Ridge Holland Reveals Vince McMahon Cut Onscreen Apology To Big E
Ridge Holland was originally set to apologise to Big E on WWE television.
The March 11, 2022 edition of WWE SmackDown saw Ridge Holland deliver an overhead belly-to-belly suplex to Big E at ringside during a tag team bout, with Big E accidentally landing on the top of his head. The former WWE Champion suffered a broken neck that ultimately led doctors to advise him never to wrestle again, news that has weighed heavily on Holland ever since.
Speaking to Wrestling Life Online, Luke Menzies, formerly known as Ridge Holland in WWE, revealed that he was originally scheduled to apologise to Big E on-air the week after the accident, but the segment was suddenly cut at the last minute by Vince McMahon.
“I remember the week after, we were supposed to go out for a segment on SmackDown. Vince had arranged for me to cut an apology promo just before we were about to go out live. Now I don’t know if this was a test. Pretty poor taste, but we were about to go out for our segment. It was live. I remember him counting me down. It was just like an apology thing and I didn’t know what I was gonna say. I was just gonna be as real as I could, speak from the heart. It went like 10, 9, 8, and it got to 5, 4, and then I saw Vince and Bruce [Prichard] just go like, ‘Nah.’ They cut it at the last minute, the last second. We just went out for the segment and I thought from then on, I never felt the same way about the company. I thought that they just did that to mess with me.”
-Luke Menzies
Throughout his recovery, Big E has primarily been featured as a host, guest, or panellist on various WWE premium live events. While he initially stated that he was unsure whether he would ever step back into the ring again, Big E formally announced his retirement from in-ring competition on October 9, 2025.
Ridge Holland continued to compete for WWE until his contract was terminated on November 5, 2025, after he claimed he had been “hung out to dry” by the company when they opted not to renew his deal while he was sidelined with a Lisfranc foot injury suffered during an appearance for TNA Wrestling as part of its partnership with WWE.
Whilst Big E is reportedly set to remain with WWE, his former New Day stablemates Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods appear increasingly likely to be heading to All Elite Wrestling following their recent WWE departures. You can read more about that here.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the future of both Big E and Luke Menzies as soon as we hear more, and we continue to wish both men all the best moving forward.
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