10 WWE Big Men Who Were Surprisingly Good Wrestlers
The Great Khali need not apply.
Professional wrestling has a longstanding infatuation with giants. Every major promotion has at least sky-scraping wrestler who’s half a foot taller than everyone else, and is promoted like some kind of unstoppable wrecking machine. The trope’s popularity exploded with André the Giant’s rise to prominence through the ‘70s and ‘80s, and with the likes of Kane and Braun Strowman still active in WWE, it remains alive and well in 2016.
Everyone loves a spectacle, and that’s exactly what these freakishly large athletes provide. They’re there to shock the crowd through size, strength, and sheer immovability, but it doesn’t always work out. Such wrestlers are often hindered by their gigantism, and while physically impressive, being 7’ tall isn’t always conducive to good technical wrestling ability.
From Giant Gonzalez to The Great Khali, wrestling history is full of awkward, immobile big men who were slow, clumsy, and greener than an envious Grinch. It’s no longer enough for a wrestler to simply by “big” and nothing else. Fans have become desensitised to the giant monsters of the world, and such wrestlers must supplement their imposing mass with skill and technique to get over in the modern era.
Such wrestlers are hard to come by, but WWE have seen a number of adept big men pass through their roster over the years. Here are 10 WWE giants who were surprisingly good wrestlers.
10. Big Show
Time hasn’t been too kind to the Big Show.
The World’s Largest Athlete has been well past his prime for at least ten years now, and while he can still be an intimidating force against smaller opponents, Show is far from the wrestler he used to be. Slower than a gang of turtles slogging through peanut butter, Big Show has become a yawn-inducing performer who is almost impossible to take seriously thanks to years of misuse and meaningless face/heel turns.
In his prime, however, Big Show was a fantastic worker. He was predictably green in his early years, but there aren’t too many 7’, 450lb wrestlers who can head to the top rope for a splash or elbow drop, and even fewer that can pull-off a dropkick or sunset flip. It’s hard to imagine it now, but through his WCW run and early WWE days, Big Show was a shockingly lithe athlete for a man of his size.
He was never the lightest on his feet, but he was pulling off the kind of moves expected by men half his size.
Show’s resumé speaks for itself, too. A seven-time world champion across WCW, WWE and the relaunched ECW, he’s one of the most decorated big men in the sport’s history. Time and his well-documented weight problems have taken a serious toll, but it’d be shameful to let his mediocre later years eclipse Big Show’s athletic peak.