6 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Raw Superstar Shakeup

4. Wasting EC3

Raw EC3 Braun Strowman
WWE.com

When NXT announced the signing of EC3, it looked like they weren’t going to screw him up again.

The former Ethan Carter III was in WWE’s system before as Derrick Bateman before departing to TNA, where he honed his craft as a pretty solid superstar. When he came back to NXT, many felt like he had earned a legit shot at being a major player. His NXT run was average – he didn’t set the world on fire, but he wasn’t invisible either – but his WWE had been dismal to date.

After four months on the main roster doing nothing, EC3 got a full entrance Monday, with the announcers saying that he wanted competition and was tired of being in the background. It sounded like they were rebooting him.

And then Braun Strowman’s music played.

OK, well maybe he was going to have a competitive match and build from there.

Nope. Total squash. In fact, there wasn’t even a match, as Braun mauled EC3 and chokeslammed him through the stage in a matter of seconds.

What did this guy do, sneeze in Vince McMahon’s presence and then forget to shake his hand?

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.