- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean are joined by former WWE champion and current WWE commentator, Big E, live from Radio Row in SF.
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00:00Big E, WWE superstar, WWE commentator, triple crown, former triple crown champ.
00:05Yes, sir.
00:05And we're going to talk about Sumer sports as well.
00:08Absolutely.
00:08I didn't realize you were about to be an NFL draft expert as well.
00:11Look at me.
00:12No, I'm not an expert.
00:13I'm a host talking to people who have a lot more expertise in this area than I do.
00:16You're talking to the experts.
00:17Absolutely.
00:18That's my job, too, to connect on that level.
00:20It's great to meet you.
00:21Likewise.
00:21It's great to have you here.
00:22Yeah, absolutely.
00:24You were just coming back from Saudi Arabia.
00:27Yes, we had the Royal Rumble.
00:28My current capacity with the company is all the PLEs, what we used to call pay-per-views.
00:32I do pre-shows and post-shows, so just flew back.
00:35But I live in Oakland, so it's nice to be home.
00:37Just came across the bridge, and now we're here talking all things, the evaluation, Sumer
00:41sports, and the Super Bowl.
00:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:43Okay.
00:44We'll get to all that.
00:45What did you think of the Royal Rumble?
00:47I thought it was a good Rumble.
00:48Look, I'm partial.
00:49I miss the legends.
00:51We don't have the legend spot that pops everyone that's entertaining.
00:54We don't really do that anymore, so I wish we had a little bit more of that.
00:57I had a couple people I was waiting for.
00:58I know.
00:58Well, people still, look, it's been four years since I broke my neck, and people are
01:03still like, oh, you're returning to the Rumble?
01:04I feel like this will happen forever.
01:05I'll be 50 years old.
01:07You're returning?
01:08But no, it was a lot of fun.
01:11And it was when people, I'm friends with Royce Keys, the former Will Hobbs, seeing him
01:16debut.
01:16And man, I'm a huge Obafemi fan as well, so seeing him have a great run was great.
01:20So I think as sad as it is to see guys like AJ Styles start to leave, John Cena just retired,
01:27seeing all the OGs that I came up with move out of the business and retire, it is pretty
01:33cool to see this next crop of young athletes.
01:35And the cool thing with WWE is we're doing all this NIL stuff as well, so there's a lot
01:38of college athletes who are now moving into wrestling.
01:41Yeah.
01:43No, can't hear you, Seth.
01:44Yeah.
01:45We'll have to figure that out.
01:48No, it's all good.
01:49How are you enjoying your role with the company now?
01:51It's been fun, man.
01:52It's interesting because I always told myself when I was done wrestling, I was going to
01:56delete all my socials, throw my phone into the river.
02:00This is the opposite.
02:01Yeah.
02:01And for some reason, a few years ago, I kind of caught the bug and I just, I wanted
02:05to do more creatively.
02:06I wanted to do different things.
02:07So this is something that kind of came out of nowhere.
02:09I don't know if you remember the press conference in Vegas they did a couple of years ago with
02:13The Rock.
02:14Oh, yeah.
02:15So that was my first foray.
02:16They just flew me out there.
02:17They didn't even tell me what it was for.
02:19And then I'm on the plane like, hey, we need you to do this panel.
02:24Okay.
02:25So it was my first foray into hosting and I really enjoyed it.
02:29It was a lot of fun.
02:30And I said, all right, let's keep doing this.
02:32So I did end up signing a contract in a broadcasting role with the company, but it's been enjoyable
02:37and it's allowed me to kind of get my feet wet on this side of things as well.
02:41Oh, yeah.
02:41Now we can hear you.
02:42You're back.
02:42Yeah.
02:43Because I've never heard any interest.
02:45I will never say anything as interesting as you just casually dropping.
02:49It's been four years since I broke my neck.
02:52That's like one of the most interesting things I've ever heard, to be able to just say that
02:56casually.
02:57Yeah.
02:57So I snapped my neck four years ago.
02:58Yeah.
02:59So there was a suplex that went awry and I broke my C1 in two places.
03:03I broke my C6 as well.
03:04And at the time, I didn't think much of it because, you know, I immediately moved my fingers
03:08and my toes and I was fine.
03:10But when I got to the hospital a few minutes later and the doctors told me, hey, you were
03:13this close to stroke, paralysis, and death.
03:16Yeah.
03:16And it was really just the column of a neck that you have, all the musculature.
03:19So my vertebrae, when my C1 broke, my C1 broke in two places.
