Fresh off his big Money In The Bank win this past Sunday night, Big E joined Corey Graves to talk about his big night. He also talked about leaving the WWE ThunderDome and how he plans to add to The New Day’s legacy.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Big E talking about winning Money In The Bank:
“For me, the magic was incredible. To me, becoming Mr. Money in the Bank is incredible in and of itself. I think what makes it even more special for me is I think you can make an argument that it was the most stacked field of competitors in a Money in the Bank match. When I saw it, I knew we were going to make some magic. This was going to be fine. There was no way it wasn’t going to be good. For me, in my mind when I replay it, as soon as I start to slide in the ring, feel that rumble, and feel people starting to get it, it feels like, I think from a fan’s perspective, when Seth hits that powerbomb on Kevin and starts to climb, I’m just listening, and it feel like, ‘Oh, they really think it’s over. Seth got this.’ As soon as I start to slide in and feel people coming with me, start to climb, as soon as I slide my arm under Seth and feel that, man, that’s the magic of what we do. That’s the business. That’s the juice. That’s the essence of what we do. I know, and obviously, we were doing the best we could during the Thunderdome era, but a part of me afterwards as I’ve had time to sit and think, I sat back and I felt bad for someone like Drew who had his biggest moments without people, and without fans.
If we had that same match in the Thunderdome, I still would have been very grateful. I still would have had so many of the same emotions, but the stuff that makes you stay up all night, I only slept 90 minutes because I was sitting in my hotel room buzzing for hours upon hours. The magic of this stuff, the stuff that makes you want to keep coming back for more years and years later is the reaction of the people. That, to me, is the stuff that, just recounting it now, is giving me goosebumps because I’m so appreciative that for some reason, after all these years, the people are not tired of me. They are not done with me. They are not sick of me. The fact that people were so supportive, and just, you know, I had people text me, ‘You know it was really loud.’ Even Kevin said that his ears hurt from the pop. He said he’s never had that happen before. Sometimes, I’m like, it seems loud, but I’m in it. To hear outside perspectives and just the amount of overwhelming support. You know how it is. It’s very rare for people almost 100%, or the vast majority of people, I’m not saying it’s 100%, but I saw virtually no pushback, no negative stuff. Maybe I just missed most of that stuff, but everything was so overwhelmingly positive. The amount of people who reached out to me from fans, to my peers to people backstage, that’s the stuff that’s really humbling, and I’m really grateful for it. The whole moment, the climb, being up there, being able to look around, that’s one of the coolest moments of my career. It’s a drug.”
Big E was asked what it would mean to him to be WWE Champion:
“It will mean a lot for me in the sense that, to me, that’s the real marker of having a real successful singles run. Not that there was a fear, but when Kofi gave me his blessing, when Woods gave me his blessing, that ok, you’re on a different brand now. You’re going to be doing singles stuff. For me, it meant a lot. I had to walk away with something. I still see, for me, all my achievements are, the metaphor I’ve been using is, I feel like I’m leaving the cave to go out and pick berries, find fresh meat, and bring it back to the New Day cave because that’s still, even though I’m on my own, I’m on my own show, I don’t get here without The New Day, without Kofi and Woods.
The love we still have for each other, the support we still have for each other, hasn’t wavered at all. In my mind, everything that I do still adds to our legacy as a trio, and that’s important to me. I, as honored and humbled as I am by being voted as the greatest tag team of all time, we still have more work to do. We still want to add to that resume. There has never been a moment where we felt like we made it. I just have so much love for those guys that even often times, not that I don’t want to do it for me, but there’s a part of me that’s even more fulfilled by making them proud, and just adding to what we’ve all done as a trio. I’m excited about that opportunity. For me, it doesn’t stop at becoming a world champion. The work just begins, and I always want to have that mentality that winning the briefcase doesn’t mean I made it. Becoming a world champion doesn’t mean I made it. Having a great run, even then, still doesn’t mean that I made it. You have to continue to have that mindset that you want to grow, you want to improve, and you want to add to your resume. There will never be a time when I look around and rest on my laurels. You have to stay hungry.”
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
