EC3 On His Lackluster WWE Run: "Maybe I Just Failed"
On today's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman sat down with EC3 where he reflected on his WWE run. One of Jon Moxley's last programs was with EC3, and Hausman asked if the way Moxley left WWE with a big cinematic video was an inspiration to him at all.
"He had a very sustained run at top of the WWE for eight years so carte blanche and then the ability to do something different — he was real to himself in WWE," EC3 stated. "I mean, granted but to truly let himself go and then to shoot something cinematic, in a sense, to announce his arrival back to becoming Mox and everything he's done, it was a definitely inspiring.
"I don't think I had that name value so much because I didn't have that WWE run on top like he did, so I just had to take inspiration from it and make it my own and then exemplify it times 1,000 because when he left, he left to another major company and you're allowed to internationally travel. When I left, there was no wrestling except for — nobody knew what was going on so there's a way to keep relevance in a sense, and then it just keeps growing, and growing and growing.
"More people within the industry kind of kept asking me about it and are actually intrigued about controlling their narrative, doing something similar and then fans, in a sense, reaching out in a different way, it all kind of just snowballed into this giant idea. Why don't we do something big and bold, and we do it ourselves as independent as possible? Two dudes [and] a bunch of hungry people that believe in a cause. So we'll see what happens."
EC3 defeated Moxley in his RAW debut, but it was the crowd reactions during their house show tours, specifically fans not cheering the babyface EC3 and instead cheering a heel Moxley, that may have led to EC3's halted push. This explanation was given by Moxley himself, and EC3 spoke from his perspective on what halted his push.
"If you know, by all means, tell me because I don't. I caught the ire with the guy that makes all the decisions, so he didn't like something and then maybe he didn't like something that didn't directly involve me, and there's no one else to punish, so I suffer the consequences," EC3 explained. "Maybe I just sucked. I don't know, but it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter because it just led me to what was next, and that's okay."
Hausman followed up and asked EC3 what his conversations were like with Vince McMahon.
"Indifference, really," EC3 described. "Maybe I wasn't aggressive enough in pitching it too, so that could lay on me, but at the same time, you try, and try, and try, and try and try and nothing happens. I made myself a promise, and I broke that promise because there is a negative stigmata a lot of times in the locker room where nothing matters.
"Coming up there, I was like, no matter what happens, I'm going to be positive [and] optimistic. I'm going to grind. I'm going to be my absolute best. I'm going to put it forward, and I didn't because I fell under the trap of nothing matters and maybe I'm right. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe nothing does matter there or maybe I was my own worst enemy."
EC3 then explained what he means by "I was my own worst enemy."
"You get frustrated. Frustration, depression, anxiety, angst [and] all those things kind of add up too," EC3 admitted. "When I was called up, the call-up came when I was out for concussion, so I rushed back, and then maybe I didn't heal enough from it mentally. Maybe I didn't have enough time. Maybe I tried to rush back into action too soon, or maybe I just failed. It's okay to fail because through failure, you learn."
EC3 presents Free The Narrative on Thursday May 27th on Vimeo. Use the promo code "FREEWRESTLINGINC" to get the show for 20% off! You can find the full audio and video from EC3's interview below: