Big E successfully cashed in his Money In The Bank briefcase on Bobby Lashley on the September 13 2021 edition of Monday Night RAW to become the WWE Champion for the first time.
This prompted a huge wave of support and love which rippled across the wrestling world. Unfortunately, it’s widely regarded that Big E’s title reign wasn’t quite what it could’ve been.
WWE’s new January 1st PPV, ‘Day 1’, was supposed to see a WWE Championship fatal four way match with Big E defending against Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley. Also on the card, Roman Reigns was set to clash with Brock Lesnar over the Universal Title. However, when Reigns was struck down with COVID-19, Lesnar was added to make the WWE Championship match to make a five-way which Lesnar won. This ended an underwhelming title reign for Big E and in an interview with Sports Illustrated earlier this year, Big E reflected on his time with the top championship.
“I wanted it to be a five-course meal, and it was more of an appetizer. I’m overly critical of my work to begin with, so I wouldn’t say I was happy with it. My hope was to knock it out of the park, and I fell a bit short. So it’s motivating to start that climb back. I’m not comfortable being just a guy on the roster. I’m not good with going back to the way it was before. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed to see it end that way. And it’s not anything against Brock. Brock is a very special athlete, human and performer. There is no shame in losing to Brock Lesnar. I took a moment to soak in the sadness. The highs of winning, like at Money in the Bank or cashing in, those are incredible. But the lows suck, too. And that’s motivation to fuel me. This is my chance to show another side of me. It’s time to turn up the intensity. My role with The New Day is so often comedic relief, but I don’t want to be one-dimensional. I want to be as well-rounded and as whole a performer as possible.”
-Big E
He also talks about the day of losing his title. Includingj being thrown off by the changes made after the positive COVID test of Roman Reigns.
“I got to the building thinking we were going to have our four-way. I didn’t know about Roman being unavailable until that afternoon, a few hours before the show. That threw a wrench into our match, as well as ripple effects to Raw and SmackDown.”
-Big E
Obviously, every wrestling fan wishes Big E the best in recovering from a horrific neck injury he recently sustained on Smackdown. Though, many are clamouring for him to be placed straight back into the main event scene once recovered from his injury to make amends after his previous title run.
