By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
ET Canada interview with Paul Wight
Host: Shakiel Mahjouri
Available via ETCanada.com
Video available at SHAK Wrestling YouTube Page
Paul Wight on getting shoved off the roof by Hulk Hogan at Halloween Havoc 1995: “I definitely wouldn’t even consider doing that now at my age with my wisdom. Like, no, why are we doing that? But at 22, 23-years-old, I’m like, ‘Yeah, whatever you want to do. Push me off a building? Awesome.’ You know, because you’re just so excited.
“The thing was for me to fall off the building. It was about four stories into a big airbag. I’m not a stunt man. I’ve never done anything like that, you know?… You’re young and you think you’re bulletproof… Just being young and being funny, when I went over and Hulk’s looking over the top at me, I was flipping him a bird on the way down… It’s a wonder he didn’t bust out laughing when I did it.”
Paul Wight confirms urban legend that he used to perform moonsaults in training: “Totally true. It’s probably gone by now. That was done probably with VHS tape it was so long ago that hung around the training room… I had athleticism that was crazy for someone of my size in the game. I could do kip-ups, I could do dropkicks, dropkicks off the top. I could do a moonsault. Believe it or not, the way the industry was then — because it was still transitioning — nobody really knew what to do with me because I was unlike anything anyone had seen before.
“There were rumors of me doing it in Japan. It wasn’t in a match. It was screwing around the afternoon. And then I was told immediately not to do it ever again if I wanted to continue working world. I was thinking, ‘Japan is a great place to break it out. Here we go.’ And it was shut down immediately by those that had the creative control.”
Paul Wight breaks down the plot of “GenZeroes”:“It’s 200 years in the future after the aliens have come through. It’s almost like the aliens have us basically on a harvest planet. Every few hundred thousand years they come through, they harvest the oceans, they harvest whatever resources have re-accumulated, they harvest that and they move on. So basically, we’re kind of like if you watch ‘World’s Deadliest Catch’, we’re a crab trap out in the middle of the ocean of space.
“They come by and they harvest it. This last time that they came through, humanity did its very best to unite together. Finally, everybody put politics aside and everything else and put up a good fight. It wasn’t enough. The only people that survived were those that were able to hide… The whole theme is they are trying to prepare for when they come back again because we know they are. We’re on a cycle. They will be back. It’s not if they will, that’s when they will.”
Paul Wight says fans can have an influence on “GenZeroes” directions: “As it was developing and we were putting stuff together, they were explaining out the NFTs to me and the involvement of building a community and the idea of the community being able to have some influence with the NFTs…. to even determine some of the outcomes and story plots.
“Remember the books where you could choose your own ending? There are a lot of opportunities with ‘GenZeroes’ unlike anything I’ve ever seen and experienced before for community involvement. After so many years, four decades. of pro wrestling and wearing spandex for a living, I understand that your audience and your community are more important than anything that you can do.”
Other topics include his favorite face/heel turn, two action figures he despises, being physically attacked by fans, and more.
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