Former WWE star Ridge Holland has broken his silence on the in-ring accident that effectively ended Big E’s wrestling career. In March 2022, a ringside overhead belly-to-belly suplex from Holland resulted in Big E suffering a broken neck — an injury that has kept him out of the ring ever since.
Speaking in a new video on his YouTube channel following his WWE release, Holland (real name Luke Menzies) reflected on the incident with deep remorse.
“I think [what] affected me more than anything was the Big E thing. I just want to say that if I had a time machine right here, right now, the first thing that I would do is go back and not do that spot. There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t think about what happened. There probably will not be a day that goes by where I don’t think about it.”
Holland explained what was supposed to happen during the sequence:
“The spot was Big E goes for that suicide spear. I move at the last minute. He eats sh*t and then I hit him with the belly to belly to put an exclamation point on that. In retrospect, what should have happened was a suicide dive. That’s it. Move on. Whether I didn’t give him enough, whether he didn’t give me enough, things go wrong. It’s not ballet, and unfortunately, it happened, and I’ll always regret that spot.”
He also praised Big E for his grace and forgiveness following the incident.
“I’m grateful that Big E, the class of human that he is, he forgave me, and he’s been able to be so positive and move on with his life… He’s such a good human being and I wish nothing but the best for him.”
Holland made it clear that there was never any malicious intent and opened up about how the tragedy affected his own confidence and mental health.
“Just for people out there who think that there might been any malice in there, there wasn’t and if I could change it, I would in a heartbeat. But what happened was it really shook my confidence. I contemplated quitting, to be honest. And when you’re going out there and you’re on the main roster and you’re on a worldwide spotlight, the last thing you want to happen is for your confidence to go because it just shows in your performances. As soon as you come out of the curtain, the people know. And I think that’s what really kind of harmed me from connecting, and I wasn’t in the right headspace to go in there, to be honest.”
Holland ended on a note of gratitude, thanking those who helped him through the difficult period.
“I’m just glad that I had people around me that supported me. My wife, my kids, and guys like Pete [Dunne] and Sheamus that would pull me up by my bootstraps and say, ‘Come on, we’ve got this.’”
