Big E’s big singles push started when he was separated from The New Day in the 2020 WWE draft, with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods going to “WWE Raw” and Big E staying on “WWE SmackDown.” The first step in Big E’s time as a singles star was his time with the Intercontinental Championship.

“We had the IC title stuff with Sami [Zayn] and then with Apollo [Crews] for a while, maybe a little bit too long. Apollo and I were back and forth for four months, but that is not at all an indictment of Apollo, I think he’s so amazingly talented,” Big E said. “And there are times where we thought things would go a certain way with our rivalry, and maybe it didn’t conclude when we thought it would. But I would say that dude is so incredibly talented that if you’re going to be in a program for too long with someone, you want it to be with someone of that caliber, who is just incredible at what they do.”