Ever since Big Show and Shaquille O’Neal came to blows during last year's WrestleMania, the one match seemingly set in stone for the 2017 edition of the long-running event has been between the two of them. It's a clash which has divided wrestling fans, but one there's an awful lot of excitement around after it was made official on the red carpet of the ESPY Awards last July.
Over the past year, Big Show has dropped a lot of weight and is in the best shape of his career, but in a recent interview with WWE.com, the World's Largest Athlete indicated that he thinks Shaq is going to back out of the match as he doesn't appear to be taking the threat of Big Show anywhere near seriously enough. Here's what he told the site about the current state of their feud.
"We shot this off at the ESPY Awards, Shaq said he’s in, I thought this would be a good match for fans to see two giants go at it. And I see Shaq riding around, singing karaoke and stopping in at Krispy Kreme. I’m like, “Hey! If you’re not gonna take it serious, find something else to do!” I’ve given 22 years of my blood, sweat and tears to this business and I’m doing this favor to Shaq. This could be my last WrestleMania. He needs to step up. I’m not trying to be mean, but my time’s valuable. I get it. I don’t have foot powder commercials, car commercials, insurance commercials. I get it. He’s a busy man. But if he’s gonna step in the ring, in my business, at our biggest event of the year? Show me you’re serious. If anything, talk a little trash. Let me know you’re motivated. Because right now? I just get the feeling he’s terrified. He shot his mouth off, he’s in over his head and he’s trying to back out. So just let me know what’s going on, brother."
The match is going to happen and as this as an in-character interview, Big Show is clearly trying to keep the interest alive by building some hype around what's sure to be a fun encounter. How Shaq now responds promises to be very interesting, but with only around a month or so to go before Wrestlemania, we can probably expect things to kick off on RAW very, very soon.