Big E dropped the WWE Title to Brock Lesnar at the Day 1 PPV event in January and was recently moved over from Raw to SmackDown. It’s been reported that Big E being back as a full-time New Day member looks to have ended his singles push.

Booker T put over Big E on this week’s “Hall of Fame” podcast:

“I love Big E. Big E is one of my guys. I’ve praised Big E on numerous occasions,” he began. “I don’t think he did anything to actually leave The New Day behind. He still wore The New Day gear. He still did the clap in between just to keep people in tune to, ‘I’m still New Day. I’m still representing New Day.’ So, why wouldn’t he go back to The New Day when the run is over?”

“I said maybe Big E should have shed a couple things and make that time, that run, his own, and make that run about Big E. I don’t think Big E throughout his run really ever made the run about Big E. I think that might be part of the problem.”

Booker continued, “Social media and stuff like that, there’s a time to actually use it, and I think it was a perfect time for Big E to actually use social media and say, ‘To hell with The New Day. To hell with Kofi and Xavier. I don’t have time to be messing around and playing games right now. Out with the old and in with the New Big E.’”

“For Big E to be thinking about himself as far as getting over, and I think he got over, but something was lacking.”

Big E ended by stating that he wishes nothing, but the best for Big E and wished he would’ve moved away from The New Day while in his singles role more.

“I want nothing but the best for Big E. I did say that I wished Big E would have shifted gears. My thing on this is he could have always gone back to The New Day. That’s like money in the bank. You can pick it up whenever you need it, but for him to have that moment to be able to separate from what he was doing, it was like me being in Harlem Heat but I still want to come out, play that role, dress the same, and look the same.”

“When I became Booker T, everything changed other than my attitude, but everything changed from an outward look. I knew I had to go out there and stand on my own. I knew I could live off what Harlem Heat brought. Even though I still used the music, the music was cool. I definitely tried to make sure that I separated from what I did with Harlem Heat.”

“I just thought that Big E had a prime opportunity to float on his own, and he did that, but I just thought he could have been a little bit more selfish in that moment. Sometimes as a professional wrestler, you just have to be selfish. It’s just part of it.”

H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription