There’s a relatively small number of superstars on the WWE roster that are truly home-made success stories – wrestlers who have either only ever competed between WWE developmental ropes, or debuted on Raw or Smackdown before wrestling anywhere else.
Braun Strowman belongs in the latter category, never competing in a televised match before joining the Wyatt Family on Raw to beat down Dean Ambrose – quite the debut for the big man, all things considered (and yes, we’re deliberately ignoring the times he danced as an Adam Rose Rosebud).
Home-grown FCW or NXT alumni include Braun’s Wyatt Family patriarch Bray Wyatt, the likes of Roman Reigns, his cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso, Alexa Bliss, Baron Corbin and Charlotte Flair – all of whom cut their teeth under the watchful eye of WWE trainers in developmental before debuting on the main roster. They’ve never competed anywhere else.
Yet there’s another home-grown talent that seems on the cusp of a major singles titles run: a wrestler who has already broken records and claimed some truly historical firsts in his career to date. Here’s why it’s time that the New Day provided us with another new WWE Champion – Big E. Hear me out, now. Don’t you dare be sour…
He’s been the number one guy before
After Florida Championship Wrestling was rebranded as NXT, Big E Langston really started making waves in the company. Following a suggestion from Dusty Rhodes due to his size and power, Langston picked up the old King Kong Bundy gimmick of asking for a five count from the referee to showcase just how decisively he had beaten his opponent. This angle (which had crowds counting along with the five count at the end of each Langston win) combined with his impressive athleticism and strength, led him to a main event feud with the very first NXT Champion Seth Rollins – a feud that Langston would ultimately go on to win by decisively defeating Rollins for the belt.
The victory saw Langston become only the second NXT Champion ever – and the first African American champ to lead the black and gold brand. In fact, Big E’s title success in December 2012 remained the only men’s NXT Championship win by an African American superstar until Keith Lee’s victory in July 2020 at the Great American Bash.
Pop onto the WWE Network and check out the Jan 9 2013 episode of NXT to see how Langston was booked back then. Not only does he beat Rollins in the no disqualification match, he also overcomes interference from Reigns and Ambrose too. More importantly, he looks strong while doing so. It’s easy to forget that the dancing, unicorn horn wearing member of New Day was once an intense solo strongman that steamrolled Rollins to capture the title. On commentary, an excited Jim Ross delivered the following lines after Langston’s win: “He is a soldier. He is a one-man army. One of the most extraordinary pure athletes we have ever seen in NXT or anywhere else. The massively strong, the amazingly intense Big E Langston is now the number one man!”
Ross often captured iconic moments in the WWE, and this was no different. JR put Big E over like a pro. If the performance alone wasn’t enough, JR legitimised him with that play-by-play. Langston was the man in NXT once. Why not on the main roster now?
He’s held lots of Raw and Smackdown gold
Big E is clearly most well known on the main roster for his huge number of tag team championship runs with the New Day – and understandably so. He’s held the Raw version of the titles twice, the Smackdown tag belts an impressive six times, and also boasts the accolade of being part of the longest tag team title reign ever. The trio of the new New Day hit a record-breaking 483 concurrent days as champions, finally losing the belts to The Bar at Roadblock: End of the Line in December 2016.
Against that backdrop, it’s easy to pigeonhole him as a tag team guy. Indeed, in the early days of his main roster run, the closest Big E got to a World Title was by shadowing a World Champ – he acted as an enforcer for the then World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler during his two-month World Championship title reign back in 2013.
Yet there’s more championship pedigree to be found in Big E’s history than simply being physically near a World champ. Go back and watch his bloody US Championship match with Dean Ambrose at Hell In The Cell 2013 (Langston received seven stiches below his eye – Ambrose needed eight under his chin). You’ll see Langston win the title match – but only by countout, meaning the US Championship stayed with the Lunatic Fringe. While it was a chaotic clash, it showed a tougher side of the bloodied but not beaten Big E, and saw Langston lifting up a main roster singles title for the first time… even if he had to hand it back immediately afterwards.
