Which ROH Star "Modelled" His Character Change On Sting?

A new ROH star admits they followed Sting's lead with "drastic" gimmick change.

By Jamie Kennedy /

ROH

EC3 patterned his post-WWE run after Sting's dramatic 1996 change in WCW.

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The former WWE man was released as part of mass cuts in April 2020, but had returned to old stomping ground Impact Wrestling by summer. Since then, EC3 has traded Impact for ROH. He's also put a lot of thought into promos and how he's perceived by wrestling fans online.

That mystique was all part of the package, and part of EC3's mini-tribute to the Stinger. He said as much during a recent interview with Fightful.

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EC3 admitted that he wanted to mimic Sting's change from 'Surfer' to 'Crow' by becoming a darker kind of character: "Hey, I don’t need to wrestle for a year. I can just show up with a baseball bat and say wild stuff and get into brawls, and that’s cool too".

Carter said that he was keen to explore "ambiguity" and how somebody can change because of things happening around them. What's more, he's only at the start of that journey. There's way more of this stuff to come from EC3 in ROH.

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New AEW star Sting remains his direct influence.