Former WWE Champion Says Career-Ending Injury Was ‘Blessing In Disguise’

WWE

A former WWE Champion has explained why he now views his career-ending neck injury as a “blessing in disguise.”

On the March 11, 2022 episode of SmackDown, Big E suffered a broken neck after taking an overhead belly-to-belly suplex from Ridge Holland.

The injury has kept Big E away from the WWE ring ever since, and last week the 39-year-old confirmed his retirement from in-ring competition.

Speaking with 107.7 The Bone, Big E reflected on the injury, describing it as a “blessing in disguise” in many ways, due to it opening up many doors for him outside of the ring.

Big E said:

“Breaking my neck in many ways was a blessing in disguise because it was the forced stoppage of my career. And I’m so grateful for my career, I don’t want anyone to misconstrue that. But it’s also just allowed me the opportunity to try other things and I love getting to see how much I can stretch myself.

“Like, what else am I capable of? Getting to be a voice on your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man playing a villain has been such a joy. I did a feature film with Randy Couture, Tommy Davidson, Jennifer Esposito, a family film.

“So getting to do some acting, some hosting, getting to try new things has been a blast man, I’ve really really enjoyed it.”

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Big E would then discuss how his neck is feeling now almost four years on from the injury, saying he feels “blessed” due to how little complications he’s had ever since:

“I’m so blessed man. To this day I still have had zero issues with headaches, no neurological issues, no pain. I didn’t need to have surgery and unfortunately, I saw a post from Piper Niven where she talked about the fact that she can’t stand for too long because she’s in pain.

“Having a neck injury in our industry, Ivar as well talked about life pre-neck surgery and post neck surgery and the fact it hasn’t been easy. So, I feel in many ways, like my heart goes out to them and anyone in our industry who has dealt with a serious injury, but especially something involving the spine.

“But I’m so grateful because I have no issues at all, no pain. I was in the gym two weeks after breaking my neck like nothing happened and I’m really grateful.

“I’m still not medically cleared just because the bone is not healing and forming new bone, it’s forming like cartilage. So on that end it’s not in a position to be back in the ring. But my quality of life is like nothing ever happened.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

Since his last match in March 2022, Big E has worked as a panelist at WWE premium live events, as well as a host for shows such as WWE Raw Classics on Netflix.

To find out what Big E had to say in relation to a potential WWE Hall of Fame induction follow this link here.