Summary

Ridge Holland has opened up about one of the most difficult stretches of his WWE run, saying the fallout after Big E suffered a broken neck during a match stayed with him long after the incident itself.

Looking back on that period, Holland said he was offered counseling but did not want to talk to anyone in the immediate aftermath. He also said WWE planned an on-air apology promo for him before a match the following week, only to pull it seconds before he was set to go live.

Quote from Ridge Holland

"So initially, I was offered to go to counseling and stuff like that. Like it would be like, you know, obviously, like speak to someone, which I declined at that minute. I just didn't really wanna speak to anyone, to be honest."

Holland later went on to say:

"The initial backlash, obviously, it's funny 'cause the week after, which I thought was kind of rough, they wanted me to do an apology promo live before I went out for a match. And I remember there were Vince [McMahon] and Bruce [Prichard] standing there, and they were counting down like thirty seconds till we go live. And I'm thinking, 'I don't know what I'm gonna say. I'm just gonna speak from the heart.' And then it got to like five, four, and then they cut it. They just didn't do promos right then. And then I had to go out and wrestle a match. So I think that was in poor taste. I think they did that to mess with me, and it really put a bad taste in my mouth, and I never really looked at those people the same, to be honest. I thought it was in really poor taste."

What the Big E fallout meant for Ridge Holland

Holland's comments underline how much the Big E injury continued to shape the way fans and people inside WWE viewed him afterward. Even years later, the moment remains one of the defining points of his run because it tied his name to a serious in-ring accident and, by his account, damaged his trust in WWE management.

Sources

As reported by NoDQ