Langston wouldn’t have to wait much longer to get his hands on and keep a singles title, however, winning the Intercontinental Championship from Curtis Axel on an episode of Raw just 22 days later. The win garnered a huge reaction from the live crowd, and showed how invested the fans were in Big E’s journey. He would go on to hold the title for 167 days, defending it against, amongst others, former champ Axel, Damien Sandow and Jack Swagger.
Sadly, Big E didn’t get to defend the IC belt at Wrestlemania XXX, instead competing in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WWEs headline event. Langston would finally lose the title to Bad News Barrett in a relatively short 8 minute match at Extreme Rules in May 2014, and fail to recapture the belt on the following night’s Raw. Having that moment as his swansong as a singles competitor just feels… incomplete. There’s got to be more from Big E as a solo competitor than that.
He’s taken a failing gimmick and made it work
Sure, the New Day might be pancake throwing, trombone tooting, hip gyrating fan favourites now, but once upon a time the trio were saddled with a clunky preacher persona (complete with backing gospel choir), with Xavier Woods acting as the main mouthpiece for the team.
Perseverance and an instinct to take the characters in a different direction saw Woods, Kingston and Langston slowly morph into a new New Day, turning chants of “New Day sucks” into “New day rocks”. While it may have taken some of the edge off the version of Langston that came to the ring in a cloud of weightlifting powder (Big E holds impressive powerlifting records like a 799 raw pounds deadlift), the power guy of New Day has remained the power guy. Even at their most comedic moments, business always picks up when Big E gets into the ring.
He could have remained just another voiceless bodyguard for the likes of Ziggler, but Big E is no Mr Hughes for the new millennium. He could have languished with a poorly conceived and stereotypical Nation of Domination 2.0 angle, but New Day aren’t that either. As Kofi-mania proved, the fans of WWE have supported another member of New Day reaching the highest heights on the grandest stage – why should Big E be any different? He’s a legitimate power man who could be a threat to any title. Why not the biggest title on Smackdown?
He’s got the blessing of New Day
Both Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston are on the shelf dealing with various injuries, so it’s the perfect time for Big E to strike out and grab his moment in the solo spotlight. Refreshingly, it doesn’t seem to have to be at the expense of the New Day stable either, with Kofi recently reassuring him that both Kingston and Woods supported Big E going it alone.
“Here and now is about you, man,” Kofi told Big E on Smackdown “It’s about you showing the world what Big E can do. We want this for you, man. Don’t let them deny you for a decade before you take your due. More importantly, you’ve earned this. You deserve this. And you have our blessing, man.”
It’s refreshing to have a tag team / stable like New Day be able to chase solo titles without it sounding the death knell for their co-existence – just another example of why New Day stand so apart from other tag teams, ad hoc partnerships and cliques in pro-wrestling.
With New Day supporting him, Big E wouldn’t have to carry promo duty alone – Woods and Kingston could happily be Big E’s cheerleaders, even if they’re not physically involved in his matches. Not that Big E needs a mouthpiece – his time with New Day has seen his promo work become more varied, more fun, and generally all around better. He’s been a badass. He’s been a clown. Amazingly, and against all logic that says it shouldn’t work, he’s been a badass clown. And we go with it. More than that, actually – we love it.
He’s believable
Big E wouldn’t look out of place on any late night talk show, early morning breakfast show or random public appearance carrying the Universal Championship. Non-wrestling fans would look at Big E’s physique and accept him as a legitimate World Champ. He looks the part. To quote the theme tune, you can feel the power in the guy. But more than that, they’d also be engaged by his personality, laugh at his jokes and buy into his intensity, depending on the circumstance. Big E could happily carry the title and represent the brand to the wider world.
More so than ever before, this is the perfect time to pull the trigger on a full-blown Big E world title run. He’s been on an 11 year journey with the company, where the perfect payoff would be a Universal Championship win. Maybe even turning next year’s Wrestlemania in Big E-mania. After all, once we get out of 2020, with all the challenges that it has brought us, wouldn’t it be great to have a moment like that to look forward to?
Let’s face it: Big E isn’t just the Universal Champ we deserve – he’s the Universal Champ we need.
