When Big E cashed in his MITB and won the WWE championship, there was excitement in the air. Big E has always been a wrestler that fans wanted to see as a world champion and have a great run. It’s been more than two months since Big E won the WWE championship and there’s a case to be made that WWE has botched Big E’s run.
The first sign that the title reign was botched, was the cash-in. A babyface winning the WWE title after having the champion (Bobby Lashley) had to defend his title against Orton and after retaining, he was selling one of his knees. Big E’s title win should’ve been a long program and have a build, instead of the cash-in- People were too happy to see why this was a mistake.
Another big problem with Big E’s title reign is his presentation. Last night, Big E had a champion vs. champion match with Roman Reigns. Roman and the Universal championship were presented as a big deal, while Big E and the WWE championship were presented more as the super Intercontiental champion, instead of a world champion. It didn’t help that Big E lost clean and wasn’t protected, especially when most stars were protected on the same show (Survivor Series). Big E suffered his first loss as a world champion and they didn’t even protect him in favor of Roman Reigns beating him.
Big E’s WWE championship reign has many similarities to Kofi’s WWE championship reign, with the biggest one being that both are not really treated as world champions and being overshadowed by the Universal champion. Another problem is that Big E still does his New Day comedy stuff, and while it’s over with fans, the only person that matters on this subject is Vince McMahon and he doesn’t like this stuff and Kofi’s title reign was a clear example of this.
On the business side of things, Big E doesn’t seem to be moving the needle for WWE. RAW’s ratings are pretty much the same (with some bad weeks) and in terms of tickets, WWE is having a hard time selling tickets for RAW and SD. Big E’s title victory and reign being botched are showing that Big E’s is not moving the needle at all and when you’re a world champion, that’s not a good thing. Vince McMahon will be checking those numbers, like he did with Kofi and he never put Kofi on the world championship scene again and Big E is in danger of that happening to him too.
Big E’s title reign still has time to be salvaged, but will it happen? Being optimistic is nice and all, but considering reality and WWE’s current booking it’s going to be a an uphill battle for him. Big E is over with fans, but the love people have for him is making fans ignore how bad the booking has been for him. Only time will tell if WWE will improve the booking if Big E as WWE champion.
