Whiplash, and that Cena was making jokes on top of it all. And whichever GM that would come after Laurinaitis might not hire him back, or Laurinaitis wouldn't do it either if he was victorious, and that's why he took the only offer that was given to him.
  • Except Cena outright called Laurinaitis out for firing Big Show, pretty much telling him to his face it was an In-Universe Moral Event Horizon, something Big Show pretends didn't happen.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Weaponized. When he got fired by the Authority after being blackmailed into being their minion for weeks... he sues them for wrongful termination and forces them to settle, exactly what would likely happen in that situation in real life.
• Talk to the Fist: If you go after The Big Show with a steel chair, chances are he'll just punch it and send it flying back to hit you in the face. More than one opponent learned this the hard way. Also, he's fairly likely to shut up a chatty adversary by way of Megaton Punch to the jaw.
• Those Two Guys: With Mark Henry in AEW as the commentary team for AEW Dark Elevation, where the two of them banter back and forth like the long time friends (and occasional enemies) they are.
• Title Theme Tune: His theme song starts with "WEEELLLLLLLLLL... Well, it's the Big Show!"
• Unrelated Brothers: More like Unrelated Father and Son; The Giant in WCW was supposed to be André the Giant's "son."
• The Usual Adversaries: Later in his WWE run as a heel, Big Show was the Always Chaotic Evil heel that was always messing with the faces, to the annoyance of not only said faces, but also the fans, until everyone shared a communal sigh when they heard "Weellllllll...".
• Victorious Loser: At TLC 2011, Daniel Bryan cashed in the Money in the Bank on him, but Big Show still succeeded in getting the title away from Mark Henry, his real main goal.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Was given one by John Cena for helping John Laurinaitis win his match at Over the Limit.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: In a storyline in which he got fired by WWE General Manager John Laurinaitis for making fun of Laurinaitis's voice. Even though he pleaded and cried in front of the entire world, no one seemed to show him sympathy or come to his defense. When he managed to return to WWE with an "ironclad contract," he used this opportunity to vent his rage on seemingly everyone else in the locker room. And when you weigh well over 400 pounds, who's going to stop you?
  • What was worst of all was that Big Show got his job back from - and thus, subsequently allied himself with - Laurinaitis, the very man who had put him in his predicament in the first place!
• The Worf Effect:
  • Seems to happen a lot to him as a heel. In the weeks leading up to a big match, he's an unstoppable menace, slowed only by someone using a weapon - and sometimes not even then (see Talk to the Fist). In the actual match, he usually ends up doing the job.
  • Subverted in his feud with Sheamus in 2012. Most people were figuring either he'd fail to win the title in their match at the Hell In A Cell pay per view (Show is generally seen nowadays as being the guy who people feud with when creative has nothing for them), or if he won, he'd swiftly drop it to a cashing-in Dolph Ziggler. Not only did Show win the match, he did so cleanly, with no cash in from Ziggler.
• World's Strongest Man: The World's Largest Athlete.
• Worthy Opponent: When asked who the strongest wrestlers he's worked with are, he lists John Cena, Kane, and Mark Henry.
• Xanatos Gambit: His 2013 lawsuit against The Authority; they had to either rehire him with benefits or risk losing millions to him in court.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Got fired once he got tired of doing what Triple H wanted. And since he had nothing left to lose, he went on a rampage and invaded Raw on several occasions. Whoops.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!:
  • Oh, dear lord, Alberto Del Rio...
  • And then there was the guy who harassed Show in a Nassau bar while he worked for WCW. The guy, who checked in at 6'6" and 220 pounds, trash-talked Show by claiming he wasn't that tough despite Show having six inches and over 200 pounds of muscle on him. Show politely asked the guy to leave him alone, but once the guy took a swing at him Show made him Talk to the Fist and broke the guy's jaw.

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