Shaquille O’Neal’s size, strength, athleticism, and unmatched charisma would have allowed him to be the greatest crossover athlete in NBA history. O’Neal was the most dominant player in NBA history, but he could have thrived in many other sports if he wanted to. One sport he has had a great history with is professional wrestling. In fact, Shaq believes that he could have beaten wrestling legend Andre The Giant.
But his colleague Charles Barkley thinks that he could have been an amazing wrestler in his prime. In a recent conversation with Renee Paquette, the conversation moved toward wrestling. Barkley spoke about Shaq’s appearance on AEW and said that at his current age, Shaq won’t be nearly as successful at wrestling as he could have been if he had started it 25 years ago.
“That’s the perfect word, this dude is crazy. His body probably can’t take the abuse today, but with his personality, he’s one of the most fun people I’ve ever been around. He’s a really hard working dude. He’s on every commercial. It’s just a matter of time before he starts doing Depends commercials. I know he’s turning 50 in the next couple of weeks so he’s close to Depends. He’s a great businessman. He does a lot of stuff, clearly. With his personality, if he really wanted to do [wrestling] 25 years ago, he would have been great,”
Shaquille O’Neal has been a massive fan of professional wrestling and has made numerous appearances on their programming across the years. Shaq made appearances on WCW, WWE, and last year even had a professional wrestling match on AEW Dynamite, teaming up with AEW’s Jade Cargill to face Cody Rhodes and Red Velvet.
O’Neal, despite being close to 50 years of age when he stepped into the ring last year, looked absolutely great, and even went through a table during the show. O’Neal showed fans how much he respected the medium, and how hard he was willing to work to be a part of it.
Shaq has shown how much of a fan he is of wrestling. He once got roasted by Chris Jericho when he was the guest host of Monday Night Raw when Jericho said that Kobe Bryant was the most dominant player in NBA history. Clearly, Shaq has a passion for professional wrestling.
