Big E sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Oakland, California to discuss his upcoming memoir titled How I Got Over, why now was the right time to write the book, overcoming many physical and mental struggles over the course of his career, winning Money in the Bank and then the WWE Championship, his career-ending injury that occurred during a match on SmackDown, being kicked out of The New Day and the follow-up, KofiMania, original plans for The New Day, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods leaving WWE, and more!

Do you remember everything from the night you got injured?

“Yeah. 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. Can’t remember [specifically why], 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. So we had the tag team match, and I knew it was Kofi and Pete 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 super kick 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 a 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 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 did a pretty good job. For us, the idea of, let me just go in, hit on 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, you know, 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.”

Were you in pain?

“No, not really. I was able to move my fingers and toes right away, just to make sure. I was like, that’s fine. I didn’t go out at all, I didn’t have a headache, didn’t have a concussion. I thought, again, I’m by no means a medical expert, I thought maybe I got a contusion, some kind of neck contusion or something. Let me just stay down for a little bit. I was like, ah, this isn’t great, but I’m not in pain. Maybe I’ll be out for a month or so. Just let this thing heal up, and I’ll be fine. Not a big deal. Thankfully, Dr. Pescasio, who always sits ringside, well, there’s always a doctor sitting ringside, but at the time she was sitting ringside, also from Tampa, my fellow Tampanian. So she was there, she saw it immediately and rushed over. So before I really even had a chance to kind of get my bearings and start moving. I had to be down anyway, so I figured, like, I’m here selling, so I’m just gonna be down. She rushes over, and I felt like it all happened very, very quickly. I said it tongue in cheek, but the very first thing I say as she rushes over is ‘I need to get a new job.’ Just because, you know, between all the ACLs and the right patella and the left back, and I had a herniated disc, I actually missed some time Survivor Series during the pandemic because I herniated a disc. I missed that Survivor Series. I was supposed to be on the Survivor Series team, but I missed some time because I herniated a disc in my neck, and it wasn’t that bad, but I had some weakness in one of my arms, and just not something that I wanted to mess around with. So I was just thinking about all the injuries and everything I’ve done to my body. I told myself for the longest time, see, I’m grateful for the old timers and everything they’ve contributed, but I see so many of the vets who are in their 40s and their 50s and 60s, and so many of them struggled to get around. I put my body through a lot, but I want to have a life afterwards. I want to be able to move around and to enjoy life and to work out and not be in constant pain. So I just kept thinking I put my body through a lot. But anyways, the doctor gets there and we get to the finish pretty much right away, I remember Kofi circled around to check on me, but it was pretty quick where they were getting the EMTs there. They put me on a board, they strapped me in. I just thought, okay, maybe this is a bit much, but with neck stuff you always want to take precautions. But thankfully, the hospital in Birmingham, which is where I went to get my meniscus done, so very familiar. It was very, very close to the arena. They ended up putting me in an ambulance, felt like I was at the hospital, felt like five minutes later. Then they ran a battery of tests and took some scans. Wasn’t long, I think Woods was in town, I think it was backstage, actually. So, the boys brought all my stuff, they grabbed everything, brought it to the hospital, and just stayed. They had a town to get to the next night, I believe, but those guys are family, so they stayed, made sure I was okay, and we just kind of waited for a while, and the news I got was sobering. I did not expect to hear that I broke my C1 in two places. I broke my C6, but the fact that they were so flippant about my C6, ‘Ah, the C6 is not a big deal. It’s a C1 that’s the real concern.'”

“Of all the vertebrae, that’s the one where, like, everything’s on the table, as far as stroke, paralysis, death, all the things that are life-changing or life-ending. So, yeah, getting that news was okay, life is going to be a little different. But honestly, even after they gave me that diagnosis, there was still some hope that I would be just in a hard collar. I can’t remember if it was six weeks or eight weeks, but somewhere in that four to eight weeks, so a month or two of being in a hard collar, and they thought there was a good chance that I could come back. But we took more tests, and honestly, the issue long term was [with] my C1 so I have what’s called a burst fracture or a Jefferson fracture, and that’s when the C1 it’s like a ring, and on opposite sides of that ring are where the C1 was broken, and those spaces were healing with new cartilage instead of forming new bone, so I didn’t have the same kind of integrity of the C1. So that’s been the issue, for my day-to-day life, very normal, I have no issues, but returning to the ring, and if this happened again and I don’t have the same neck integrity, that could be it.”

That moment changed your career. It also changed Ridge Holland’s career a lot. He got death threats from this. When did you connect with him, and just chat about it?

“It was pretty quickly. 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, one, 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.”

Talk to me about the buildup of The New Day turning heel on you.

“So, I know a lot of the complaints afterwards were, ‘If Big E wasn’t going to get cleared, why are we doing this?’ We were not in limbo about me being cleared or not. We knew that those guys really wanted to turn heel, and they wanted to do something with me that would service that. Initially, the goal was Jey was a babyface at the time, very hot, and the initial thought was, okay we’ll do something where the physicality is on Jey, that gets shut down. We thought, oh, R-Truth is beloved, maybe the physicality would be on Truth, that gets shut down. So we thought, okay, these guys want to turn heel. I know I’m not going to be cleared. We’re not leading to anything with those guys, so they kind of came up with a bit of an idea, and I thought, okay, cool, this is what you want to do. I’m still in this position where I’m with the company, and it doesn’t behove me for me to be a heel commentator, that’s not what we’re trying to do.

