You asked for it! Ok, you probably didn’t but it looks like you’re going to get it anyways…
No, I’m not talking about a bunch of new socks from your grandfather, I’m talking about the most anticipated match of a generation: The Big Show vs. Shaquille O’Neal.
While speaking to the Shanghai News on a WWE promotional tour, Mr. Show, a 12-time singles champion and 11-time tag-team champ (he was also Captain Insano in The Waterboy, in case you forgot), let it slip that he and Shaq will be fighting at Wrestlemania 33 next year in Orlando.
“We’ll have one heck of a match and we’ll see what’s up,” Show said, “We’ll give the fans a treat.”
Now that’s how you sell a match! Granted, when you put a 7-foot-1 325-lb Shaq (and you can bet that second number is even higher now that he’s retired) in a ring with a 7-foot-1 500-lb Show, people will watch.
Shaq, it should be noted (seriously is anybody still reading this?), is hardly a stranger to the squared circle, and was even in a WWE ring as recently as March:
What’s more, he’s no stranger to The Big Show either (actual name: Paul Wight). Check out what kickstarted their ‘feud’, way back in 2009:
This won’t be the first time an NBAer has headlined a pay-per-view match. May I remind you of the infamous tag-team match that pit Karl Malone and Diamond Dallas Page against Dennis Rodman and Hulk Hogan at 1998’s Bash at the Beach?
When I interviewed Page about this match last summer, he told me that Rodman—not Malone— was the strongest person he’s ever locked up with in three decades in the business. So you can’t say you didn’t learn anything today.