EC3 Talks Transitioning From WWE, Whose Call It Was To Work Injured, TNA Taking From TV Shows, More

In part three of our interview with Ethan Carter III, we speak to him about comparisons to RG3, Cleveland Sports, TV show influences, and the transition from WWE to TNA. Carter also speaks at length about his bicep injury, which he continued to work through will a huge brace. You can also read the first part of our interview with EC3 here.

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Was there a transition period to TNA for you after working WWE TV for so long?

"I think one great thing I took from WWE developmental was working towards TV. The transition wasn't much. At the end of the day there's still a camera with a red light behind it, and that's the audience I'm working for. The biggest transition was not being afraid to do things in fear of heavy unnecessary critique. I'm in a place a place that will allow me to develop as a character."

You've been pretty outspoken about Bill DeMott, what are your feelings on him being out of that position?

"I think Matt Bloom is going to be a great trainer for them. I've never met the guy, but I've heard he's a passionate, great guy. About DeMott, it is what it is, and that's what Bill would say a lot?"it is what it is." I know that about 85 people are a lot happier now, and I guess that's cool."

When you were brought in, a lot of people compared your nickname to what was possibly the motivation, RG3. It seems like your hype has kind of outlasted his, at least relative to wrestling.

"The name wasn't brought up in the sense of 'We're going to call you EC3 like RG3," it kind of popped to you, it rolled off the tongue. No matter what we do in wrestling, whether it's a catchphrase or character or movement, there are going to be ties to something else. That's probably true because it's hard to have a totally original idea since everything has been done in every form of entertainment or whatnot. As far as EC3 being more relevant than RG3, I'd certainly take it. He had a great rookie year and so did I, but I happened to have a great sophomore year too. No sophomore jinx, so let's make it a TNA Title, what do ya say? Tyrus is my lineman."

You've started somewhat of a Presidential campaign in support of this, whose idea was that? It seems like it's going well.

"You saw it initially when I first started talking and I did the double knock on the desk. I was watching House of Cards and I like 'Why isn't this a wrestling angle?' Our creative geniuses started talking about how we could make it something wrestling and politics. Well wrestling and politics go together because as everyone knows there are politics in wrestling. EC3 wants a title shot and has to play politics to get it. It's cool, it's relevant, plus we're on Destination America, and I'm all about America. We have the primaries coming up. We have a litany of things we can tie in to."

Do you see TNA taking more from popular TV shows in the future? We all saw that Billy Corgan was added to the creative team this week.

"I think we'd be remiss to not be creatively inspired by things that have happened outside of wrestling. Wrestling needs to evolve with the times. I think what has set us back has been an old way of doing thing. Television has a lot of influences to make our show great. What's great about House of Cards, Breaking Bad or Daredevil is character development. It's not so much black and white as shades of grey. I think Billy Corgan coming in is going to be great. I look forward to picking his brain, because I hear great things about his mind, which I hear is at genius levels. We shall see. It's a good shot in the arm to do something different and great."

I thought Daredevil was great. I'd never watched the comics or seen the movie, it was good stuff.

"The fights!"

I liked it because when you watch MMA or wrestling for so long or trained, you have an idea of what works and what doesn't, and the way they filmed it left a lot to the imagination.

"A lot of the fights meant something. He wasn't just punching people to do it."

It wasn't the Power Rangers beating up the Putties or the Ninja Turtles beating up foot soldiers, he had a reason.

"Exactly."

You sustained a pretty serious injury last year, and you wrestled with the brace on. Was that your call or TNA's?

"They were very protective of me, TNA didn't want me doing anything. I put a lot of heart and soul into everything I do, including that angle with Spud. If we were to do a blow off match in anywhere but London it would not have meant as much to either of us or our fans, or our careers moving forward. I would have done that if I only had one arm. I really had to convince them to allow me to do it in the state I was in. We were also able to be protective of it and it all worked out. It all came at a bad time, but hey. There's a whole bunch of crazy, inspirational things I could say, but at the end of the day I wanted to do it and they'd have to chain me up to get me not to."

I think that shows your dedication to TNA, the character and your push. The Spud match was so special, you made him look like the biggest babyface around. What kind of challenges did you face having to wear that in all your matches?

"Well, it's a real hindrance, plus your mind is thinking about it. The worst thing you can do is re-injure it. You mentioned Rockstar Spud, and he does have that potential, he just needs the opportunity to show it as we were. I didn't make him look like that, he made himself look like that. I was fairly limited, but it didn't matter because the story was so good. The story was based on emotion, and not wrestling moves, which I think gets lost a lot. Moves, cool moves, moves moves moves. It's about the story, and I thought that match was perfect for the story, and being limited didn't hinder the story we were telling."

I feel like that whole story, from him being your lackey to that match, showed the range of both of you. Is the brace off now? I know some of the TNA shows were taped a while back.

"It's as good as it can be. As for the brace, whether I wear it or not depends on if I need a little extra oomf in my forearms. It has turned out to be a handy little weapon. We'll see, unless someone rips it off my arm and breaks it. "

Who's a better QB, you with a torn bicep or Johnny Manziel of your hometown Cleveland Browns?

"(laughs) Well Johnny Manziel, because I didn't play in college, or high school, or grade school. So by default he's better."

You could maybe throw left handed and be as good as him.

"Well, the injury is in my left a?.well okay maybe. Who's the better QB , Tim Tebow or Manziel?"

I was just happy the Bengals lit Manziel up last year. I'll reserve any Tebow trash talk for if he actually makes the team.

"I tried."

You can follow EC3 on Twitter at this link.