Posted on 6/26/126 by Colin Vassallo
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.”