January 12, 2022 • 28 mins
Here’s my conversation with WWE Superstar Paul Wight, (formerly) Big Show. Paul is currently an announcers and ambassador for All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he’s using his star power to help kids and bring attention to the company, globally.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up everybody. Welcome back to w WF Wrestling with Freddy,
and I want to get to our guest right away,
so let's start the show. Welcome to Wrestling with Freddy.
Now stuffing up for the mic. The Hope of Wrestling
with Freddie Freddie Prince June Yah. We didn't get to
(00:25):
work together a ton, but two of the experiences that
we had are literally my two favorite experiences in the company.
You guys know him by many different names. Today you're
gonna know him by what he works as today, which
is his name, the wonderful Mr Paul White. Welcome to
the show, sir, Thank Freddie. How are you my man?
(00:46):
Thank you good man. We were talking before the show
and I just discovered that you're the world's biggest nerd.
So I want to get to that at the end
of this episode because I'm like the world middle size
nerd and uh, we have to we have to bond
on that. But I want to get into this right
(01:07):
away because the way I met you is hysterical and
I was terrified, and I hope you'll remember this and
I want to hear your side. So I was working
for the company and I was a month in and
Michael Hayes and Christopher to Joseph had a segment where
a new match was gonna be described in the promo
(01:30):
and the Big Show was gonna do it. And the
segment gets approved and I'm in the little writer's room
and all of a sudden, the door swings open and
you come in, and all I hear is who the
fuck wrote me war in Peace? Literally my face like
(01:51):
filled full of blood. I was so embarrassed, and I
wrote my hand up. I was like, yeah, that was
that was me. And you were like, what the fund
just this? And I was like, Yo, it's my bad.
We're gonna work on this. We're gonna cut whatever you want.
I'll show you how memorized stuff. But we're gonna We're
gonna get through this. And so you now, now you
(02:12):
can you just is that an accurate description of the
beginning of this That's exactly what happened, Because now I
understand at the time Freddie I talked in w to
be once in a while. Um, for whatever reason, I guess,
Vince didn't like the way I did Promosh didn't like
the fact that a giant talk. Whatever the reason was,
I didn't talk that much. I didn't have promo segments
(02:35):
every row. That wasn't my my gig. So when I
got this promo, I was like, are you are you
ef a kidding me? Like I haven't done a promo
in like four months, and now I've got four fucking
pages to try to memorize, and I've got you know,
I've got segments of a wrestling I've got to do,
like who the funk wrote this? And why? Like is
(02:56):
this just bound to light me on fire? And it
was funny because when we when I found out you
wrote it, it it was kind of cool because it was
like when Freddie wrote it. So I need to get
a better attitude because pretty so I'm gonna come in
day one and try to cut my head off because
there I was always worried about a bunch of silly ship.
So uh, when we put it together, I did it.
I just remember franking the tank out of it like crazy,
(03:18):
you know, I remember us. I don't remember doing it.
I don't remember other things than it couldn't have been
better how it turned out. We did a great job
with it, and I don't think I remember one thing.
Five minutes after I said, Paul, we worked on this
for We didn't have much time. It was about twenty
five minutes, and you had me kind of trimmed the
fat off of all three descriptions. And I remember specifically saying, listen,
(03:43):
I I can demonstrate this part. We don't need to
say this whole bit right here. I was like, yeah,
you're right right, And you know, I was writing it
like it was an episode of Law and Order some crap,
and I was trying to get everything I could with
physical stuff. I can demonstrate. Let me, let me try
to remember the woods do. We get backstage and I'm
sitting next to Vince and the three locals come and
(04:06):
I'm sorry, I do not remember your gentleman's name. There's
a long time ago, and I remember you coming backstage
and you kind of breaking it down to these gentlemen,
and you were so good. You're like, don't worry, I'm
gonna protect you. I'm gonna look out for you this
and that, and you're really putting him at ease. And
the segment starts, and dude, you were first of all,
you were word for word like it was creepy. You
(04:28):
like you said, Frank the take when he is just
kills Carville and that in that debate, like I'm sitting
there watching it and Vince is looking and nodding and
so freebirds like excited and shaking right, and I hear
Kevin putting it over in the truck, and I'm sitting
there like, all right, all right. And the first guy
comes out and you submit him, you put him in
what was it like a sleeper hole kind of like,
(04:52):
and he goes out, and I was like, oh, yeah,
that's great, that's great. And then the next one was
like a table match and the local come is out
and you picked this man up and you smashed him
through the table. And I remember saying on the mic
oh ship and it looked like he died like it looked,
And I was new to the business, okay, so I
(05:14):
was like, I was like, oh my god. In my head,
I'm like, he said he was gonna protect this man,
and and the man is he's dead, and they they're
dragging the guy backstage, and I get up when he
comes back into Gorilla. Right up to that, I was like,
oh my god, man, are you are you all right?
Are you okay? And he's like, yeah, I'm good, I'm fine, man,
And I was like, no, you're good, and he's like, hey,
(05:35):
I'm good, and I turned around and NX is just
laughing at me, right, like I'm just a complete rookie moron.
And then the last guy you hit with this massive right,
and this was the bit we cut. You said in
the last match is a knockout match, boh man. You
just smashed this dude and he gets the kale and
you came backstage. I love that you said Frank the
(05:58):
tank and you literally really you reminded me of me,
unlike my first movie after a take when I said like,
did I do a good job? And you came back
and it was such an honest question. You were just like, hey,
did I do a good job? And Vince gave us
the nod and like a grunt, and I was just like, yeah,
bro that you were like off book. That was sick
(06:22):
and it blew me away and it it was the
first like time I got to write for like a
talent at your level, right, So, and I grew up
watching you and I was talking about this with friends
one time. I was saying, you know, Paul's the unicorn
of professional wrestling, and we throw that word around a lot,
(06:43):
like with Port zingis playing for in basketball. I was like, no,
he's just a tall dude. To can shoot unicorn is
a special thing. It's rare. You came into business a giant,
and you could have had that your whole career. But
on top of that, you could move like a dude
(07:04):
a hundred fifty pounds smaller than you. And then and
this is your horn, right, people learned that you could
act your ass off and could be a top dude
on the mic too. So you've been able to evolve
as wrestling has evolved in a much more effective way
than most people. I mean you, I'm sure you don't
(07:25):
want to blow smoke up your own ass, and I'm
not trying to, but it's it's a unique situation where
you've gotten to see, teach, learn, and experience with multiple
generations of wrestlers now at a very high level. And
I you know that's a one hand I can count
on the amount of people that have done that. I
(07:48):
just wonder if you have any thoughts on from the
first time you came in you won the damn World Championship.