03:23And if there was any displacement at all, that's when you're worrying about spinal cord issues.
03:27That's when you're worried about, you know, very dire things.
03:29But I was very lucky because all my neck musculature kept everything in place.
03:34So there was no displacement when my C1 broke.
03:37It all just stayed in place.
03:38So it didn't move anywhere.
03:39So I don't skip your neck flexion machine.
03:41You know, that is, yes, that is a message to the young athletes out here, football players.
03:45Nobody likes doing the neck flexion machine.
03:47You got to do it, man.
03:48I was doing it and I started training.
03:49I started weight training very young.
03:50I've been doing neck stuff.
03:51And I was an amateur wrestler as well.
03:53So a lot of neck bridging.
03:55So I think, thank you, Coach Patron, my middle school wrestling coach for all the neck bridges.
03:59It probably saved my life, honestly.
04:00That's wild, yeah.
04:01Now you play, we're talking to Big E from WWE.
04:05You've got an athletic background, wrestling, powerlifting, football at Iowa.
04:09Played at Iowa, yes, sir.
04:09Football at Iowa.
04:10I want to make sure we get the Sumer Sports.
04:12I've got like a million New Day questions that I would love to ask you.
04:15But I want to make sure we get the Sumer Sports stuff in because I know you're busier on Radio Row.
04:19So you do have a football background as well.
04:21Played college at Iowa.
04:22Was it your dream to eventually play in the NFL and WWE kind of found its way to you?
04:26Yeah, so I grew up in Florida where, you know, football was king.
04:29And I feel like that was my first dream.
04:30I always wanted to play football.
04:32But I went to a – I played youth ball when I was young.
04:35I actually played against Mike Williams, USC Mike Williams, when I was a kid playing youth ball in Tampa.
04:40And that was always the dream.
04:42But I ended up going to a prep school that didn't offer football for six years.
04:46So, you know, for the longest time – and my parents were very dead set, like, this is where you're going.
04:49Then finally got too expensive.
04:51My senior year, I transferred to a public school, Wharton High School, in Tampa.
04:55And I played one year of football.
04:57Mind you, I'm maybe 5'11", trying to play defensive tackle.
05:00I played at 2'35", my senior year.
05:02And typically your junior year is your most crucial year of getting recruited.
05:05But I got – man, I was so lucky.
05:07There was one day I was in the weight room.
05:08So to get to the coach's office, you have to go through the weight room.
05:12So we had a bunch of scouts.
05:13And Phil Parker, who was the D.C. at Iowa, who won the Broyles Award a few years ago,
05:18was recruiting the school at the time.
05:20I was benching 3'15", for a set of 10.
05:23He sees that and inquires about me.
05:26And, you know, he ends up getting some tape.
05:28It turns out that my D-line coach at the time actually played for Iowa's D-line coach.
05:33So the fact that I was an amateur wrestler, they loved that.
05:35I was a state champion.
05:36I only had the one year of experience.
05:38I was really undersized for the position.
05:40But because they could trust that they could talk to my D-line coach and learn about my character,
05:44and also they saw the little feat of strength as well, I was really fortunate.
05:48So I ended up getting the scholarship to Iowa.
05:51And this was when Iowa had just finished number eight in the country.
05:53Robert Gallery was just drafted number two overall.
05:56Chris Doyle was, you know, renowned as one of the best strength coaches in the country.
06:00And Coach Ferentz was really building something there.
06:02So for me, it was a no-brainer.
06:03I always wanted to leave Florida and get to play Big Ten football.
06:07So things didn't work out for me.
06:08In two-and-a-half years, I tore my left ACL, tore my right ACL, broke my right patella, and tore my left pec.
06:16Oh, my God.
06:17That was fine.
06:18Yeah, the neck was fine, thankfully.
06:20So I had a hard, hard time with injuries.
06:23But I'm really grateful for the experience.
06:25And now for me, being able to go back to Iowa City, I was there for the heartbreaking Oregon game.
06:29Yeah.
06:29I got to be there for the Penn State game.
06:31It is really cool now.
06:33You don't see something like what we've built at Iowa, where you see Ferentz has been there since 1999.
06:371999.
06:38Yeah.
06:39It's unprecedented.
06:40Yeah.
06:40So it's really cool to be able to go back.
06:42And like I said, Phil Parker recruited me 20 years ago.
06:44Yeah.
06:44He's still there doing it.
06:45Yep.
06:46So it's great to still be involved.
