WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champion Big E of New Day has commented on how Vince McMahon reacted to the team taking a knee on SmackDown.
E and Kofi Kingston took a knee during their entrance ahead of a match against Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura on June 13, in protest of police brutality and racism, and to show solidarity to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Speaking on The Sports Bubble, E said they ran it by Vince McMahon before they did it, and received no pushback, and he also discussed how supportive WWE has been, saying:
“So, we’ve done a few things, and I think we’re going to continue to use some things like you mentioned, taking a knee, to bring attention to this movement on SmackDown. And the nice thing is, you know, we ran it by Vince McMahon, our boss, and he approved it. We got no pushback there.
“We got a lot of support from the company with the podcast and we can’t typically put out video, not the whole video because of the way the contract is with our podcast, but they were so supportive with us putting up the whole conversation because we felt like it was important for people to listen to this hour plus, and to see it and to see our faces and see our expressions.”
Another WWE star who has also backed the Black Lives Matter movement is Randy Orton. Some were surprised at this considering in the past he’d made ‘All Lives Matter’ comments. He’s since admitted that it took him time, but he’s now starting to understand. Speaking about Orton, E said:
“Randy will admit, like he doesn’t have the squeaky clean past. Like he’s definitely, you know, made some mistakes in the past. And that’s not to absolve him of anything he’s done, but like you said, he’s had this really conservative viewpoint. It’s not for me to try to make him a liberal or anything, but I think it’s something that he’s had close black friends, and I consider Randy a friend, and we’ve had some of conversations at work.
“I think over the course of the last few years, even. And I think he’s finally starting to get it, you know? And like you said, that is I think as impactful as it can be to see a black athlete or black entertainers speak up about these things. I think it can be really impactful as well to see someone like Randy, who’s had these conservative views who in the past would never speak up to say anything like this to really, you know, I thought he did a really good job with what he posted and to offer that kind of support.”
Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the transcriptions