How does that not go to your head? And how
do you how are you here talking to me right now? Uh,
it doesn't go to your head because it's not um
and I mean it's in the kindest way possible. I
never went to my head because it's not real. You know,
(08:10):
it's entertainment. I'm playing a character, and I all I
ever wanted to do was to whatever character I was
in play the best that I could. I mean, I
remember when I started as a giant, I was talking
like this and Hope and and the Dungeon of dool
And I had this really because I thought, well, that's
what a big, masty guy would talk like, you know.
And then I spend enough time around Randy Savage, God
(08:32):
blessing Randy Savage had such a unique way of talking.
But that was Randy all the time. Like that wasn't
Randy's character voice, like Randy Tortey did all the doing,
you know. So, um, you wanted to try to do something.
As the business progressed, we got out of some of
the gimmicky characters that were in the nineties and in
(08:52):
the attitude there come around and and things got a
little bit more uh legit or in and so to speak,
with Stone Coast, Steve Austin being the anti hero and
flipping the bird and drinking beers and you've gotta limpic
gold medals like Kurt angle out there wrestling, So things
had to evolve a little bit. I mean, even the
Undertaker's character, who takers one of my favorites of all time,
(09:14):
how he was able to evolve and state current tease
it a little bit with the American Badass so he
can incorporate some m m A fighting And then when
he went back to old school Taker, he still carried
the m m A fighting that he introduced. Is the
American Badass. He brought that all together. It's really brilliant
to to see some of these guys that have had
that impact for so long. And I think I've definitely
(09:37):
been one of the luckiest guys walking to the way
I came into the business, who I got to work with,
who I got to learn from, um just and and
now it's I'm in a completely different company now, the
e W that's got a completely different style than w
W style. I mean, you know, w V is a
it's very much production and everything they put into it
(09:59):
has so much excellence written all over, from the packages
and the videos and the way they present each talent
and the way the talent looks and um and how
the talent performs. Then you come to a e W
and it's there's not fifteen or twenty writers backstage the
writer promo for you and a e W. If you've
(10:20):
got a promo, guess what? You got a promo? You know,
So you try to take all the all the lessons
that that you've learned, and it's just like you know,
we had we were forced at sam Punk came back
and I watched that first interview that Sampunk addressed that
crowd in Chicago, and I just man, that's his composure
(10:40):
and his time. And when you think about the guys
that cut great promos, that had those long, great promos,
their composure and their time, and they're telling your story
just like a like a grandpa by the fire who's
telling you the story and your visualizing everything. The story
keeps you along as the beginning in middle and an end,
like you know some of the promo stuff that we
went through learn and promo class has got to have
(11:01):
a big finish and the beginning in the middle and
an end and get somewhere with it. I remember taking
Vince's promo class, and I think the only promo that
I ever did for Vince that he ever actually liked
was the promo and promo class. I don't know if
you were there for that one, but I basically talked
about going to something why you shouldn't let me come
(11:22):
to your house? I was not well, it was you know, basically,
the premise was why if I'm your enemy, why you
shouldn't invite me to your house? And I basically said,
because I'm gonna go to your master bathroom and I'm
gonna go blow your bathroom up and I'm gonna clog
the toilet. I mean, it was some just you know,
(11:42):
because Vince loves that ship humor, you know. But it
was a good story of how I'm gonna get close
to you, how I'm gonna be your friend, and when
you're not looking, I'm gonna go in your bathroom and
you know, in the main bathroom and I'm gonna just
destroy it. So, um, that was the only problem I
think I've ever done it he liked. So I think
my biggest promise I got a little bit into um
(12:06):
in the cadence, which is a big thing because Stone
Cold changed everybody doing promos because now a few pausit
a promo. Now they'll go what they'll kill you. They'll
kill you. It happened to me when I first got
there and I literally was talking about moment to moment work,
and like a month in the promo class, I was like,
(12:26):
everything I said about moment to moment work, throw all
that away unless're auditioning for a movie. We gotta burn
through this or they're gonna kill you dead. And it
was it was. I literally sat there, I was like,
you know, the closest I've been to that is theater.
The crowd in the theater isn't gonna be like hey,
what like they're not. They're there for their performance. The
(12:47):
crowd and wrestling has been a part of wrestling since
the first comeback in a wrestling match ever happened. So
they have that power and one stone cold hit it
once it like unlocked this door and now you guys
have to go bananas. I want to talk about promo
class because you brought this up and you may not
know this, but you were personally responsible for sort of
(13:09):
opening up the amount of people and the level of
talent that was coming into the promo class. So before
you all, I had a little acting class that we
did they just called the promo class. But yes, um,
they fear changed, so the name didn't change, just what
we were doing change. They do so named exactly. So
(13:36):
it was all young bucks. They had. They had Windham
who was husky hair. They had a guy named Wyndham
and they called him Husky Harris. Um, they had Cordona
was in there. All these like young gunners were in there. Uh,
Brian Danielson was in there. A j was in there.
Like it was all the young gunners and all of
a sudden and we would do, you know, monologues from movies,
(14:00):
scenes from movies they liked. And then you come in
and you say, hey, man, I'm gonna do the watch
speech from Pulp Fiction. Is that cool? And I was like,
oh dude, what, yes, yeah, you're doing a watch speech.
And so I printed it up for you and gave
it to you. And the next week you come in
(14:22):
and it's your You and me are the oldest cats
in the acting class for this one. It eventually had
been broad and uh, so you and I are there,
everybody else comes in and you go, okay, I'm gonna
do the Christopher Walking speech from Paul Fiction. I need
somebody to be the young Bruce Willis and Dilan Harnswaggle
(14:44):
was in there, and you don't even let anyone volunteer.
