History Main / TheGiant

* Jeep Swenson, better known for playing Bane in ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' than for wrestling, was 6 ft 4 but weighed 450 lbs. And it was all muscle.

* The late Wrestling/JohnTenta had a good run at a giant archetype as Earthquake in the WWE, feuding with Wrestling/HulkHogan at the height of his career, eventually alongside the similarly gigantic Fred "Typhoon" Ottman. They called themselves the Natural Disasters.

* Maxxx Testosterone is basically a giant for higher in Canada, especially in Quebecois enterprises like Federation Canadienne de Lutte . He's not ''that'' massive overall, being around an imperial 6'2 345 lbs, which makes him only about 20-30 heavier than long running star of the nation's circuit Dru Onyx, but Maxxx gets booked in the kind of one on two {{squash match}}es and such expected of giants almost immediately after debuting.

* Wrestling/NiaJax is a pretty good example. At six foot and billed as weighing 275 pounds, which is bigger than many of the ''men'' WWE employs and she was fast tracked out of their developmental program to their main television show to win the women's title belt, despite having less {{wrestling psychology}} than many of the diva search people.(WWE for their part did slow down her push when novelty wore off and fans started getting bored)

* Wrestling/BobSapp was tall and heavy enough to fit the trope, even more in Japan. Ironically he was even more this trope in kick boxing and mixed martial arts than traditional pro wrestling. As a pro wrestlers Sapp had a lot of moves, even if almost all of them involved picking up and dropping the other guy or running into them. His professional fight could almost always be described as him charging forward flailing his arms, however.

* Wrestling/NiaJax probably counts on the female side, being around six foot and billed as weighing 275 pounds, which is bigger than many of the ''men''.

Giants typically have a typical moveset associated with them, with the [[NeckLift chokeslam]] being the obligatory move to show their raw power and simple approach to wrestling. It also includes clawholds if the wrestler has particularly huge hands, and the classic big boot or stationary kick right to the face of a running, puny opponent. And, ultimately, if the Giant has a big belly or otherwise a heavy torso, a big splash is the most adequate finishing move.

* Jorge Gonzales, billed as El Gigante in WCW and Giant Gonzalez in WWE. May be more well-known for the "naked" bodysuit he was required to wear as the latter. He feuded with Wrestling/TheUndertaker while "The Deadman" was in his prime (who he can be seen towering over in the top left of the page image; 'Taker is 6'10" himself). His profile at the wwe.com Alumni Gallery lists his height as ''8 feet'', but it was actually more like 7'6". Incidentally, he was a member of the Argentine national basketball team; he would have competed in the 1988 Olympics, but he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks two months before the games.

* Just try to stop Wrestling/{{WWE}} from using these. In addition to Big Show, everyone else in that picture has been on their television programming at one time or another. They've currently still got Big Show along with Wrestling/MarkHenry, Undertaker, and Wrestling/{{Kane}}. Relative to the WWE's size, that number's fairly conservative though. Of course, Wrestling/TheUndertaker is arguably one of the very best big man wrestlers ever, Wrestling/{{Kane}} has always been solid--in his prime he could do hurricanranas, and Wrestling/MarkHenry was pretty mobile in the 90s and worked to improve in 2005.

** Team Lesnar, in ''Wrestling/SurvivorSeries 2003'', was built on this trope. It featured Wrestling/BrockLesnar, A-Train, Matt Morgan, Nathan Jones and the Big Show together as the largest team in the history of the pay per view. Two had just surfaced on TV and 3/5ths of them were gone by next year.

* WCW had Midnight (real name Ann Marie Crooks). She was a face and accompanied Wrestling/BookerT, but was only around for a few months. Website/{{WrestleCrap}} would also like to remind you of one of her opponents, [[DontExplainTheJoke Asya, who was bigger than Chyna]]. In a different induction, Midnight was described as "better than Stevie Ray", though.

* The late Rhonda Singh, who played former [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWF Women's Champion]] Bertha Faye, and Monster Ripper in Japan. She briefly worked in WCW under her own name as well.

* Wrestling/BobSapp was tall and heavy enough to fit the trope, even more in Japan.

** Shaquille O'Neal is another prominent example, at least as far as his lane presence is concerned. His free throw ability, not so much--[[ScaryMovie famously so]].

* Jorge Gonzales, billed as El Gigante in WCW and Giant Gonzalez in WWE. May be more well-known for the "naked" bodysuit he was required to wear as the latter. He feuded with Wrestling/TheUndertaker while "The Deadman" was in his prime (who he can be seen towering over in the top left of the page image; 'Taker is 6'10" himself). His profile at the wwe.com Alumni Gallery lists his height as ''8 feet'', but it was actually more like 7'6". Incidentally, he was a member of the Argentinean national basketball team; he would have competed in the 1988 Olympics, but he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks two months before the games.
* Starting in All Pro Wrestling, moving to Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, Wrestling/{{New Japan| Pro Wrestling}} and finally winding up as the biggest man in WWE, The Great Khali, who at 7'1" is (slightly) taller than the Undertaker, Kane, and the Big Show. He's also one of the least mobile examples in wrestling history, due to the strain his gigantism puts on his body. He's still a huge attraction though, managing to draw a crowd of sixty thousand in his native punjab to see CWE students, well after his WWE run was over.
* One example that only concerns the wrestler's weight and not height was Wrestling/{{Yokozuna}}, who combined this trope with the ForeignWrestlingHeel angle (He was born in the American territory of Samoa, but was only billed as being from the Polynesian Islands).

