On the March 11 episode of WWE SmackDown, Big E suffered a broken neck after landing awkwardly on his head/neck following a belly-to-belly suplex on the outside from Ridge Holland.
Big E suffered a fracture to his C1 vertebrae and C6 vertebrae as a result of the spot.
Butch was ringside for the incident and recalled what went down while speaking to Alistair McGeorge of Metro.
"It’s horrible, right? I wasn’t in the match but I was right out there where he landed. For me, obviously the first thing is just making sure he’s ok. The crowd is almost irrelevant in that moment and it’s a case of, 'Is he okay to continue?' Obviously, things are moving fast, but I honestly thought, 'It looked rough but I think he’s OK.' So for me, it was about reassuring Ridge. He’s still fairly new to wrestling. I’ve been in the ring where a lot of things have gone wrong, whereas for him this is completely new. Even for him, I don’t think anyone realized the severity of it until he got to the hospital and then we got that news which was just awful. All of that – whether it be the in-ring stuff, the WrestleMania plan, whatever it is, is all out of the window, no one cares. It’s just about making sure that he’s good," he said. "Hopefully, he has a fast recovery and he gets right back to where he started. And the one weird silver lining in it all, I know it sounds crazy to say, but just how much worse it could have been. With the position of the injury, it could have been 10 times worse somehow. So, thank God it wasn’t and hopefully he gets back to a full recovery."
On May 6, Big E said his C1 "apparently isn’t healing optimally" and that he'll spend another 4-6 weeks in a brace in hopes that he can avoid a fusion.
The feud between New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) and Holland, Butch, and Sheamus has continued while Big E has been sidelined.
Fightful will have live coverage of WWE SmackDown beginning at 8 p.m. ET.