You go, Dil's you're you're you're a kid, and he's
like yeah, yeah, okay whatever. So he sits there and
I watch you cut this promo which I will call
a monologue, but it was a promo for for wrestling,
and you did it in this like tender, like very
(15:07):
paternal So it was like, you know, I had this
watch in my ass for two years and you were
allowed to take these pauses because it's not in front
of a live crowd, and we didn't record any of these.
And I remember when you finished, it was the first
time like everyone kind of lost their ship and they
(15:27):
were all cheering, and then Dylan was like I didn't
even get a fucking line or something like that. M
dude can Before I talked about the aftermath of that,
were you even nervous going into that? Were you confident
(15:50):
because it was young bucks and they looked up to
you like what was do you remember even Yeah, I
remember seeing an opportunity. My thing was as I always
want to do home in TV, you know with w B.
But I worked so much. There were so many things
that I just I couldn't do. I mean, I worked,
ran SmackDown. I worked, you know, usually work from Fridays
(16:10):
to Tuesdays. I was home Wednesdays and Thursdays, you know,
like it was just you know, flew about Thursday nights
for show Fridays. I mean that was just the way
it worked if TV was alive. So I didn't get
a lot of the opportunities. Um, I made a choice
when I was a wrestler. I was a wrestler. I
gave a hundred dead percent to w W. But in
the back of my mind, I always knew that I
(16:31):
want to do other things. I want to do comedy.
I wanted to do something with some guts. I call
it guts, like you know, like that speech that watch
speak to me, to me that that monologue was a
great monol because I had a lot of guts. This
guy that had the spots for his best friend to
give it to us son went through one a hell
asis environment that would change you forever. But also the
(16:53):
only thing he worried about was making sure that Sun
got that watch, you know. So that's what I call
something with guts that monologue and trying to convince people
at seven ft five pounds at the time. But no, no,
I can I can do this. I can do this,
you know. And it's it's hard to to to get
people to see that, like because they see you a
(17:14):
certain way. You're you're you're the Russian you know, bodyguard,
You're the you know, you're you're the bad guy, You're this,
you're that. Um No, you're not a sensitive guy with feelings.
You're not a funny TV dad, you know. And I
got the chance to do that, that big show show
and have the family comedy. I mean, dude, I was learning.
(17:35):
I was learning on the fly. But talking about our
our acting class, I saw an opportunity You're coming in
because you were like a real cat that had done
real stuff in Hollywood, you know. So my thing was
you always try to to find somebody that you can
learn something from. Somebody's had more experience as something to you.
You want to listen to them. Some people are full
(17:56):
of ship. You know that, but you figured that out later.
But it's still an inn site that you can learn,
whether you agree whether or not. Um and to learn
female everything, it's like gesturing. I still tell you from
that class. The biggest thing. Oh yeah, it's over there,
like indicating that. That was one of my bad habits
that the actor called me out on and taught me about,
(18:16):
and I was like, yo, I do that all the time. Yeah,
but it's funny that the indicating thing taking that out
so you don't have to you know, she's over there. Yeah,
you can relax on your eyes and the way and
the motivation behind the line instead of having to physically
gesture to what you're trying to convey. You know, have
to physically, especially as big as I am, because like
(18:38):
you know, if I'm on a big screen, I'm on
a uh sixty or seventy ft screen. However big the
screens are in the movie theater. So if I move
my giant hand across the screen, like the entire audience
is probably kind of point. So I know, the movements
and gestures are a lot smaller, and it makes sense
a great example of that, and this is a little
side quest. When they made Rogue one, they had to
(18:59):
read cast Darth Vader obviously, and as we all know,
Darth Vader only moves with purpose, right. If he moves,
you're usually dying or his his lightsabers getting drawn or
he's leaving the room. And I don't know if I
can tell this story, but I'm gonna tell it. The
actor they originally hired um was Italian. And they showed
the movie to some of the execs and they were
(19:21):
watching it and this person who's a friend of mine said, yo,
what Darth Vader doesn't talk with his hands, And it
was basically every line was like this, and he's like,
he's not Italian. You clearly cast an Italian, but he's not.
And so they had to reshoot all that because Vader
moves when Vader needs to move, he never has been
(19:42):
wasted waste of movement. And that's part of the stuff
that made Vader creepy, because he was like a Jason
borghese type of movement, the same type of deal. Like,
he didn't bury much, so you you took in his
presence and is that just that evilness that came off
of him? Which you know, I, like me, were always
a Darth Vader fan anyway, So you know, I was
always a Dark Vader fans Star Wars, I was thought
(20:03):
Luke as a pump so okay, so I always like
the bad guys even as a kid. Now, we didn't
have a lot of money growing up, and Vince was slick.
The bad guys always won on TV, and you had
to pay on the pay per view to see your
good guy go over. I never watched pay per views
because my mom wasn't gonna spread money on that, So
I always was rooting for the dude, the one right
(20:24):
like I wanted. I didn't want al Pacino to get
Robert de Niro and heat. I wanted Robert de Niro
to get away. So I love the bad guys. But
we're nerding out, and this is a good transition into
a passion that both you and I have, and I
think we both recently rediscovered a few years in recent years,
and that is table top role play gaming or Dungeons
(20:47):
and Dragons. You're actively in a game, and I just
want to freak everyone out. Please tell everyone what class
and race your character is. My My character is a
character to the Mike Merles created for me for a stream.
It's from the Dark Sun universe. I'm a half Stone Giant,
so it's uh um. I'm playing Eldred's Night, which has
(21:10):
got a little bit of magic and a whole lot
of a whole lot of fump. So I'm kind of
a good with the way my character is built up.
Now I can take a pretty good bit of parlishment.
But I got some pretty big dps uh for for
doing my mom and stuff. I've gotta I've gotta plus
two mall and at the level on that now I've
got you know, three D six plus seven per hits
(21:34):
and I've got three chances to swing. If I'm not
take my action surge, which will give me six sets,
which if I have I'm hasted, which give me seven.
