Big E

Big E: 2022 Biography, News, Net Worth, Family

Ettore Ewen was born in Tampa, Florida on March 1st, 1986. He saw athletic success early in life, winning honours in High School including a state championship in wrestling. Later, at the University of Iowa, Ewen played football for the Iowa Hawkeyes for a single season in 2006.

Following university, Ewen became a powerlifter and competed in the 2010 USA Powerlifting meet where he became the top heavyweight lifter, breaking several Florida state records for the 275-pound class in the process. The following year, he came first in the USAPL RAW National Powerlifting Championships when competing in the Super Heavyweight division.

While competing as a powerlifter, Ettore also began training to be a pro wrestler, having signed a developmental deal with WWE in 2009. He debuted in the company’s developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling in December that year, taking on the name Big E Langston.

While in FCW, Big E captured gold for the first time when he and Calvin Raines defeated Richie Steamboat and Seth Rollins for the Florida Tag Team Championships.

In 2012, FCW was rebranded as NXT and Langston went on a lengthy winning streak which culminated in him being crowned the NXT Champion after he defeated Rollins that December. He was eventually defeated for the title by Bo Dallas in May 2013. By that time, Langston had begun appearing on Raw where he had allied himself with Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee as a heel.

Langston saw some early success on the main roster with victories over Daniel Bryan and coming close to winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Alberto Del Rio in a best-of-five series that ended in a 3-2 loss for the star. After Ziggler left Lee, he and Langston had a brief feud which ended after Big E and Lee lost a Mixed Tag match to Ziggler and Kaitlyn, who was the Divas Champion at the time.

In October 2013, Big E became a fan favourite after aiding CM Punk against Curtis Axel and Ryback. This led to him receiving an Intercontinental Championship against Axel, which he won to claim his first tile on the main roster.

Langston’s reign lasted almost six months and included victories over Damien Sandow, Jack Swagger – now AEW’s Jake Hager, and Dolph Ziggler. At Extreme Rules in May 2014, he lost the title to Bad News Barrett. He made several attempts to recapture the championship but was unsuccessful.

In 2014, Langston – now going by simply Big E – began teaming up with Kofi Kingston and the pair were often accompanied by Xavier Woods. The trio were officially named The New Day that November and quickly established themselves with victories over Cody Rhodes & Goldust, Tyson Kidd & Cesaro – now AEW’s Claudio Castagnoli, and The Miz & Damien Sandow.

After several attempts, Big E and Kingston captured the WWE Tag Team Championships at Extreme Rules in April 2015. They successfully defended the titles several times including in the first-ever Tag Team Elimination Chamber where all three members had been allowed to compete. At Money in the Bank that June, Big E and Woods lost the titles to The Prime Time Players.

Big E and Kingston regained the titles at SummerSlam in August in a Fatal Four Way, this began a reign that lasted for a then-record 483 days and included wins over the Dudley Boyz, The Usos, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, and The Bar’s Sheamus & Cesaro. However, it was The Bar who eventually dethroned the champions at Roadblock in December 2016.

In the first half of 2017, The New Day continued to appear on Raw and hosted WrestleMania 33. That June, they were moved to SmackDown and reignited their rivalry with The Usos. At Battleground, Kingston and Woods defeated the Samoan duo to capture the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. The New Day then defended the titles under ‘Freebird Rules’ meaning any combination of the three could contest championship matches.

The New Day and The Usos traded the titles for several months until the teams ended their feud at Hell in a Cell that October inside the eponymous structure. In the bout, The Usos defeated Big E and Xavier Woods for the championships.

At Survivor Series, The New Day took on The Shield trio of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose – now AEW’s Jon Moxley. This was the only time the two high-profile groups met in the ring in a 6-Man Tag and The Shield came out on top with a Triple Powerbomb on Kofi Kingston.

