Big E admits that “it was disheartening to be thrust back into a tag team” after being the WWE Champion

Then, at the time, I don’t know if you remember, Roman gets COVID, allegedly, who knows? But that was the rumor. He got COVID, so he couldn’t be there. Brock needed a match, so he gets added to our match, and what was supposed to be a singles match between me and Seth becomes a five-way, where Brock beats me for the title.

But that’s the business, and honestly, the fact alone that I got to be world champion—a guy like me—is pretty incredible. It wasn’t the run that I wanted by any means, but I’m grateful that I got it.

To go from that to having certain Raws where I felt like I was probably in five or six segments, and then I would have to do the dark match, I’m doing pre-tapes, and there’s a lot on your back. Going from that to immediately being thrust back into—and look, I love the boys, I love The New Day—but to go from, ‘Hey, you’re on the show alone,’ while I think they were on SmackDown at the time and I was on Raw, to immediately being told, ‘Okay, the idea of you even trying to fight back or get another opportunity, we’re not doing that. Get back to the tag team,’ it was demoralizing.

But the wrestling business is filled with ups and downs and ebbs and flows, and I think a lot of talent get too caught up in those ebbs and flows. You have to be able to ride that wave. So for me, the idea was always to fight back, but it was disheartening to be thrust back into a tag team.

Then it wasn’t long after that where I get dunked on my head and my career is over. So yeah, a lot of life changes in a couple of months. But more than anything, I’m just so grateful that I had the tools with meditation to be able to deal with it all.”