Paul Wight Recounts Story Of Being Pranked By Arnold Schwarzenegger Over 10 Years

Paul Wight was the victim of a prank by Arnold Schwarzenegger over a span of 10 years, a story that he recently recounted. The AEW star and WWE alumnus worked with the movie legend and former governor on the 1996 holiday comedy Jingle All the Way and has met him again several times since.

But as he told TMZ Inside the Ring, Schwarzenegger decided to prank him by continually not remembering they’d met. Wight told the hosts about how the actor would constantly introduce himself anew every time they ran into him and how it got into his head until Schwarzenegger paid it off during an appearance at the Arnold Classic. You can see the highlights below:

On Working With Schwarzenegger On Jingle All the Way:

“I thought, ‘Hey, I’m working with Arnold Schwarzenegger. How cool.’ So that was a pretty cool experience hanging around Arnold. And here’s a guy that I grew up watching and loved on TV. Saw Pumping Iron and all that stuff. And I got to hang out with him a couple of days, and I thought that we’d become really good friends.

On How the Prank Started:

“And the running joke is — because Arnold is such a great human being. and such a great smartass too. I did Jingle All the Way with him, we’d gone out to Beverly Hills Cigar Club, had dinner. Me, him, and Rolf and some other people… I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is great. Arnold’s my friend. Like, we’re bonding.’ I’m so high on life. And I run into Arnold about a year and a half later or so. and I couldn’t wait to say hi to him. And he looked at me, he goes, ‘Hello. Arnold Schwarzenegger, nice to meet you.’ I was like, ‘Oh, damn. That’s awkward, but he’s busy.’ I mean at the time. I wasn’t that famous and hadn’t done a lot of stuff. So I was, ‘It’s okay to forget me. I’m not really that important. It’s okay.’

“So, we talked a little bit there, and I run into him again couple years later. So, I’ve kind of introduced myself to him twice. We’re going to the third time. and I run into him and same thing. ‘Hello, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Nice to meet you.’ And he’s very polite, but he looks at me like he has no idea who I am, like he’s meeting me for the first time. And I’m just like, ‘Wow, that’s — I mean I know people don’t forget meeting me. But I mean. it is Arnold. So I mean, he’s the greatest of all time. Like, that’s okay.’

On In Continuing At WWE Raw:

“So he comes to Monday Night Raw, and he was promoting a movie. So, I’m walking down the hall and I see Arnold’s room, and his security guard’s out there. And he says, ‘Hey Show, you want to say hi to Arnold?’ Said, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’ So, I duck in the dressing room to say hi to Arnold. Joe Mangianello’s in there and some other people. And Arnold was talking so I got to meet Joe Mangianello a little bit and we talked. And Joe and I hit it off right off the bat. So then Arnold finishes his conversation. He looks over and he goes, ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger, nice to meet you.’ But he does it like he just met me. And he’s at Raw and it’s kind of like, ‘You don’t know who I am? You’ve never met me before? Like dude, I’m not walking up the street at the gym. Like. you’re here!’ And even Joe Mangianello was so funny when that happened. We were going to take a picture. Joe looks at me and goes ‘Didn’t you guys do a movie together?’ ‘Yeah, we did. We did. It’s okay. It’s good’. Meanwhile, my inner child’s dying.”

On the Gold’s Gym Incident:

“So, this goes on a little while after that. I’m at Gold’s Gym in Venice, which I’m actually on the wall at Gold’s Gym. I’m on the wall there. I see Arnold and I’m like, ‘I’ll say hi to Arnold. He’ll remember me.’ He’s walking and he passes me, and I just said, ‘Hey, Arnold’ when we’re passing each other. I didn’t stop him or any of that kind of stuff. Just said, ‘Hey, Arnold.’ He completely stops, turns around, sticks his hand out and goes, ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger, nice to meet you. How are you?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’ And then all the other people around are thinking — that don’t know that I met Arnold before, ‘Oh, you just marked out and had to say hi to Arnold, didn’t you?’ You know, it’s one of those. I’m just like, ‘Man, what is it with this dude? This dude just — how in the f does he not remember who I am? He’s met me five times now, how does he not know who I am? And I’m somebody! Like, no, this is going to stop.”

On the Payoff:

“So time goes on a little bit, and I have to do a thing for WWE where the Arnold Classic is giving WWE an award, and WWE sends me to get the award. Which, I’m with Mark Henry. And I’m telling Mark Henry all these past — that I think, perceived slights in my brain where Arnold just doesn’t have the ability to remember who the hell I am. And ‘He’s going to remember me this time.’ And Mark Henry’s like, ‘Just calm down. It’s not that big a deal. Don’t get — you’re working yourself into a shoot.’ I said, ‘No, I’m telling you that son of a bitch is just going to remember who I am. I’m telling you, watch. Let him do that nice to meet you s**t and see what happens. Let me see what happens. I’m going to go off.’ Like, I have literally worked myself up emotionally because Arnold Schwarzenegger’s been in my head for about 10 years now, and can’t seem to remember who I am.

“So I go up to — I’m off the side of the stage and Arnold’s giving his speech. And then he goes to present the award for WWE. And then he says, ‘My good friend Paul.’ And he lists all these things about my size and my arms and my strength, and the fun we had doing Jingle All the Way together. Like, he knew all these things. And then when I go up to get the trophy, he looks at me and winks and shakes my hand. So for about 10 years, Arnold Schwarzenegger lived rent-free in my head. And I’m like, ‘Why can’t he remember who
I am? Like what have I done that hasn’t impressed him enough? How do you forget meeting me? And so that’s when uh and Mark Henry was like peeing himself laughing because when I told him, he’s like, ‘That’s Arnold, man. He gets in everybody’s head.’ Then I saw the thing, one of the Predator outtakes where he talked about [how] wrestlers’ heads were the easiest to get into. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m very well aware of that.'”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.