Big E was slowly built into a top star in WWE after being separated from his fellow New Day members – Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods – as he had a long singles run including a reign as WWE Intercontinental Champion before winning the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder match.
After cashing in the MITB contract on Bobby Lashley during an episode of Raw, Big E defended the WWE Title several times before dropping it at Day 1 to Brock Lesnar in a fatal 5-way bout.
Big E even admitted he wasn’t happy with his WWE Championship run. As previously noted, Big E was moved from the Raw roster to SmackDown last week.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that “Big E being moved to SmackDown permanently and put back with the New Day as a tag team looks to have ended his push as a singles champion level guy.”
It was said he wasn’t brought over specifically to be an opponent for Universal Champion Roman Reigns. That could still happen if Reigns needs a new opponent and if WWE faces depth issues going forward. Big E was originally supposed to be in the main event of WrestleMania 38 this year, but plans changed.