So I was like, this is the message I’m putting out in the world. I’m talking about meditation and mindfulness, so I’m gonna remain a babyface. Those guys will be heels. So it wasn’t long before we all kind of put our heads together, and we had this idea. We never really had seen a turn with no physicality. In the month or so prior, those guys were doing such a great job of building tension between the two of them. I still remember that one promo they cut where they lose the tag match. I feel like we do it less these days, but that follow shot, where the camera is with them with their frustration at the end of the match, follows them through Gorilla to outside of Gorilla, and we see Kofi and Woods just saying terrible things to each other. I think what I love about that moment is we have been so purposeful about always talking about our brotherhood, how close we are, never breaking up, we love each other, we’re always fighting for each other. The importance of KofiMania and the sacrifice of me and Austin to make the sacrifice for Kofi, because we love him so much.

So, the idea of doing something with some real gravitas, or something that actually hit people in the chest, was exciting. So, I had some feedback, and I thought the idea of, please forgive me audience, but I thought the idea of throwing out this hook of I could return, I could help you remember who you are, I could come here, I’m not cleared yet, but I’ll be your manager, I’ll be here with you weekly, we’ll bring back that old New Day that people remember and love, we’ll get our juice back. I love the idea of throwing out a hook that got people up, and then having those two take it away, and just that moment of, and for me too. With the article, I was reliving a lot of my pain, a lot of my struggle, and I just wanted to stay in that feeling, as someone who is trying to do more acting and learning more about actors’ process, I wanted it to feel real and genuine.”

We felt it!

“Thank you. That’s what I wanted. So I tried to stay in, I tried to keep those feelings in mind and thinking about my angst, and carry that with me to that performance later that night, we were in Everett, Washington. I had so many people reach out and talked about, look, I know this is entertainment, I know it’s a show, but man, it’s heartbreaking. I had so many people, people who know that what we do is a work, who were like, ‘Is this real? Are you guys actually talking? I know it’s a show, but is this real behind the scenes?’ But I love that we were able to really hook people. I think, unfortunately, you know, those guys were getting booed out of the building for the first several weeks. It’s the follow-up that, unfortunately, I don’t think went as well as we all would have liked. I even pitched an idea. I love the idea of me sitting for the Rumble. Imagine Kofi does a save where he ends up on the barricade. There’s some dude with his hat low because they were taking shots at my fiancée at the time too, so I love the idea, maybe our hats are real low at the time, Kofi lands on the barricade. We tilt our heads up, take our hats off, and then maybe there’s a swipe of the foot, and we cost him the Rumble, he goes out, something like that. But creative had other plans, I was told, ‘Hey, that’s something we can get to later, ‘and I’m not a save it guy. Oftentimes, people like, oh, let’s save that idea for later, but things with creative and direction move so much, we have a great idea, let’s capitalize on it now. But ultimately those were the two who were going to carry it. Creative had ideas. My role is now as a broadcaster for the PLEs, so ultimately I just thought let’s try to make this break-up the best we can, and the rest is in their hands. So unfortunately, the follow-up of that turn didn’t go the way we wanted, but we were proud of the initial heel turn.”

Was it the frustration of how that heel turn went that led to Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston leaving WWE?

“I don’t want to speak for them. I know when the time is right, I’m sure they’ll have a lot of things to say. There are things out there about pay cuts and whatnot. I just know, look, this ownership is not the same ownership that existed when we first signed to the company. It is their company, it is not ours. So they make their decisions with how pay goes, and ultimately, we all have to abide by that, and you understand that it is not your ball. It was not our ball when we first signed to the company. It is not our ball now. It is someone else’s ball to determine when you get in the game and how many carries you got. So they made a decision, and I just kind of want to leave that in their hands to be able to decide. I can’t fully speak to a lot of that, but I think we, as performers, we all want to feel valued, you want to feel like people want you here, there’s a plan for you, and we’re going to compensate you accordingly. When you feel like that plan is not in accordance with your plan, or the money doesn’t line up with the way you see yourself valued, you have to make a decision on whether you’re going to say, “Yes, this is what I will accept, or “No, this is not what I’m going to accept. So they made a decision to step away, and I respect [that]. Those guys will always be my family, regardless of what company we’re in, regardless of how old we are. What we built is bigger than companies, it’s bigger than our industry. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be in the financial position I’m in. I wouldn’t have the breadth and myriad of incredible experiences, even just getting comfortable in my own skin. I credit those guys for so much of that. I look back on our time in The New Day, and we could talk about how my career was cut short, we could talk about the things that didn’t happen in my career, but I knew I was in the good old days. When I was in the good old days, I knew this was it, and I was able to enjoy it. You’re always pushing for more. You’re oftentimes annoyed with booking or disgruntled with certain decisions, but I knew we had lightning in a bottle, and not just on screen, but off-screen. The way we traveled together, the amount of laughs we had, I can’t tell you how many times I had to wipe tears of laughter out of my eyes. So many times when we were just, we had too much fun. I don’t think we ever had a blow-up, we never had an argument, we never had a time where we butted heads, really ever. If we had any minor disagreements, they were about creative process, and we were able to get on the same page immediately, the way we work together, our synergy, it’s special. So those guys are family, and will always be family. And I will always root for their prosperity. I will always, always root for their fulfillment. I just want them to be happy. So, if they’re happy at home, if they’re happy wrestling in VFW halls, if they’re happy doing conventions, gaming, whatever it is that they want to do with their lives that fulfills them, as long as they ain’t hurting anyone, fully support it.”