During a recent interview with Sportsnet, WWE Champion Big E. commented on being a part of history as a black WWE Champion, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On how it’s been as the WWE Champion: “I’m an established talent, I’ve been around, so I’m not new (and) I didn’t think there would be a vast difference but there really is. I mean, just as far as the amount of people reaching out, the amount of opportunities. I don’t know if I would have had the opportunity to be a part of Fury–Wilder, a small part but a really cool part. Also to go back to Iowa City for one of the biggest home wins in Iowa football history. These are perks that you get with the title and that’s pretty cool. Yeah things have really, really picked up for me but man, I feel so fortunate to be able to do all these things, especially things that I love. College football was my first love as a kid and getting back to my alma mater (with) the same head coach that I played for 17 years ago is really, really cool. Things have been busy, but things have been very, very good.”
On representation in WWE: “I think it’s really cool. When you look around at the landscape of our industry, in WWE and outside of WWE, it just feels like a really good time to be a Black professional wrestler, whether you’re a man or a woman. I look around and I see so many stars. And what I love, too, is when I look at our roster I don’t see a bunch of people who were given these opportunities and these positions merely because of the color of their skin, as some kind of a quota system. You look at a Bianca (Belair), you look at a Sasha (Banks) and they’re undeniable to me. They are clearly unique. Same thing with Kofi (Kingston) and (Xavier) Woods, and Bobby Lashley and you can go on and on, there are just so many really, really talented Black wrestlers. I love seeing what Hit Row’s been doing, too, I love seeing them move to SmackDown, it’s exciting. It’s just a great time for us. I was a young Black kid who was a professional wrestling fan and some of my favorites were Goldberg and Scott Steiner but I also loved Ron Simmons, as well. I think when you can see people who look like you or resemble you as a young fan, it makes you think, ‘Oh yeah, this industry speaks to me. It’s not ignoring my fandom.’ If this is something that you might want to do one day, it makes it seem more plausible that ‘Yeah, this is something I can do because look at all look at all the other people who look like me who’ve done this before.’ So I think it’s a beautiful thing and I hope that our company continues to reflect the world around us as far as our roster resembling the world we live in and I think that’s the goal. With Black talent, with Hispanic talent, with the amount of Japanese talent; I hope we continue to move in this direction and let people be themselves, let people be unique. I’m proud to be one of many talented Black wrestlers in WWE and around the world.”
On who he’d like to face as champion: “I think the cool thing for me is that there are so many fresh matchups because I have not been in that top role. We’ve been in a top act in many ways (with the New Day) but there are so many singles matchups out there that are fresh for me. I was trying to make some noise for this Goldberg match at Crown Jewel, but that clearly (didn’t happen). It would have been really full circle. He was my childhood hero and idol, and I’ve spoken effusively about that. But for me, there isn’t necessarily anyone that I’m targeting. I want the best and I love the fact that I’m getting an opportunity to be in the ring with Drew (McIntyre), a two-time WWE Champion. And I think just continuing to add talent like that, guys who were former world champions, that’s what I want. Hopefully, my reign is very long and I’d love to be able to look down that list and see world champion after world champion. I’d also love to see really talented men who haven’t had those same opportunities. I thought with the Draft, beforehand, a guy like Cesaro, a guy like Kevin Owens, you didn’t really know where guys were headed. But Cesaro has never been a world champion which is kind of hard to fathom, that’s hard to believe. I can’t speak highly enough about how incredible he is in the ring, not to mention an incredible human being. The man, as we all know, anyone who’s paid any attention, you understand how incredible he is, and he’s not slowing down at all. Just guys like that, guys that I think are extremely talented and haven’t had the same opportunities.”
