10 Wrestlers Who Got Buried For Someone Else Screwing Up

2. EC3

EC3 has a story in wrestling unlike most. He was signed young to WWE in 2009 and showed a lot of natural charisma, appearing on season 4 of NXT with Daniel Bryan acting as his mentor. It just seemed like WWE ultimately did not know what to do with him, with them confirming that in 2013 by releasing him from his contract. It took 5 years on the independent circuit and in TNA for EC3 to show WWE what they were missing. WWE were impressed and had him signed to NXT in 2018 where he was used as the star he was always meant to be, competing in a phenomenal six-man ladder match for the NXT North American Championship at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans and feuding with The Undisputed Era.

WWE creative made the massive mistake of booking EC3 against Dean Ambrose when he was called up and debuted on Raw. EC3 was booked to pick up a quick win against Ambrose but this actually hindered the babyface EC3, as Ambrose had given his notice to WWE at that point and was getting some strong fan support from crowds because of it.

Ambrose has said the following regarding the series of matches they had together:

“They have EC3 come in as a babyface, defeat me in two minutes. The crowd does not like this, because it’s transparent what’s happening and this is not good for EC3, because now he’s gonna get the backlash. So it was an unfair position for him to be put in. So we get to that weekend, I’m working with EC3 on house shows, now I’m the biggest babyface on the show. I’m a heel, I’m thumbing him in the eye, I’m making fun of the town, it doesn’t matter. They’re violently rejecting him as a babyface and they’re cheering the hell out of me. It’s got nothing to do with him, it’s like an anti-WWE.”

EC3 was seen as nothing more than a 24/7 jobber in the eyes of Vince McMahon after this debacle.