AEW star and commentator Paul Wight recently spoke with the Miami Herald about a wide range of topics, including how he hopes to step back into the ring and pass on some of his knowledge to the fresh talent within the promotion. He also hopes to make the dream showdown with NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal come to fruition. Highlights are below.
On getting back in the ring and passing on his knowledge of the industry:
Oh, the pressure is unreal for that because — and here’s the thing too, you know, I’ve got to look at this too, there’s a lot of incredible young talent out there and I’ve been doing this a long time. So I mean, you’ve got to look at this honestly and say, ‘Hey, maybe nobody wants to see me anymore.’ Maybe they don’t, so I gotta come do this as authentically and sincere as I can and believe that, you know, if you work hard and you put good work out there, people are gonna be receptive to it. There are going to be people that will endorse it, they’re going to be people that won’t endorse it. The only thing I can do is go out there and set the bar, an example of telling good stories, working with guys, getting guys over that I work with and getting myself over and showing people that it can be done. I’ve got all this experience and all this knowledge and if I can’t apply it in a positive way then I should hang up my boots. So yeah, the pressure is there. I probably put that pressure on myself but, I think after my career — my first match was against Hulk Hogan for the world title so I think I’m okay with pressure. I respond well to it so we’ll see.
Says he still hopes to have showdown with Shaq:
I hope so at some point. It’s been the biggest tease ever between Shaq vs. me for how many years. At some point, you either never do it because you can’t live up to the tease or we need to hurry up and do it before it gets to be yesterday’s news.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
)