Before he was controlling his narrative, EC3 was part of NXT as Derrick Bateman.
EC3 was famously involved in a storyline with Maxine where the two were love interests, but things fell apart when Jonhny Curtis (Fandango) entered the picture.
In the storyline, the mothers of EC3 and Maxine entered the picture, which led to some backstage heat for the writer.
"On NXT, a curly-haired Bateman, who was trying to date Maxine, brought his mother Agnes Bateman, named by Matt Striker in the heat of the moment, to a NXT taping," recalled EC3 on ROH Strong.
Kevin Eck, the ROH Strong co-host and a writer at NXT at the time, weighed in.
"I was part of that and I do remember it. You know what I remember? I don't know if you're aware, but there was major heat on the writer of that segment, the beloved Tom Casiello, there was heat from Triple H. Triple H was hot because apparently, Tom didn't clear having the parents on the show. Hunter laid into him pretty well. Were you aware of that?" he asked.
EC3 replied, "I believe I was. I knew there was received it heat because you can only punish the writer. Everyone has to play, even though playing is no fun there. 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. What you created, NXT with your own baby, that was very successful. Congratulations. How is everything going up there? Okay, good."
EC3 would interrupt the wedding of Curtis and Maxine with Kaitlyn eventually entering the picture as Bateman's new love interest.
EC3 was eventually released by WWE in 2013. He returned in 2018, but was released again in 2020. He signed with ROH and launched Control You Narrative.
Elsewhere during the podcast, EC3 discussed his promo at ROH Final Battle. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
