Mr. McMahon has been extremely patient regarding the push of Big E. Intuitive members of the WWE universe could sense immediately, “this guy is a future world champion.” Mr. McMahon felt the same way, because in 2014 he narrowed his choices down to two men to be the face of the company going forward: Big E and Roman Reigns (obviously the latter was chosen, and it worked out for the best).
While Vince McMahon opted to prioritize The Big Dog first and wanted to cement him as a perennial superstar and by far the most recognizable face in WWE (this process is almost complete as Reigns is currently in the midst of the long title reign right now). Everything is coming full circle for Reigns and he is employing a new level of authenticity. Much of this can be attributed to the alliance with Paul Heyman. WWE has been waiting to align Roman and Paul since the night The Shield first debuted at Survivor Series 2012 and interfered in the WWE Championship match. This saved CM Punk’s historic 434-day tenure with the title (which The Rock would ultimately end at the Royal Rumble in January 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona), and Punk was ironically managed by Heyman at that time.
While Roman Reigns was at the forefront of the WWE universe’s attention and simultaneously receiving all the praise and criticism that comes with being the face of the company, Big E had an underrated run as Intercontinental Champion in 2013-14 and was ultimately paired with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods as The New Day in November 2014. Vince McMahon was somewhat leery as to whether this would resonate (I would have been as well), but WWE stuck with it and it turned into the best six years of their lives. In fairness, this team did not resonate with the WWE universe for the first nine months or so, but instead grew on fans with time. That’s all the difference when one is looking at whether a gimmick works or not – did it get time to simmer with the fanbase before it was done away with?
Big E’s eventual singles push was foreshadowed earlier in 2020 – in April to be exact, right after WrestleMania 36, when E won the SmackDown Tag Team Championships by himself to make The New Day 8-time champs (9 overall). The reason E competed alone was because, at ‘Mania, Kofi competed by himself against John Morrison and Jimmy Uso (who tore an ACL during the match and is still out right now). The Miz had an illness so he could not go for a normal tag team match, but he was good a few weeks later.