* As Enzo Amore reminds everyone, [[https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a2/67/59/a267593bc40f418f5912d2f028984025.jpg Big Cass]] is 7 feet tall [[CatchPhrase and you can't teach that!]] He was easily the tallest person during his {{Wrestling/WWENXT}} run. The second tallest was Baron Corbin at 6'8.

* The NBA has also had its share of giants on the basketball court. Effective big men are hard to come by, though, and misfires like Gheorge Muresan, Jake Vohskul, and Wang Zhizhi are all too common. 7 footers and up are always in demand, based on the reasoning that if the 7'0" guy needs polishing, you can teach him to be better, whereas you ''can't'' teach a guy who's already good to be 7 feet tall.

** Manute Bol was literally the tallest man to ever play in the NBA (tied with Muresan, technically), and while he was a dominant blocker and good three point shooter, he was also dangerously underweight for his size -- 7'7" and just ''200'' lbs.

* Emmanuel Yarborough is a little-known sumo wrestler and MMA fighter, but his main claim to fame is as the holder of the Guinness World Record for World's Largest Athlete, at 6'8" tall and over 800 pounds. Interestingly, although he is a shoot fighter he resembles a Giant pro wrestler very strongly, with a moveset that mostly consists of basic punches and trying to crush his opponent under his weight, and his fairly limited MMA record consists mostly of losses to scrappy, much smaller underdogs.
* In the NHL by Zdeno Chara, the tallest player ever to play in the league, who is considered one of the top defensemen playing at the moment. Ironically, some thought that his height was the only reason he even had a job during his rookie season, disregarding his actual skill. On the flip side, the second tallest [=NHLer=] of all time, Steve [=McKenna=], was not very good at all, and found himself a frequent healthy scratch before going to Australia to become the coach of their national team.

* Another MMA Example, even among the UFC Heavyweights, Stefan "Skyscraper" Struve stands out at 6'11 and 260. His tallest opponent was 4 inches shorter. His shortest, a full foot shorter than him. However, he owns a 25-6 record and is very accomplished on the ground.

* [[SnakePeople Vibora]] on Wrestling/LuchaUnderground is the resident giant. His performer, Austin Matelson, is actually only 6'5" tall (although booked at 6'11"), not ''particularly'' gigantic by the standards of this trope, but since Lucha Underground is on average a much shorter promotion than WWE, he ''towers'' over most of the roster in a most intimidating manner.

* [[SnakePeople Vibora]] on Wrestling/LuchaUnderground is the resident giant. His performer, Austin Matelson, is actually only 6'5" tall, not ''particularly'' gigantic by the standards of this trope, but since Lucha Underground is on average a much shorter promotion than WWE, he ''towers'' over most of the roster in a most intimidating manner.

An important distinction between The Giant and just being large is that The Giant will have [[ImmovableObject sheer immovability]] and too often a noticeable lack in the talent department, having a very small repertoire of basic strikes and throws or not possessing WrestlingPsychology. While some with the Giant gimmick will disprove some of the stereotypes by showing a more diverse range of moves along with decent fitness and mobility, their in ring style and psychology are still built almost entirely around being large and hard to budge, as it is the easiest/most credible way to build matches with guys like them. And they will rarely be in a hurry either which, when worked well, can go a long towards making them seem that much larger. Wrestling/JimRoss used to refer to these types of wrestlers as 'Hoss'es, after Hoss Cartwright from Bonanza.

** Eli Cottonwood, one of the rookies in Wrestling/{{WWE NXT}} season 2. He was ''bad'', but he was about 6'10". In vignettes about him the other pros struggled to have anything nice to say about him other than "He's tall." He managed to stick around WWE's developmental league FCW (and later the revamped NXT) for a couple years, based entirely on being large and having no other upside.

* The late Rhonda Singh, who played former [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/wwe/wwf-wm.html WWF Women's Champion]] Bertha Faye, and Monster Ripper in Japan. She briefly worked in WCW under her own name as well

* The 6'1, 316 lbs Betsy Ruth or Rosie Lottalove to TNA viewers. However, she went to the Diana promotion in Japan in 2011 and fell off the radar by mid 2012 before resurfacing in late 2014, 127 lbs lighter(still much larger than most but the giant gimmick's been shredded, mostly)

* The 6 ft 9 Isis the Amazon (real name Lindsay Kay Hayward), of the American indie scene. That's her dominating the lineup in the bottom-right corner of the page pic. She's done a bit of acting too, and consequently holds the Guinness World Record title for the tallest women ever to play a leading role.

