Paul Wight Explains His Many Big Show Face & Heel Turns In WWE

Published: Apr 7, 2026 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Apr 7, 2026 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

Paul Wight Explains His Many Big Show Face & Heel Turns In WWE

If there was a constant for a period in WWE, it’s that The Big Show would switch from heel to face often, something Paul Wight acknowledges.

Being a literal giant of a man, and something of a spectacle from the moment he stepped out in front of the crowd, Paul Wight recognized the significance of his part in proceedings as “something that has to be overcome”, hence changing from face to heel and back again as often as he did in WWE.

During a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, White placed his shifting personas in the perspective of the stars he worked with in WWE, saying:

“Arn Anderson told me, ‘The dumbest thing you ever did is learn how to work.’ So any minute, I was able to be a good opponent for what we were doing. I knew that me, personally, I don’t think I should ever have been champion.

“You don’t need a giant to be a champion. You need a giant to be an obstacle for the upcoming champion. You need somebody, something, a wall, a mountain, something that has to be overcome so that the next talent can be on its way. There’s a damn good living to be made in that position.

“I think the last time I got the title was just because I had been five or six years in title matches all the time, had won the damn thing. Well, he’s been in here (for a) while, we might want to put it on him, so get some validity out of it.

“But I was okay with that. I enjoyed that, because I look back at my career now, I got to help create some big, big stars.

“I was working early with Roman (Reigns) and working early with Cody (Rhodes). There are a lot of talents that I had a great (time with), Kofi (Kingston), (Xavier) Woods and Cesaro. Big moment, Cesaro at WrestleMania, those are all good moments for me.

“I always understood that I’m not, and this is no way am I putting myself down. I’m not a leading man, I’m not Rock, I’m not Stone Cold. I’m not John Cena.

“I’m not the leading guy, I’m the funny sidekick, or I’m Thanos, the villain. That’s where I fall in, and that’s okay.”

With necessity being a driving factor in Wight’s heel-to-face-to-heel transitions, he would look at the responsibilities he held as that character, stating:

“That’s the whole name of the game. My philosophy is different. What I took to the business and brought to it, not that it’s any super algorithmic formula that’s going to guarantee success.

“I looked at what I brought to the table, and what are my responsibilities? Get the match over, get my opponent over, and the third thing is going to happen: I will get myself over.

“I didn’t know how to do those things early in the beginning, because it was, oh, do I just go out, get myself over? Do I do this? Just figuring out how to respond to things, just a couple of little tweaks, and then also trusting the other talent, and talking to them, explaining to them what we’re doing.

“And once you explain to guys now, if we do this right, and we build this here, this will get a bigger reaction, and then guys get crazy, like your buddy, Rey (Mysterio).”

The interview would also see Wight note that he has a “short window left” as an active in-ring competitor in AEW.

Good Guys Vs. Bad Guys

The formula is as old as storytelling itself; someone is the good guy, someone is the bad guy, and occasionally the lines between either are blurred.

The Big Show is far from the only star to have switched from heel to face and back again, although the frequency with which it happened was noted by fans and critics alike.

While some stars were fortunate enough to spend the majority of their career following a set path, a heel or face turn appears inevitable for a run of any appreciable length. Even John Cena had an (admittedly short) heel turn for the first time in his career during his retirement year.

Fans of the popular British science fiction series Doctor Who may recall the Matt Smith iteration of the character declaring, “We all change, when you think about it. We’re all different people all through our lives,” during his regeneration, something that wrestling stars have been doing through their own runs.

The point of the change, however, is… well, the point. As Wight notes, he was something to be overcome, and his role was to make his rival a bigger star, sending them on a journey of their own. As Smith’s Doctor would say: “And that’s OK, that’s good, you gotta keep moving, so long as you remember all the people that you used to be.”

Swapping from heel to face or vice versa should be just a whimsical change. It should have purpose and affect the narrative, even if it’s a moment that is forgotten in the mists of time.