Big E recently appeared as a guest on the PWI podcast. The interview was recorded before he lost the WWE Championship to Brock Lesnar at Day 1.
Big E was asked, “How does it feel to being the fourth ever black WWE Champion”
“Honestly, I really love getting to this moment where we’re at in WWE, and I think just in wrestling in general. You look around and there are just so many really dope black performers. What I love is that so many of us are authentic and feel like ourselves, and I love that we’re getting to this point where we’re not all forced into a certain box or a certain stereotype. I’m more than anything, I’m really proud of the state of black wrestling. I feel like we have a lot of fans who felt like, a lot of black fans especially, who love wrestling and have for a long time, but perhaps neither themselves or their culture were reflected on wrestling TV. I’m a massive Bianca (Belair) fan. When I see her, she’s such an incredible human being, but such an incredible performer as well. She’s so genuine, authentic, and belongs where she’s at. I love the state of black wrestling right now because I think that there are so many good performers that look like me.”
Big E addressing people saying that he would have to change his character to get to the next level:
“I just feel like as a performer, I’ve been with WWE for 12 years, almost 9 years on the main roster. If I don’t have an internal barometer by now, then I probably don’t belong here. I’ve always tried to make some adjustments. I’m not wearing rainbow colors now. I’m not wearing a unicorn horn on my head because there are certain times where I felt like I wanted this run to still feel like me, but I wanted it to feel purposeful. We did that promo last year with Kofi giving me his blessing to do singles stuff. I just wanted that to feel like, ok, I’m still me, but there’s an extra level of determination. I’m not just here to sit backstage and goof around. I have made some adjustments, but I still at the core, I still feel like I’m me, which has made getting to the top of this industry feel even more rewarding. I don’t want to have to fit into a certain box. I don’t want to feel like I have to shave off my edges to fit a certain vibe of what people want me to be. I didn’t want to lose any sense of me. We have so many people, and I’m not shunning anyone, but in wrestling, you have a ton of characters who wear black or green. I didn’t want to be somebody the people have already seen before. I didn’t want to try to be another Brock, Mark Henry, John Cena, or whoever it is. I just wanted to be me, and to me, that’s what’s made this extra rewarding is I feel like I got to do it my way.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit The PWI Podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
