Former WWE Champion Big E was the guest this week on “After The Bell” with Cory Graves.
Big E was asked what he is up to these days:
“I realized my time on the road has definitely made me a nomad. As hard as it is, we often complain about the travel, but also realize that I think I need to travel. I can’t sit at home for too long, I get bored. But I love just jumping into different projects.”
“I think one of the things that I also love is that when I first started wrestling, I loved the athletic side. That was the reason to continue as an athlete. But when I got further and further into my career, I developed a love for storytelling and that’s one of the things that I have really just clung to as I’ve gotten older. So right now, I’m working on doing more voice acting. Nothing I can announce right now, but I have some really cool things that are already done, already complete, and hopefully soon within the next few months, I could talk about. We also have our short film, which I wish I could talk about in depth, but man, I can’t wait for people to see it. It’s amazing. We’re working right now on sending it out to festivals. Actually just yesterday, we submitted it to a bunch of festivals, so we’re hoping to get some good news there. But man, for me, it’s just a bunch of those things, just still juggling projects.”
On working with the USFL:
“Oh, man, it’s been a blast. So actually, we just finished up our last home game. I’ve been trying to do something with Fox Sports for a while. I got to do Big New Kickoff, which was a blast. As a college football nerd, that was a ton of fun. So I’ve had this relationship with Fox Sports. We’ve been trying to think of ideas to do more and more, and then this opportunity that was kind of out of the box just just came out of nowhere presented itself. It just made sense with SummerSlam, August 5th, being at Ford Field in Detroit. They came to me and said, ‘Hey, we have this idea for you to emcee these games for the Michigan Panthers’, and honestly, it’s been a blast. I’ve had a ton of fun.”
On his idea for a show he wants to do with Tom Hannifan:
“There are a lot of people who like the talking head shows. That’s not my thing, respect to them, but there’s an aspect of sports that I really love. I’ve had this idea for a while with our old buddy, our good buddy, Tom Hannifin, who’s gone on to other pastures. We’ve had this idea. We both love college football, but I want to take a step back and there’s so much culture, not just in college football, but all sports. We’re talking tailgating. You know, most of these college football games happen in these tiny college towns like Iowa City, like Tuscaloosa, and they have so much rich cultural traditions. You have local eateries. There’s so many things. So that’s what I want to explore. I want to do more of that. So we have this idea for a show where we go on the road, and let’s say you’re going to the big like Alabama-Texas Game and you spend a few days in Tuscaloosa, and you find the best barbecue spot, and you go to the local farm that’s been around for 100 years, but just exploring why people show up. It’s not just about the game. It’s about the culture, it’s about the traditions they share, and that’s what I really love. So I want to do more of that behind the X’s and O’s behind the analysis and just dig into that aspect of sports culture.”
On working with the NIL program for WWE:
“Man, it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been rewarding too because the cool thing now is, you know, part of me for a while, I kind of felt, not guilty, but you kind of feel a certain way, especially when you first step into the industry, and guys like you Graves who, you know, really spent time on the independent scene and they’ve always wanted to do this. You work and your work and wrestling is in your bones. It wasn’t like that for me. But now I can look back and say. oh, even though I went a route that was at the time was kind of untraditional in 2009, the cool thing is, oh, I could speak now because this is the lane that the company’s kind of in right now.”
“It’s not that they’re just giving up on hiring independent wrestlers, but if we’re going to make a commitment to bring in athletes who have never taken a bump, who have never wrestled before, who don’t know this industry, I can speak to the experience of coming in like that. Also the cool thing is when we had the tryouts in LA, Bianca came in and she was amazing. She’s also someone who can speak to not watching wrestling, not knowing really anything about wrestling, and then she gives this a shot and you see her just absolutely blossom as a superstar. You see her passion for this grow.”
“So sometimes you’re a little late to the business, you’re late to understanding it, to loving it, to really just diving into it, so that’s the really cool thing is now that we have all these athletes who come from college sports who are done with college football, basketball, volleyball, dance, cheerleading, whatever it is, now I can say, hey, I also came in in 2009, not knowing a thing about what we do, and I could speak to my experiences. So that’s the thing that I really enjoy is, if you really love this industry, if you love this company, if you love what we do, you want to see it be healthy when you’re old and broken down. You want to see stars come in. I’m 37 right now. I want to see people who are 22, 23, who might not understand the business, come in, and develop a love for it and be hungry and bring something new to the table. I want to be at WrestleMania in 20, 30 years, and see that the business is in a much better place than it was when I was doing it.”
“That’s the one thing is I just want to do things now at my age that really speak to me. I don’t want to do things just for a check or just because I’m bored, and this spoke to me. As soon as they said, ‘Hey, we want to bring you in to the tryouts to going on college campuses doing the NIL stuff’, I really I jumped at it because I said ‘Yes, this is something I could speak about passionately, honestly, and I can bring something to the table here that other people might not be able to.’ So it’s been a ton of fun for me. It’s been really rewarding.”
Big E on his current medical condition:
“Oh, I feel great, man. Unfortunately, I don’t have a timetable, but the great thing is, I feel 100%. I don’t even feel like someone who broke their neck. My mobility is incredible. It’s great. My strength is great. I have no issues whatsoever. So I wish I had some answers on returning to the ring. I got nothing, unfortunately, but the really beautiful thing is I feel great. My body feels great. I’m really thankful for that. So yeah, man, life is good. I’m blessed. I could walk around. I could touch my toes. I could go to the gym, all those things, so I’m really grateful.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit After The Bell with Corey Graves with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