So right off the bat, if I'm hasted and acts
and serge, I can do seven attacks with the three
D six plus seven mall, so I can usually get
some of his attention pretty quick, pretty hard. And now
at I'm at level fifteen. So my elders Knight now
(21:56):
has a kind of like a shade step. I just
got it, so I haven't used it in gameplay yet
and you do some research on it, but I can
basically teleport anywhere I think within like thirty ft, which
is going to be ridiculous for Jack and Duto. So
that's that's my character. Um, it's an Eldritch Night that
was a pretty sick promo as far as D and
(22:16):
D goes, I used to play in a D and
D Monster wrestling league and it was it was a
professional wrestling and only monsters were allowed, and I literally
modeled my character after you. His name was Horace. He
(22:38):
was an Albart and he was a total beast and
he was an indie champion and they put it on
stream and the match I was in, I won their championship,
and so honest the Albart and I basically did like
an old school like big show voice, but if you
were British, so everything he said sounded like this, and
it was like my deepest, my deepest giant voice that
(23:00):
I could do. But he literally was inspired, and because
of the pandemic, it got shut down. So technically I'm
the reigning champion of D and D. You and I
I'm gonna pitch you a game off air. I'll just
message you. I created it in partnership with Fantasy Flight,
who does like all the Star Wars stuff with their
(23:20):
die system, and it's uh, it's a t TRPG where
I run multiple groups and it's basically cyberpunk street racing
league where it's different street race crews but with all
cybernetics and technology and hacks and things like this, and
you guys are basically if you ever saw that show
Street out Laws, it's like that, but in like New
(23:41):
Detroit basically, or Sant Angeles Street out Laws meets um
what was that kind? I read for that movie too. Yeah,
and Angelita. Oh yeah wait what was it called lead
a Battle angel Yeah, Betton Gil they had some great
a great what are they called hunters or something like that.
(24:05):
I actually read for that movie because it was a
really big character. And then they ended up going c
G I with everything, which, oh, you would be that giant,
beastly c g I rob liifeld. Look. I read for
that one. But then once they went to c G
I with it, it just looked better. You know, you
kind of gotta give it, you know, Yeah, that looked
pretty cool they did. They did smooth c g I
(24:26):
in that. My kids watched the Matthew Rogerick Godzilla and
they hated the c G I because I was like,
you guys, give it a break. Its old, and they're like, no,
it sucks, turn it off. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean,
you dude, have you seen like one of my favorite
movies throwing up was Firefox Clint Eastwood. You know, I'd
love the Plane. Have you seen the c G I
on that now when you go back in time to
(24:47):
watch it? Oh dude. I try to excel people on
like old school anime like goll Go thirteen the Professional
and they're like, dude, they're like bro. They edited in
like a cinema, like a like a rehearsal cinema animatronic
that made the movie like they didn't even finish. I
was like, oh yeah, I forgot about that part. The
old it's tough to hold up, man, it's tough like
(25:08):
the old, the old movies that would come on, like
the Um with Kirk Douglas where he was fighting the
cyclops and all that. I didn't get hip to him
until I was in my thirties and twin like looking
back to appreciate, like, you know, history of films old
and stop animation? Is that what they called it? Stop? Yeah? Man?
Argonauts Jason and the Argonauts, which now Seth Green basically
(25:30):
does with Robot Chicken. Yeah, you should be voicing someone
Robot Chicken. Have you done his show? I haven't done
it yet. I was willing to do it. Yeah, you
do know. I just did uh voiceovers for Fast and
Furious Spy Racers. I played a character in that called
Palin Drome. Voice overs so much more fun. You don't
have to go through makeup, nobody's fooling costume anything. But
(25:53):
it's it's high energy though, like when I did the
flint Stones and me, man, it's it's it's high and
I'm not flint Stone. I did um um the Jetsons.
It's high energy, like that whole thing. I did the
entire Jetson's movie and one day and by the by
the end of it, I was doing some sound effects
for some stuff and my voice, my voice finally cracked,
(26:14):
like after eight hours of yelling, it finally snapped. Sarah
did the Kevin Smith Knew he Man one. She's She's
Sheira or Tela, She's Tela and they busted out at
the end of the day, like she couldn't talk, her
voice was shattered. That's pretty impressive for me because I've
got a really good, strong, deep voice, and you know,
(26:35):
and the producer, you know, during the Jetsons, She's like, yeah,
high energy the whole time, and I'm like, I'm pretty
I'm pushing it, you know, and about eight hours it took.
And then finally I was doing the grunts some sound effects.
I was about to ask, these are the funniest, but
by the end of it, my voice was like, and
that was the end of it. It'll be like, this
(26:56):
is a small jump, this is a medium jump. Now
I need a big jump. And you're just like, is
there a difference? Okay, breathing heavy, you're running breathing heavy,
white breathing heavy, breathing, you know, breathing well on one leg. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's that's the most taxing part of any v O session.
Well listen, man, I'm gonna let you go. You've used
(27:18):
your voice enough today and you probably have to go
do jets in season eight. Now, I didn't even know
they made a new Jetsons and that's a while ago.
So I'm good, man, I'm good, just living the dream,
working a w doing the commentary, still working a little
bit at my age. I'm actually on I'm on our
YouTube elevation show. HOWSNNA say you're not just doing commentary
(27:39):
because I saw you beating people up. Yeah, I was
in our pay per view or all out pay per
view in Chicago's in that it's not, you know, anywhere
near the competitiveness that the other guys in aw have.
It's just a little attraction fund match. It's kind of
oh yeah, that guy is still alive. The giants. The
giants are always the best. Man. I love you so much, Paul,
(28:00):
Thank you artist. Backslap I ever received in my life
was from you at a summer slam out here in
l A. I think you ruptured a disk. I did
have surgery, um, but it I love I love you
so much, bro, and I thank you so much for
being on the show. Brother. I'll see you, brother, says man.
I'll catch you down the road. You too, Man, catch
you down the road. Everybody, thank you for listening. I
(28:21):
appreciate you hanging around and listening to us tell stories
and being a part of this. I hope you're having
as much fun listening as I am getting to do
this and remember all these stories. And I know I
get sidetracked sometimes, but hopefully that's a part of the fun.
