Big E successfully retained his WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre at the Crown Jewel pay-per-view late last month. But that wasn’t the match he originally wanted, as he confirmed in an interview with Sportsnet this week. The eight-time tag team champion has made it no secret that he has been a lifelong fan of Goldberg’s, and the WCW icon competed on the same show against Bobby Lashley in a rematch from SummerSlam. E said that he made “some noise” about that matchup, but plans never materialized.ย
“I think the cool thing for me is that there are so many fresh matchups because I have not been in that top role,” E said. “We’ve been in a top act in many ways (with the New Day) but there are so many singles matchups out there that are fresh for me. I was trying to make some noise for this Goldberg match at Crown Jewel, but that clearly (didn’t happen). It would have been really full circle. He was my childhood hero and idol, and I’ve spoken effusively about that.
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“But for me, there isn’t necessarily anyone that I’m targeting,” he added, talking about future potential opponents (his next is Seth Rollins). “I want the best and I love the fact that I’m getting an opportunity to be in the ring with Drew (McIntyre), a two-time WWE Champion. And I think just continuing to add talent like that, guys who were former world champions, that’s what I want. Hopefully, my reign is very long and I’d love to be able to look down that list and see world champion after world champion. I’d also love to see really talented men who haven’t had those same opportunities. I thought with the Draft, beforehand, a guy like Cesaro, a guy like Kevin Owens, you didn’t really know where guys were headed. But Cesaro has never been a world champion which is kind of hard to fathom, that’s hard to believe. I can’t speak highly enough about how incredible he is in the ring, not to mention an incredible human being. The man, as we all know, anyone who’s paid any attention, you understand how incredible he is, and he’s not slowing down at all. Just guys like that, guys that I think are extremely talented and haven’t had the same opportunities.”
