On February 24, AEW announced Paul Wight (formerly The Big Show in WWE) had signed a long-term deal with the company. Wight will be joining AEW as an advisor, wrestler, and commentator for AEW Dark: Elevation.
While some fans see Wight signing with AEW as the company signing another WWE/WCW name from the past, Chris Jericho doesn't believe that is the case and sees plenty of value in Wight joining AEW.
"People say to me, 'you can't sign all these WWE cast-offs.' We really haven't," Jericho told Brandon Walker on Rasslin' "If you look when there was the big purge last year, I don't think we hired any of those guys. Nothing against them. A guy like Big Show transcends that. He's one of the most recognizable pro wrestlers in the world. When you're dealing with a new company, if we want to try and get a TV deal in India for example, who is on the show? Chris Jericho, we know him. Sting, we know him. Paul Wight, we know him. Those are the guys that can open the door to get people's eyeballs on Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, Darby [Allin], Cody, Ricky Starks. He is super valuable in that he has the one thing you can't teach -- two things, because you can't teach someone how to be a giant -- but you can't teach someone experience. We have a lot of big guys on our roster and Paul can help with that. He can also be very funny and charming. A motivated Paul Wight is very dangerous. He doesn't have to wrestle every week, nor should he, but when he gets the call and wants to be there and prove what he can do, he's one of the best big man workers who has ever lived. He's a great signing for AEW and anyone who doesn't know for sure will have their minds changed very quickly."
From the names released by WWE in April 2020, AEW did sign FTR, Miro and Tay Conti. FTR were released on April 10, days before the mass WWE releases on April 15.
Paul Wight is set to make his first AEW appearance on Wednesday's episode of Dynamite.
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