WWE rumors about Big Show, it was noted that the “world’s largest athlete” is set to officially end his professional wrestling career in February of next year. With WrestleMania 33 less than a month away, it will mark Show’s final appearance on “the grandest stage of them all,” if he still has a match. For months it seemed he would get into the ring and battle Shaq, as the two have crossed paths years ago on Monday Night Raw and then again at last year’s WrestleMania during the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.
However, Show has been in interviews saying that Shaq is backing out of the match. While that’s not officially confirmed, Wrestling Observer Radio‘s Dave Meltzer is speculating that Show will have a different opponent, but one who has ties to the Florida area and major ties to professional wrestling.
Meltzer said he believes that it will ultimately be Hulk Hogan who appears as Big Show’s opponent for WrestleMania 33.
“Well, Brooke said it, which is his daughter, who I think would know. Then [Hogan] blew it off, then they went back to her, and she just blew off the idea, like ‘your dad said that you made it up.’ Then she was like ‘oh whatever.’ Her reaction was like ‘I know it’s true.’ That was certainly the idea, but I haven’t heard anything about it. I haven’t really asked about it either. But I haven’t heard anything about it in what feels like a couple of months.”
Ironically, Big Show made his official wrestling debut with WCW in a match against Hulk Hogan at the 1995 edition of Halloween Havoc. In that match, Show won the WCW Championship to launch his legendary career. It would only be fitting that he would be in a high profile match at WrestleMania against the man he originally debuted against.
At this past Sunday’s WWE Fastlane, the Big Show made an appearance for an unscheduled match on the card. He took on the “Bulgarian Brute” Rusev in a singles match which went on for a good while. Show ultimately hit two chokeslams and a knockout punch to collect the win, bouncing back from his Monday Night Raw loss to Braun Strowman just a few weeks ago. It’s expected that Strowman could be this year’s Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner.
Interestingly enough, both the Big Show and Hogan are listed on Paddy Power for their odds to win the upcoming Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Show currently has the better odds to win the match at 12 to 1, which has him tied with another former winner, Cesaro. Hulk Hogan is farther down the list with odds of 33 to 1 to win it, which has him tied with Chris Jericho and Xavier Woods. Jericho is already scheduled to defend the US title against his former friend Kevin Owens, while Woods will be helping New Day host the WrestleMania pay-per-view.
Hulk Hogan fell out of favor with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) following the controversial racist remarks he made on an audio recording. However, there has been a lot of speculation over the past several months that the WWE was going to finally bring Hogan back into the company. His WWE profile page and merchandise had been removed from the WWE’s website, but in recent months his name has been mentioned during different pay-per-view events or other WWE stories.
WWE’s WrestleMania 33 is set for Sunday, April 2nd from Orlando, Florida. While many fans are already displeased with how “part-timers” are seeming to run the card, plenty of fans would be excited to hear that “Real American” theme music start playing and for “Hulkamania” to run wild again.
