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.
Former Hawkeye football player Big E becomes WWE world champion
Big E, known as Ettore Ewen when he was an Iowa defensive tackle, gets a push from WWE.
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