WWE Superstar Credits Upstate New York Cities

WWE intercontinental champion Big E shouted out two Upstate New York cities on this past Friday's Smackdown. See if you can hear the two shout outs from the full clip below.

Did you catch it? Big E said "from Rome to Rochester". Both Rome and Rochester may not be the most well known Upstate New York cities, but they did get a shout out in this backstage interview.

Could the popular WWE Superstar have meant Rome, Italy? It's possible. However as many professional wrestling fans noted, many of the Big E references in the interview were in honor of his late friend Luke Harper (also known as Brodie Lee). As our friends over at Q1057 covered, the Rochester native passed away unexpectedly last week  Harper departed WWE in 2019 and joined All Elite Wrestling in 2020. Lee was scheduled to make his AEW debut in his hometown of Rochester in March 2020 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee made his debut as "The Exhalated One" Brodie Lee later in the spring. AEW honored the memory of Lee on their final edition of Dynamite in 2020.          

Did you know Big E was a former guest on Levack and Goz? The popular superstar discussed his former career as a college football player for the Iowa Hawkeyes, his professional wrestling future and if he will ever be a heel in his career. You can listen to the interview with the former WWE Superstar from July 2019 here