Big E Has Been on WWE Programming — Why Isn't He Wrestling?
Big E hasn't been in the ring since March 2022 due to a serious injury. Since then, he has been on WWE programming. Will he wrestle again?
Published Feb. 27 2024, 10:19 p.m. ET
Since their formation in 2014, The New Day has taken something not so great and turned it into gold. Big E (real name Ettore Ewen), Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods were saddled with a gimmick, a Black Gospel group, that WWE creative didn’t even like. Within a year, they went from people chanting, “New Day sucks!” to “New Day rocks!”
The team holds the record for the longest Raw Tag Team Championship reign at 483 days. Each of the three wrestlers has also had quite a bit of individual success. Kofi became the first African-born WWE Champion when he won the belt at WrestleMania 2019 and Xavier was the 2021 King of the Ring. But Big E had the most singles success in the group. He held the WWE Championship in 2021 and performed as a singles competitor consistently from the summer of 2020 until March 2022.
Why isn’t Big E wrestling?
The largest member of The New Day has been out of in-ring action since March 2022. In a tag team match against Sheamus and Ridge Holland on Smackdown, Ridge threw Big E out of the ring with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. Big E landed on his head. He shared an update with the world via Twitter later that night that he had a broken neck.
Big E has had a very good sense of humor about the whole thing. All you have to do is follow him on social media to see that even if he doesn't enter the ring again, he’ll be perfectly fine doing commentary.
Big E might not be ready to wrestle, but he's still impacting the sport.
Big E was part of the WWE commentary table for the Feb. 8, 2024, WrestleMania XL Kickoff at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Along with WWE announcers Michael Cole and Pat McAfee, and fellow injured WWE Superstar CM Punk, Big E’s performance was a reminder of why and how The New Day became one of the most popular tag teams in all of professional wrestling.
As the WWE enters a new Vince McMahon-less era, here’s hoping superstars with off-the-cuff mic talents like Big E and CM Punk are allowed to say whatever they’d like.
Even if Big E steps away from wrestling, he has other projects in the works.
Unlike a lot of former pro wrestlers, Big E branched out from the squared circle as soon as possible. He spent most of his non-wrestling time getting Bridges made.
Bridges, an animated short film executive produced by Big E, is about a young girl inspired by the story of Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to integrate into an elementary school in the South on Nov. 14, 1960. The NAACP Image Award Nominated work has been available on YouTube since the beginning of Black History Month 2024.
In addition to Bridges, Big E’s Our Heroes Rock! may have a future in classrooms across the country. According to their bio, Our Heroes Rock! “is a family-friendly storytelling collective dedicated to spreading awareness and love of Black History and its many heroes. OHR uses Sci-Fi, animation, and hip-hop to shine a spotlight on the inventors, artists, and activists of Black History who paved the way for so many who came after them. Unlock the past. Face the future. Make History Every Day.”
