Big E's WWE Championship triumph was one of the biggest moments of WWE in 2021.
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Big E spoke on the second edition of Superstar Crossover to discuss his WWE Championship reign. He also spoke on fellow New Day member Kofi Kingston‘s WWE Championship, run in 2019.
Big E discussed how Kofi led by example as a champion, handling his eventual loss and returning to the midcard with grace and professionalism, which he likened to his own post-WWE Title reign.
“The thing with Kofi is, he’s not a guy who’s going to pull you aside and lecture you, but he’s someone who leads by action,” Big E said.
“That’s what I love is, you know, I was able to see the way that he handled things with his title run and the way things ended.
“You know, it’s interesting I’ll say how our runs weren’t too drastically different, you know? Kind of that falling off of a cliff feeling at the hands of one, Brock Lesnar, and then suddenly it just, it feels like you woke up a year prior and you’re back to doing what you were doing before.
“But I’ll say he’s a guy who’s handled it with grace. He’s a guy who, you know, he didn’t complain or he didn’t show up to work pouting. He’s a consummate professional and he’s someone that I think like I said, he always leads by example.”
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Big E was also asked who he thought was the greatest underappreciated microphone worker in WWE right now. He pointed to one-half of the WWE RAW Tag Team Champions and an Alpha Academy member.
“I want to tip my hat off to Chad Gable and kind of see what he’s done as of late. Because he’s been that good for a while.
“But I think he’s finally getting that opportunity to show how much of a personality he is and how good he is on the mic. So let’s go with Gable even though I think people are starting to see how good he is.”
Big E’s reign came to an end after a Fatal Five-Way match on WWE Day One. Lesnar won at the final minute after being added to the match. The scheduled bout between Roman Reigns and Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship was canceled due to Reigns’ absence.
Following this, Big E would be demoted to the tag team division on Smackdown Live. And it is clear he sees this as a big step back in his career.
The general consensus online is that WWE had no plans for Big E beyond this cash-in, which was just a ploy to raise TV numbers.
