Former Ridge Holland is opening up about one of the darkest periods of his wrestling career — the fallout from injuring Big E — and he says the situation backstage in WWE left him mentally wrecked and changed how he viewed company management forever.
Speaking with F4WOnline, Holland admitted the accident itself shook him badly, even beyond the public backlash that followed afterward.
“It was extremely difficult. Obviously, I’ll always preface it by saying the main point is that making sure that Big E was okay, and he’s all good now, and he’s healthy. But at the time, from a personal standpoint, it was probably one of the hardest times of my life.”
Holland explained that the fan reaction became brutal almost immediately, with social media attacks and death threats following him everywhere after the incident.
“From like death threats to all the social media things, it kind of marred my…kind of like drove a certain perception of me with fans that I struggled to kind of shake.”
According to Holland, that perception eventually affected how WWE management viewed him too, while also destroying his own confidence in the ring.
“I just think their confidence in me, and especially my confidence in my own performance, was definitely affected ’cause I didn’t really wanna get in the ring. I was very nervous about getting in the ring after that. It shook me.”
Then Holland revealed a backstage moment involving Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard that still clearly bothers him years later. Holland explained WWE initially offered him counseling after the accident, but he declined because he didn’t want to talk to anyone at the time. Then came a moment he believes was completely out of line.
According to Holland, WWE wanted him to cut a live apology promo the week after the injury before a match. He said Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard were standing backstage counting down the seconds until he was supposed to go live on television. Then, right before airtime, the promo was suddenly scrapped.
“I remember there were Vince and Bruce standing there, and they were counting down like thirty seconds till we go live. And I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna say. I’m just gonna speak from the heart.’”
“And then it got to like five, four, and then they cut it. They just didn’t do promos right then. And then I had to go out and wrestle a match.”
Holland flat-out said he believes the whole thing was done intentionally to mess with him mentally. Despite everything that happened, Holland said he and Big E eventually reconnected afterward. He recently saw him during WrestleMania 42 weekend and even met Big E’s fiancée.
“I think that was in poor taste. I think they did that to mess with me, and it really put a bad taste in my mouth, and I never really looked at those people the same, to be honest.”
“I’ve had a couple of conversations with Big E. I actually saw him at WrestleMania. I met his fiancée, and we just swapped pleasantries.”
Holland also revealed he constantly checked in on Big E after the injury and repeatedly apologized. Even years later, Holland admitted the “unsafe worker” label never really left him.
“I sent him some things to say sorry and profusely apologized, and I was in contact with him via text for days and weeks after the accident, checking in.”
“The fans kinda labeled me as being unsafe and not being able to wrestle, and that followed me through, and it probably will for quite a while.”
Ironically, Holland later decided to lean directly into that reputation during his second NXT run by turning it into part of his character. The gimmick eventually evolved into Holland embracing the idea that maybe he actually was dangerous.
“It was my idea to kind of run with the dangerous kinda, always injuring people.”
“Maybe I should be hurting people.”
Holland also discussed another controversial moment involving Ilja Dragunov where he said management later told him a storyline angle got “too close to the bone.”
“When the Ilja thing happened, it got a great reaction… and then I got the word that the higher-ups said it was too close to the bone.”
According to Holland, his WWE run started feeling doomed shortly afterward. He was quietly pulled from television after losing to Ricky Saints before later being sent to WWE Evolve. Things got worse after Holland later suffered a serious injury during a TNA match with Moose. Holland said WWE releasing him while injured felt completely wrong.
“I kinda knew the writing was on the wall then.”
“I thought it was bad business practice. I just don’t think that you do that to human beings.”
Now wrestling outside WWE as Luke Menzies, Holland says he’s trying to completely rebuild his career from the ground up.
“It’s more or less starting from the ground up, just starting from scratch and creating a little bit of a buzz and just showing people what I can do.”
At this point, Holland clearly feels the Big E accident completely changed the trajectory of his WWE career — and the way management, fans, and even he himself viewed his future in wrestling afterward.
Do you think Ridge Holland was unfairly judged after the Big E injury, or did the incident permanently damage his WWE future no matter what? Leave your thoughts and feedback in the comments below.