The Big Show (now known in AEW as Paul Wight) is one of the best big men in history. Despite being 7 foot tall and 500 lbs in his peak, there were always rumours of Big Show doing a moonsault whilst wrestling for WCW.
In wrestling, a moonsault is a high-flying move done from the top rope. The wrestler in question climbs to the top turnbuckle in the corner of the ring, and while facing backwards, does a back flip and lands on either a standing or laying down opponent.
For a smaller wrestler, the athleticism and skill needed to pull off such a feat is impressive. To see The Big Show’s 7 foot tall frame leaping from the rope is a scary sight to see.
Footage of this supposed moonsault have travelled across the internet for years although it could never be verified by WWE or Big Show.
That is, until today, where Big Show’s moonsault finally came as a topic of discussion with Paul Wight, who finally spoke out about his rumoured incredible feat during his time in WCW.
Big Show’s Moonsault
Big Show finally spoke about his legendary moonsault in a recent interview with ET Canada to promote his new show GenZeroes.
In the interview he discussed him time in WCW, including his monster truck-match with Hulk Hogan and when he was pushed off the roof on a building during his time with the promotion.
However, the biggest point of interest came in a discussion about Big Show, then known as The Giant (and billed as Andre the Giant’s son), would perform a moonsault in training with WCW and even during matches early in his career.
Big Show did confirm that he pulled out the Moonsault during training in the WCW Powerplant, but was talked out of doing the move during a match due to his large frame making the move dangerous.
When asked about if he had done a moonsault in WWE and if their was footage of the incident, Big Show replied;
“Totally true. It’s probably gone by now. That was done probably with VHS tape it was so long ago that hung around the training room… I had athleticism that was crazy for someone of my size in the game.
I could do kip-ups, I could do dropkicks, dropkicks off the top. I could do a moonsault. Believe it or not, the way the industry was then — because it was still transitioning — nobody really knew what to do with me because I was unlike anything anyone had seen before.
“There were rumours of me doing it in Japan. It wasn’t in a match. It was screwing around the afternoon. And then I was told immediately not to do it ever again if I wanted to continue working world. I was thinking, ‘Japan is a great place to break it out. Here we go.’ And it was shut down immediately by those that had the creative control.”
It appears that footage of Big Show’s moonsault is out there somewhere, but where it is nobody knows. It could be in the WWE fault, or it could have been lost to time like so many other great moments in wrestling history.
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