Paul Wight Recalls Getting Huge Payday For Being In Popular Music Video
Paul Wight got a lot of money for appearing in a very popular music video early in his WWE career.
For the past 30 years, Paul Wight has been one of the most well-known wrestlers alive from his start in WCW as The Giant to his 20-year WWE run as the Big Show and as part of AEW for nearly five years.
When he signed with WWE to become the Big Show in early 1999, he was known for being the biggest wrestler of that era. As a giant who could also make people when needed, the Big Show is a guy who was known for being popular with the fans at times and also being one of the biggest villains in the business as well.
In early 2000, a popular hip-hop song called “Thong Song” by a rapper named Sisqo was a massive hit. This was in the era of music videos as well, so when it came time to record the video, future WWE Hall of Famer Paul Wight was surprisingly a part of it.
During an interview with The Run Home with Joel & Fletch, Paul Wight revealed how he was a part of Sisqo’s legendary “Thong Song” video early in his Big Show run in WWE.
“That was an interesting afternoon in Baltimore. I was at the building early because I was too cheap to get a day hotel room since we were driving home that night. I was like, ‘I’ll go hang out at the building. I’m not going to spend money on a hotel room for a few hours.’ I’m at the building early and Tony Garea, who was the agent in charge of the show, comes in and goes, ‘There is a group that is doing a video and they’re offering pretty good cash. It’s over at the park. Are you interested in doing it?’ ‘Yeah, why not.’”
“I go over to the park and it was Sisqo. ‘I’m Big Show, Paul Wight from WWE. They sent me over and said you guys want to use a wrestler.’ It was a good chunk of change, I’m not going to lie to you. It surprised me a little bit. I did a lot worse for a lot less. It kind of threw me off a little. ‘How much? Really? Are you guys joking with me?’ ‘No, we just want you to lean against this Range Rover with all these beautiful girls, and Sisqo is going to ride by on a motorcycle. All you have to do is nod at him.’ ‘That’s it? I don’t have to pick anybody up or wrestle anybody? I don’t have to fight a bear?’ ‘No, that’s it.’”
“Literally, it was one or two takes. They did the first one, liked it. They did a safety (take) and said, ‘Okay, thank you,’ and they gave me an envelope with cash. It was a big chunk of cash. ‘You guys want me to pick up some trash or help put stuff away?’ ‘Nope, that’s it.’ I went back to the building and all the guys were like, ‘Ah man, I would have done that.’ Yeah, after you found out how much it paid. A lot of them didn’t want to get off their ass and move.“
Paul Wight Plans To Wrestle Again In AEW
During his AEW career, Wight has only wrestled a few matches for the company. Recently, he made it clear that he wants to wrestle again while admitting that “he hasn’t done s**t” since joining AEW in February 2021.
You can see Paul Wight aka The Big Show in the “Thong Song” video below around the 1:17 mark of the video.