Big E did an interview with Sports Illustrated to look back on his WWE Title reign, it ending at Day 1 thanks to Brock Lesnar, and more. Here are the highlights:
On his WWE Championship run: “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.”
On the feud expanding out to a four-way rivalry: “Initially, it was supposed to be me and Seth. Seth was named the No. 1 contender early, so we had some time, and that’s when I wrestled Kevin. That worked out really well, so he got added to the match, and then so did Bobby. So what it became was much different than what it was supposed to be.”
On Brock Lesnar being added into the match: “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.”
On planning to fight back to the top: “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 don’t want to position it as learning from Kofi’s missteps. I know what his intentions were, and mine would have been the same. He didn’t do anything wrong. But I have learned that losing this title hurts. I love being myself and being entertaining, but you can’t go from dropping a world championship to saying everything is golden. This title meant a lot to me, and it meant to a lot of people, too. My focus is clawing back to that spot.”
On losing the title to Lesnar: “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.”
On his motivation moving forward: “I am very grateful for my title run, but I still have a lot more to prove. I want to establish myself as one of the guys of this era, so my goal is to build multiple reigns. There is so much more I need to do with that title. We’re just getting started, and this is my chance to start my climb back.”