06:47Well, this dunker kid, this guard, this offensive lineman with the glorious mullet, he's caught the imagination of a lot of Texans fans.
06:55As he should.
06:56I mean, well, he's a tackle now.
06:58Yeah.
06:58But a lot of people think he'll kick inside to guard.
07:00And he's talked about even snapping a little bit just to see if anyone wants him at center.
07:04But, man, that Iowa line won the Joe Moore Award for a reason.
07:09That was a very good offensive line.
07:10And I think Bo Stevens, Logan Jones won the Remington.
07:14A lot of great players up front for Iowa.
07:16So tell us about the evaluation.
07:19It's on Sumer Sports' YouTube channel, right?
07:22And it's going to be Sumer Sports big in the analytics and the evaluation that goes into the analytics and the evaluation kind of playing a part with each other.
07:31Yeah, the process.
07:32Tell us about your role on that and what we can expect to see on there.
07:35Yeah.
07:35So, man, I had an absolute blast getting to do the show.
07:38So I am a host.
07:39We have 10 episodes that are coming out.
07:40And each episode will focus on a different position group.
07:44But, man, it's a lot of fun.
07:45It really is marrying Sumer Sports' incredible technology, their analytics, their AI, and also sitting down with the scouts.
07:51And for me, as a football nerd, I love being able to hear the insight from – I sat down with Mike Mayock, with John Idzik, these former GMs, Phil Emery, these guys who have been scouts for 15, 20-something years.
08:04They've been GMs.
08:04They do this for a living.
08:06So, for me, I'm not into – I don't want to hear a lot of loud talking heads who are just trying to get debate going.
08:12I want to hear from the experts.
08:13And I think that's what this show is.
08:15And also, we had such an incredible group of Hall of Famers.
08:19I sat down with Eli Manning.
08:20I got to talk to Marshall Falk.
08:22We have so many incredible athletes, so many former players, and getting to hear their insight, their time coming up from college, dealing with the scouting process, dealing with the draft process.
08:33So I think for football fans who love – I love this time, this pre-draft process where we're looking at stuff from the senior bowl.
08:41We're looking at pro days.
08:41We're looking at the combine.
08:43So I am such a junkie.
08:44I love this time of the year.
08:45And I think for fans like me who really want that insight, who want to hear from the scouts, what are scouts seeing, what are they looking for, you're going to get that insight in droves.
08:54So I'm excited for this to premiere February 12th on YouTube, The Evaluation.
08:59I'm telling you, give us a chance.
09:00Tune in.
09:01We have a wealth of knowledge just breaking down the game.
09:04No, that's 100%.
09:05I'm going to use that.
09:06I feel as soon as the Super Bowl is over and you have to dive into the draft, it's overwhelming, like how many different guys and everything.
09:13So that sounds perfect.
09:14I'm excited about that.
09:15All right.
09:16The one GM, one of the GMs you didn't mention, just real quick, we have to get a picture when we're done doing this.
09:21The GM for the Texans, Nick Casario.
09:23Yep.
09:24Huge fan.
09:25Huge WWE fan.
09:27Yeah.
09:27So he will be very jealous that we got to sit down with you here.
09:30I promise you that.
09:31Yeah.
09:31He comes on our show once a month and he insists on walkout music.
09:36He uses DX.
09:37He likes DX.
09:38He's old school.
09:38He's an attitude-era guy.
09:39Absolutely.
09:40I get it.
09:40He's an attitude-era guy.
09:41Yeah.
09:41Big E, WWE superstar, WWE commentator, future Hall of Famer.
09:47Big E, you'll be happy to know, I am a long-standing proponent of shorter defensive linemen.
09:51I used to be, I was 6'4", and I used to wish sometimes that I was 6'1", because you got that natural leverage.
09:56Like, Jerry Ball was like 6'0", maybe.
09:59John Randall, incredible.
10:00I love John Randall's game.
10:02Like, Puna Ford, you know, is another.
10:04I remember Tank Reese back in the day at Kansas State.
10:07But you're right, man.
10:08Aaron Donald's another guy.
10:09Yeah, no, yeah, exactly.
10:11But it's always, you always say in football, low man wins.
10:13But, like, it allows you to get that leverage.
10:15So, no, I appreciate that.
10:16Big E, you got places to go and people to see.
10:18We'll cut you loose.
10:19Good meeting you, man.
10:20I appreciate it.
10:20Enjoyed it.
10:21All right, that's the great Big E joining us here on Pain and Pendergast Sports Radio 6.
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