Shaquille O’Neal appears set to face Big Show at WrestleMania

When WrestleMania heads to Orlando in April, the city’s greatest heel could be coming with them. Shaquille O’Neal appears to be booked for a match.

Finally, Orlando may have its answer as to whether Magic and Orlando fans still consider Shaquille O’Neal a bad guy in the city.

Nothing gets passions and puts the good guy-vs.-bad guy battle in clearer focus than professional wrestling. And the mecca event of professional wrestling returns to Orlando and Camping World Stadium on April 2.

There appears to be at least one match with some sort of Orlando bend.

The Big Show (aka Paul Wight) told the Shanghai Daily he will likely face O’Neal one on one at the Show of Shows in Orlando. O’Neal will likely be billed as the face, but who knows how the Orlando audience will react to him. This may be the time to treat O’Neal like the wrestling heel he is to many in this town still:

"At next year’s Wrestlemania in Orlando, Wight will also come face to face with former NBA basketball player Shaquille O’Neal, another sporting heavyweight, for a match that might just shake the foundations of pro wrestling.“We’ll have one heck of a match and we’ll see what’s up. We’ll give the fans a treat.”"

Back at last year’s WrestleMania at AT&T Stadium in Irving, Texas, Shaquille O’Neal was a surprise entrant into the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. Wearing a TapOut fitness shirt and Shaqnosis shoes, the 7-footer took the ring and stared down The Big Show (also touted as a 7-footer, but looking considerably smaller than the behemoth O’Neal).

O’Neal did a few spots, helping to double choke slam Kane before the wrestlers in the match ganged up to eliminate O’Neal and Big Show.

The two met again at the ESPYs in July where Big Show appeared to challenge O’Neal to a match and O’Neal accepted. It was an angle the WWE played up throughout the evening.

April is a long way away and plans might change, but this is the exact kind of match the WWE really enjoys having at its WrestleMania show. WrestleMania always becomes a mashup of celebrities and the very best the wrestling promotion has to offer.

O’Neal fits that to a tea. There has always been some kind of celebrity involvement.

The Big Show himself participated in a similar match when WrestleMani was in Orlando in 2008. He lost to Floyd Mayweather in a match at that event.

O’Neal is certainly still the kind of athlete who could put on a good match and give the fans a nice warmup early on in the show. It would be fun to see him appear on RAW for a few promos to hype up the match. O’Neal in front of a microphone is always fun.

The question though is will Orlando fans boo Shaq? Will he remain a heel in Orlando?

Or will he come decked out in Magic blue, wearing his classic Magic warmup and fight for Orlando agains the Big Show?

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We will have to see if the match is booked in April.