Originally published on ProWrestlingSheet.

Big E is speaking his mind in the wake of Kofi Kingston's defeat on last night's SmackDown ... saying he now understands "people like us" will only get so far in WWE.

E made his feelings known in a video uploaded to Twitter earlier today. "You think of this business, to some degree, being a meritocracy," he said before mentioning all the ways wrestlers put effort into bettering themselves.  "You do everything that’s asked of you in this business - that if you do all those things you have a good chance of making it to the top," he added.

"But now we understand the game. We see what the game is -- that people like us will only get so far," he continued. "That you can climb the mountain. They’ll let you climb the mountain, but as far as getting to the peak and staying at the peak - it’s not a thing that people like us, historically and moving forward clearly, can only get so far."

The former NXT Champion then talked about how difficult it is to be a professional wrestler, and admitted that he's now contemplating how worthwhile it is.

"We’ve been able to do a lot of things we never imagined we could do but clearly we are never meant to be more than this," he confessed. "And for people like us that’s not enough. And it will never be enough."

Adding, "So we’ve got to sit back and think whether, you know, continuing to be gone for 250 days-plus a year is worth it. Of missing the family time, of doing this to our bodies -- leaving a piece of yourself in the ring that you can never get back. All the things we give, if it’s worth it when we can only get this far. So we’ve got a lot of thinking to do. You know, obviously proud of Kofi, proud of us as a trio, proud of what we’ve done, but if this is all we ever be? I don’t know if it’s worth it.”

Check out Big E's video below and let us know what you think in the comments.