EC3 discussed turning down offers to perform as past characters and what it was like to return to NXT after being in IMPACT on this week’s episode of “The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy.” On turning down offers to perform as his old character after Control Your Narrative was created, he said:
“There were times when companies asked me to come in to do the old thing. I’m like, ‘I don’t think I can’, even though it would be easy to come back and do a top 1%. But the circumstances and what I went through, there has to be a consequence to it from a creative standpoint,” EC3 said.
“So maybe I cost myself a lot of money or opportunities, but I’m sticking on the path.”
When asked about returning to NXT after being in Impact, he said:
“You hear people say, ‘I never got my chance. I was in prison, bla bla bla.’ I hate that. I despise it. But at the same time, the only person you can blame, and this is control your narrative, is yourself.”
“When I look back, I remember coming back and I was on top of the world. Impact was great. I was able to create myself. NXT was going to be good. We started off with a five star match. I had all the confidence and gusto.”
“But even through the process of NXT, I started second guessing things because this coach tells you this, this agent tells you this, and you allow that to happen, but you let it slide.”
“Then you’re randomly called up and it doesn’t feel like it’s for a reason. It kind of feels like it’s a rash decision and they don’t have something for you, but you’re gonna go into the fire.”
“But I remember saying to myself because I know the atmosphere in WWE and I’m friends with the people there, just how negative they were about everything. I’m like, no matter what, I will not be negative. I will be positive. I will push forward. I will strive and I will fight for everything, and the second I was there, I lost that fight because I was like, it doesn’t matter, and I fell into my own trap of negativity and the other negativity that’s laid by others,” EC3 continued.
“So if I could go back, even if I would have got thrown out of the building, fired, shot out of a cannon, launched from a catapult into the fu**ing sun, I would have. If I just did it the way I wanted to and fought harder for myself, I could have accepted those consequences as opposed to the way it did, injured, lost, wasn’t being used anyway, fired for a worldwide pandemic. You can’t live with regret, but my regret was not fighting for myself because I could have been proud of myself, regardless of what happened.”
You can listen to the complete podcast below:
(H/T to wrestlingnews.co for quotes)
