Big E still thinks New Day vs. The Elite could have been something special, but he is not pretending the wrestling business makes that kind of dream match easy anymore.
While speaking to Westwood One Sports Night, Big E looked back on The New Day’s gaming crossover with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks and said WWE knew about the whole thing. The key difference was timing. AEW was not fully established yet, and Big E believes that made the Street Fighter showdown much easier to pull off.
“I don’t know how close we were. Look, I was shocked that so this was obviously everything was run through the company. They knew about it and I think this was AEW—I don’t think existed yet. I think they started, it wasn’t quite yet. So I think if AEW was established, I think all of that would have been off the table.”
That gaming connection was the door. Xavier Woods had been grinding on that side for years, Kenny Omega was deeply tied to gaming culture too, and suddenly The New Day and The Elite were standing across from each other in a way fans never expected.
“At the time, Woods had been really just working so hard on the gaming side. Kenny’s done so much on the gaming side as well. And just to get that face off with Kenny, the Bucks, and the three of us, I thought was so cool.”
Big E said that was actually the first time he met Omega and the Bucks, and the whole thing clicked because everyone involved loved wrestling.
“That was the first time I’d met any of those guys. And they were all just good dudes, man. We all just vibed. We all love professional wrestling. We all dreamed of it.”
That is why fans kept hoping the online teases would somehow turn into the real thing. The Elite wore New Day shirts, New Day dropped little references, and Big E said they were all trying to see how far they could push it.
“They came out in New Day shirts before. We would do little teasers. I would make little Kenny the Cleaner jokes in these little bits, but we were trying to slowly find a way to see if we could push it to just, man, imagine, especially when we were at the peak of our powers. Imagine the six of us in a ring one night only, man. I think would have been beautiful.”
That is the part that still stings. New Day and The Elite were two of the most influential trios of that era, and the match felt close enough for fans to believe maybe, just maybe, wrestling politics would not get in the way. Big E knows better now.
“And look, I understand that there’s a lot of dick measuring in professional wrestling. The idea of that happening now I cannot see ever happening.”
Still, he wishes wrestling fans could get past the company war stuff and just enjoy the idea of great wrestlers having great matches. As for whether New Day vs. The Elite could still happen, Big E did not leave much room for optimism.
“But we’re all wrestling fans more than anything. All the tribalism aside, all that nonsense aside, I want to see great wrestlers. I want to see great matches, and I think it would really excite the industry. Is that going to happen? Highly, highly doubt it. But at the time we thought there was a chance.”
Matt Jackson has already said The Elite seriously tried to make the New Day match happen years ago, even getting on the phone with Triple H in 2018. Kofi Kingston also admitted facing The Young Bucks was one of his dream matches. Big E’s comments now make the whole thing feel even more bittersweet, because at one point, all six men clearly saw the same possibility.
The New Day vs. The Elite may never happen, but Big E still understands why fans wanted it so badly. At their peak, those six in one ring could have been unreal. Now, it sounds like the closest fans may ever get is that gaming crossover and the memory of what could have been.
Do you still want to see New Day vs. The Elite happen someday, or has that dream match passed its moment? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comments.
Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.
