WWE News: Former World Champion Says ‘WrestleMania 33’ Is His Final One

The Big Show has competed in 16 different WrestleMania events and will compete in the Andre the Giant battle royal at this year’s big event. 411mania reported that Big Show was on the Sam Roberts and Jim Norton Sirius/XM radio show and made a huge announcement. Big Show said that WrestleMania 33 will be his final match at WrestleMania.

This has to be disappointing for Big Show because he was set to have a huge celebrity match with Shaquille O’Neal, but that match fell through. Apparently, the reason that the WrestleMania match with Shaq collapsed was due to behind-the-scenes negotiations with the WWE, something that O’Neal said was not his fault.

As a result, Big Show was placed back into the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal for the fourth consecutive year. The first year, Cesaro won by throwing Big Show over the top rope in an amazing test of strength. Big Show won the second year in honor of Andre the Giant. Last year, the biggest moment was when Shaquille O’Neal was a surprise entrant and stood face-to-face with Big Show before both men were eliminated.

It seems a shame that Big Show spent his final four years with the WWE competing only in the Andrew the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania and was rarely around the rest of the year. Big Show has announced that his contract ends at the start of 2018, and the 45-year-old likely won’t re-sign with the WWE at that time.

The overall record for Big Show at WrestleMania is 4-9 in regular matches, not including the three previous Andrew the Giant Memorial Battle Royal events. In those, he is obviously 1-2 and Braun Strowman is the overall favorite to win this year, possibly with Big Show helping put him over with another amazing test of strength.

The first year that Big Show competed at WrestleMania was in 1999 when he came over from WCW and lost to Mankind (Mick Foley) by disqualification. The next year, he was back against Mick Foley again, but this time was in the biggest match of his career.

At WrestleMania 2000, the McMahon family was feuding. Each member chose someone to represent them as they fought for control of the company. Vince McMahon chose The Rock, Stephanie McMahon chose her husband Triple H (the WWE champion at the time), Linda McMahon chose Mick Foley, and Shane McMahon chose Big Show. Triple H retained his title after finally beating The Rock.

At WrestleMania X7, Big Show was competing for the hardcore title against champion Raven and fellow challenger Kane. It was his third loss in a row at WrestleMania. He lost again at WrestleMania XIX in a handicap match where he teamed with A-Train to lose to Undertaker.

At WrestleMania XX, Big Show fought a pre-superstar John Cena for the United States Championship and lost his fifth WrestleMania event in five appearances. The next year, Big Show fought in his first celebrity fight and lost to Sumo superstar Akebono.

After opening his WWE career with six straight WrestleMania losses, Big Show finally got his first win on the big stage when he and Kane successfully defended their WWE tag team titles against Chris Masters and Carlito.

Up next was the biggest WrestleMania match of Big Show’s career. He fought undefeated boxing champion Floyd Mayweather and lost when Mayweather resorted to using a chair in the no-DQ match. It was advertised as the biggest WrestleMania is history at the time.

At WrestleMania XXV, Big Show was finally back in the world title scene and fought in a triple threat match for the WWE Championship against Edge and John Cena. The end came when Cena beat Edge and Big Show was now 1-8 at WrestleMania.

He went on a winning streak after that. At WrestleMania XXVI, Big Show and Miz beat John Morrison and R-Truth to unify the WWE tag team titles. At WrestleMania XXVII, he was part of a winning unit as he teamed with Kofi Kingston, Santino Marella, and Kane to beat the Corre.

At WrestleMania XXVIII, he won the Intercontinental Championship from Cody Rhodes. That was the only time that Big Show won a title at a WrestleMania event.

The last WrestleMania that Big Show competed in before he started his run in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal took place at WrestleMania 29. In that match, he teamed with Randy Orton and Sheamus to lose to The Shield.

[Featured Image by WWE]