During an appearance on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast, Big E talked about his 2021 Money in the Bank victory:
“For me, the magic was incredible. To me, becoming Mr. Money in the Bank is incredible in and of itself. I think what makes it even more special for me is I think you can make an argument that it was the most stacked field of competitors in a Money in the Bank match. When I saw it, I knew we were going to make some magic. This was going to be fine. There was no way it wasn’t going to be good. For me, in my mind when I replay it, as soon as I start to slide in the ring, feel that rumble, and feel people starting to get it, it feels like, I think from a fan’s perspective, when Seth hits that powerbomb on Kevin and starts to climb, I’m just listening, and it feel like, ‘Oh, they really think it’s over. Seth got this.’ As soon as I start to slide in and feel people coming with me, start to climb, as soon as I slide my arm under Seth and feel that, man, that’s the magic of what we do. That’s the business. That’s the juice. That’s the essence of what we do. I know, and obviously, we were doing the best we could during the Thunderdome era, but a part of me afterwards as I’ve had time to sit and think, I sat back and I felt bad for someone like Drew who had his biggest moments without people, and without fans.
If we had that same match in the Thunderdome, I still would have been very grateful. I still would have had so many of the same emotions, but the stuff that makes you stay up all night, I only slept 90 minutes because I was sitting in my hotel room buzzing for hours upon hours. The magic of this stuff, the stuff that makes you want to keep coming back for more years and years later is the reaction of the people. That, to me, is the stuff that, just recounting it now, is giving me goosebumps because I’m so appreciative that for some reason, after all these years, the people are not tired of me. They are not done with me. They are not sick of me. The fact that people were so supportive, and just, you know, I had people text me, ‘You know it was really loud.’ Even Kevin said that his ears hurt from the pop. He said he’s never had that happen before. Sometimes, I’m like, it seems loud, but I’m in it. To hear outside perspectives and just the amount of overwhelming support. You know how it is. It’s very rare for people almost 100%, or the vast majority of people, I’m not saying it’s 100%, but I saw virtually no pushback, no negative stuff. Maybe I just missed most of that stuff, but everything was so overwhelmingly positive. The amount of people who reached out to me from fans, to my peers to people backstage, that’s the stuff that’s really humbling, and I’m really grateful for it. The whole moment, the climb, being up there, being able to look around, that’s one of the coolest moments of my career. It’s a drug.”
