In this day and age, we live in a very social media-based world, and you must have seen many bullies on social media. There are many disrespectful people who pick on those in the limelight and personally attack them from behind the keyboard with different slang and curses. Many even tend to threaten their target.
But imagine if someone tried that in the real world, right to a wrestler’s or athlete’s face! Imagine even further that this happened not just to any wrestler or athlete but to The Big Show! Let’s have a look back at that incident.
WWE superstar Big Show punched a heckling fan
In 1998, The Big Show was being heckled by a fan at a Marriott Hotel bar in Uniondale, New York. This whole incident ended up landing him in court. The wrestlers were staying at the Marriott Hotel, after performing at “The Nassau Coliseum” in Uniondale, New York.
A witness at the hotel revealed what happened on that day, sharing what heckler Robert Sawyer said to The Big Show: “You’re so tough, you’re not that big. Go to another federation!” The feud was not just verbal, however. Sawyer even tried to get physical with The Big Show by pushing him in the chest.
Thirty-year-old Robert Sawyer, 6’6” and 220 pounds, approached the wrestling superstar. Next, witnesses said that Sawyer started showing gestures and insulted The Giant in front of fans gathered there.
But when the heckler did an obscene gesture, The Giant asked him to stop. But the fan was relentless to annoy the wrestler. When The Giant had enough he threw a punch to the face of Sawyer which broke the jaw of the heckler.
WWE superstar Big Show faced a lawsuit after an assault on a fan
After the incident at the Marriott Hotel bar, The Big Show was interviewed in the following days.
“I asked him very politely to stop doing all the cursing and stuff… And then he got up in my face,” said The Big Show. He also said as his reaction to being pushed by the heckler is “Self-defense. I mean, it looks crazy coming from somebody as big as me, but it startled me, it did.”
This punch broke Sawyer’s jaw and landed The Giant in Nassau Criminal Court on charges of third-degree assault. The court sided with the wrestler, and the charges were dropped.
The fans who attended the court hearing chanted for The Big Show:
“You’re not supposed to treat him like that.”
“He was defending himself.”
However, even if punching or assaulting someone is a crime but a little bit of self-defense is justified when a person is in trouble.
Do you think the heckler got what he deserved? Let us know your thoughts in the comment.
