WWE’s Big E Talks About Being Named In Game Host For The USFL’s Michigan Stallions
WWE Superstar Ettore “Big E” Ewen is a former; WWE Intercontinental Champion, multi time WWE Tag Team Champion, Money in the Bank Ladder Match winner and WWE Champion. Yesterday, he was officially announced for a new role; in game host for the Michigan Stallions of the relaunched USFL, which is returning to Ford Field for the first time in 40 years. Yesterday, I got the opportunity to talk to him about; his recovery from injury, hosting with the USFL, being able to merge his two passions (football and wrestling) and “big meaty men slapping meat.”
You can read the transcription of the interview:
Mean Jean: All right, my man, that I got here with me is a former Intercontinental Champion, former WWE tag team champion many times over former Mr. Money in the bank, former WWE Champion, and he’s gonna add a little, some extra to the list. He’s the new in game host, uh, for football to the, it’s back and Ford Field, over the summer. How excited are you about this new opportunity?
Big E: Man, I’m really excited about it, man. Football, as much as I credit wrestling, everything good in my life is because of wrestling in WWE. But football was my first love man. Mm-hmm. Football truly was. So getting to play at Iowa, you know, my, my time in the Midwest has been beautiful, and just Detroit man, the passion that people in Detroit have for their teams is special, for their city is special. So, I’m really excited. I got to do a bunch of things with, Big Noon Kickoff for Fox Sports, and we really developed this relationship over the last couple years. So as soon as they brought this to me, I was like, man, this is makes perfect sense.
SummerSlam will be at Ford Field on August 5th. The Michigan Panthers will be coming back to be playing in Detroit for the first time in 40 years. They’ll be playing all their home games at Ford Field as well. So obviously, you know, it just made perfect. Building up to the, the Michigan Panthers USFL, season, all being at Ford Field, and then shortly thereafter, SummerSlam, also being at Ford Field.
Mean Jean: Lot of synergy there. Right? Lot of synergy. Yes, absolutely. So, of course,
I have to ask, man, it’s been a little bit over a year, since the injury. You’ve been in great spirits throughout the whole situation. How are you feeling and how’s, you know, everything progressing with on.
Big E: I feel really great, man. Right now it’s just, unfortunately, it’s a difficult fracture. So I broke my C1, I broke my C6 as well, but I broke my C1 in two places and it’s called a Jefferson fracture, so, okay. Cause of the nature of that fracture, sometimes, uh, it doesn’t heal, as well. So it had been healing fiberously at the six month mark.
Which means everything’s like still in place, but it hadn’t ossified, it hadn’t completely turned into bone yet. Okay. So, you know, obviously to do what we do, the rigors of, WWE e and being in the ring mm-hmm. Uh, they wanna make sure that my neck is as rock solid as possible to be going back out there.
So I’m, I’m so fortunate. I have no nerve issues, no pain issues, yeah. No strength issues. I feel great. I feel. Um, and I’m really grateful to all the EMTs, everyone in Birmingham that took such great care of me. Mm-hmm. Uh, my PTs in, in Tampa, everyone’s been great, so I’m really fortunate to feel so good.
Mean Jean: That’s awesome. I’m glad to hear that, man. So, uh, with the new gig man, what are you most excited about hosting Michigan Panther, uh, football here for field.
Big E: Well, I’m excited, you know, uh, I, especially being a part of WWE the last several years, what we do is so based on fan interaction. Yeah. And that’s something that I’ve really grown to love.
You know, when I first started wrestling, it was all about the athletic side. But as I, you know, progressed in my career, I really love the connection with fans and being able to give them the best experience possible. And, so to bring that energy, uh, in a different format, you know, to take that from wrestling and to bring it, uh, to these USFL games, that’s something that I’m really excited.
So that’s what it’s really all about, is making sure that fans have the most fun possible. Mm-hmm. That they’re engaged as possible, that they’re really enjoying, their time being at Fort Field and watching the Panthers play. Yeah.
Mean Jean: That’s dope. And with, you know, all of the people in the world essentially. How dope is it, you know, that the Panthers and the USFL reached out to you to do this, where they’re playing at Ford Field and in Detroit for the first time in 40 years?
Big E: Nah, it’s amazing, man. I got myself really blessed to have an opportunity. Uh, I, you know, there are a lot of other people that they could have gone to and, and asked to do something like this, but, uh, I’m, I’m glad that, that I was the one that they, that they came knocking for.
Mean Jean: Yeah, that’s dope. And then I see that, on June 18th, it’s gonna be WWE Superstar night, with the Panthers. Talk to me a little bit about more that, and, you know, what fans can expect at Fort Field on that date.
Big E: Yeah, so right now we don’t have anything announced per se, but, for WWE and I, the cool thing is we might have other talent come in, uh, do things. I’m sure we’ll do some, you know, fan giveaways and whatnot. But being able to, bring in, uh, WWE talent to bring in the WWE side to promote as well, uh, again, such a natural tie in with the Panthers, with Ford Field and with the WWE.
Mean Jean: That’s dope. Come on man. Gimme a little scoop. What we got? Gimme something. Kofi, Woods.
