10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (March 16)

4. Big Show's Early Days In WCW Were Based on ECW's 911

Think of Big Show's time as The Giant in WCW and you'd be forgiven for believing that he was solely inspired by the iconic André The Giant. Whilst there is truth to that (the singlet, presentation and the fact WCW pretended he was Andre's son give the game away there), it's also true that Andre wasn't the only inspiration.

As WCW booker, Kevin Sullivan needed to find a way to take this rough-around-the-edges athlete and turn him into something useful on TV. That's when he looked to the job Paul Heyman had done with 911 in ECW.

Show didn't have a lot of wrestling experience back in 1995, and he needed more training. To Sullivan, that meant using Heyman's method of accentuating strengths and hiding weaknesses made sense in the interim. That's why, for a spell, The Giant would simply show up and Chokeslam people just like 911.

Even after reading Sullivan's confession to Sports Illustrated, it's hard to imagine that Big Show would be compared to one of ECW's most random characters; 911 barely wrestled matches, and he was only there to blast everyone in sight with Chokeslams for the live crowd.