If you thought the back-and-forth between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao dragged on, at least it didn’t take eight years before we saw a resolution.

That’s how long the Shaquille O’Neal vs. Big Show feud has stewed and it appears there’s no resolution in sight.

“Well, as far as I know on my end, I’m ready to go. It’s a situation that Shaq and the WWE have to work out,” Big Show told Yahoo Sports last week on their rumored WrestleMania 33 match.

The two larger-than-life athletes first crossed paths when O’Neal served as a guest host on “Raw” in 2009. After exchanging words (and chokeholds) in the ring, Shaq delivered an awkward-looking shoulder tackle that knocked Big Show out of the ring.

Last year at WrestleMania 32, O’Neal was a participant in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and after a brief stare down, the two behemoths worked together to choke slam Kane.

A singles match was penciled in for the WWE’s trademark pay-per-view on April 2 after the two agreed to a match last July at the ESPY Awards, but things appear to be off for the time being.

“Shaq is a busy dude and he’s got a lot of business going on so we’ll see,” Big Show said. “Hopefully he will be able to work it out, get the courage to show up.”

In the meantime, the Big Show’s been busy shedding weight and getting into incredible shape and doing voiceover work for the upcoming March 14 release, “The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania!”

Big Show revealed the motivation for his recent lifestyle change and has some thoughts on Shaq’s feud with JaVale McGee.

Will Big Show vs. Shaq happen at WrestleMania 33?

Big Show: Well, as far as I know on my end, I’m ready to go. It’s a situation that Shaq and the WWE have to work out. I don’t know if he chickened out, has other commitments … I don’t know. That’s above my pay grade. I like to think personally that Shaq got scared. He saw the six-pack and realized if he faced me at WrestleMania, he was going to be Fat Shaq.

Shaq is a busy dude and he’s got a lot of business going on so we’ll see. Hopefully he will be able to work it out and get the courage to show up. Personally, I don’t think it’s a business complication thing. Flat-out, I just think he’s scared. I get it. I’ve made a lot of changes in the past year and if I were sitting in Shaq’s shoes, I would probably be pretty nervous too to face me at WrestleMania.

Have you paid attention to Shaq’s feud with JaVale McGee?

Big Show: No, is he talking trash to someone else because he’s scared of me?

He’s picking on a current NBA player. Shaq’s mom had to get involved to cool things off.

Big Show: Really? What was Shaq getting hot about? Is he just mad because he’s too fat and can’t play anymore or what? I don’t understand. Why pick on someone in the league? He’s one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Instead of picking on people in the league, he should probably focus on the guy who he’s already picked with a couple of times — which is me. I think he should focus and not spread himself too thin.

That’s surprising that Shaq would pick on someone like that. It really is. The fact that he had to call his mom to intervene says a lot. His mom would kick his ass all over the place. I wouldn’t want to get Shaq’s mom mad, I’ll tell you that much. If she told me to do something, I would do it in a heartbeat. I wouldn’t want her mad at me. That woman is serious. I’m definitely saying right now that if I had to face Shaq’s mom at WrestleMania, I will not show up. I’ll be scared. If Shaq shows up, no problem. Shaq’s mom shows up, eh, I don’t know. I think I might get the flu.

There was a funny video following “Raw” where a referee tried to pin you after you were laid out by Brock Lesnar. How many referees would it take to defeat the Big Show?





Big Show: God bless the internet, huh? That was something I called for [referees] Chad Patton and John Cone. Those guys do a lot of work with us all over the world, year-round. They do much more than just refereeing in the ring. It was just a funny little spot that I called there for them. Hopefully they won’t get in trouble for it. If anyone gets in trouble for it, I will. I did it for them just as a joke to entertain the crowd.

We used to do stuff like that years ago in the “Attitude” era. I can remember years ago after the show, The Rock and Stone Cold [Steve Austin] would go out and all the bad guys would line up at the gorilla position to run down and take finishers just to pop the crowd at the end of the night because we enjoyed entertaining. What I was trying to do was to entertain the crowd and thank them, and also send a message to the guys in the locker room that it’s OK to have fun and entertain the crowd because that’s what we are here for. Business was over, the red light was turned off and I think Vince [McMahon] had already left, so we will find out. When I get to work on Monday, I’ll find out if I’m in trouble for sure. I’ll probably get fined or something. Hopefully he will be in a good mood and understand it was all for entertainment and I won’t get in trouble.

Story continues