Big E was Renee Paquette’s latest guest on her ‘Oral Sessions’ podcast, revealing what he has learnt from being “along for the ride” with Kofi on his title run in 2019.
Renee and Big E discuss what a time it is right now for him, the success and the push he is being given in WWE. Big E has his own opinion on it, explaining that it’s hard to judge crowd reaction when there are no crowds to gauge from.
Like, I don’t know if things are going well. It’s a weird time, in wrestling your fans are your barometer. A crowd in Jackson might respond different to a crowd in Sacramento. When you hit all these different towns and it keeps working, that’s when you know “Hey, I got something good here”.
But now, we don’t have that, so, yeah the feedback seems to be good but it’s also, it’s weird to say “yeah, I’m having an awesome run and people are loving it”, because there’s nobody yelling in the arenas – so, I don’t know.
They go on to discuss his New Day partners, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. Renee asks what their reaction is now with E getting this singles push.
They’ve always been supportive, and I appreciate that. Woods was out [injured] at the time when we first did the singles stuff, but Kofi was there and as soon as we both heard together he was just so genuinely happy for me, excited about whatever would come.
I can’t imagine being in a group with 2 more selfless people. They were there for me, and I appreciate that.
Interestingly, Big E goes on to explain how he has leant from Kofi, and his run up to ‘KofiMania’ at WrestleMania 35 in 2019. It’s clear that Kofi is extremely driven, and humble, traits that E recognises and would like to embed into his own character development.
I think one of the things I really respected, was that Kofi, there was so many times that he could’ve made it about himself, but he was always trying to include the 3 of us. That I really appreciated because it was his moment, we were fortunate enough to be along for the ride.
Just seeing how hard he worked, in and out of the ring, he was on all the time, always doing media, always with a smile on his face, he would never complain.
The night he won the title, I don’t think he slept at all, and not because he was like out partying, but because he was up, and like by the time he got done with everything he went back to the room and I think they had him do the Today Show or some morning show. And then they called him for RAW, so he was just constantly going.
E (real name Ettore Ewen) is currently on-course for the Men’s Royal Rumble match this coming Sunday – in the hopes to main event WrestleMania 37. As well as that, he’s also the current WWE Intercontinental Champion, and defending that title at the PPV against Sami Zayn.
An incredibly busy time for Big E, but one the WWE Universe is watching very closely as the Road to WrestleMania is starting to come in to view.