Big E: You always say like, what do you want? Why do you want us to ruin the surprise? You know? That’s the beauty of showing up there. How about you get something that you never expected, man, I don’t wanna ruin that for you. I’m looking out for you, my brother.
Mean Jean: All right. All right. That’s fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right, so one of the things, you know, I posted that I was gonna be talking to you today and probably I gotta ask you, there’s, there’s two things that I feel like always come up when, when people talk about you and I wanna know which one people ask you about more. Is it big meaty men slapping meat or, is it you in the popcorn in the front row?
Cause I see those everywhere from people that are aren’t wrestling fans as well.
Big E: You know what I did not realize that would be my legacy in wrestling would be those, the popcorn gif and, and the big meaty men. But look, man, I’m incredibly proud of both. Yeah. I will say, I think the popcorn gift is still, I still see it widely used uhhuh, I feel like, at least in my mentions mm-hmm.
On Twitter and in day to day big meaty men. I thought might have like its time in the sun and then fade out. Mm-hmm. This is years, this is years later. I wanna say we did this in like either 2020 or 2019. This is at least three years later. Yeah. Uhhuh, I, it might have picked up steam. Yeah. For some reason.
I see like people in different companies use it on the independent scene. Use it in WWE, I’ve seen it in non wrestling contexts in other sports. Uh, look, I am incredibly proud of, I would say that’s the one big meaty men is the one that has followed me. I feel like it’s not even close to dying down.
I get tagged something about every single day. Yeah, it’s kinda ridiculous. But in the very best ways. In the best way.
Mean Jean: I know I was watching Raw last night and, uh, you know, I heard Corey Graves mention, this is the Big E special, big, meaty men slapping.
Big E: It’s so absurd, man. It really is so absurd. But I love it, man.
Anytime We’ve seen so many hoss battles too. Like Gunther’s and a lot of those big meaty men, uh, matches, uh, Bobby Lashley, Brock. So it’s a good time. Bronson Reed too. You got a lot of, a lot of big boys. Yeah, and we need like a, I haven’t thought of them. We need a good version for the women too. We can’t leave the hossy women out of it too.
I don’t have a good version for it. If someone comes up with something. Let me know, but yes, big meaty men and big meaty women as well.
Mean Jean: We’ll have to workshop that one.
So how, honestly, was that just like a spur of the moment it just came out, or was that something that you’ve said in the past when you talk about.
It’s just something like that kind of, you know, was spur of the moment at the time. I think, yeah. It’s, it’s a thought I’ve had in my mind many times because I think. So the interesting thing is when you go to Japan, Uhhuh, for some reason I love working, Tokyo’s my favorite city to visit. Mm-hmm. But we used to wrestle, go to our shows in Tokyo every time.
Like I would be in the ring with guys like Rowan or, uh, my good buddy, uh, rest in peace, Luke Harper. Yeah. And in Japan. You for some reason in the states, two guys who just take off and give, you know, you know the old tackle spot, we’re two big men running each other. You tackle no one bumps. Mm-hmm. And they stand strong.
You can do that like one or two times in the US and get reactions. But in Japan, for some reason, yeah, you can do it over and over. So it was like we would always, like we were putting our matches together. That was the thing is Rowan, and I’d be like, You and I, we could just hit the ropes and take off and hit each other like five or six times and the reactions just grow more and more.
Yeah. So that’s something that I’ve always had in my mind and for me, like it always sounds best when you get the pop of the meat. That’s what it is that that meat slapping against each other when the chest hit each other. Yeah. That noise, the, oh, that’s how the fans track. So that’s always something that I’ve had in mind.
It’s just that meat slapping that’s, that’s what you’re looking for with two big men. So it’s something I’ve thought about for a while, but I never really put it into words until that podcast. And that’s, and I can’t even just take sole credit for it. Yeah. Cause Woods, Woods and dying laughing. That really makes that video so much better.
Mean Jean: It really does. And we’re gonna get to see some big, meaty men slapping meat at Ford Field with the Michigan Panthers all season long. Big E is going to be, the in arena host. I gotta make it down to some games. If you ever, you know, you get sick or you can’t make a game, you need someone to fill in for you. Hit me up my brother. I got you, okay.
Big E: Thank you, or we can tag team it too, come on now.
Mean Jean: Hey, hey, let’s do. I’m not a big meaty man, but I’ll, you know, do
what I gotta do.
Big E: We’ll get you a body suit. One of those muscle suits. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mean Jean: There we go. Uh, April 30th is when the season kicks off, and, uh, June 28th I believe is WWE night down at Fort Field. The USFL is back in Detroit for the first time in 40 years. If you go to some games, you’ll be able to see my man, Big E. Big E, thank you so much for your time.
Continued success and, hopefully. You know, everything goes well with that injury and we can add to that accolades list. So the next time I talk to you, I can start with like five minutes of, you know, Universal Champion, WrestleMania Main Event or Royal Rumble winner. And on and on and on. I appreciate your time, my brother.
Big E: Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
Mean Jean: Absolutely.
Big E: Go Panthers
Mean Jean: Go, Panthers baby. Let’s go.
https://1051thebounce.com/listicle/wwe-summerslam-is-coming-to-detroit-5-matches-that-must-happen/
