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Former Hawkeye football player Big E becomes WWE world champion

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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You could say a big September for Iowa football got bigger Monday night.


That may depend on whether you consider a pro wrestling championship something. Even if you don’t — and I’m not here to try to change your mind — former Hawkeye defensive tackle Ettore Ewen — known as Big E — won the WWE Championship Monday night on “Monday Night Raw.”


It’s a high-profile thing for Ewen, who was an injury-plagued Hawkeye after he came to Iowa out of high school from Tampa, Fla., in 2004. He tore two ACLs and a pectoral muscle, and suffered a broken patella in his college career. He did play enough in 2006 to record 14 tackles over 12 games.


He switched to powerlifting as a career before signing with the WWE in 2009, and has had steady work in that company ever since.


Ewen has retained his affection for Iowa football, as this tweet from last Saturday night attests.


Ewen did a podcast with me in 2013. Unfortunately, my podcasts from anytime before 2019 appear to have disappeared, which makes me quite irate. Not irate to try to challenge Big E to a title match, though. I really don’t care to get power-slammed at this point in my career.


In seriousness, he seemed like a great guy, and good for him for prospering in a tough business.

 
I have a teenaged nephew in Florida that is a fan of him, said he even saw him in the Tampa airport one time. I don't follow WWE at all but from what I understand he is a fan favorite because he is so likable as opposed to being a heel. So, kudos for him for having professional success. And he still reps the Hawkeyes on his twitter account.

But I'd bet Spencer Lee could take him in a real wrestling match, even while missing two ACLs.
 
If only he pinned an ex Clone for the belt. A guy from Davenport was champion but don't think he still was
Seth Rollins. He has been champion a few times as well.

In fact, like Big E, he cashed in the Money In The Bank briefcase to win the title in one of the greatest moments in recent WWE history, stealing the title from Brock Lesnar in the process at WrestleMania.

I do believe that Rollins is an Iowa fan though.

So that makes two Iowa representatives to hold the title of World Champion in recent years. :cool:
 
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You could say a big September for Iowa football got bigger Monday night.


That may depend on whether you consider a pro wrestling championship something. Even if you don’t — and I’m not here to try to change your mind — former Hawkeye defensive tackle Ettore Ewen — known as Big E — won the WWE Championship Monday night on “Monday Night Raw.”


It’s a high-profile thing for Ewen, who was an injury-plagued Hawkeye after he came to Iowa out of high school from Tampa, Fla., in 2004. He tore two ACLs and a pectoral muscle, and suffered a broken patella in his college career. He did play enough in 2006 to record 14 tackles over 12 games.


He switched to powerlifting as a career before signing with the WWE in 2009, and has had steady work in that company ever since.


Ewen has retained his affection for Iowa football, as this tweet from last Saturday night attests.


Ewen did a podcast with me in 2013. Unfortunately, my podcasts from anytime before 2019 appear to have disappeared, which makes me quite irate. Not irate to try to challenge Big E to a title match, though. I really don’t care to get power-slammed at this point in my career.


In seriousness, he seemed like a great guy, and good for him for prospering in a tough business.

Big E is already going to be a WWE Hall of Famer through his work with the tag team The New Day, but this pretty much solidifies it.

Also, while the New Day was certainly not the first nor groundbreaking group of African-Americans to reign as tag champions in the WWE, they came in at a time where black representation was sorely lacking and helped reset the bar and even break down a few more barriers in that company run by curmudgeonly old white men.

And for that alone, they deserve more recognition than they'll probably ever get.
 
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The old man Vince ok'd this, that means he has confidence in E leading one of his two flag-ship shows. I get the sentiment, it's predetermined, but he's reached the peak of his billion dollar industry, something 3-5% achieve in their careers.
This is true. Vince is still very involved in the day to day decisions.
 
I have a teenaged nephew in Florida that is a fan of him, said he even saw him in the Tampa airport one time. I don't follow WWE at all but from what I understand he is a fan favorite because he is so likable as opposed to being a heel. So, kudos for him for having professional success. And he still reps the Hawkeyes on his twitter account.

But I'd bet Spencer Lee could take him in a real wrestling match, even while missing two ACLs.
 
Big E is already going to be a WWE Hall of Famer through his work with the tag team The New Day, but this pretty much solidifies it.

Also, while the New Day was certainly not the first nor groundbreaking group of African-Americans to reign as tag champions in the WWE, they came in at a time where black representation was sorely lacking and helped reset the bar and even break down a few more barriers in that company run by curmudgeonly old white men.

And for that alone, they deserve more recognition than they'll probably ever get.

The entire concept of a WWE/pro wrestling hall of fame is weird.
 
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