Add as a preferred source on Google Big E had one of WWE’s most notable rises in recent years, but the start of his singles run went directly through Bryan Danielson.
In a recent interview with Westwood One Sports, the former WWE Champion revealed that Danielson, still working as Daniel Bryan at the time and involved with the SmackDown creative team, was the one who first pushed for WWE to move him out of the tag team division and into a singles role.
“For the longest time, I didn’t even know if I was even going to sniff a world title opportunity. I’m so grateful, I’ve got to give a lot of credit, if it wasn’t for guys like Daniel Bryan, who was in creative at the time. He was the one who said, look, I think we should do something with Big E as a singles performer. When he gave me that opportunity and creative said, okay let’s do it, I took the IC Title off Sami.
I dropped it to Apollo but after that, it wasn’t like cooling off, it was going from the IC Title to now, let’s get you moving towards Money in the Bank.”
Big E reveals it was Bryan Danielson who made the initial pitch and push for him to have a singles run in WWE
— WrestlingWorldCC (@WrestlingWCC) July 8, 2026
(via WestWood One Sports) pic.twitter.com/9JnrYFI3ZH
The comment ties directly into the run that began in late 2020. Big E defeated Sami Zayn on the Christmas episode of Friday Night SmackDown to win the Intercontinental Championship, giving him his first major step away from The New Day.
Even after dropping the title to Apollo Crews, Big E did not immediately return to his previous spot. He went on to win the Money in the Bank Ladder Match in 2021 and, months later, cashed in on Bobby Lashley on Monday Night RAW to win the WWE Championship for the first time.
That reign ended at Day 1 on January 1, 2022, when Brock Lesnar was added to the match at the last minute and defeated Big E, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and Bobby Lashley.