Giant Silva Paulo César da Silva ( July 21 , 1963 ) , is a Brazilian former basketball player and mixed martial artist and professional wrestler , better known by his ring name Giant Silva . A super - heavyweight wrestler capable of significant aerial maneuvers as well as power moves , he was both a face and a heel in several professional wrestling promotion s . Career . Very much like El Gigante / Giant Gonzales in the early years , Silva was originally a professional basketball player , playing for the Brazilian Team in the Olympic Games . World Wrestling Federation ( 1998 - 1999 ) . After turning pro in 1998 , Silva signed with World Wrestling Federation . After debuting he was given the name : " Giant Silva " and was a member of the Oddities stable . For most of his WWF tenure , Silva was a cornerman for the Oddities and his matches on TV were tag matches , teaming up with Golga and / or Kurrgan . His only highlight was at Summerslam 1998 when he , Golga , and Kurrgan defeated Kaientai in a 3 on 4 Handicap match . Silva would eventually be released along with the rest of the Oddities in early 1999 . New Japan Pro Wrestling and HUSTLE ( 2001 - 2008 ) . In 2001 , Silva joined New Japan Pro Wrestling . He originally debuted on August 12 , 2001 as a member of Masahiro Chono ' s stable : Team 2000 where he was paired up with another Giant : Giant Singh as the tag team : Club 7 . Silva made his in - ring debut for New Japan when he took part in the G1 World Climax tournament where he finished in 4th place with 4 points . He and Singh made their debut as a tag team at Indicate of Next on October 8 , 2001 where they defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi , Kenzo Suzuki , Yutaka Yoshie , & Wataru Inoue in a 4 on 2 handicap match . In the fall of 2001 , Silva teamed with Chono in the 2001 G1 tag league with the team finishing in 7th place with 6 points . In 2002 , Silva took part in several tournaments . In February he was part of the a tournament for the vacated IWGP Heavyweight Championship but lost in the first round to eventual winner : Tadao Yasuda . Two days later on February 3 , Silva , Singh , and Chono won the Teisen Hall Cup 6 Man Tag Team Tournament . In March , Club 7 then entered a tournament for the vacated IWGP Tag Team Championship . In the first round , they defeated fellow Team 2000 members : Scott Norton and Super J , but lost to Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi in the semi - finals . In the spring of 2002 , Club 7 broke up and began feuding shortly afterwards . The two were scheduled to face each other at Toukon Memorial Day on May 2 , 2002 but an injury to Singh prevented the match from taking place . The two finally fought at Cross Road on August 29 , 2002 with Silva defeating Singh . From 2004 - 2008 , Silva wrestled for H HUSTLE where he took part in a variety of matches and formed teams with Scott Norton , Toshiaki Kawada , and Mark Coleman . PRIDE Fighting Championship ( 2003 - 2006 ) . Silva competed in PRIDE Fighting Championships , a defunct mixed martial arts organization based in Japan . Silva , at one time , trained with members of the Gracie family , most notably Ricardo Gracie and Ralek Gracie . On December 31 , 2006 Giant Silva defeated former Yokozona Akebono Tarō by Kimura Armlock in the first round at K - 1 Dynamite 2006 for his second win of his career giving him a professional record of 2 wins and 6 losses overall spanning both PRIDE FC and K - 1 . Independent Circuit ( 2008 - 2010 . Silva is currently wrestling on the Independent Wrestling Circuit , making his return at the National Wrestling Superstars show in Carteret , New Jersey on August 25 , 2007 . He is a regular in NWS , and is currently taking bookings for independent promotions .