Big E is now the singles star of the New Day after Kofi suffered an injury a few weeks back, joining Xavier on the shelf, the muscle of the group has received a huge backing from fans to move into the main event scene. It’s no surprise considering how good Big E is that he should’ve been the singles star from the start but now seems like the best time possible to pull the plug on him. The only thing stopping that to hit high gear straight away is the huge return and heel turn of Roman Reigns. The upside of this is the storyline and long term booking we can get for a showdown between Roman Reigns and Big E is going to be unreal. Despite Jey Uso being the most recent number one contender, we could see extra aspects of the feud like The Uso’s joining Roman to equal out the three vs three concept.
In order for WWE to establish Roman as the legitimate heel threat that he is shaping up to be, put him against ‘weaker’ or lower card competitors before throwing him in the ring with a future star in Big E. The important thing for WWE is to build Big E even higher than he currently is, you see Big E on every Smackdown in a prominent position. He’s in main events almost every week, he’s appearing on Smack Talk out of character and he was at the forefront of the fight against Retribution before they were moved exclusively to RAW. Keeping Big E in this light is extremely important in the build-up to Wrestlemania for the road leading up to the ‘Grandaddy of them All’ because I can see him being one of the favourites to win the 2021 Royal Rumble.
Looking back at the last four Rumbles, 2017-2020, three winners were wrestlers who were heavily involved in either tag team feuds or mid-card feuds. The anomaly to that was Seth Rollins who was over as rover in the lead up to the show, like Drew McIntyre from this year and possibly like Big E next year. The timeline we could see from Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania 37 could look something like; Big E wins the Royal Rumble, New Day vs Reigns, and The Uso’s at Elimination Chamber before we see Reigns vs Big E for the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania 37. Somewhere in there, you can mix in the Smackdown Tag Team Championships and a feud between Xavier and Kofi against The Uso’s, which we didn’t really see in the original New Day vs Uso’s in-ring feuds. Doing it this way also allows the other two members of the New Day to still feel important because they won’t need to fight for Big E like E and Xavier had to for Kofi.
The second alternative is the Elimination Chamber. WWE have recently done this show in an unusual way where they don’t do two like they used to, it’s usually just one that is brand specific. If that is the case and WWE do that again, you’ve got the put the Smackdown guys in the chamber and have Big E come out on top. I would still incorporate The Uso’s as the ‘back up’ for Reigns and making them feel even more important being alongside the unstoppable Reigns and Paul Heyman. The Uso’s were class as heels when they first turned and those heels linking up with a wrecking machine Roman would make The New Day look heroic constantly.
Even if we didn’t see Big E win the title at Wrestlemania 37, silly move if we didn’t in this scenario, he can still win it down the line and this storyline can continue on. Usually, we see the winner of the Rumble or Elimination Chamber storyline end quite abruptly after Wrestlemania, with a couple of exceptions. However, adding in all elements to this feud will give it the boost it needs to carry on possibly until Summerslam. We’re never going to not see Roman Reigns in the main event picture and we don’t want to see him around the title constantly, but him being there will only elevate Big E.
Defeating the ‘new John Cena’ or ‘new face of the company’ will do unreal things for Big E’s career and he will not revert back to being a tag team wrestler for a while, unlike Kofi. Reigns is so good he doesn’t need the title and will elevate everyone around him. Big E to take the title from Reigns and boost the stock of the powerhouse beyond Reigns, allowing him to become the leader and face of Smackdown.