Ridge Holland Says He Considered Quitting After Big E. Injury, Talks Going To NXT

Ridge Holland says that he considered quitting wrestling after Big E.’s neck injury, detailing the unfortunate moment in a video following his WWE release. Holland posted a video on his YouTube channel on Friday following his contract being terminated. In addition to his discussing the tweet that resulted in his firing, Holland discussed his arrival in WWE and some of the rough moments of his time there.

Foremost among those moments was the injury to Big E., which happened on the March 11th, 2022 episode of Smackdown. E. suffered a broken neck after a belly to belly delivered by Holland in a match. The injury led to backlash against Holland online, despite E. not placing blame on Holland. Holland detailed the moment and more in the video, and you can see highlights below:

On His Start In WWE:

“I came across, started in I think it was July 2018. Went through all the training. Had a first TV match against Matt Riddle, who I wrestled on the house shows more than probably anybody. Wrestled Keith Lee and things were bubbling along nicely. I was about due to go into a a feud with Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era for WarGames, and unfortunately I was wrestling Danny Burch. Oney Lorcan came out for the save, we did a couple of dives. On the third I was supposed to catch him. But as I caught him, I stepped back with my left foot, broke my ankle, which forced the weight of myself and him to go through my right leg, which dislocated my kneecap and ruptured my patella tendon. So 10 months out there, just as I was getting started.

“And then I found myself getting called upon on the main roster when I got back. And the funny thing was, it was like I never really established myself in NXT. I never really had a character, so there was no reference point for the creative team on how to book me. So I got put with Sheamus, which was a massive rub. But as a character and as a as a performer, I didn’t know myself. So, it was tough to try and find something to portray on camera. Because I’ve not had the reps and I’d not really found myself as a character, as a performer. And it was hard to connect.”

On His Time With the Brawling Brutes:

“Pete Dunne joined us, and Pete’s a good friend of mine. Best wrestler in the world, man, and he helped me immensely. And we were the Brawling Brutes, and we had some great times. Traveling on the road with Sheamus, when he’s driving and trying to watch a TV show on his phone. And he’s nearly crashing the car. This big ginger thing in the front seat nearly crashing his car and stuff. We had some good times traveling the world, wrestling the Usos and wrestling at WrestleMania, Saudi Arabia. It was decent. Although I always felt there were like there was a ceiling there. Sheamus was the priority, and I feel like that we were there just to kind of facilitate him and take bumps for him. But whatever. That’s what they wanted, that’s what we did. We’re pros.”

On Big E.’s Injury:

“And then obviously, the [thing] I think affected me more than anything was the Big E thing. I just want to say that if I had a time machine right here right now, the first thing that I would do is go back and not do that spot. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about what happened. There probably will not be a day that goes by where I don’t think about it.”

On How The Injury Happened:

“What happened that day was, we were supposed to have a meeting with Vince. And it kept getting pushed back because other people took priority. Like you had guys who were higher on the card that wanted to speak to Vince. So our meeting kept getting pushed back, and pushed back, and pushed back. We got in there and we had a really good chat. But by the time we got out there, it was like 12 minutes to bell time. I think we were on like first or second so we had 20 minutes to put this match together.

“I think we were on like first or second so we had 20 minutes to put this match together. “And the spot was Big E. goes for that suicide spear. I move at the last minute, he eats s**t, and then I hit him with a belly to belly to put an exclamation point on that. In retrospect, what should have happened was suicide dive [and] that’s it, move on. You know, whether I didn’t give him enough whether he didn’t give me enough, things go wrong. You know, it’s not ballet and it unfortunately it happened and I’ll always regret that spot.”

On His Relationship With Big E.:

“I’m grateful that Big E, the class of human that he is, he forgave me. And he’s been able to be so positive and move on with his life, and go into punditry and all his stuff he does for the community with collegiate athletes and stuff. And I think he works for the Next In Line stuff. So he’s killing it, man. He’s such a good human being, and I wish nothing for nothing but the best for him. And just, for people out there who think that there might been any malice in there, there wasn’t. And if I could change it, I would in a heartbeat.”

On How The Incident Affected Him:

“But what happened was, it really shook my confidence. I contemplated quitting, to be honest. And when you’re going out there and you’re on the main roster, and you’re on a worldwide spotlight? The last thing you want to happen is for your confidence to go. Because it just shows in your performances. As soon as you come out the curtain, the people know. And I think that’s what really kind of harmed me from connecting. And I wasn’t in the right headspace to to go in there, to be honest. I’m just glad that I had people around me that supported me — my wife, my kids, and guys like Pete [Dunne] and Sheamus that would pull me up by my bootstraps and say, ‘Come on, we’ve got this.'”

On Heading To NXT:

“Due to all that fallout, the confidence issues and we were kind of in No Man’s Land as a tag team. And I didn’t want the stigma that came along with me from from that incident to rough on Pete. Because I knew what kind of performer he was. So I wanted to go back down to NXT as a reset, but also kind of to free Pete up to go do some of his stuff. Because I didn’t want him smeared with the the kind of bad vibe that I was giving, or the the negative connotations that came with me. I didn’t want that to rub off on Pete.”

“So I asked if I could go back down to NXT for a reset, and also hopefully come back up in six months with a fresh coat of paint. And kind of, we can start again. And that never happened. We had a semi-feud with Ilja, kind of touching on the injury stuff. But it was a bit too close to the bone so that got nixed, which I can totally understand. We had a few things with Gallus, and then we got into the Chase U thing where we won the belts.

“And there was the heel turn, which I thought was really good. I thought that I had great heat. I thought I was probably the most heat of any heel in NXT. And we went to the to the main event at Deadline, where I signed a new contract and that’s been well documented. I don’t want to go into the ins and outs, because I don’t know where I stand legally at this point. I’m sure I’ll touch on it down the line.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Luke Menzies aka Ridge Holland with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.