This has been a production of I Heart Radio's Michael
Tour podcast Network. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
(28:44):
you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,
What's up everybody. Welcome back to w WF Wrestling with Freddy,
and I want to get to our guest right away,
so let's start the show. Welcome to Wrestling with Freddy.
Now stuffing up for the mic. The Hope of Wrestling
with Freddie Freddie Prince June Yah. We didn't get to
(00:25):
work together a ton, but two of the experiences that
we had are literally my two favorite experiences in the company.
You guys know him by many different names. Today you're
gonna know him by what he works as today, which
is his name, the wonderful Mr Paul White. Welcome to
the show, sir, Thank Freddie. How are you my man?
(00:46):
Thank you good man. We were talking before the show
and I just discovered that you're the world's biggest nerd.
So I want to get to that at the end
of this episode because I'm like the world middle size
nerd and uh, we have to we have to bond
on that. But I want to get into this right
(01:07):
away because the way I met you is hysterical and
I was terrified, and I hope you'll remember this and
I want to hear your side. So I was working
for the company and I was a month in and
Michael Hayes and Christopher to Joseph had a segment where
a new match was gonna be described in the promo
(01:30):
and the Big Show was gonna do it. And the
segment gets approved and I'm in the little writer's room
and all of a sudden, the door swings open and
you come in, and all I hear is who the
fuck wrote me war in Peace? Literally my face like
(01:51):
filled full of blood. I was so embarrassed, and I
wrote my hand up. I was like, yeah, that was
that was me. And you were like, what the fund
just this? And I was like, Yo, it's my bad.
We're gonna work on this. We're gonna cut whatever you want.
I'll show you how memorized stuff. But we're gonna We're
gonna get through this. And so you now, now you
(02:12):
can you just is that an accurate description of the
beginning of this That's exactly what happened, Because now I
understand at the time Freddie I talked in w to
be once in a while. Um, for whatever reason, I guess,
Vince didn't like the way I did Promosh didn't like
the fact that a giant talk. Whatever the reason was,
I didn't talk that much. I didn't have promo segments
(02:35):
every row. That wasn't my my gig. So when I
got this promo, I was like, are you are you
ef a kidding me? Like I haven't done a promo
in like four months, and now I've got four fucking
pages to try to memorize, and I've got you know,
I've got segments of a wrestling I've got to do,
like who the funk wrote this? And why? Like is
(02:56):
this just bound to light me on fire? And it
was funny because when we when I found out you
wrote it, it it was kind of cool because it was
like when Freddie wrote it. So I need to get
a better attitude because pretty so I'm gonna come in
day one and try to cut my head off because
there I was always worried about a bunch of silly ship.
So uh, when we put it together, I did it.
I just remember franking the tank out of it like crazy,
(03:18):
you know, I remember us. I don't remember doing it.
I don't remember other things than it couldn't have been
better how it turned out. We did a great job
with it, and I don't think I remember one thing.
Five minutes after I said, Paul, we worked on this
for We didn't have much time. It was about twenty
five minutes, and you had me kind of trimmed the
fat off of all three descriptions. And I remember specifically saying, listen,
(03:43):
I I can demonstrate this part. We don't need to
say this whole bit right here. I was like, yeah,
you're right right, And you know, I was writing it
like it was an episode of Law and Order some crap,
and I was trying to get everything I could with
physical stuff. I can demonstrate. Let me, let me try
to remember the woods do. We get backstage and I'm
sitting next to Vince and the three locals come and
(04:06):
I'm sorry, I do not remember your gentleman's name. There's
a long time ago, and I remember you coming backstage
and you kind of breaking it down to these gentlemen,
and you were so good. You're like, don't worry, I'm
gonna protect you. I'm gonna look out for you this
and that, and you're really putting him at ease. And
the segment starts, and dude, you were first of all,
you were word for word like it was creepy. You
(04:28):
like you said, Frank the take when he is just
kills Carville and that in that debate, like I'm sitting
there watching it and Vince is looking and nodding and
so freebirds like excited and shaking right, and I hear
Kevin putting it over in the truck, and I'm sitting
there like, all right, all right. And the first guy
comes out and you submit him, you put him in
what was it like a sleeper hole kind of like,
(04:52):
and he goes out, and I was like, oh, yeah,
that's great, that's great. And then the next one was
like a table match and the local come is out
and you picked this man up and you smashed him
through the table. And I remember saying on the mic
oh ship and it looked like he died like it looked,
And I was new to the business, okay, so I
(05:14):
was like, I was like, oh my god. In my head,
I'm like, he said he was gonna protect this man,
and and the man is he's dead, and they they're
dragging the guy backstage, and I get up when he
comes back into Gorilla. Right up to that, I was like,
oh my god, man, are you are you all right?
Are you okay? And he's like, yeah, I'm good, I'm fine, man,
And I was like, no, you're good, and he's like, hey,
(05:35):
I'm good, and I turned around and NX is just
laughing at me, right, like I'm just a complete rookie moron.
And then the last guy you hit with this massive right,
and this was the bit we cut. You said in
the last match is a knockout match, boh man. You
just smashed this dude and he gets the kale and
you came backstage. I love that you said Frank the
(05:58):
tank and you literally really you reminded me of me,
unlike my first movie after a take when I said like,
did I do a good job? And you came back
and it was such an honest question. You were just like, hey,
did I do a good job? And Vince gave us
the nod and like a grunt, and I was just like, yeah,
bro that you were like off book. That was sick
(06:22):
and it blew me away and it it was the
first like time I got to write for like a
talent at your level, right, So, and I grew up
watching you and I was talking about this with friends
one time. I was saying, you know, Paul's the unicorn
of professional wrestling, and we throw that word around a lot,
(06:43):
like with Port zingis playing for in basketball. I was like, no,
he's just a tall dude. To can shoot unicorn is
a special thing. It's rare. You came into business a giant,
and you could have had that your whole career. But
on top of that, you could move like a dude
(07:04):
a hundred fifty pounds smaller than you. And then and
this is your horn, right, people learned that you could
act your ass off and could be a top dude
on the mic too. So you've been able to evolve
as wrestling has evolved in a much more effective way
than most people. I mean you, I'm sure you don't
(07:25):
want to blow smoke up your own ass, and I'm
not trying to, but it's it's a unique situation where
you've gotten to see, teach, learn, and experience with multiple
generations of wrestlers now at a very high level. And
I you know that's a one hand I can count
on the amount of people that have done that. I
(07:48):
just wonder if you have any thoughts on from the
first time you came in you won the damn World Championship.
