Big E spoke with Denise Salcedo after Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble event, which he attended from backstage because he lives nearby.
Big E discussed his future as an active in-ring performer after suffering a neck injury on the March 11, 2022, episode of WWE SmackDown while receiving an overhead belly-to-belly suplex from Ridge Holland at ringside.
He landed on his neck and fractured the C1 and C6 vertebrae. Here are some highlights:
On how he feels about not competing during the Royal Rumble:
“No. I think it’s really cool just to see the past couple of years. As performers, we’re so often in the mold of what’s next. We’re always thinking about our career. But the nice thing is, since I’ve been out, I’ve been able to just sit back and be a fan of people and see the lay of the land. It’s nice to be excited for people like Jade, for Liv coming back. Just so many of my favorite people. So, for me, I don’t have any weird feelings about not being myself. It’s just cool to root for my friends and people who I think are really talented. It’s really cool. For me, honestly, it feels like a big reunion because I’m not on the road regularly. So, a lot of the people that I’ve known for quite some time, I don’t get to see all the time. So it’s just nice, especially for big events like this, for WrestleMania, when you see so many people you haven’t seen in so long. It’s just nice. We are, in many ways, a big traveling circus. So an opportunity for us to all get together again is really lovely. To do it just down the street from where I live.”
On his future:
“You know, it’s just kind of playing things by ear, and I feel great, and I just wanna continue to feel good. I think about my long list of injuries, throughout my career. I’ve torn both my ACLs, broke my right patella, torn my left pec, torn my left meniscus. I have a broken neck. I have a herniated disc in my lower back. So when I think about the damage I’ve done to my body over the years, I just wanna be smart because this is the one body I get, and I have to carry it throughout my forties, fifties, hopefully, and beyond. So, that’s the goal. So I just wanna make a smart decision, and I’m just so grateful to feel so good, to have no restrictions, and, yeah, I wanna be smart with whatever decision I make.”
You can check out the video below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
