Big E recently penned a column for The Players Tribune, where he reflected on his wrestling career and shared thoughts about his future in the industry. After suffering a neck injury in 2022, Big E has been unable to return to the ring but continues to make appearances on WWE’s pre-and-post show coverage for premium live events. Below are some highlights from his piece:
Big E on the success of the New Day:
“It’s funny: When I first sat down to write this article, it was because we were celebrating 10 years of The New Day. I wanted to put down in words how much all of this has meant to me. Of course, the truth is, what The New Day has meant to me — it’s beyond words. It’s beyond anything, really. Where this last DECADE has taken us??? Man … it’s beyond literally my wildest dreams.”
Big E on the original idea for The New Day:
“Actually, Woods’s initial idea for The New Day was to reboot the Nation of Domination, the Attitude Era group that The Rock got his start in. The Nation was a faction of Black militants. And while it had a lot of cool moments (and those guys are all legends) … Woods, Kofi and I are not militants. But I think that just tells you what it’s been like at times to be a young Black wrestler trying to make it. You pitch based on what you feel will get you on TV. And what you feel will get you on TV is probably what’s gotten on TV before. And what’s gotten on TV before is a very narrow definition of Blackness. That’s pretty much how we ended up being given the gospel-inspired idea for our debut. The day that Road Dogg sent me to pretapes, I played around with a bunch of different deliveries. And the one thing they liked was when I started using this voice that was kind of this Apostolic style of preaching — the style I grew up with. Then I guess the office heard it, and decided, you know, Let’s lean into the gospel!!! Because for some reason they were enamored by the southern Black church. That was a tough one. Black gospel is not who I am, and it’s definitely not who Kofi and Woods are. But we weren’t really in a position to push back on it. So even though we knew we were about to get booed out of every building……. we just did our best.”
Big E on group evolving over the years:
“I’d never compare us to Percival Everett, who is objectively a genius. But I think back a lot to that feeling of first discovering Erasure. I remember how it changed my life, and why. It wasn’t really because of what that one book was — it was because of what it revealed about what other books could be. I grew up thinking that Black lit had to be this one thing, or maybe these one or two things, way over here. And then I realized, no, that’s not true. It could also be this thing. And if it could be this thing … Well, then, I guess it could also be this thing, and this thing, and this, and this, and this. And you just keep going and going until the world isn’t so small anymore. Until suddenly it’s a lot more than just books that can be anything. Music can be anything. Movies can be anything. Anime can be anything. TV can be anything. Gaming can be anything. Culture can be anything. Blackness can be anything. Xavier Woods the weird dude from FCW playing “New York, New York” on his trombone in front of 15,000 people at Barclays Center can be anything. Wrestling can be anything. The New Day can be anything. The New Day can be anything. THE NEW DAY CAN BE ANYTHING!!!!!! You know what I mean?? You realize three Black wrestlers contain multitudes and all of a sudden there is a universal language. It’s being seen. That’s what wrestling is — that’s what culture is. That’s what fandom is. S*** is infinite. It’s someone somewhere seeing you and thinking, You’re one of us.”
Big E on his future in wrestling:
“You know that thing I said earlier — how I’m someone who spent his past not being able to picture a future? I can picture one now. Which is ironic, I guess, since I broke my neck and can’t wrestle. But I’m at peace. And if that’s truly a wrap on my in-ring career……. I’m excited to explore the paths that are opening up for me in its wake. Whether it’s working for WWE outside of the ring, or it’s hosting, or acting, or voice work, or filmmaking, or so many other things. I feel like there are still so many parts of myself for me to discover. I feel like I’ve spent the last 10 years with Woods and Kofi on this amazing, life-changing project: trying to perform a version of wrestling that’s in the image of all the things we love. And now I want to find out how far I can stretch that project past wrestling. I want to see if I can actually create some of those things we love.”
