Hours before Monday Night Raw went on the air, Big E took to Twitter to announce that he would be on the show. More importantly, he declared that he would be cashing in his Money in the Bank opportunity on the WWE Champion, Bobby Lashley. “The Powerhouse of Positivity” had an appropriately sizable presence on the show. Fans wondered whether he would successfully cash in or be another in the line of multiple contract holders that failed to seize hold. Fortunately, tonight was a case of the latter, as Big E successfully defeated Lashley to win his first WWE Championship.
Let’s let that cat out of the bag…I intend on cashing in my Money in the Bank contract tonight and cashing in to become WWE Champion.
— Ettore “Big E” Ewen (@WWEBigE) September 13, 2021
In the main event, Bobby Lashley successfully defended the WWE Championship against Randy Orton. This was a hard-fought contest, including Orton kicking out Lashley’s spear and “The All Mighty” managing to roll to the apron following an RKO. The match reached its conclusion when Orton, after attacking MVP on the outside, was met with a second spear by Lashley for the three-count. Following Lashley’s victory, he proceeded to lay out Riddle, who was in the corner of Orton during the match. From there, Lashley turned his sights to the weary Orton, sending him through the announce desk with a spinebuster. However, in doing so, it appeared that Lashley injured his knee.
This gave Big E the opening he needed, as he made his way to the ring, Money in the Bank opportunity and referee in tow. Big E proceeded to cash in said opportunity for a WWE Championship match. When Raw returned from commercial break, the match proper began. Despite his injury, Lashley started the match hot. Big E stayed strong, though, even kicking out of the spear. After planting Lashley with the Big Ending, Big E ended the night as the new WWE Champion, celebrating the occasion with his long-time friends Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston.
BIG E IS THE NEW WWE CHAMPION!!!!!!!!@WWEBigE#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/7mPw1rdDKE
— WWE (@WWE) September 14, 2021
As mentioned earlier, Big E won this year’s Men’s Money in the Bank match. This victory took place on July 18 of this year; the match in question also featured fellow SmackDown Superstars Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Seth Rollins, in addition to Raw Superstars Ricochet, John Morrison, Riddle, and Drew McIntyre. Big E would go on to win the match, making history as the first African-American wrestler to hold the Money in the Bank contract.
The WWE Championship marks the first world title Big E has won on the main roster. Keep in mind that he is only the second man to have won the NXT Championship; this took place on the January 9, 2013 episode of NXT, when he defeated inaugural titleholder Seth Rollins. From that point forward, Big E saw considerable success on the main roster, winning 2 Intercontinental titles. However, the lion’s share of his success was seen as a tag team wrestler. Across Raw and SmackDown, Big E held a total of 8 tag team championships. Furthermore, as part of The New Day, alongside Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston, he held the record for the longest WWE tag team title reign at 483 days.
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