Is Paul Wight (FKA Big Show) still with AEW? New report sheds light

Paul Wight (FKA Big Show) has not been seen on AEW television in a while. A new report has come to light regarding his contract status.

Paul Wight is widely regarded as one of the best big men in professional wrestling. He gained a lot of traction during his time in WWE, where he dominated the ring. He won multiple World Championships and enjoyed a stellar Hall of Fame career in the Stamford-based promotion.

Given that he is at the tail end of his career, Wight decided to join AEW a couple of years ago. Since then, he has made sporadic appearances for the Jacksonville-based promotion. He even competed in a few matches for AEW; his last for the company was on the 15th November 2023 episode of Dynamite, where he teamed with Kota Ibushi and the Golden Jets to face Brian Cage and The Don Callis Family. Paul Wight was taken out during the match and hasn't been seen on AEW television since, fuelling speculation about his contract status.

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select spoke about it on a recent Q&A session where he stated that the former Big Show is still "technically there".

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Jim Ross criticized Paul Wight, FKA Big Show's booking in WWE

Despite his massive size and numerous World Title wins, it can still be argued that Paul Wight was not booked as strongly as he should've been during his time in WWE. He was often on the losing end of his matches and suffered many embarrassing moments in the company when he should've dominated the ring, much like Andre The Giant.

On his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross mentioned that WWE had "mismanaged" Big Show by over-exposing him when he should've been booked like an attraction, just like Andre The Giant was booked.

"Because he's seven-feet tall and weighed 300-plus pounds, Vince [McMahon] loved the size. I thought all along that we had kind of mismanaged the Big Show. I thought we over-exposed him. He was an Andre the Giant-like commodity that should have been seen less to mean more, but we just went whole-hog on that deal, man... and I thought we over-exposed the attraction. You didn’t see Andre getting overexposed, and that’s how Big Show should've been booked, but he wasn’t," Jim Ross said. [From 1:10:18 to 1:10:56]

Given his age, it remains to be seen if the former Big Show will make another appearance in AEW.