Paul Wight is All Elite. The former WWE Superstar joined All Elite Wrestling (AEW) earlier this year after spending over 20 years in WWE. PopCulture.com recently caught up with Wight, who explained what stands out with AEW after being with the promotion since February. “It’s such a different strategy to find a creative atmosphere that’s in AEW, for the talent,” Wight told PopCulture.
“WWE always worked because it had a formula and you fit into that formula and that formula worked, globally. And then to have the experience that I have, and then be able to move to AEW and translate that experience to the younger talent and then watch that talent take those tidbits of information and exploring, create their own characters and their own brands and that creativity and that positive energy, it’s so invigorating,” he said.
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Though he has wrestled for four decades, he admits he now feels he’s in a company “where I’m brand new” every step of the way. “I feel brand new. My mind is brand new, my attitude’s brand new. To get that opportunity, it’s a real, real blessing. I’m very, very thankful and grateful to wake up every day and get to experience AEW at this level,” he said.
Wight, a former WWE, WCW and ECW Champion, is doing commentary work in AEW, but he did see some in-ring action last week when he attacked The Factory led by QT Marshall. Wight never did commentary work in WWE and revealed the biggest challenged he faced doing it for AEW Dark: Elevation.
“The biggest problem for me, honestly, is getting my mouth to catch up with my brain because my brain works extremely fast,” Wight revealed. “If you’ve ever been around me, I’m a pretty quick-witted dude and I’m pretty sharp, but sometimes my mouth is just really lazy and doesn’t want to work. And Tony Schiavone always laughs at me, because every time I mumble or mumble a word, he starts laughing, because I’m ready to stab myself in the neck with my own pencil.”
AEW launched in 2019 and has quickly become the second-biggest pro wrestling promotion behind WWE. And like Wight, there have been a few WWE Superstars to make the jump to AEW over recently such as Mark Henry, Andrade, and Christian Cage who recently beat Kenny Omega to win the Impact World Championship. There are also rumors of former WWE Superstars CM Punk and Daniel Bryan possibly joining AEW, which was founded by Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Tony Kahn.
“When a product’s hot and people know it’s hot, they all want to be a part of,” Wight said. “This really goes to Tony Khan, Cody Rhodes and Chris Jericho and the Young Bucks. The guys that really saw this thing when they imagined it and envisioned it and other people like, ‘Oh, you’re going to start your own company. You guys are crazy.’ Now that they’ve made it happen. Now that they’ve turned that corner and Kenny Omega’s a big part of that, as well. Now people are starting to see the light.”
