10 Insane Things WWE Stopped Wrestlers From Doing

6. Big Show Could've Been In Gladiator?

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Could Paul Wight have made an appearance in Ridley Scott's Oscar-wining Gladiator? Seemingly so.

During an interview with Chris Van Vliet earlier this year, the former Big Show discussed how he'd received a loose offer to star in a movie with Russell Crowe.

As Wight explained, this opportunity came up shortly after he'd signed with WWE in 1999. Nic Cage's son was a big fan of Big Show, and so Cage reached out to start a conversation with Show. During said chat, Nic made mention of a Russell Crowe movie for which the World's Largest Athlete would be perfect.

To take up this mystery role in this mystery Crowe picture, Show need to spend spend six weeks filming in Spain. When he asked Vince McMahon for his approval on this, the response was quite simple; McMahon was paying Big Show to be a wrestler, not an actor.

While Wight doesn't specify the movie offer to him was for Gladiator, he does say how he was sat in a cinema watching Gladiator and thinking that could've been him.

For those wondering, Gladiator was shot largely in Malta, Morocco and England during a timeframe that would've matched up with Paul Wight's early tenure in McMahon's company.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.