Big E

During the WrestleMania XXVIII Axxess event in April 2012, Big E, as **Big E Langston**, defeated Antonio Cesaro.

When WWE rebranded *NXT* into its developmental system, Langston made his *NXT* debut on August 1, 2012, defeating Adam Mercer. This marked the start of a winning streak for Langston, who from September started repeatedly performing his finisher on his opponents and demanding that referees count to five (rather than the usual three) before awarding him pinfalls. After Langston rejected Vickie Guerrero's managerial services, Guerrero promised a $5,000 bounty to anyone who could put Langston "on the shelf"; but attempts to claim the bounty by Chad Baxter and Camacho were firmly squashed by Langston. The bounty was ultimately declared void by NXT Commissioner Dusty Rhodes. Langston then began to feud with The Shield, and on the January 9, 2013 episode of *NXT*, Langston defeated Shield member Seth Rollins in a No Disqualification match to win the NXT Championship. After successful titles defenses against Conor O'Brian, Corey Graves, Brad Maddox, and Damien Sandow, Langston eventually lost the NXT Championship to Bo Dallas on the June 12 episode of *NXT*.

Langston made his main roster debut on the December 17, 2012 episode of *Raw*, attacking John Cena and aligning with AJ Lee, thus establishing himself as a heel. Langston went on to act as an enforcer for Lee's storyline boyfriend, Dolph Ziggler. On April 7, 2013, at WrestleMania 29, Langston and Ziggler unsuccessfully challenged Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane) for the WWE Tag Team Championship. Langston wrestled his first singles match on *Raw* the following night, defeating Bryan. After Ziggler suffered a concussion in May, Langston competed in a best-of-five series against Ziggler's opponent for the World Heavyweight Championship, Alberto Del Rio, which Del Rio won 3–2. On the June 10 episode of *Raw*, Langston was revealed as the secret admirer of Divas Champion Kaitlyn; this in turn was revealed to be a ploy by AJ Lee, the number one contender to Kaitlyn's title, to humiliate Kaitlyn. Langston and Lee continued to mock Kaitlyn over the following weeks, with Lee ultimately winning the title at Payback. On the July 15 episode of *Raw*, Ziggler ended his relationship with Lee, which led to Langston attacking him later in the evening. On the July 29 episode of *Raw*, Langston was defeated by Ziggler by disqualification after Lee interfered and attacked Ziggler. In a rematch on the following week's *Raw*, Langston defeated Ziggler following a distraction by Lee and Kaitlyn. On August 18 at SummerSlam, Langston and Lee were defeated by Ziggler and Kaitlyn in a mixed tag team match, effectively ending their feud.

On the October 18 episode of *SmackDown*, Langston lost to CM Punk and turned face after the match when he took offense to Paul Heyman downplaying Punk's victory over Langston and calling him "a rookie". He then aided Punk in fending off Ryback and Curtis Axel. Three days later, on the October 21 episode of *Raw*, Langston teamed up with Punk to defeat Ryback and Axel, with Langston pinning Axel. He was set to receive a title match for Axel's WWE Intercontinental Championship at Hell in a Cell, but Axel was pulled from the match shortly before the pay-per-view due to a legitimate hip injury. Langston then renewed his rivalry with The Shield, and instead challenged for Dean Ambrose's WWE United States Championship at the event, winning by countout. The following night on *Raw*, he was granted a rematch for the title, winning the match by disqualification after Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins interfered. On the November 18 episode of *Raw*, Langston received his postponed championship match with Axel, defeating him to win the title. Six days later, at Survivor Series, he defeated Axel again in his first title defense. Langston then successfully retained his championship against Damien Sandow at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. At the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, with his ring name now shortened to **Big E**, he successfully defended the title against Jack Swagger. Big E competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania XXX, which was won by Cesaro. At Extreme Rules on May 4, Big E lost the Intercontinental Championship to Bad News Barrett, and failed to regain it in a rematch the following night on *Raw*. Big E later became involved in a feud with Rusev, which led to consecutive bouts at Payback and Money in the Bank, both of which Big E lost. At Battleground, Big E competed in a battle royal for the Intercontinental Championship, which was eventually won by The Miz.

