WWE Star On Being Forced To Retire: “Blessing In Disguise”

This WWE star suffered an injury that sent him into retirement.

It is very difficult for wrestlers who suffer a serious injury long before their ideal retirement age.

But in the case of former WWE star Big E, the neck injury he suffered that forced himto retire was a “blessing in disguise”.

Big E was known for his work with the popular tag team The New Day alongside Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. He is also a former WWE Champion.

In a tag team match in 2022, The New Day versus The Brawling Brutes, The latter team’s Ridge Holland landed a belly-to-belly suplex on Big E, and he landed on his neck, severely injuring it.

The doctors advised Big E never to wrestle again. He stayed away from in-ring action but would appear to host pre-shows and post-shows in WWE. Two years after the fateful injury, he officially announced his retirement.

Former WWE Champion Big E Looks At His Injury In A Positive Light

Speaking with Baby Huey for 107.7 The Bone, Big E shared that his neck injury was a blessing in disguise.

He said, although he was grateful for his wrestling career, the 6-time WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champion enjoys doing other things outside professional wrestling.

In 2025, he was announced as the voice of Bulldozer for Disney+’s Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series. Recently, it was also shared that he will host SumerSports’ NFL Draft Series: The Evaluation.

Breaking my neck in many ways was a blessing in disguise because it was a forced stoppage of my career. And I’m so grateful for my career, I don’t want anyone to misconstrue that. But it’s also just allowed me the opportunity to try other things. And I love getting to see how much I can stretch myself. Like, what else am I capable of? And getting to be a voice on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man playing a villain has been such a joy.

Getting to do, I did a feature film with Randy Couture, Tommy Davidson, Jennifer Esposito, a family film. So getting to do some acting, some hosting, getting to try new things has been a blast, man. I’ve really, really enjoyed it. And this show has been such a beautiful thing to be a part of. I really loved everyone I got to work with.

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