Former WWE star Ridge Holland has addressed the in-ring incident with Big E that led to the end of Big E’s career. In March 2022, an overhead belly-to-belly suplex at ringside from Holland to Big E resulted in Big E breaking his neck. The injury has kept Big E out of action since, effectively forcing him into retirement from wrestling. Holland, real name Luke Menzies, commented on the incident in a new video on his YouTube channel following his departure from WWE.
“I think [what] affected me more than anything was the Big E thing. I just want to say that if I had a time machine right here, right now, the first thing that I would do is go back and not do that spot,” Holland said. “There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about what happened. There probably will not be a day that goes by where I don’t think about it.”
Holland explained the intended sequence of the spot and what he believes should have happened in retrospect.
“The spot was Big E goes for that suicide spear. I move at the last minute. He eats sh*t and then I hit him with the belly to belly to put an exclamation point on that,” he said. “In retrospect, what should have happened was a suicide dive. That’s it. Move on. Whether I didn’t give him enough, whether he didn’t give me enough, things go wrong. It’s not ballet, and unfortunately, it happened, and I’ll always regret that spot.”
He expressed his gratitude for Big E’s response to the situation. “And I think I’m grateful that Big E, the class of human that he is, he forgave me, and he’s been able to be so positive and move on with his life… He’s such a good human being and I wish nothing but the best for him.”
Holland also dismissed any notion that there was malicious intent and opened up about the severe impact the incident had on him personally and professionally. “Just for people out there who think that there might been any malice in there, there wasn’t and if I could change it, I would in a heartbeat. But what happened was it really shook my confidence. I contemplated quitting, to be honest,” Holland said.
“And when you’re going out there and you’re on the main roster and you’re on a worldwide spotlight, the last thing you want to happen is for your confidence to go because it just shows in your performances. As soon as you come out of the curtain, the people know. And I think that’s what really kind of harmed me from connecting, and I wasn’t in the right headspace to go in there, to be honest. I’m just glad that I had people around me that supported me. My wife, my kids, and guys like Pete [Dunne] and Sheamus that would pull me up by my bootstraps and say, ‘Come on, we’ve got this.’”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Luke Menzies’ Youtube channel with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
