Former WWE Champion Big E Responds To Hate Ridge Holland Received After Broken Neck Injury, ‘People Crossed The Line & Went Too Far’

LukeMenziesPW/WWE

Former WWE Champion Big E has reflected on the incident that saw him suffer a broken neck that effectively ended his in-ring career.

In March 2022, just a couple of months after losing the WWE Championship, E was teaming with Kofi Kingston in a match on WWE SmackDown against Sheamus and Ridge Holland.

During the match, Holland attempted an overhead belly to belly suplex on E on the outside of the ring.

However, E didn’t rotate enough and ended up landing on his head, which broke his neck, and he has never wrestled again since then – recently declaring himself as retired from in-ring action.

In a new interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Big E opened up about the incident and why he was planned to take the overhead suplex on the outside, as some people had questioned why that was even the plan to begin with for a man of his size.

He explained:

“So I remember we had the tag team match. Thankfully, I didn’t have a concussion at all. I didn’t end up going out, none of those things. So I was with it the whole time.

“So we had this tag team match, and it was me and Kofi. Woods at the time, I think, was out. A nagging injury he was out with, but he was close to coming back, but he wasn’t quite ready. So it was me and Kofi against the Brawling Brutes. I think Sheamus was on the floor at the time, it was Pete Dunne and Ridge at the time (it was Sheamus and Ridge with Dunne on the outside).

“So we had the tag team match, and I knew it was Kofi and (Sheamus) were in at the end, so I think me and Ridge need to figure out some way for us to be low at the end. I know a lot of the feedback I was getting oftentimes was, ‘Okay, not only are you a former world champion, but you’re a bigger dude as well,’ so they wanted me to have something where I was put down for a while. So instead of, ‘Hey, take a superkick and you’re down for the finish,’ sometimes I need to take a bigger bump to justify being down at the end.

“So I thought, okay, I’ll miss the suicide spear. I was going to take off to hit Ridge, he was going to move, and I actually ended up missing the apron, because oftentimes, when I missed suicide spear, I like to post on the apron as I spill out, so the tumble isn’t quite as nasty. But I ended up not having enough room to do that, but I ended up taking the spill to the floor.

“But the plan was for Ridge – I asked Ridge, ‘What do you want to hit me with?’ Because we’d worked for a little bit, and I actually really liked Ridge. We worked a couple of times. We worked a singles on a house show around that time.

“I think the three of us (New Day) did a pretty good job. For us, the idea of, ‘Let me just go in, hit all my moves, and make myself look good’ – it’s not something we were ever invested in. The teams we worked with, we always wanted them to come out (better). Whether they ended up winning at the PLE, if that was the culmination of the program or not. We wanted to make sure that every team we worked with, our hope was that they came out looking better than they came in.

“So Ridge, he said he could do an overhead suplex, and I thought, ‘I do overheads all the time.’ Ryback used to give me overheads. I don’t take a ton of overheads, but Ryback used to give me overhead suplexes. Never had an issue with it, so I thought, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’

“So he moves on the spear, I end up spilling to the floor, announce table side, and I remember just feeding up, and there he hooks me, things feel okay, I end up going up in the air. But I could tell I don’t have enough clearance, but when you’re launched, there’s not a whole lot you can do. I can attempt to put a hand down, but at the time I couldn’t really (react).

“It happened so quickly, there was no time to really post or try to bail. So yeah, man, I immediately feel myself get dumped on the top of my head and spill to the floor. But honestly, at the time I didn’t really think much of it.”

E went on to discuss the hate that Ridge Holland received from fans after the incident, and how the situation affected Holland’s WWE career as well. He said:

“I don’t remember the exact timeline, but we ended up talking pretty quickly thereafter. He got a lot of hate, he got threats. On one end I can understand a lot of people. I can appreciate the people who are supportive of me and who wanted to see me continue to wrestle, and felt like he was the reason that I couldn’t, but I know what I signed up for. I know things go awry.

“It was never malicious. It was never intentional. I felt for him and continued to feel for him. He actually sent me a 10-pound box of meat as an apology, which felt like a very manly thing to do. ‘Here’s a bunch of meat.’ At the time I really wasn’t eating much red meat, so I was like, ‘Oh, this is great,’ but I sent that to my creative partner, Johnny. Someone enjoyed it, at least.

“But no, we talked, and he continued to check in. I actually ran into him briefly at the MGM Grand in Vegas for Mania this year. He was on the move, and I was on the move, and there are fans around too, so it’s pretty quick. But it was good to see him.

“It seemed like he was in a better place, but yeah, I know it really altered his career, and I tried to put out a statement or two to tell people there’s no ill will whatsoever, please leave this man alone.

“But more than anything, he has a family to take care of. He has kids, and to see him… he dealt with a devastating injury of his own. He dealt with losing his job. I really felt for him, continue to feel for him, because I tell people I’m in a great place, I’m very thankful. I still am continuing with the company, doing broadcasting work. I am good, I am truly, truly good.

“But, yeah, I think he was just in a very difficult position, and I really hate that his tenure in WWE, for the most part, a lot of it’s going to be defined by the injury and his role in it. But I really feel for him and for his family, and I truly hope he’s in a better place. I hope that’s all come to an end, because a lot of people crossed the line and went too far.”

After his WWE departure and battles with his own injuries, Holland is cleared to wrestle, and will be doing so under his real name Luke Menzies.

The Big E incident shouldn’t define his career, and hopefully Menzies can find some redemption with a win on the indies – as he was starting to do in WWE before the company let him go at perhaps the worst possible time.

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• wwe
• big e
• Ridge Holland
• luke menzies

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