On the July 21 episode of *Raw*, after Big E and Kofi Kingston suffered another loss as a team in a recent string of defeats, Xavier Woods came down to the ring to address them. Woods told the two that they could not "get ahead by kissing babies and shaking hands", and that it is "their time". The duo then joined forces with Woods, and on the next day episode of *Main Event*, Woods managed Big E and Kingston to a decisive victory over Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil. However, Woods' group quickly and quietly disbanded, as on the August 8 episode of *SmackDown* and on the August 12 episode of *Main Event*, both Big E and then Kingston reverted to wrestling singles matches with no sign or mention of the other two members of the group. Despite being disbanded on WWE television, Big E, Kingston and Woods maintained their alliance at house shows.

From the November 3 episode of *Raw*, WWE began airing vignettes for Big E, Kingston and Woods, with the group now being billed as The New Day, and presented as overly-positive babyface characters. The New Day made their in-ring debut on the November 28 episode of *SmackDown* in a winning effort against Titus O'Neil, Heath Slater and Curtis Axel. At WrestleMania 31, Big E and Kingston unsuccessfully challenged for the WWE Tag Team Championship in a four-way tag team match. All three members of New Day also competed in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal that same night, which was won by the Big Show. New Day then transitioned into villains after fans responded negatively to the group. At Extreme Rules, Big E and Kingston won the Tag Team Championship for the first time from Tyson Kidd and Cesaro.

The New Day defended the titles under the Freebird Rule, which allows any two members of a stable to compete for the title, although typically would be defended by Big E and Kingston with Woods acting as a manager. They defeated Kidd and Cesaro in rematches on *SmackDown* and at Payback in a two-out-of-three falls match, with Woods interfering in both matches. At Elimination Chamber, all three New Day members competed in the first ever tag team Elimination Chamber match, where they lastly eliminated The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil) to successfully defend their titles. At Money in the Bank, Big E and Woods lost the titles to The Prime Time Players and failed to regain them at Battleground. New Day won the titles for a second time after they defeated The Prime Time Players, Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando), and The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto and Sin Cara) in a fatal four-way tag team match at SummerSlam. The following night on *Raw*, after New Day's victory over the Lucha Dragons, The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) made their WWE return and attacked the New Day. After a successful title defense against The Prime Time Players on the September 14 episode of *Raw*, New Day lost to The Dudley Boyz by disqualification at Night of Champions, retaining their tag team titles in the process. On the October 5 episode of *Raw*, Big E unsuccessfully answered John Cena's U.S. Open Challenge. The New Day ended their feud with The Dudley Boyz after defeating them at Hell in a Cell.

2016 saw the start of what would eventually become a face turn for New Day as the crowd was starting to get behind them. Despite this, they still worked as villains in their Royal Rumble win against The Usos. They appeared at Fastlane as a guest on Edge and Christian's talk show, The Cutting Edge Peep Show and teased an eventual confrontation with the stable referred to as the League of Nations, comprising King Barrett, Sheamus, Rusev, and Alberto Del Rio. This would later be confirmed and what would eventually become a best of three series would take place, starting at Roadblock, with The New Day scoring the first win. They went on to face the League again at WrestleMania 32, where they lost after interference from Barrett. The feud ended the next day on *Raw*, where New Day retained the tag team championships against Sheamus and Barrett. At Extreme Rules, The New Day retained the tag team championships against The Vaudevillains and at Money in the Bank in a fatal four-way tag team match against The Vaudevillians, Enzo Amore and Big Cass and Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. On July 19 at the 2016 WWE draft, Big E, along with his fellow New Day teammates, were drafted to the Raw brand. Three days later, on July 22, The New Day became the longest reigning WWE Tag Team Champions, breaking the record of 331 days previously set by Paul London and Brian Kendrick. After SmackDown established the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships due to the brand split, the titles held by the New Day were renamed the WWE Raw Tag Team Championships. On the August 1 episode of *Raw*, Big E suffered a storyline contusion to the groin area after an attack by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. At SummerSlam, Big E returned from injury by attacking Gallows and Anderson during their match against Kingston and Woods, resulting in Gallows and Anderson winning by disqualification. At Clash of Champions, The New Day retained the titles against Gallows and Anderson. At Hell in a Cell, The New Day lost to the team of Cesaro and Sheamus by disqualification, but retained the titles. On the October 31 episode of *Raw*, The New Day revealed that they were made captain of Team Raw for the 10–on–10 Survivor Series Tag Team Elimination match at Survivor Series on November 20, 2016 which Team Raw won after defeating Team SmackDown. The New Day had two successful title defenses in November on the 21 and 28 November editions of *Raw* against Cesaro and Sheamus and Gallows and Anderson, respectively. On the December 12 episode of *Raw*, The New Day retained the titles in two triple threat tag team matches, first involving Gallows and Anderson and Cesaro and Sheamus and the second involving Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens and the team of Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. At Roadblock: End of the Line, The New Day lost the Raw Tag Team Championship to Cesaro and Sheamus, ending their record breaking championship reign at 483 days. All members were in the Royal Rumble match but were eliminated by Sheamus and Cesaro. On February 20, 2017, they were announced as the hosts of WrestleMania 33. On April 11, 2017, Big E and The New Day were moved to the *SmackDown* brand as part of the Superstar Shake-up. The New Day debuted on *Talking Smack*, the post-show for SmackDown Live on May 23, however, they did not wrestle or make an appearance on SmackDown Live itself.