For the rest of 2017 and 2018, Big E and The New Day continued their quest to recapture the SmackDown Tag Team Championships but came up short against The Usos and The Bludgeon Brothers. They finally won the titles again on the August 21st edition of SmackDown where Kingston and Woods defeated The Bludgeon Brothers. However, the reign was short-lived as The Bar defeated them weeks later on the 1000th edition of the show.

In the first few months of 2019, Big E and Xavier Woods aided their teammate Kofi Kingston in his attempts to become WWE Champion. They secured his title match by defeating several other teams in a Gauntlet Match on the March 26th episode of SmackDown and Kingston went on to win the WWE Championship from Bryan Danielson at WrestleMania 35.

Following WrestleMania, Big E was forced to take time off due to a knee injury. He returned weeks later and he and Woods were soon able to gain a SmackDown Championship match at Extreme Rules. There they won a Triple Threat bout by defeating both the champions, Danielson and Rowan, as well as Heavy Machinery.

The team then began a feud with The Revival – now AEW’s FTR – and lost the tag titles to them at Clash of Champions before winning them back weeks later for their record fifth reign. This run was ended by John Morrison and The Miz at Super ShowDown the following February but a sixth reign followed in April when Big E won a Triple Threat match against Miz and Jey Uso to claim the titles.

This would prove to be Big E’s last run as a Tag Team Champion as he opted to return to singles competition after losing the titles to Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura. Soon after this decision, Woods and Kingston were traded to Raw in the 2020 WWE Draft, leaving Big E on SmackDown.

Big E soon saw success on his own when he defeated Sami Zayn to win the Intercontinental Championship, his first singles title in over six years. His reign lasted for four months with victories over Apollo Crews, Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn. At WrestleMania 37, he was defeated by Apollo Crews in a ‘Nigerian Drum Fight’ after Commander Azeez made his debut by allying himself with Crews and laying out Big E with a Chokeslam.

Big E unsuccessfully attempted to regain the Intercontinental title over the following months before setting his sights on the Money in the Bank briefcase. At the Money in the Bank PLE, he defeated five other men to win the briefcase and accompanying contract. On the September 13th edition of Raw, he cashed it in on Bobby Lashley to win the WWE Championship for the first time. He then cemented his win by defeating Lashley in a Steel Cage match two weeks later and was officially drafted to Raw soon after.

Big E’s reign as the WWE Champion lasted until Day 1 on January 1st 2022 when Brock Lesnar was added to his scheduled Fatal-Four-Way defence and pinned the champion.

Following the loss, he was moved back to SmackDown where he reunited with The New Day. The trio later began a rivalry with The Brawling Brutes group of Sheamus, Butch, and Ridge Holland. During a match between the teams, Ridge Holland executed a Belly-to-Belly Suplex on Big E on the outside and the star landed on his head. He later revealed that he has suffered a broken neck and would be out of action for some time.

Since then, Big E has made occasional appearances with The New Day. He has given positive updates on his recovery, saying in July that he is expected to make a complete recovery without the need for surgery.

Net Worth

As of December 2022, First Sportz has reported that Big E has a net worth of $2 million.

Family

Big E is the son of Margaret and Ettore Ewen and is of Jamaican and Montserration descent.

Income

Big E reportedly earns $500,000 a year through his WWE contract.

Record

According to Cagematch.net, since beginning his career in 2009, Big E has wrestled in 1267 matches. He has won 738 times with 516 losses and 13 draws putting his win percentage at 58.2%.

Figures are correct as of December 6th, 2022.

WWE Career

• WWE Champion – 1 time
• NXT Champion – 1 time
• WWE Intercontinental Champion – 2 times
• Raw Tag Team Champion – 2 times
• SmackDown Tag Team Champion – 6 time
• 2021 Men’s Money in the Bank winner

Charity

As well as taking part in events for WWE-sponsored charities such as Connor’s Cure, Big E has also raised money for many other causes including the NAACP Legal Defence Fund and in 2021, auctioned his ring gear with the proceeds going to the Feeding Tampa Bay charity.