WWE: Big E Says His In-Ring Wrestling Career Is Over, AJ Styles on “I Don’t Care How Much Money They Offer John Cena & I, We’re Not Going To Saudi Arabia To Have Another Match”, More News

Big E Says His In-Ring Wrestling Career Is Over

As noted before, Big E has been out of action for WWE since March of 2022 due to a broken neck injury. During his time away from the ring, Big E has been working as a panelist for WWE’s pre and post-shows for PLE events.

A recent episode of the What’s Your Story? with Stephanie McMahon podcast featured Big E as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Big E revealing that his in-ring career is behind him.

“For all the people you’ve had on, I’m like, ‘why me?’ My career is kind of behind me. I’m someone who is appreciative, I think I had a really good career and I’m proud of it, but you’ve had John Cena, Livvy Dunne, some of the biggest names.”

Big E also gave his thoughts about the outpouring of love and support he received from others after his neck injury.

“In that moment, I didn’t think about all the things I didn’t have. I was just so grateful for all the things I did have. The fact that I wasn’t paralyzed. I had friends. And the amount of love, man, I can go on and on about — it took me three days to get back to all the texts, all the phone calls. And I’m just on my phone the whole time trying to get back to everyone. But in that moment, it wasn’t about what I lost. It was, ‘My God, what an incredible support system I have.’

Thank God for the friends I’ve cultivated. So many of the incredible fans that I wasn’t able to get back to who reached out with so much love. And people can talk about how toxic the internet can be, how toxic wrestling fans can be — and I’m not dismissing elements of that, that certainly exists — but I saw so much love, and it made me feel so good.

I had so many incredible people. ‘Seinfeld’ is my favorite show, and I had just so many people send me — Mustafa Ali sent me a ‘Seinfeld’ Lego set of Jerry’s apartment. So I played with Lego since I was a kid, but it was great. I was just like in my house, excited to wake up every day and start putting together Jerry’s apartment with this Lego set. I had people send me like ‘Seinfeld’ comforters and scripts.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com

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AJ Styles Comments on “I Don’t Care How Much Money They Offer John Cena & I, We’re Not Going To Saudi Arabia To Have Another Match”

Saturday’s WWE Crown Jewel: Perth event in Perth, Western Australia, Australia features John Cena competing against AJ Styles in a singles match for the final time in Cena’s wrestling career.

A recent episode of WWE’s RAW Recap podcast featured Styles as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Styles’ thoughts about his upcoming retirement from wrestling and how he doesn’t care how much money WWE offers to him and Cena since they are not going to Saudi Arabia to have another match.

“Alright, well, well, let’s just be honest about the whole thing. I don’t know if you guys noticed, haven’t been in the main event picture lately. So, I just assumed that I wasn’t that important. But it sounds like, to me, the fans wanted this match, and at the end of the day, when it comes to John Cena’s retirement tour, we’re gonna give them what they want. So, I’m happy to have the opportunity to face John one more time and I can tell you this, it’ll never happen again. I don’t care how much money they offer us, we’re probably still — I said probably — we’re not going to Saudi Arabia to have another match. This is it. I know in my heart, this is the right thing and John’s gonna be retiring soon and I’m gonna be right behind him. It’s just the reality of two guys who have busted their butt for so many years, and busted their bodies at the same time. It’s time.”

Styles also gave his thoughts about his on-screen history with Cena during their wrestling careers.

“He definitely made me. There’s no question in my mind that he helped make AJ Styles. He put me on a different level, and some of my best matches have been with John (Cena). That is also no question. So, I don’t know where I would be exactly on the charts right now, if it hadn’t had been for John but it certainly did help being in the ring…”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

Thursday’s WWE NXT house show event in Columbus, Ohio featured Omos making a surprise appearance. During the show, Omos came out and confronted Lexis King and quickly beat him in a match. King demanded a rematch that ended with Omos quickly defeating King a second time in a row. This was Omos’ first match in WWE since April of 2024.

Sports Business Journal reported that NXT talent Kelani Jordan and WWE NXT and LFG talent Shiloh Hill recently signed deals with Paradigm Talent Agency to represent them across all areas of entertainment.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that wrestling legend and former WWE wrestler Jazz and current TNA producer Ace Steel were brought in for guest coach work this week at WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

As noted before, WWE developmental talent Lance Anoa’i has been out of action for WWE since this summer of 2024 due to an undisclosed injury. Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Anoa’i is still listed on WWE’s internal NXT roster and while he had been expected to be cleared in early 2025, he had suffered another injury at the time setting back his return timetable. It was reported that Anoa’i is currently expected to work for WWE’s EVOLVE brand once he is medically cleared but a timetable for his in-ring return is currently not known.

WWE recently released two new videos to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the full November 8, 2000 episode of WCW Thunder. The second new video was a “never-before-seen footage featuring “Stunning” Steve Austin and Ricky Steamboat battling at the conclusion of a Six-Man Tag Team Match from the WCW event at Atlanta’s Omni on Feb. 7, 1993.”

WWE also recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “Classic Dusty Rhodes promos | Hard Times, The Cold-Blooded Sausage Maker and more.” The second new video was a Vacant WWE Universal Championship match of Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar from WWE Crown Jewel 2018.

WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque recently reflected on Twitter about his praise of Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes’ hard work and commitment to WWE. Levesque stated “People only see results… they don’t see what it takes to achieve them. 14 hours to Dubai Find a gym in the airport… grind 10 more to Perth Straight to @ESPN hit… meet @MakeAWish families QB1 stuff. What it takes to be a @WWE Superstar. Thank you to all. (Sorry @CodyRhodes, felt like I needed to share)“

In a recent interview with the Battleground Podcast, “Big” Bronson Reed confirmed that the reason why his Tribal Thief shirt merchandise no longer features a pair of sneakers resembling Nike’s Spizikes brand shoes is due to copyright infringement-related issues. Reed stated “Well, it is still there, still available, but it’s altered. So yes, you can still- you can still buy it, but there was some copyright infringement stuff there that, uh, they had to remove the shoes, which is fair enough. I get it. But, uh, I, I personally was hoping that they’ll just put on some generic shoes. That’s the whole, the whole thing was, I was walking around with people’s shoes around my neck. But they just decided to keep it as the tribal thief logo. So, if I have my way, I’ll make sure that the shirt hopefully can come back out with the shoes on it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Scarlett gave her thoughts about how WWE determining her value based on Karrion Kross came off as being very misogynistic during her and Kross’ talks with the company for a potential new deal prior to their departures. Scarlett stated “So after you talked to the representative of talent relations about your contract. One of the last questions before the 24-hour notice was given, Kevin asked where I stood in all these contract negotiations. And they said, ‘We’ll get to her once we’re done with you,’ which I took as them using me as leverage against him. I do feel like if he agreed within the 24 hours that they would have offered me something, would it have been the same amount as it was before? Would it have been less? I don’t know. But all in all, it felt like a massive, massive red flag, and I did feel like it did come off a bit misogynistic, because originally I was hired before you, and the idea that I have no value without him, and it’s only determined by whether or not he signs, that came off as very misogynistic to me.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)