How does that not go to your head? And how
do you how are you here talking to me right now? Uh,
it doesn't go to your head because it's not um
and I mean it's in the kindest way possible. I
never went to my head because it's not real. You know,
(08:10):
it's entertainment. I'm playing a character, and I all I
ever wanted to do was to whatever character I was
in play the best that I could. I mean, I
remember when I started as a giant, I was talking
like this and Hope and and the Dungeon of dool
And I had this really because I thought, well, that's
what a big, masty guy would talk like, you know.
And then I spend enough time around Randy Savage, God
(08:32):
blessing Randy Savage had such a unique way of talking.
But that was Randy all the time. Like that wasn't
Randy's character voice, like Randy Tortey did all the doing,
you know. So, um, you wanted to try to do something.
As the business progressed, we got out of some of
the gimmicky characters that were in the nineties and in
(08:52):
the attitude there come around and and things got a
little bit more uh legit or in and so to speak,
with Stone Coast, Steve Austin being the anti hero and
flipping the bird and drinking beers and you've gotta limpic
gold medals like Kurt angle out there wrestling, So things
had to evolve a little bit. I mean, even the
Undertaker's character, who takers one of my favorites of all time,
(09:14):
how he was able to evolve and state current tease
it a little bit with the American Badass so he
can incorporate some m m A fighting And then when
he went back to old school Taker, he still carried
the m m A fighting that he introduced. Is the
American Badass. He brought that all together. It's really brilliant
to to see some of these guys that have had
that impact for so long. And I think I've definitely
(09:37):
been one of the luckiest guys walking to the way
I came into the business, who I got to work with,
who I got to learn from, um just and and
now it's I'm in a completely different company now, the
e W that's got a completely different style than w
W style. I mean, you know, w V is a
it's very much production and everything they put into it
(09:59):
has so much excellence written all over, from the packages
and the videos and the way they present each talent
and the way the talent looks and um and how
the talent performs. Then you come to a e W
and it's there's not fifteen or twenty writers backstage the
writer promo for you and a e W. If you've
(10:20):
got a promo, guess what? You got a promo? You know,
So you try to take all the all the lessons
that that you've learned, and it's just like you know,
we had we were forced at sam Punk came back
and I watched that first interview that Sampunk addressed that
crowd in Chicago, and I just man, that's his composure
(10:40):
and his time. And when you think about the guys
that cut great promos, that had those long, great promos,
their composure and their time, and they're telling your story
just like a like a grandpa by the fire who's
telling you the story and your visualizing everything. The story
keeps you along as the beginning in middle and an end,
like you know some of the promo stuff that we
went through learn and promo class has got to have
(11:01):
a big finish and the beginning in the middle and
an end and get somewhere with it. I remember taking
Vince's promo class, and I think the only promo that
I ever did for Vince that he ever actually liked
was the promo and promo class. I don't know if
you were there for that one, but I basically talked
about going to something why you shouldn't let me come
(11:22):
to your house? I was not well, it was you know, basically,
the premise was why if I'm your enemy, why you
shouldn't invite me to your house? And I basically said,
because I'm gonna go to your master bathroom and I'm
gonna go blow your bathroom up and I'm gonna clog
the toilet. I mean, it was some just you know,
(11:42):
because Vince loves that ship humor, you know. But it
was a good story of how I'm gonna get close
to you, how I'm gonna be your friend, and when
you're not looking, I'm gonna go in your bathroom and
you know, in the main bathroom and I'm gonna just
destroy it. So, um, that was the only problem I
think I've ever done it he liked. So I think
my biggest promise I got a little bit into um
(12:06):
in the cadence, which is a big thing because Stone
Cold changed everybody doing promos because now a few pausit
a promo. Now they'll go what they'll kill you. They'll
kill you. It happened to me when I first got
there and I literally was talking about moment to moment work,
and like a month in the promo class, I was like,
(12:26):
everything I said about moment to moment work, throw all
that away unless're auditioning for a movie. We gotta burn
through this or they're gonna kill you dead. And it
was it was. I literally sat there, I was like,
you know, the closest I've been to that is theater.
The crowd in the theater isn't gonna be like hey,
what like they're not. They're there for their performance. The
(12:47):
crowd and wrestling has been a part of wrestling since
the first comeback in a wrestling match ever happened. So
they have that power and one stone cold hit it
once it like unlocked this door and now you guys
have to go bananas. I want to talk about promo
class because you brought this up and you may not
know this, but you were personally responsible for sort of
(13:09):
opening up the amount of people and the level of
talent that was coming into the promo class. So before
you all, I had a little acting class that we
did they just called the promo class. But yes, um,
they fear changed, so the name didn't change, just what
we were doing change. They do so named exactly. So
(13:36):
it was all young bucks. They had. They had Windham
who was husky hair. They had a guy named Wyndham
and they called him Husky Harris. Um, they had Cordona
was in there. All these like young gunners were in there. Uh,
Brian Danielson was in there. A j was in there.
Like it was all the young gunners and all of
a sudden and we would do, you know, monologues from movies,
(14:00):
scenes from movies they liked. And then you come in
and you say, hey, man, I'm gonna do the watch
speech from Pulp Fiction. Is that cool? And I was like,
oh dude, what, yes, yeah, you're doing a watch speech.
And so I printed it up for you and gave
it to you. And the next week you come in
(14:22):
and it's your You and me are the oldest cats
in the acting class for this one. It eventually had
been broad and uh, so you and I are there,
everybody else comes in and you go, okay, I'm gonna
do the Christopher Walking speech from Paul Fiction. I need
somebody to be the young Bruce Willis and Dilan Harnswaggle
(14:44):
was in there, and you don't even let anyone volunteer.
