EC3 Interview: Signing With ROH, Jay Briscoe, Controlling His Narrative, Leaving WWE, More

How has the vibe been in ROH compared to everywhere else you've been in your career?

EC3: When I mentioned freedom too, I don't believe there's this theory that wrestlers need freedom. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they need to be told what to do and I think you have to earn freedom and you have to live up to freedom. When you ask Wrestler A, “What do you want to do tonight?” “Well, I want to beat everybody and I want to beat the champ.” That's not a good idea. Not everybody should have freedom so to speak, but rather the freedom to live within the realms of that they're creating, yes.

As far as the vibe and the ambience and the atmosphere, it's hard to say just based on doing this business in a totally different way with quarantines, so there's not the locker room rapport you're building with everybody or having conversations and you're not surrounded by people all the time because you have to make amends for the pandemic. So, it's a different atmosphere and I think when things return to normal which they should, then I'll get more of a vibe for it, but from what I can say, there's a lot of pride here. There's supposed honor, we'll see.

Morale is high and there's a lot of optimism. As far as that and other places, IMPACT was fun. It was cool to hang out in. I think they were set in their ways as opposed to what's next to take a step forward. Morale in WWE is, you can guess. It's soul-crushing and stealing and financially beneficial.

Was the backstage environment in WWE the same the second time as it was your first time there?

EC3: It was different. There were similarities, but there were differences, too. It just seemed like the control mechanism from the top was absurdly stringent more so than... I don't know, people were afraid to take risks and as you would talk to a top guy like [John] Cena perhaps, he would go, “You got to take a risk!” I'm like, “Yeah, you're right, but you can't!” Something I don't think they understand is that from the time when they were coming up and they did and they were rewarded because it worked, even if it works, the reward is you went against the grain, so you were punished. It's not my company, it's not my decisions to make, but that's the way I see it, but at the same time, maybe I didn't do it enough.

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