Big E makes the media rounds following his title win.
The final image of this past Monday’s episode of Raw was Big E holding up the WWE Championship. He cashed in his Money In The Bank contract on Bobby Lashley to become champion and E celebrated that victory with fellow New Day members, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods.
Coming off of that title win, Big E has made a number of media appearances and he recently spoke with Complex. He told the site that he is glad he did not have to change who he is to become WWE Champion.
Man, I wish I had some insight for you. My head is still spinning. I’m just trying to get my feet on the ground and figure out what the next move is for the next five minutes from now. I think, for me, and we’ll see how things feel, but the biggest thing for me is I always just want it to still be me. I didn’t want to have to change myself to fit into the mold of what I thought a champion should be. I want to be entertaining. I want to have fun, but I also… it’s just pretty much the same mindset for my run since over the last year, since I started doing single stuff. That’s still my mantra. It’s still being me, but I’m here with an added layer of determination. I’m here for a purpose. There’s a reason I’m here, and it’s not just to win the championship. This is just the beginning of the work towards that. But right now we’ll see what Monday holds. Of course, it’s going to involve Woods and Kof, but I’m excited for it. Whatever it’ll be, I’m excited for it.
To begin the interview, Big E gave props to Bobby Lashley. Lashley and Big E are the third and fourth Black WWE Champions in history respectively. Big E said while he was still training, Bobby Lashley was somebody he studied.
First of all, I have to give hats off to Bobby. I think Bobby’s had an incredible run. He carries himself like a champion, and in many ways, he’s inspirational, because—and I’ve told him this before—when I got signed in 2009, I was studying some older film. I was looking at more contemporary guys that I wanted to be like. I was watching Bobby Lashley film. There was a lot of Bobby Lashley films. He was a guy that, ‘Okay, that’s a guy in a similar vein that, if I work hard enough, one day I want to wrestle like that guy. I want to be like that guy.’ So hats off to him for having this incredible run. This dude is in his mid-40s but looks like he’s in his mid-20s. All the credit in the world to him.
It was initially announced that Bobby Lashley was going to defend the WWE Title against Randy Orton at Extreme Rules but that match was moved to Monday Night Raw. As of this writing, here’s the updated Extreme Rules card:
- SmackDown Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Bianca Belair
- WWE United States Championship: Damian Priest (c) vs. Sheamus
- Raw Women’s Championship: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Alexa Bliss
- WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. ‘Demon King’ Finn Balor
