Former WWE Champion Big E has admitted his disappointment on how his title run ended at the hands of Brock Lesnar in Day 1's main event earlier this month. 

Big E suffered a defeat during the Fatal-5-Way match on January 1st, and has shared his disappointment with Sports Illustrated and admitted that his title reign didn't fulfil his own ambitions as champion. 

“I wanted it to be a five-course meal, and it was more of an appetizer. I’m overly critical of my work to begin with, so I wouldn’t say I was happy with it. My hope was to knock it out of the park, and I fell a bit short. So it’s motivating to start that climb back.

“I’m not comfortable being just a guy on the roster. I’m not good with going back to the way it was before.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed to see it end that way. And it’s not anything against Brock. Brock is a very special athlete, human and performer. There is no shame in losing to Brock Lesnar.

“I took a moment to soak in the sadness. The highs of winning, like at Money in the Bank or cashing in, those are incredible. But the lows suck, too. And that’s motivation to fuel me.

“This is my chance to show another side of me. It’s time to turn up the intensity. My role with The New Day is so often comedic relief, but I don’t want to be one-dimensional. I want to be as well-rounded and as whole a performer as possible.”

The defeat came amidst a wrath of changes to the Day 1 main event, which started life as a one-on-one bout against Seth Rollins, before evolving into a Fatal-4-Way, and E shared how the constant changes affected his preparation for the match. 

“Initially, it was supposed to be me and Seth. Seth was named the No. 1 contender early, so we had some time, and that’s when I wrestled Kevin. That worked out really well, so he got added to the match, and then so did Bobby. So what it became was much different than what it was supposed to be.”

By the time the bell rang the match had been changed once again into a Fatal-5-Way bout, with Brock Lesnar being added to the match shortly before the show. This came after Lesnar’s original opponent, Universal Champion Roman Reigns, tested positive for COVID-19. A change Big E had no idea about until hours before the show was set to begin. 

“I got to the building thinking we were going to have our four-way. I didn’t know about Roman being unavailable until that afternoon, a few hours before the show. That threw a wrench into our match, as well as ripple effects to Raw and SmackDown.”

Big E will now be part of The Royal Rumble later this month as he looks to regaining his WWE Championship. 

You can also watch all the action at the WWE Royal Rumble on January 29 over here in the UK on the WWE Network.