Big E Admits His WWE Championship Reign “Fell A Bit Short” Of His Expectations
Former WWE Champion Big E has spoken about losing the title at Day 1 and admitted he’s not happy with his three-month run reign.
On September 13th, 2021, Big E cashed in his Money In The Bank contract on Bobby Lashley to become the WWE Champion for the first time.
The New Day star’s reign lasted for almost three months before losing it to Brock Lesnar at the Day 1 event on New Year’s Day 2022 in a mammoth Fata Five-Way match.
In a new interview with Sports Illustrated, Big E has called his tenure as champion an “appetizer” rather than the full meal he had envisioned.
“I wanted it to be a five-course meal, and it was more of an appetizer. I’m overly critical of my work to begin with, so I wouldn’t say I was happy with it. My hope was to knock it out of the park, and I fell a bit short. So it’s motivating to start that climb back.”
Big E then explained how the match where he lost the belt evolved from a singles bout with Seth Rollins to a Fatal Four-Way that also included Kevin Owens and Bobby Lashley.
“Initially, it was supposed to be me and Seth. Seth was named the No. 1 contender early, so we had some time, and that’s when I wrestled Kevin. That worked out really well, so he got added to the match, and then so did Bobby. So what it became was much different than what it was supposed to be.”
On the day of the show, the match expanded even further when Lesnar was added due to his own title match being called off. The ‘Alpha Unicorn’ explained that he didn’t find out about the change until close to the show.
“I got to the building thinking we were going to have our four-way. I didn’t know about Roman being unavailable until that afternoon, a few hours before the show. That threw a wrench into our match, as well as ripple effects to Raw and SmackDown.”
In the end, it was Lesnar who would walk out of the event with the WWE Championship after ending the chaotic match with a huge F5 to Big E himself that allowed him to score the pinfall.
On the following episode of Raw, Big E came up short in a match to determine Lesnar’s first challenger, with Bobby Lashley winning the bout to become the Number One Contender.