Big E Injury Update; Edge Reflects on Final WWE Match; LA Knight Responds to Critics

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Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE.

Big E Has 'No Timetable' for Return

Big E's continued recovery from neck surgery has both good and bad news:

The good: The former WWE champion is feeling "incredible" from a day-to-day perspective, telling Steve Fall of Ten Count Media he has no nerve pain and is "grateful" given the life-threatening nature of his injury.

The bad: He still has "no timetable" for a return to WWE.

This latest update falls in line with what Big E has been saying for months. While he's hopeful to eventually get clearance for a return to in-ring action, it seems far more likely than not his career is over from that aspect. The risk of reinjury—and potential paralyzation—from a neck injury as severe as Big E's does not make the reward of a return seem worth it.

"We did the year checkup, and all that stuff looks great, as well. But on the other side, you know, I also talked to spine specialists, some who've worked on people in the company and done their fusions, and they said like, 'Hey, I would not wrestle again if I were you,'" Big E said earlier this month. "So, for me, at 37, these are things that I think about, I think about quality of life. When I started this job at 23 years old, and probably had a bit of a death wish and was okay dying in the ring; I now, at 37, would like to not die in the ring; I would like to do other things with my life."

Big E was originally injured in March 2022 after taking a belly-to-belly suplex from Ridge Holland. He has been with WWE since 2009, winning eight Tag Team championships with The New Day and the WWE championship in 2021.

Edge Talks Final Match on WWE Contract

Edge's in-ring career is very much up in the air.

The Rated-R Superstar performed in the final match of his current contract with WWE on Friday's SmackDown, defeating Sheamus in their first one-on-one match. After the match, Edge said he had wrestled his final match in Toronto—a signal retirement may be on the horizon.

"Full circle pints of Guinness. From Dublin to Toronto and 19 years in between. Back now after an amazing trip home to Toronto. What can I say? I'll take that experience with me to the grave. Toronto you brought it," Edge wrote on Instagram.

"Speaking of bringing it, @wwesheamus is a beast. As strange as this sounds it was pure joy in there. Just two buds beating the hell out of each other. I knew he was great. But I didn't know how great. That dude is so insanely talented, spectacular at what he does, and just a damn hard worker. He is the epitome of work ethic. Can't teach that. Thanks fella. It was an honor."

Edge's contract with WWE does not expire until September, so anyone speculating about him showing up on AEW programming should likely fall back. While Edge and AEW boss Tony Khan did talk about a return prior to Edge coming back to WWE, there's a reason he stayed loyal when it was actually time to return.

A last run with Christian Cage would create some intrigue, but not likely enough to make him bounce from the promotion that made him a star.

LA Knight Addresses Rock/Austin Comparisons

LA Knight has heard criticism from outsiders saying he's copying Attitude Era shtick.

It doesn't phase him.

"It doesn't matter. I've heard that since the very beginning," Knight told Inside the Ropes. "I've heard that since I started in 2003. You know, when I first started, people would say, 'Oh, he sounds like The Rock or he sounds like Austin, or even my very first set of gear, I think it was like my second set of gear when I was in Ohio, I had red and yellow, 'Oh, he's being Hulk Hogan.' Everybody's always going to make a comparison of some sort.

"I'm 100% influenced by those guys, absolutely. I'm influenced by Flair. I'm influenced by Savage. I'm influenced by Jake the Snake. I'm influenced by other entities outside of wrestling. I'm influenced by musical artists and by actors. So I mean, yeah, all that stuff's in there. At the end of the day, you put all that together, you get that conglomeration, you got yourself LA Knight. I got to tell you what. Look at what I'm doing and people say that maybe my cadence sounds like somebody, or maybe my tone sounds like somebody. Brother, I'm watching people do gimmicks from 20 years ago just straight up, hand signals and exact catchphrases and dressing just like the guys and all this kind of stuff to where it's like, wait a minute, I'm getting called out?"

While it's clear Knight shares some mannerisms with the Austins and Rocks of the world, it's been two decades since they've been WWE regulars. It's only natural for the next generation to take what they've learned from the past and apply it to themselves.

The first "Nature Boy" wasn't Ric Flair. Rock and Austin both had their own influences, which they then remixed and made their own.

Knight has done the most important thing a wrestler can: get over organically with audiences. How he ultimately went about it is irrelevant, as long as he's entertaining.

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