Big Show
American professional wrestler and actor
Paul Donald Wight II (born February 8, 1972) is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he performs under his real name and is a color commentator for Collision. He is best known for his tenure with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1995 to 1999 as (the) Giant and his tenure with the World Wrestling Federation/WWE from 1999 to 2021 under the ring name (the) Big Show.
Wight played college basketball at Wichita State University before transferring to other schools. He began his wrestling career in 1994. In 1995, he signed with WCW, where, due to his great height and large frame, he was known by the ring name The Giant and initially introduced as "the son of André the Giant". In early 1999, he left WCW to join the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
Between WWF/WWE and WCW, he has held 23 total championships, including being a seven-time world champion, having held the WCW World Heavyweight Championship twice, the WWF/WWE Championship twice, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship twice and WWE's ECW Championship once, (making him the only wrestler who has won all four titles), and an 11-time world tag team champion, holding the WWF/World, WWE and WCW World Tag Team Championships multiple times with various partners. Having also won the Intercontinental, United States and Hardcore championships, he is the 24th Triple Crown and 12th Grand Slam winner in WWE history. He also won the 60-man battle royal at World War 3 and the 30-man André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31.
The public source identifies “Big Show” as american professional wrestler and actor. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Show, American and professional.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Big Show”, the useful work is to connect “american professional wrestler and actor” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q44378. VIAF identifies the subject as 160635165. The Library of Congress control number is no2010206648. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1995, 1999 and 2021.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Big Show”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Big Show primary sources, Big Show archive and Show research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Big Show” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.