EC3 was a guest on the Ring Of Honor Strong podcast where he reflected on an incident from his first WWE run. During his time as Derrick Bateman, one writer ended up gaining heat due to a segment involving the wrestler’s parents.
“I believe I was. I systematically, probably received residual heat, shockingly for it. Because you can only punish the writer. Everyone has to play, even though playing is no fun there,” he added. “I knew there was some sort of heat, but he didn’t actually tell me how much and I didn’t know to that extent.
“Paul, I will tell you that on the internet show that no one cared about, we tried our best to entertain the fans and put smiles on people’s faces. And we did it by any means necessary,” he claimed. “What you created, NXT, with your own baby, that was very successful. Congratulations. How is everything going up there? Okay, good.”
EC3 also admitted that he does regret not experiencing Ring Of Honor in its full glory. He joined the company during COVID-19 times and because of that didn’t get the full ROH run that other talent did.
“What I regret about it is that I never got to experience it in its full glory, its full honor,” he stressed. “Due to my coming in, in the pandemic and strange times and locker room separations and pandemic protocols. So, engraining myself into the culture, even the live audiences we only had a few shows, in front of a rabid live fanbase. That’s kind of dissipated because nobody knew the direction, or the whereabouts or the what of the company. You know, it’s pandemic times and we are a casualty of that in a sense.”
Right now, EC3 is not under contract with any company. However, the former WWE Superstar is not against the idea of signing somewhere. However, he also spoke about the future of his own Free The Narrative shows.
“I would never say never because if I see TNT driving that truck up and backing it up to my humble abode, I would think about it,” he said. “But I think to how far I’ve come and what I’ve put in on this level before it has even become what it’s (Free The Nattarative) supposed to be. And there are things in the works for this that I am kind of shocked have taken place.
“This will never be another wrestling company where we are going to have weekly TV with a champion and a 20-minute promo opens the show. And 30 minutes of the show is good and the other two hours are dogsh*t. I don’t ever see it like that,” he admitted. “But, I can see it being like a streaming seasonal thing that talent create their stories and become featured. Then they have their basis, they have their reel in a sense. And they also have this experience to take elsewhere.”
