There have been plenty of celebrity crossover matches in wrestling, dating back to Muhammad Ali taking on Antonio Inoki, with NFL star Lawrence Taylor even main eventing a WrestleMania. Celebrity matches aren’t always great, but some feel larger than life, and one that would have felt huge was would have been Shaquille O’Neil taking on The Big Show. At one point, it felt like an inevitability that this match would happen, but fast-forward to 2022, and the match never ended up taking place.
Big Show And Shaq Are Both Larger Than Life Athletes
The Big Show is a legend in the wrestling business. Despite a vast amount of poor booking over the course of his career, with several humiliating or embarrassing moments, and many instances where he didn’t quite reach the top, he still retains his place as one of the most respected individuals in all of wrestling, and a multi-time world champion. This is largely down to him being one of the best big men of all time, with a giant-like size standing at over seven-foot tall, mixed with the ability to move quickly and have a good match, making him renowned for being “The World’s Largest Athlete”.
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Shaquille O’Neil is often regarded as the best in his field of sports, as one of the greatest basketball players in history, also standing at a gigantic size of over seven-foot, with huge longevity in basketball. He played for teams such as the LA Lakers, Orlando Magic, and Miami Heat, winning the NBA four times over the course of his career, with many individual awards too. He and Big Show are two of the most recognizable sports names in the USA, and there are many parallels between both.
Their Match In WWE Never Came To Fruition
Shaquille O’Neil has been a familiar face in the wrestling world for quite some time, being a huge fan, first appearing in WCW, notably in presenting the WCW World Heavyweight Championship to the winner of the Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair clash at Bash at the Beach 1994, and he would later make a cameo in TNA. In 2009, during the period where Monday Night Raw would have a guest host each week, usually a celebrity, O’Neill was given the honor of being the host.
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During the show, O’Neil and The Big Show would come face to face in the ring, and the crowd lapped it all up. The fans in attendance loved the showdown and face-off, with their face-to-face completed in a short brawl in which O’Neil would come out on top, besting Big Show and standing tall. This led to talk of a match between the pair, one which was strongly advocated for by both Show and O’Neil respectively, in addition to a lot of the WWE Universe. However, due to alleged concerns over O’Neil’s physical conditioning, in addition to other issues, the match didn’t happen.
Talk once more began following WrestleMania 32, when O’Neil shockingly made his entrance as a surprise appearance in the 2016 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The competitors of the match parted like the Red Sea to witness O’Neil and Show battle within the very same match. Their interaction was very short, as the rest of the field eliminated both men. From there, both made jibes at each other on social media in hope of sparking up interest in a match. In fact, both men were preparing for it, with O’Neil undergoing training. It was eventually revealed that due to monetary issues and scheduling conflicts, their potential match was canceled.
Is All Hope Lost For Big Show & Shaq?
In 2020, O’Neil made a shocking debut in AEW, sparking up a feud with Cody Rhodes, in which newcomer Jade Cargill was by his side. After over a decade of trying to compete in a wrestling match, he finally got the chance, and he passed in flying colors with a truly entertaining matchup, where he was made to look great as a big man, with Rhodes helping out massively. This feud also ignited the push of Jade Cargill, who would go undefeated before becoming the inaugural TBS Champion.
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Meanwhile, Big Show, now returning to his real name, Paul Wight, signed with AEW. He has sporadically competed and is mostly featured as a commentator on Dark Elevation. With them both now having ties to AEW, the talk was stirred up that hope for this dream match may not be entirely lost. However, with time not slowing down, and Wight seemingly not wrestling much anymore, it remains unlikely that the pair will ever have that one-on-one dream celebrity singles match, which is a big shame considering the eyes it would have brought in, and the spectacle of seeing two men of that size battling.
