The Big Show

The Big Show. Real name: Paul Wight, but you'd best not call him that. Earning his name at 7'1" (216 cm) tall and 440 pounds (200 kg), he's billed as the "World's Largest Athlete", has been with WWE since 1999 and had worked in WCW as The Giant before that. His title is not just for show, as he's one of the most athletic "giant" professional wrestlers.

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The Big Show provides examples of the following tropes:

• Arch Enemy: John Cena, The Corre, Mark Henry. Daniel Bryan. Cody Rhodes for their Wrestlemania feud and match.
• Bald of Evil / Bald of Awesome: Depends on if he's a heel or face. He's been bald for the past several years. He was a Badass Long Hair once.
• Berserk Button: Don't try to deface Old Glory or go after a serviceman, regardless of who is he. Just ask Rusev.
• Big Fun: In real life, he's a funny guy. In 2000 and 2001, he impersonated other wrestlers (i.e. The Showster, or dressing up as DDP), and he has memorable cameos in The Waterboy and Jingle All the Way.
• The Big Guy: As a face.
• Boring but Practical: His Finishing Move, the WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction) is...a punch. But if you've seen the size of the guy's hands (which Jim Ross has compared to catcher's mitts), you'd probably buy someone not being able to get up for a while after he hits them in the jaw.
• Broken Tears: When John Laurinaitis fired Show. One of the biggest instances of Tear Jerker in recent wrestling history.
• The Brute: As a heel.
• Continuity Nod: During the Smackdown after Vengeance 2011 (in which Mark Henry superplexed him to destroy the whole ring), he came out to the ring and sheepishly says "I did it again!" All while all the commentators (especially Michael Cole, who was at the first incident) are trying to claim that they've never seen anything like it. Perhaps if they watched the recently released "Shocking Moments" DVD.
• Create Your Own Villain: Big Show certainly had a small habit of this in 2011. First, during his feud with Alberto Del Rio, he had a match on Smackdown against the already angry and motivated World's Strongest Man Mark Henry, during which he repeatedly Knockout Punched Henry to the point he had to be stretchered out. No wonder Henry went absolutely Ax Crazy into full-on Scary Black Monster territory. Then during Big Show's revenge-for-revenge return feud against Henry later that year, when Henry started having issues with Money in the Bank winner Daniel Bryan, Show was the one who prodded Bryan to cash in against Henry and thus break his promise to wait for the next Wrestlemania (although Henry's attacks certainly helped that along). Bryan would try twice against Henry, the first not even getting off the ground and the second being a false alarm. Third time would be the charm…against Big Show himself. Cue Show's dubious distinction of being the shortest-reigning world champion in history and Bryan's recent case of Acquired Situational Narcissism…and dick moves.
• David Versus Goliath: Unless he's facing the Great Khali, he’s the Goliath.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Just like the Undertaker, this is the response if anyone who’s smaller can defeat him, which has happened before.
• Disproportionate Retribution / What the Hell, Hero?: Big Show destroying Jack Swagger's trophy collection. Sure Swagger was acting like an obnoxious jerk, but to destroy the man's life work may have been going too far.
  • The Great Khali once gave him a feast and a goat as a present. Big Show responded by giving him the Knockout Punch.
  • Averted with his actions toward Mark Henry; pretty much an eye for an eye...or, in this case, an ankle for an ankle.
• Do Not Call Me Paul: One of the Trope Namers (the other being Triple H).
• Everything's Worse with Bears: His current logo.
• Face Heel Turn: At Over The Limit 2012.
• Fan Nickname: The Big Slow, originally coined by The Rock.
  • Pig Slow, according to Scott Keith, who has no room to talk.
• Friend to All Children: As a face. He usually picks one out of the front row of the crowd to give his skullcap.
• Fun with Acronyms: At the time Big Show went over to WWE, WCW was still in action - with both Thunder and WCW Saturday Night running on Turner station TBS.
• Gentle Giant: In Real Life, the guy is a big teddy bear. Sometimes, this appears in the ring or on camera (such as his cameo on SNL when the Rock hosted where, despite being a heel, he acted like a big goof.)
  • Watching him bawl over Ric Flair's retirement comes to mind, as well as his show of emotion at Eddie Guerrero's memorial show.
