It’s been over two years since Big E suffered a neck injury on Friday Night Smackdown, putting him on the shelf as a WWE wrestler indefinitely.
Big E undoubtedly wants to continue wrestling and is constantly asked about when he will return, but simply cannot be medically cleared just yet. While he is working out and feeling fine on a day-to-day basis, the C1 in his neck not forming new bone yet has prevented the promotion from allowing him to compete.
After wrestling consistently, almost never missing a month as a performer for more than a decade, it wouldn’t be surprising if a sudden derailment of his schedule would throw Big E for a spin. But the New Day member has kept strong during this time, crediting his positive mindset to meditation.
Big E spoke about how he has kept a positive attitude when recently in conversation with the Getting Over Wrestling Podcast.
“Originally, the diagnosis was three months,” he told Getting Over. “It was, ‘Hey, we’ll have you in a hard collar for, I think, six weeks, you’ll do some rehab and you should be good to go.’ But the bone didn’t end up healing the way they thought it could. So, it’s really just been a bit of an adjustment. More than anything, I owe a lot of this to mindfulness [and] to meditation which I really got into once the pandemic started. It really just helped my state of mind. Instead of thinking about the things I didn’t have anymore, all the things that I lost, I thought about all of the things I still was blessed to have in my life. I could still walk, I could still work, I could do so many incredible things. So the focus isn’t ‘woe is me,’ it wasn’t about all the opportunities lost, it was just about gratitude. And that’s just my perspective now.”
Big E has continued to work for WWE despite not being allowed to wrestle. He is often seen as a panellist on live programming for events like the kick-off shows to PLEs. He is also joining WWE on their “Campus Rush” events, where they speak to student-athletes about potential careers in the squared circle.
As a former college football player who transitioned to wrestling after injuries put an end to his sporting career, Big E finds his campus work as a rewarding way to contribute to the company.
“We’re going to these campuses and these universities and we’re talking to athletes who are in a very similar position as me, who are looking at their athletic careers being over, their collegiate careers coming to an end soon. And now what? You spend so much time and effort involved in this pursuit, and then one day it just stops. For me, I was so grateful that WWE came along because I felt there was this big void when I was done with all my injuries at [University of] Iowa and I wanted to do more athletically. I’m so glad that I had WWE to then pour myself into. I love being around college football, and to be able to do that with WWE, a company that has really changed my life for the better, and to be able to go out and do things in college football has been kind of a dream.”
