Paul Wight Recalls Getting Fined By Vince McMahon

Paul Wight had a lot of athleticism for his size but didn’t show it often, and he recently recalled being fined for jumping over the top rope by Vince McMahon. Wight was among a number of big men like Brock Lesnar and others who, despite being huge men, could perform acts of athleticism.

Often those acts would be toned down in WWE, and Wight recalled in his interview on Insight With Chris Van Vliet how McMahon fined him $500 for leaping over the top rope. He noted that McMahon wanted another Andre the Giant out of him, something he also experienced with Hulk Hogan in WCW. You can see the highlights below:

On His Athleticism:

“You know I used to jump over the top rope. You know why I stopped doing that? Because Vince fined me 500 bucks for doing it.”

On Why McMahon Fined Him Over It:

“Because that’s not how giants move. He was in a different mindset. That was the thing that I was battling. Vince had Andre. Vince wanted Andre. ‘Andre ruled the locker with an iron fist. Andre did this, and Andre did that…’ I’m not Andre. I’m not a raging alcoholic and I’m not a mean person. Don’t get me wrong, if you talk to Woods and Big E, they’ll say that I’m grumpy, but that’s just from traveling. I’m not really that grumpy person. But I think he was always struggling with that. Everyone had an opinion of how I should work. Some people wanted me to work like Andre. When I was younger, I had so much athleticism, I was like, ‘Oh, I need to show this. I need to show this.’ And then it was like, ‘No, take it away.’

“I had Hogan call me. Rest in peace. I had Hogan call me in Japan. I threw a drop kick in Japan off the top rope and hit Yasuda with it. I got to my room, there was a blinking light in my hotel, and the message says, ‘Please call Mr. Bollea when you get to your room.’ Oh, hell, they didn’t even say Hulk. It’s Mr. Bollea. I’m in trouble. So I called Terry collect from Japan back then, ‘Brother, did you just do a drop kick off the top rope in Japan?’ I went, ‘Yeah, I did.’ He just goes, ‘Brother, you ever do that again, I’ll never work with you.’ Click. Because there were guys who wanted Andre. I wasn’t Andre. I wasn’t Kane or Taker either. Those guys are tremendous athletes like Kane and Taker, two of the best big men I’ve ever seen in the business. In my opinion, they’re two of the best big men ever. So I wasn’t them either. I was kind of a weird hybrid. So we tried to find along the way.”

On Knowing Goldberg Could Get Him Up For the Jackhammer:

“Oh yeah, with ease. Well, here’s the thing. I could take suplexes, I could take hip tosses, I could take all that stuff. I think one of the first big bumps I took that freaked everybody was I took Kurt’s angle slam one time. Just fed and took it. Kurt was like, ‘You took that so easy! Oh my god’. Yeah, it’s kind of why I have a job, because I’m big and I’m also good. I mean, you know, that’s how I took Hennig’s Perfect Plex. Unfortunately, I’m a giant that’s good at taking finishes. So there you go.”