10 More WWE Easter Eggs, References And In-Jokes You Never Noticed
3. He Could Have Been 'The Nasty Titan', We Guess...
WWE workshopped a number of potential names for their cage-busting, bank-breaking new signing Paul Wight in 1999 after WCW had annoyingly promoted the behemoth as the son of Andre the Giant during his early spell in Atlanta, both profiting off their rival's history and taking the name off the table upon his migration.
Word slipped that the giant Not-The Giant's new employers had pencilled 'Titan' as his moniker, in reference to the company's former corporate name, leading Eric Bischoff to snark over on Nitro that "the Titanic has sunk." Obviously Vince wasn't going to let that jibe slide, and so came up with a brand new nom de guerre for his latest Monday night war recruit. At St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Wight debuted as 'The Big Show'.
The reason behind this peculiar, not quite grammatically sound fresh identity was its initialism, TBS, a non-too subtle play on the Nitro-carrying television network Turner Broadcasting System. McMahon wanted to make it perfectly clear the only Big Show in wrestling was his own.