At Battleground, Kingston and Woods, representing The New Day, defeated The Usos to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships for the first time. Though Big E did not wrestle himself, due to The New Day defending the titles under the Freebird Rule, Big E was also recognized as a champion. The New Day lost the tag titles back to The Usos at SummerSlam. The Usos held the titles for about a month, before The New Day won them back on *SmackDown Live* that September. At Hell in a Cell, Big E and Woods took on The Usos in the namesake match, but lost the championships. On the October 23rd edition of Raw, The New Day along with other talent of *SmackDown* ambushed the *Raw* wrestlers. They again appeared on the November 6 episode of *Raw* in the crowd, which led to distraction of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose and costing them the tag titles. On the November 14 edition of *SmackDown*, The Shield led an attack with *Raw* Superstars and invaded *SmackDown* similar to the one led by SmackDown and attacked everyone including New Day. At Survivor Series, The New Day lost to The Shield. The New Day failed to regain the titles from The Usos at Clash of Champions in a fatal-4-way tag team match also involving the team of Rusev and Aiden English, and Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin. Big E entered the 2018 Royal Rumble match as the ninth entrant, but failed to win the match after being eliminated by Jinder Mahal.

At Fastlane, The New Day faced The Usos for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, but went to a no contest after inference from The Bludgeon Brothers. Two weeks later, it was confirmed that at WrestleMania 34, The New Day would face the Usos and the Bludgeon Brothers in a triple threat tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships. The New Day failed to capture the titles at the event, which were won by The Bludgeon Brothers. On the April 11 episode of *SmackDown*, The New Day were defeated by The Usos in a match to determine which team would challenge The Bludgeon Brothers at the Greatest Royal Rumble event. The New Day were then defeated by SAnitY in a six-man tables match on the Extreme Rules pre-show. The New Day competed in a tag team title tournament, defeating SAnitY in the first round, while Cesaro and Sheamus defeated the Usos. The New Day then defeated Cesaro and Sheamus the following week on *SmackDown* to earn the right to face The Bludgeon Brothers at SummerSlam, where they won the match by disqualification, meaning the Bludgeon Brothers retained their titles. Two days later on *SmackDown*, however, The New Day defeated The Bludgeon Brothers in a No Disqualification match to capture the titles for a third time. Big E and Woods then represented the New Day when they unsuccessfully defended their tag titles against The Bar on *SmackDown 1000*.

Big E entered the 2019 Royal Rumble but was eliminated by Samoa Joe. In the lead-up to WrestleMania 35, Big E's New Day teammate Kofi Kingston was attempting to earn a shot at the WWE Championship and after many attempts, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon granted him the title shot after Big E and Xavier Woods defeated Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev, The Bar, The Usos, and Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan in a tag-team gauntlet match. Shortly after WrestleMania, Big E suffered a legitimate knee injury which sidelined him for weeks. He later returned and eventually earned another SmackDown Tag Team Title opportunity at Extreme Rules. At the event, Big E and Xavier Woods defeated Daniel Bryan and Erick Rowan and Heavy Machinery to win the titles. At Clash of Champions, Big E and Woods lost the titles to the Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder). E and Kingston regained the titles from the Revival on the November 8 *SmackDown*, becoming record-five time champions as a team. At The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, The New Day would lose the championships to Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in a tables match after Cesaro and Nakamura put Kingston through two tables. On the July 24 episode of *SmackDown*, Kingston revealed that he would be out of action for six weeks and gave Big E the blessing to go on a solo run. The following week, Big E defeated The Miz in a singles match. Big E would then enter a feud with Sheamus, defeating him at Payback and once again on the October 9 episode of *SmackDown* in a Falls Count Anywhere match.