You go, Dil's you're you're you're a kid, and he's
like yeah, yeah, okay whatever. So he sits there and
I watch you cut this promo which I will call
a monologue, but it was a promo for for wrestling,
and you did it in this like tender, like very
(15:07):
paternal So it was like, you know, I had this
watch in my ass for two years and you were
allowed to take these pauses because it's not in front
of a live crowd, and we didn't record any of these.
And I remember when you finished, it was the first
time like everyone kind of lost their ship and they
(15:27):
were all cheering, and then Dylan was like I didn't
even get a fucking line or something like that. M
dude can Before I talked about the aftermath of that,
were you even nervous going into that? Were you confident
(15:50):
because it was young bucks and they looked up to
you like what was do you remember even Yeah, I
remember seeing an opportunity. My thing was as I always
want to do home in TV, you know with w B.
But I worked so much. There were so many things
that I just I couldn't do. I mean, I worked,
ran SmackDown. I worked, you know, usually work from Fridays
(16:10):
to Tuesdays. I was home Wednesdays and Thursdays, you know,
like it was just you know, flew about Thursday nights
for show Fridays. I mean that was just the way
it worked if TV was alive. So I didn't get
a lot of the opportunities. Um, I made a choice
when I was a wrestler. I was a wrestler. I
gave a hundred dead percent to w W. But in
the back of my mind, I always knew that I
(16:31):
want to do other things. I want to do comedy.
I wanted to do something with some guts. I call
it guts, like you know, like that speech that watch
speak to me, to me that that monologue was a
great monol because I had a lot of guts. This
guy that had the spots for his best friend to
give it to us son went through one a hell
asis environment that would change you forever. But also the
(16:53):
only thing he worried about was making sure that Sun
got that watch, you know. So that's what I call
something with guts that monologue and trying to convince people
at seven ft five pounds at the time. But no, no,
I can I can do this. I can do this,
you know. And it's it's hard to to to get
people to see that, like because they see you a
(17:14):
certain way. You're you're you're the Russian you know, bodyguard,
You're the you know, you're you're the bad guy, You're this,
you're that. Um No, you're not a sensitive guy with feelings.
You're not a funny TV dad, you know. And I
got the chance to do that, that big show show
and have the family comedy. I mean, dude, I was learning.
(17:35):
I was learning on the fly. But talking about our
our acting class, I saw an opportunity You're coming in
because you were like a real cat that had done
real stuff in Hollywood, you know. So my thing was
you always try to to find somebody that you can
learn something from. Somebody's had more experience as something to you.
You want to listen to them. Some people are full
(17:56):
of ship. You know that, but you figured that out later.
But it's still an inn site that you can learn,
whether you agree whether or not. Um and to learn
female everything, it's like gesturing. I still tell you from
that class. The biggest thing. Oh yeah, it's over there,
like indicating that. That was one of my bad habits
that the actor called me out on and taught me about,
(18:16):
and I was like, yo, I do that all the time. Yeah,
but it's funny that the indicating thing taking that out
so you don't have to you know, she's over there. Yeah,
you can relax on your eyes and the way and
the motivation behind the line instead of having to physically
gesture to what you're trying to convey. You know, have
to physically, especially as big as I am, because like
(18:38):
you know, if I'm on a big screen, I'm on
a uh sixty or seventy ft screen. However big the
screens are in the movie theater. So if I move
my giant hand across the screen, like the entire audience
is probably kind of point. So I know, the movements
and gestures are a lot smaller, and it makes sense
a great example of that, and this is a little
side quest. When they made Rogue one, they had to
(18:59):
read cast Darth Vader obviously, and as we all know,
Darth Vader only moves with purpose, right. If he moves,
you're usually dying or his his lightsabers getting drawn or
he's leaving the room. And I don't know if I
can tell this story, but I'm gonna tell it. The
actor they originally hired um was Italian. And they showed
the movie to some of the execs and they were
(19:21):
watching it and this person who's a friend of mine said, yo,
what Darth Vader doesn't talk with his hands, And it
was basically every line was like this, and he's like,
he's not Italian. You clearly cast an Italian, but he's not.
And so they had to reshoot all that because Vader
moves when Vader needs to move, he never has been
(19:42):
wasted waste of movement. And that's part of the stuff
that made Vader creepy, because he was like a Jason
borghese type of movement, the same type of deal. Like,
he didn't bury much, so you you took in his
presence and is that just that evilness that came off
of him? Which you know, I, like me, were always
a Darth Vader fan anyway, So you know, I was
always a Dark Vader fans Star Wars, I was thought
(20:03):
Luke as a pump so okay, so I always like
the bad guys even as a kid. Now, we didn't
have a lot of money growing up, and Vince was slick.
The bad guys always won on TV, and you had
to pay on the pay per view to see your
good guy go over. I never watched pay per views
because my mom wasn't gonna spread money on that, So
I always was rooting for the dude, the one right
(20:24):
like I wanted. I didn't want al Pacino to get
Robert de Niro and heat. I wanted Robert de Niro
to get away. So I love the bad guys. But
we're nerding out, and this is a good transition into
a passion that both you and I have, and I
think we both recently rediscovered a few years in recent years,
and that is table top role play gaming or Dungeons
(20:47):
and Dragons. You're actively in a game, and I just
want to freak everyone out. Please tell everyone what class
and race your character is. My My character is a
character to the Mike Merles created for me for a stream.
It's from the Dark Sun universe. I'm a half Stone Giant,
so it's uh um. I'm playing Eldred's Night, which has
(21:10):
got a little bit of magic and a whole lot
of a whole lot of fump. So I'm kind of
a good with the way my character is built up.
Now I can take a pretty good bit of parlishment.
But I got some pretty big dps uh for for
doing my mom and stuff. I've gotta I've gotta plus
two mall and at the level on that now I've
got you know, three D six plus seven per hits
(21:34):
and I've got three chances to swing. If I'm not
take my action surge, which will give me six sets,
which if I have I'm hasted, which give me seven.
