WWE News: Big Show Expected To Retire After ‘WrestleMania 33’

All professional athletes have their time in their respective sport. Professional wrestling careers are typically short, and can end at a moment’s notice. Daniel Bryan and Tyson Kidd being two of the most recent examples of WWE Superstars having their careers taken from them too early. However, there have been many examples of a wrestler staying in the spotlight too long.

Some examples of the latter include Ric Flair, who received the biggest sendoff in WWE history at WrestleMania 24 only to take the money in TNA to keep wrestling, which he has admitted was a huge mistake. Mick Foley also had many opportunities to hang up his boots in great final matches but chose to continue wrestling until his body couldn’t take any more punishment.

When to hang up the boots is different for every performer, but it’s something the WWE Universe has been asking about The Big Show for quite awhile now. Being WWE’s giant has given him a historic career and over two decades in the industry, but many WWE fans feel Big Show has overstayed his welcome in WWE for the past few years. The question is how much does he have left in the tank?

Several months ago, The Big Show appeared as a guest on the Stone Cold Podcast on the WWE Network and specifically stated that he has roughly two years of wrestling left in him. He laughed off and explained that the WWE Universe chanting “please retire” at him doesn’t bother him, and there is a disconnect with what he actually does for the product.

However, PW Slam recently reported that The Big Show could be in the final year of his career in 2016. During an interview with 790 Ticket in Miami, he spoke about the potential for his match with Shaquille O’Neal that has been rumored and may have even been confirmed for WrestleMania 33 in Orlando next year.

It’s still early, but Big Show and Shaq have been getting a lot of attention for a match between them on the grandest stage of them all. Show revealed during the interview that he is very excited for that night, and he is training as hard as he can to get in the best shape possible to go out in the biggest way possible. He claims to feel better at 44 than he did at 34.

The expectation going into next year’s WrestleMania is that Big Show vs. Shaq will be the final match of the former’s career. Not many people would have thought this “meeting of the giants” would be a fitting end to The Big Show’s WWE career, but it is a very high-profile match that will allow him to go out in a blaze of glory at the biggest show of the year.

The former WWE Champion is a future WWE Hall of Famer without a shadow of a doubt. He’s been a part of WWE’s roster since jumping ship to the company back in 1999 during the “Monday Night War.” Big Show has main evented WrestleMania, and will go down in wrestling history and WWE history as one of the greatest big men of all time. Even if he has overstayed his welcome with the WWE Universe, his body of work over two decades is just too strong to deny him his place in wrestling history.

Nothing is confirmed as of this writing because WWE SummerSlam is still a week away and a lot can happen between now and next year’s WrestleMania. However, a final match with Shaquille O’Neal could provide one more WrestleMania moment for “The World’s Largest Athlete” to end his WWE career in the biggest lights the industry has to offer. Some of the WWE Universe may believe he’s finished, but they won’t deny him the send-off he deserves.

[Image via WWE.com]