* '''HOLY CRAP,''' [[VideoGame/PokemonXandY PokemonXAndY Az]] is HUGE at 9 feet. Subverted due to that he is quite [[RealMenWearPink soft and kind.]]

* Several villains in ''Manga/{{Kinnikuman}}'' and ''Anime/UltimateMuscle'' get by mostly on superior size and strength. Perhaps most emblematic is the Mountain, one of the largest and heaviest wrestlers in either series. His ultimate finishing move is a simple frog splash (with the NameOfPower "Mountain Drop"), but it's absolutely devastating because of how massive he is.

* As Enzo Amore reminds everyone, Big Cass is 7 feet tall [[Catchphrase and you can't teach that!]] He was the person during his Wrestling/NXT run. The second tallest was Baron Corbin at 6'8.

* The later ''VideoGame/FireProWrestling'' games have a number of wrestling styles in the character editor/CAW creator. The Giant style has poor Affinity ratings in everything except for punching and dirty attacks; it doesn't even feature high ratings in the Power category. One assumes this is to reflect the extremely limited movesets of most real-life 'giant' wrestlers, especially since low Affinity rating for a move causes it to drain a lot of stamina. The lack of beneficial offensive stats leaves a lot of points to put into defense for Create-A-Wrestlers, though. "Giant" is also a defensive style you can select, whereby you can't be thrown by even the most basic grapples until you've been sufficiently worn down with strikes and holds.

* Parodied by Wrestling/{{CHIKARA}} wrestler Hydra, who does the whole Giant schtick despite being 5' 6" and 140 pounds.

* '''HOLY CRAP,''' [[PokemonXAndY Az]] is HUGE at 9 feet. Subverted due to that he is quite [[RealMenWearPink soft and kind.]]

* Starting in All Pro Wrestling, moving to Wrestling/{{CMLL}}, Wrestling/{{New Japan| Pro Wrestling}} and finally winding up as the biggest man in WWE, The Great Khali, who at 7'1" is (slightly) taller than the Undertaker, Kane, and the Big Show. He's also one of the least mobile examples in wrestling history, due to the strain his gigantism puts on his body. His WWE run will likely be his last.

* The 658 lbs Maximum Capacity, Future of Wrestling's 2001 rookie of the year. To a lesser extent, their "next biggest guy" at the time was the 6'11, 302 lbs Punisher. That's right Max was pretty much twice the size of what would be the go to giant of most promotions, though a car accident unfortunately forced him to take a break from the promotion so Punisher ended up getting more exposure.

* Bishop Cross, previously known as Giant Magnum, Giant Titan, Tower, Colossus, Gigante Extassis and Dementus is a proud modern example of this trope, describing his wrestling style as all around power.

->''"It was dark. I couldn’t see the linebackers. I couldn’t see the goalposts. It was like being locked in a closet."''
-->-- Boston Patriot Jon Morris, on Ernie Ladd.

* The 6 ft 9 Isis the Amazon (real name Lindsey Kay Hayward), of the American indie scene. That's her dominating the lineup in the bottom-right corner of the page pic. She's done a bit of acting too, and consequently holds the Guinness World Record title for the tallest women ever to play a leading role.

* The 6 ft 9 Isis the Amazon, of the American indie scene.

* In the NHL by Zdeno Chara, the tallest player ever to play in the league, who is considered one of the top defensemen playing at the moment. Ironically, some thought that his height was the only reason he even had a job during his rookie season, disregarding his actual skill. On the flip side, the second tallest NHLer of all time, Steve [=McKenna=], was not very good at all, and found himself a frequent healthy scratch before going to Australia to become the coach of their national team.

* Zigzagged with Zangief, who has some elements of this (MightyGlacier and specially in the earlier games, HusskyRusskie, really freaking big, several grapple and piledriving-based moves) but often ends up subverting the trope (much friendlier and boisterous than the average giant personality-wise, and wasn't that much of an asshole beforehand)

* Jorge Gonzales, billed as El Gigante in WCW and Giant Gonzalez in WWE. May be more well-known for the "naked" bodysuit he was required to wear as the latter. He feuded with Wrestling/TheUndertaker while "The Deadman" was in his prime. His profile at the wwe.com Alumni Gallery lists his height as ''8 feet'', but it was actually more like 7'6". Incidentally, he was a member of the Argentinean national basketball team; he would have competed in the 1988 Olympics, but he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks two months before the games.

Related to MusclesAreMeaningful (large means slow and strong). Comparable to SmashMook. For mythical giants, see OurGiantsAreBigger

* Several villains in ''{{Kinnikuman}}'' and ''KinnikumanNisei'' get by mostly on superior size and strength. Perhaps most emblematic is the Mountain, one of the largest and heaviest wrestlers in either series. His ultimate finishing move is a simple frog splash (with the NameOfPower "Mountain Drop"), but it's absolutely devastating because of how massive he is.