So right off the bat, if I'm hasted and acts
and serge, I can do seven attacks with the three
D six plus seven mall, so I can usually get
some of his attention pretty quick, pretty hard. And now
at I'm at level fifteen. So my elders Knight now
(21:56):
has a kind of like a shade step. I just
got it, so I haven't used it in gameplay yet
and you do some research on it, but I can
basically teleport anywhere I think within like thirty ft, which
is going to be ridiculous for Jack and Duto. So
that's that's my character. Um, it's an Eldritch Night that
was a pretty sick promo as far as D and
(22:16):
D goes, I used to play in a D and
D Monster wrestling league and it was it was a
professional wrestling and only monsters were allowed, and I literally
modeled my character after you. His name was Horace. He
(22:38):
was an Albart and he was a total beast and
he was an indie champion and they put it on
stream and the match I was in, I won their championship,
and so honest the Albart and I basically did like
an old school like big show voice, but if you
were British, so everything he said sounded like this, and
it was like my deepest, my deepest giant voice that
(23:00):
I could do. But he literally was inspired, and because
of the pandemic, it got shut down. So technically I'm
the reigning champion of D and D. You and I
I'm gonna pitch you a game off air. I'll just
message you. I created it in partnership with Fantasy Flight,
who does like all the Star Wars stuff with their
(23:20):
die system, and it's uh, it's a t TRPG where
I run multiple groups and it's basically cyberpunk street racing
league where it's different street race crews but with all
cybernetics and technology and hacks and things like this, and
you guys are basically if you ever saw that show
Street out Laws, it's like that, but in like New
(23:41):
Detroit basically, or Sant Angeles Street out Laws meets um
what was that kind? I read for that movie too. Yeah,
and Angelita. Oh yeah wait what was it called lead
a Battle angel Yeah, Betton Gil they had some great
a great what are they called hunters or something like that.
(24:05):
I actually read for that movie because it was a
really big character. And then they ended up going c
G I with everything, which, oh, you would be that giant,
beastly c g I rob liifeld. Look. I read for
that one. But then once they went to c G
I with it, it just looked better. You know, you
kind of gotta give it, you know, Yeah, that looked
pretty cool they did. They did smooth c g I
(24:26):
in that. My kids watched the Matthew Rogerick Godzilla and
they hated the c G I because I was like,
you guys, give it a break. Its old, and they're like, no,
it sucks, turn it off. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean,
you dude, have you seen like one of my favorite
movies throwing up was Firefox Clint Eastwood. You know, I'd
love the Plane. Have you seen the c G I
on that now when you go back in time to
(24:47):
watch it? Oh dude. I try to excel people on
like old school anime like goll Go thirteen the Professional
and they're like, dude, they're like bro. They edited in
like a cinema, like a like a rehearsal cinema animatronic
that made the movie like they didn't even finish. I
was like, oh yeah, I forgot about that part. The
old it's tough to hold up, man, it's tough like
(25:08):
the old, the old movies that would come on, like
the Um with Kirk Douglas where he was fighting the
cyclops and all that. I didn't get hip to him
until I was in my thirties and twin like looking
back to appreciate, like, you know, history of films old
and stop animation? Is that what they called it? Stop? Yeah? Man?
Argonauts Jason and the Argonauts, which now Seth Green basically
(25:30):
does with Robot Chicken. Yeah, you should be voicing someone
Robot Chicken. Have you done his show? I haven't done
it yet. I was willing to do it. Yeah, you
do know. I just did uh voiceovers for Fast and
Furious Spy Racers. I played a character in that called
Palin Drome. Voice overs so much more fun. You don't
have to go through makeup, nobody's fooling costume anything. But
(25:53):
it's it's high energy though, like when I did the
flint Stones and me, man, it's it's it's high and
I'm not flint Stone. I did um um the Jetsons.
It's high energy, like that whole thing. I did the
entire Jetson's movie and one day and by the by
the end of it, I was doing some sound effects
for some stuff and my voice, my voice finally cracked,
(26:14):
like after eight hours of yelling, it finally snapped. Sarah
did the Kevin Smith Knew he Man one. She's She's
Sheira or Tela, She's Tela and they busted out at
the end of the day, like she couldn't talk, her
voice was shattered. That's pretty impressive for me because I've
got a really good, strong, deep voice, and you know,
(26:35):
and the producer, you know, during the Jetsons, She's like, yeah,
high energy the whole time, and I'm like, I'm pretty
I'm pushing it, you know, and about eight hours it took.
And then finally I was doing the grunts some sound effects.
I was about to ask, these are the funniest, but
by the end of it, my voice was like, and
that was the end of it. It'll be like, this
(26:56):
is a small jump, this is a medium jump. Now
I need a big jump. And you're just like, is
there a difference? Okay, breathing heavy, you're running breathing heavy,
white breathing heavy, breathing, you know, breathing well on one leg. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's that's the most taxing part of any v O session.
Well listen, man, I'm gonna let you go. You've used
(27:18):
your voice enough today and you probably have to go
do jets in season eight. Now, I didn't even know
they made a new Jetsons and that's a while ago.
So I'm good, man, I'm good, just living the dream,
working a w doing the commentary, still working a little
bit at my age. I'm actually on I'm on our
YouTube elevation show. HOWSNNA say you're not just doing commentary
(27:39):
because I saw you beating people up. Yeah, I was
in our pay per view or all out pay per
view in Chicago's in that it's not, you know, anywhere
near the competitiveness that the other guys in aw have.
It's just a little attraction fund match. It's kind of
oh yeah, that guy is still alive. The giants. The
giants are always the best. Man. I love you so much, Paul,
(28:00):
Thank you artist. Backslap I ever received in my life
was from you at a summer slam out here in
l A. I think you ruptured a disk. I did
have surgery, um, but it I love I love you
so much, bro, and I thank you so much for
being on the show. Brother. I'll see you, brother, says man.
I'll catch you down the road. You too, Man, catch
you down the road. Everybody, thank you for listening. I
(28:21):
appreciate you hanging around and listening to us tell stories
and being a part of this. I hope you're having
as much fun listening as I am getting to do
this and remember all these stories. And I know I
get sidetracked sometimes, but hopefully that's a part of the fun.
This has been a production of I Heart Radio's Michael
Tour podcast Network. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever
(28:44):
you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,
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