Big E Says Roman Reigns Is Having "An All Time Great Run"

Big E took a major step in becoming the second New Day member to hold a World Championship in WWE this past weekend after he successfully won the men's Money in the Bank briefcase. The wrestling world took to social media following the event to congratulate Big E on the biggest accomplishment of his singles career.

As a guest on WWE After the Bell, the newly crowned Mr. Money in the Bank spoke about how special that moment was for him and debates whether or not this match was the greatest Money in the Bank ever. The 35-year-old also mentioned how incredible his moment was given the return of fans and felt bad for Drew McIntyre, who became WWE Champion when no fans were there to experience it.

"Becoming Mr. Money in the Bank is incredible in-and-of itself," Big E said. "But I think what makes it feel even more special to me was, I think you can make an argument that that was the most stacked field of competitors in a Money in the Bank match. When I saw it, I knew we were going to make some magic, this was going to be fire, there's no way it wasn't going to be good. For me, in my mind when I replay it, it's as soon as I start to slide into the ring and feel that rumble and feel people start to get [excited]. It feels like from a fan perspective, when Seth [Rollins] hits that powerbomb on Kevin [Owens] and Seth starts to climb, I'm just listening and [the fans] really think it's over, Seth's got this. As soon as I start to slide in and feel people coming with me and start to climb and as soon as I slide my arm under Seth, that's the magic of what we do. That's the juice, that's the essence of what we do.

"Obviously we were doing the best we could during the ThunderDome era, but a part of me afterwards, I sat back and I felt bad for someone like Drew [McIntyre] who had his biggest moments without people, without fans. If we had had that same match in the ThunderDome, I still would've been very grateful, I still would've had some of the same emotions but the stuff that makes you stay up all night [is with fans], I only slept 90 minutes. I was sitting in my hotel room buzzing for hours upon hours, the magic of this stuff, the stuff that makes you want to keep coming back for more years and years later is the reaction of the people. That to me is the stuff that just recounting it now is giving me goosebumps. I'm so appreciative that for some reason after all these years and years, people aren't tired of me, they aren't done with me, they aren't sick of me. Virtually no push back, negative stuff, everything was just so overwhelmingly positive. That's the stuff that's really humbling. That's one of the coolest moments of my career."

Big E continued to speak about how amazing of a moment it was to have the crowd support him after his biggest singles win of his career. The New Day member mentioned how his trio has been together for 7 years and how the fans stayed with them.

"We're in this environment that is not the organic environment of having fans there," Big E said. "You can put a show together on paper and you can have an idea of who's hot, who's not, who should be at the top, who shouldn't be. But once you throw those plans in front of a live crowd and that live crowd is different, even in that same town, they can respond different than they would three months from now. That's what I really love, your best late plans can completely be ruined and turned on by the fans.

"I'm just really grateful that for some reason people are still behind me. Not that I was worried about it or it kept me up at night, but you just never really know. We're not new fresh guys, The New Day, we've been around a long time in a good spot. There's always that fear that there's New Day fatigue or Big E fatigue."

Big E recently stated that he would like to cash in his contract on Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship. Big E discussed the potential of cashing in on WWE Champion Bobby Lashley rather than Reigns.

"It's still very early man so I've still got to figure that stuff out," Big E said. "There's also this very natural story with Bobby [Lashley] and the stuff that he's been doing with Kofi and Woods. That makes sense too. Who knows with Goldberg there, people love that nonsensical meaty men slapping meat. That's the kind of cool thing, I look around and there are some already natural opportunities for me that just makes sense. Whether it's Goldberg, whether it's Bobby.

"Roman [Reigns] to me is just at the very top of our industry. If you want to make a statement, if you want to be remembered, if you want to be a legend, that's the way to do it. Whoever takes that title off of Roman is going to be remembered because his run right now is an all time great run. I think he's still cooking man.

"I'm excited too, I'm going to take a second to sit back and just be a fan and watch him and Cena because those two guys, the stuff they're going to do in those promo segments. Just that jousting, a lot of times it's stuff that will be subtle but those are two guys that don't know how to be number two. They're going to find ways to usurp the other and so all that stuff is just cool to see them go back and forth too. I'm going to take a second to sit back as a fan and watch to see who kind of finds a way to one up the other."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE After the Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.