Big E Wants To See the Hurt Business Reunite To Face the New Day

In an interview with Complex, Big E said that he would like to see the Hurt Business reunite in order to take on all three members of the New Day. The Hurt Business previously feuded with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods over the tag titles last year, while Big E was on Smackdown. Here are highlights:

On why he announced the Money in the Bank cash-in early: “I think there’s so many different ways to handle something like this, whether it be the element of surprise or saying, “Hey, on this date, this will be my title match.” I said, “Why not Boston?” I think the opportunity was there. First of all, I have to give hats off to Bobby. I think Bobby’s had an incredible run. He carries himself like a champion, and in many ways, he’s inspirational, because—and I’ve told him this before—when I got signed in 2009, I was studying some older film. I was looking at more contemporary guys that I wanted to be like. I was watching Bobby Lashley film. There was a lot of Bobby Lashley films. He was a guy that, “Okay, that’s a guy in a similar vein that, if I work hard enough, one day I want to wrestle like that guy. I want to be like that guy.” So hats off to him for having this incredible run. This dude is in his mid-40s but looks like he’s in his mid-20s. All the credit in the world to him. But, man, I have so many… I think of Iowa. I say “no,” but in many ways, I have so many connections to Boston. Both my sisters lived there for a while. My one sister just moved and she’s working on her PhD, but my extended family on my mom’s side, so many of them who moved to the States from Montserrat settled in Boston. My mom went to BC, Tufts. Kofi is from Boston, lived there for so much of his life. There’s so much about the city of Boston and about that moment that felt right. And, too, just the opportunity to be reunited with Woods and Kof. Why wait any longer? It’s just one of those moments where you kind of look at the landscape and say, ‘Why not today?'”

On The Hurt Business and possible challengers: “Oh yeah, man. The first thought that comes to mind is The Hurt Business. I want to see them back. I want to see them together. Man, just the opportunity to go out there. The story is already there. The history is there, but I beat Bobby, and now Bobby needs to back up and [get] his two cast-off brothers back again. I got two brothers of my own. There are so many opportunities. And, same thing, I look over at SmackDown, it’s Roman and The Bloodline. I am someone who loves that. You look at The Hurt Business, you look at The Bloodline, and those that might be in those two great, incredible passions with really talented performers. But imagine The Hurt Business coming back together to do battle with The New Day. All kinds of incarnations; singles matches, tag matches. Man, there’s so much that we can do there. So that’s the first order of business. I saw Cedric’s tweet, too, and I sent him the “mount up.” Let him know: bring your boys, get the troop together, because that’s what I want. And I don’t think Bobby is ready to go quietly into that good night. I think he’s got some more fighting. So I want to see him with his troop, and let’s get this thing cracking again.”

On more representation in wrestling: “Yeah, man. That’s really dope. And I think the beautiful thing is [that it’s] across companies. One of the things I looked at, and I feel bad because I don’t remember exactly who put them together, but very recently, there was a list of, much like PWI does their list of top 500 wrestlers, it’s the list of the best several hundred Black wrestlers on the planet right now. And to look at that list and to not even be in the top 10, for me, it wasn’t like, “oh, I feel slighted.” It’s “oh, man, there are so many incredibly dope Black wrestlers across this country, across the globe.” And that’s really, really cool. So, in many ways, it feels like a boom period for Black wrestlers. I look around and there are so many [wrestlers] that I’m such a fan of, in WWE and outside of WWE. You look at the Jonathan Gresham’s, the Fred Yehi’s, the Lee Moriarty’s. There are so many guys that I watch them and think, “man, those guys are incredible, so dope.” I can go on and on as well, too. And so many Black women as well, like Trish Adora, but there’s just so many [great performers out there].”