After Big E suffered a career-threatening neck injury on “WWE SmackDown” in 2022, fans questioned if the previous world champion would ever find a way to return to the ring until this past October, when he officially considered himself retired from skilled wrestling. Nonetheless, Big E recently shared that he didn’t initially think the broken neck would keep him out of motion long-term, until learning concerning the specific fracture he endured.
In an interview with “The Takedown on SI,” Big E explained that when doctors began to confer with his neck injury as a “Jefferson Fracture,” a break that has a severe impact on the C1 vertebra, he knew it was time to hold up his boots for good.
“I wasn’t in pain, I wasn’t concussed in any respect, I did not have any real nerve issues. I used to be like, ‘Okay, we’ll heal up.’ They usually told me initially, I feel it was eight weeks being in a neck brace, and you need to be good to go,” he explained. “My C1 was broken in two places, and oftentimes, when that happens, the C1 will heal like cartilage. So in those gaps, it’ll form cartilage as an alternative of ossifying, as an alternative of forming latest bone … the doctor almost rattling near begged me like, ‘Hey, please, even in case you get your all go, you are clear, you are allowed to get back within the ring, please really reconsider it’ … And after I told him, ‘I feel I’m definitely leaning towards being done,’ he almost quite literally breathed a sigh of relief.”
Big E continued to clarify that it’s sobering to observe legends return around WrestleMania season yearly, stating that many veterans are affected by pain despite not being too old of age, and is glad that he selected to not gamble together with his health.