Hulk Hogan said he would never work with Paul Wight if he didn’t remove the moonsault from his moveset.
When Wight began working in WCW as The Giant in 1995, he was surprisingly athletic for someone of his size, however, he was rarely able to showcase that side of his ability onscreen.
In his first match for the promotion, Wight defeated Hogan for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in a match that almost never happened.
During a Q&A at the recent For The Love Of Wrestling convention in the UK, Wight explained that he performed a moonsault once at a live event in Japan. When he got back to his hotel, he already had a message from Hogan.
“Oh yeah, I’ve done a moonsault. It’s funny. I used to do drop kicks off the top, I’ve done moonsaults. The moonsault thing got killed.
“The one time I did it, it wasn’t in a live event and it’s before they had cell phone cameras so, there wasn’t any documented evidence of it but, it got around and I got back to my hotel and my hotel phone had a message light.
“I think I was in Japan and so I called, I picked up the message and it was Hulk (Hogan) who wanted me to call him collect from Japan.”
Hulk Hogan warned Paul Wight not to use moonsaults
When Wight called back, Hogan told him plainly that “giants don’t do moonsaults” and if he did it again, then The Hulkster wouldn’t work with him.
“Because this is before cell phones so I called Hulk and Hulk told me flat out if I ever did a moonsault again, he’d never work with me again and hung up. ‘Giants don’t do moonsaults.’”
According to Wight, his athleticism wasn’t something that was wanted from someone his size at the time.
“When I first started, I was way too athletic for my size and what the industry was used to for a big man and what the industry wanted from me as a giant.
“I wasn’t as athletic as Undertaker by any means, but I was a giant that was way too athletic than to be a giant so it was a hard struggle early in my career to figure out who I was supposed to be.”
H/T to POST Wrestling for the above transcription.