• Graceful Loser: Despite Daniel Bryan cashing in Money In The Bank on him, he took it rather well. Of course, his goal was to take the title from Mark Henry as revenge, so he still won.
  • Subverted. Mentioning the fact that he held the World Heavyweight Championship for all of a couple of minutes (in storyline, they exaggerate it a bit and say 45 seconds) after a 9-year drought...tends to get Show a bit irritated.
• Heel Face Revolving Door: Makes sense that he's tagged with Kane on multiple occasions; only Kane has gone through the door more times than Big Show over the last decade in the company.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Lampshaded by Show the night after TLC, explaining that he can't really complain about losing the World Title right after he won it, since he was the one to encourage Bryan to cash in the MITB briefcase before Wrestlemania. Doesn't mean he's any less ticked about it, though...
• I Did What I Had to Do: His attitude toward his betrayal of Cena.
• Karma Houdini: Mark Henry takes him out for three months in retaliation for the Big Show constantly punching Mark Henry with his finisher move over and over and over and over again. Though when he returns, the Big Show is able to somehow seek revenge on Mark Henry and the whole thing about Big Show being the instigator of the entire thing is wiped from his history. So Big Show gets to be the innocent victim and his initial unprovoked violent attack on Mark Henry doesnt get a mention.
  • To be fair Big Show warned Henry not to come into the ring but Henry came in anyway.
  • Not to mention Mark Henry lost any kind of sympathy he would have garnered once he started making a habit of breaking people's ankles with chairs.
• Large Ham: His Heel Face Turn in 2000 had him imitating various wrestlers a la the Blue World Order, climaxing with him dressing up as Hulk Hogan for Backlash.
  • Oh my god, most of his recent promos, period.
• Lightning Bruiser: At his best.
• Megaton Punch: His current finisher.
• Mighty Glacier: At his worst.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Had this reaction after bowling over AJ in an attempt to chase Daniel Bryan.
• Oh Crap: his reaction to when Cody Rhodes dropkicked him off the apron when he was getting in to the ring and his foot goes through one of the table outside. Referee saw it and gave the victory to Cody. Show was not happy afterwards.
• Potty Emergency: Eddie Guerrero once gave The Big Show a tainted burrito as revenge for Big Show spitting in Eddie's. Later that night in the middle of a match, Big Show had to flee the ring clutching his butt to find a bathroom backstage, losing the match by a count-out. While he eventually did find a bathroom in time, Eddie walked in to inform the Big Show that he'd conveniently removed all of the toilet paper, and then kicked the door to Big Show's stall in.
• Ramming Always Works: Uses the Spear as part of his moveset. Justified as he's, well, huge.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After returning from injury at the hands of Mark Henry, he went on one of these, destroying everything and everyone in his path to get to him. He then proceeded to beat the living tar out of Henry and sent him through the announcer table in a berserker rage.
  • Took it to the next level at Survivor Series 2011 where he KO'd Henry after the man low-blowed him to get the DQ and tried to break his leg again. Show then proceeded to wrap a chair around Henry's leg and leg-drop it, nearly breaking Henry's leg.
    • And again on the 28/05/12 episode of Monday Night Raw when he annihilated Brodus Clay, R-Truth and Kofi Kingston at the end of the show.
• Self-Serving Memory: Claims that he betrayed John Cena at Over The Limit 2012 and turned heel as revenge for none of the fans or superstars giving him any support whatsoever over Laurinaitis firing him... when it was clearly not the case.
• Talk to the Fist: If you go after The Big Show with a steel chair, chances are he'll just punch it and send it flying back to hit you in the face. More than one opponent learned this the hard way.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Appeared recently as a character of the week on Burn Notice.
• The Giant: Well, duh. It was only his ring name in WCW.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Was given one by John Cena for helping John Laurinaitis win his match at Over The Limit.
• World's Strongest Man: The World's Largest Athlete.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry: Oh, dear lord, Alberto Del Rio...
• Victorious Loser: At TLC 2011, Daniel Bryan cashed in the Money In The Bank on him, but Big Show still succeeded in getting the title away from Mark Henry, his main real goal.