With Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston on the sidelines due to injury, Big E of the New Day looks set to finally get a singles push that we all want to see. The WWE Universe has been very vocal about Big E’s charisma and in-ring skills, they and I want to see him have another crack as a singles competitor.
Fans sometimes forget that Big E is a former WWE Intercontinental Champion, he would defeat Curtis Axel on an episode of RAW and would hold the championship nearly 6 months. But his championship run never materialised into anything further and soon would find himself part of The New Day.
Also on Big E’s resumé apart from his Intercontinental Championship and his Tag Team Championships with Woods and Kingston is that he’s the second-ever holder of the NXT Championship. He would defeat Seth Rollins in a No Disqualification match and would hold the title for 6 months before dropping the title to Bo Dallas.
So now Big E is on his own… What’s Next?
I believe we will see the real push of Big E now that SummerSlam is over, where he will become involved with the Intercontinental Championship again. A mutual respect feud over the title would do wonders for Big E, even being the man to dethrone Jeff Hardy would be an achievement.
Over the next few months, I can see Big E taking on Sheamus, King Corbin, The Miz, John Morrison, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. Wins over these would show that Big E is to be taken seriously as a singles competitor. He has also been of late a leader in the defence of SmackDown against the group known as Retribution. Could we see Big E lead a team from SmackDown against RETRIBUTION at Survivor Series? If it’s RAW vs SmackDown vs NXT again, I can see him 100% being a member of Team SmackDown.
If he was to win the Intercontinental Championship from Hardy, successful defences against the list of SmackDown mid-card and upper mid-card would push him higher up and be seen as a true contender at the top of the card
What about his goofy-ness?
Why can’t he keep it? That’s how Big E has connected with the audience along with the New Day. His antics whilst conducting interviews and the way he makes his way down to the ring. That can all be part of his character but once the bell rings, we need some seriousness. That’s the key in making a successful run for Big E is that once the bell rings, he becomes serious and drops the silliness.
Big E needs to be strong and focused in the ring if he plays a goof inside the ropes then that could affect the way he is viewed as a competitor to the audience. Whilst a member of New Day, they have played it straight inside the ring more often than not and that’s what has made them excel. The mixture of being entertaining outside of the ring and knowing a job is to be done inside the ring.
Can he reach the top?
Of course, he can, I would love it if WWE built Big E up between now and January. The come the new year, fans and audiences are clamouring for Big E to win the Royal Rumble match. Big E already has the support and, if built upon, he could easily replicate his New Day buddy Kofi Kingston rise to the WWE Championship.
There’s nothing saying he couldn’t go one further and garner support as much as Daniel Bryan did on his way to the top and have the whole fan base eager for him to win the Rumble. This would put him in the main event of Wrestlemania and It’s hard to pick who could be his opponent, who would be Universal Champion at that point? Can you imagine if he overcame a heel Braun Strowman? The prospect of him facing The Fiend doesn’t do too much for me but a cocky champion in AJ Styles would be perfect to overcome
One match that would interest me would be Big E taking on Brock Lesnar for the Championship. We’ve seen how good Lesnar and Paul Heyman are at putting over people when they want too. Just look at Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre the last couple of years.
A Lesnar vs Big E match would see Heyman and Lesnar not take Big E seriously and even see Lesnar take out Kingston and Woods on the road to the biggest show of the year. But as an over cocky Lesnar takes his time to defeat Big E, he won’t stay down and build his comeback and eventually overcomes Lesnar to be champion.
Money in the Bank 2020: New Day
Where do Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston go?
They would support Big E just as he and Woods did when Kingston was champion last year. Maybe they would continue to fight in the Tag Team division also.
After WrestleMania?
This is where a New Day explosion could happen. One scenario is that Big E fails to win the WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania. Afterwards, this could consume him and drive him mad that when he finally got his chance at ‘The Big One’, he lost. He would attack Woods and Kingston, leaving them down and state it was their fault he lost. They held him down all these years and it’s their fault that he didn’t win the championship. He could turn a more serious side and maybe even bring back his killer side we saw in NXT where he would make the ref count to 5 instead of 3.
Maybe Big E wins the championship but Kofi Kingston becomes jealous. Kingston causes tension in the group and a fight breaks out between Kingston and Big E. Kingston could turn his back on his New Day brothers and we would see a WWE Universal Championship Match between Kingston and Big E.
Another scenario would see Kingston happy with Big E win but it’s Xavier Woods that gets jealous. Stuck on the sidelines, he watched Kofi become champion and then whilst sat at home, Big E had his opportunity and become champion too. Woods now asks where his chance is and says he will never be given one but he’s going to take one. He turns his back on E and Kofi.
We could eventually see a New Day triple threat match similar to The SHIELD. But all of this is hypothetical and who knows what will happen in WWE whilst Big E goes on an adventure on his own. One thing is for sure, I will be supporting him and hoping he gets his chance to shine.
Pictures and video courtesy of WWE.com