As part of the 2020 draft in October, Kingston and Woods were drafted to the *Raw* brand, while Big E remained on the *SmackDown* brand. On the November 4 episode of *SmackDown*, Big E debuted a new theme and titantron separate from The New Day as he teamed with Daniel Bryan and Rey Mysterio to defeat Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura. On the December 25 episode of *SmackDown* (taped on December 22), Big E defeated Sami Zayn in a lumberjack match to win the Intercontinental Championship for the second time. On the January 1, 2021 episode of *SmackDown*, Big E faced King Corbin, but the match came to an abrupt end when Zayn interfered, leading to Apollo Crews making the save. The four would then square off in a tag team match, with Big E and Crews getting the win when Crews pinned Zayn. The next week on January 8, Big E defended the Intercontinental Championship against Crews. The match ended in a double-pinfall draw, but after a match restarted, Big E scored the victory. The next week, Big E sat at ringside as Crews defeated Zayn, after which Crews again challenged E for the Intercontinental Championship, which E accepted. The match was announced for *SmackDown* on January 22; during the match, Zayn would interfere, causing a disqualification. On January 31, at the Royal Rumble event, Big E entered as the tenth entrant. He eliminated Sami Zayn, Mustafa Ali, The Hurricane (with an assist from Bobby Lashley) and Lashley (along with Christian, Daniel Bryan and Riddle) before being eliminated by AJ Styles' bodyguard Omos (who was not a part of the match). On the February 5 episode on *SmackDown*, Big E defeated Apollo Crews and Sami Zayn in a triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship after Big E pinned Crews. Following this, Crews would continue to target Big E to the point where Crews injured Big E, taking him out of action for several weeks. Big E then returned on the March 12 episode of *SmackDown*, accepting Crews' offer for a rematch at Fastlane before successfully defending the title against Sami Zayn in an open challenge. At the event, Big E would once again retain the championship but would be attacked by Crews after the match. On the March 26 episode, Big E was pinned by Crews in a six-man tag match, which gave Crews another opportunity for the championship at WrestleMania 37. At the event, Big E would lose the Intercontinental Championship to Crews in a Nigerian Drum Fight due to interference from Commander Azeez. He challenged Crews for the Intercontinental Championship once more on the May 26 episode of *SmackDown* in a fatal four-way match, which included Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, but was unsuccessful when Aleister Black hit him with *Black Mass*. The possible feud was soon dropped when Black was released by WWE.

On the June 25 episode, Big E defeated Crews to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank. He then went on to win the match, becoming the first African-American competitor to hold the contract. On the August 13 episode of *SmackDown*, Baron Corbin stole his briefcase during a backstage interview. On the SummerSlam pre-show, Big E defeated Corbin to regain the briefcase. On the September 13 episode of *Raw*, Big E cashed in his Money in the Bank contract on Bobby Lashley to win the WWE Championship for the first time. During the first night of the 2021 WWE Draft on the October 1 episode of *SmackDown*, Big E was officially drafted to *Raw*, while Kingston and Woods were drafted to *SmackDown* brand. At Crown Jewel, Big E successfully defended his title against Drew McIntyre. On November 8, it was announced that Big E would face Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. At the event, Big E was defeated by Reigns. At Day 1, Big E would lose his championship to Brock Lesnar (who was supposed to face Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship) in a fatal five-way match involving Bobby Lashley, Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins, thus ending his reign at 110 days. On the January 3 *Raw*, Big E wrestled Lashley, Owens and Rollins for a WWE Championship shot against Lesnar, but Lashley won. One week later on *Raw*, Big E challenged Rollins to a match and suffered a clean loss.

In late January 2022, Big E was officially moved back to *SmackDown*, reuniting with Kofi Kingston as part of the New Day, and feuding with Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss. At the 2022 Royal Rumble event, Big E participated in the men's Rumble, scoring no eliminations and being eliminated by Randy Orton and Riddle. On the March 11 episode of *SmackDown*, while in a tag team match alongside Kingston against Sheamus and Ridge Holland, Holland attempted a belly-to-belly suplex to Big E outside the ring, but this resulted in him landing head first. After being stretchered out of the arena, it was announced that Big E had fractured his neck.