7ft Tall and Fighting To Survive: WWE & AEW Athlete Paul Wight's Incredible Story (E409)
The High Performance Podcast
High Performance
4.6 • 4.8K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 102 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Paul Wight, known to millions as “The Big Show,” is one of the most recognisable figures in sports entertainment history. In this episode, Paul reveals the stark reality of a life lived under a terminal diagnosis, opening up about the decades he spent assuming he wouldn't grow old and the grueling work he is now doing to rebuild a body he never expected to still be using at 53.
He discusses the radical selflessness that defined his thirty-year career, where he viewed himself as the "wall" for others to break through rather than the destination. Paul shares his unique three-step formula for success and explores the hidden psychological weight of consistently prioritising his opponents' glory over his own world-title ambitions.
Paul also reflects on a profound emotional breakthrough that arrived uninvited on a film set, shattering a lifetime of performed toughness.
This is a rare, intimate look at a man finally pursuing a path entirely for himself, trading the wrestling ring for Shakespeare and discovering who he is when he no longer has to make someone else look good.
Paul Wight will be returning to London for All Elite Wrestling’s record breaking show AEW All In: London - taking place over the bank holiday weekend on Sunday 30th August, live from Wembley Stadium. https://www.livenation.co.uk/
Widely regarded as one of professional wrestling’s greatest “big men” of all time, the iconic Paul Wight has done it all in and out of the ring, holding 23 total championships, headlining the world’s biggest shows and appearing in dozens of films and television shows over his 30-year career.
Wight shocked the wrestling world in February 2021 by signing with All Elite Wrestling, and has since served as a coach, mentor, commentator and wrestler in AEW, as well as an on-screen authority figure for AEW’s sister promotion, Ring of Honor. Standing in at 7’0”, Wight is one of the most recognisable figures in wrestling history and has brought decades of knowledge and experience to the blooming AEW roster.
In limited AEW action, Wight has defeated QT Marshall at AEW All Out in 2021, and was a key figure in AEW’s cross-branded Yakuza: Like a Dragon Street Fight in November 2023, where he took a body slam onto a car from Powerhouse Hobbs.
On the silver screen, Wight is known for performances including the legendary Captain Insano in The Waterboy, as well as appearances in Jingle All The Way, episodes of Saturday Night Live, MADtv, Hollywood Squares, The Weakest Link, Psych, Conan and headlined Netflix’s The Big Show Show.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys. |
| 0:04.0 | This is great here. |
| 0:05.0 | Let's do it. |
| 0:06.0 | I feel like Gandalf is walking in the Frodo's house. |
| 0:11.0 | You show you're comfy enough for a... |
| 0:13.0 | Oh yeah, I'm great. This is awesome. |
| 0:15.0 | I wear spandex. I entertain people. |
| 0:17.0 | Occasionally I make people laugh if I can get a good joke. |
| 0:20.0 | That's your chance to laugh. Okay, I work on my material. I mean, I was 6-2 at 12. I was 6.8 at 14. They were like, well, if you don't get this surgery, you'll probably be dead by the time you're 45. I've always had people stare. I'm not going to let them determine who I am and how I'm going to interact with someone else. How do you learn to do that? A lot of pain. I didn't expect to live a long time. You don't see old giants. I've had a major surgery the past seven years every freaking year. Back was bad, knees were bad. It was 537 pounds, I think. You didn't want to wrestle anymore? I was just, I was miserable. What was your calorie intake in your wrestling peak? over 10,000, 12,000 calories a day, easy. When I look back now, I'm like, God, I used to eat that much. Like, why? Well, I keep myself right at 26, 2,700 calories a day, got into shape, and lost some weight, and cleaned my act up, and fell in love with wrestling again. I'm in people's living rooms. They've grown up watching me. It takes 30 seconds to be nice, take a selfie, say hello. You don't know what someone else is going through. I see you. You matter. We'd love him back in the ring. Is there any chance? It's not that I want to go out in some big retirement thing or tell my story or some other kind of poor shit like that. |
| 1:28.0 | I just want to have fun. That's all. Welcome to the show. Thank you guys for having me. This is awesome. Thank you for the tiny chair. It is our pleasure. This is great. Was this a side bet? It's like, how big of an ass can we fit and how small of a chair? Is there a side pool bet somewhere? oh, there's no way he'll fit in that. |
| 1:45.5 | Listen, YouTube viewers hate these chats. |
| 1:47.5 | So, uh, coming up. we fit in how small of a chair? Is there a side pool bet somewhere? Oh, there's no way he'll |
| 1:44.4 | fit in that? Listen, YouTube viewers hate these chairs, so guarantee the comments will get the |
| 1:50.1 | chair. Oh, do they hate the chairs? Well, as a guest, I'm very happy to be here, however, |
| 1:54.4 | I am slightly terrified. I'm going to go home with this chair. You know, one sneeze and it's |
| 1:59.6 | permanently going to be mine. |
| 2:18.3 | Well, you might as well stay here because they w all in. Yeah, I'll just stay here. Anyway, in a few months. You know what? Yesterday, you could have talked me into it. Yesterday I came over here, and it was beautiful in sunshine, and London was majestic with the sun out, and I was like, wow, I'm not used to this. It's so pretty. and so then I got up today. |
| 2:20.5 | I was like, oh, yeah, here's the London I remember. |
| 2:20.7 | Yeah. |
| 2:17.9 | Yeah, yeah. with the sun out and I was like wow I'm not used to this it's so pretty and so and then I got up today I was like oh yeah here's the London I remember yeah yeah yeah you go shame on me for |
| 2:23.7 | having a positive attitude about the weather I should have known better what are the uh what are the |
| 2:28.5 | what are the London wrestling fans like uh rabid I guess is a good word. It's amazing. |
... |
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