EC3 Recalls ‘Cheating’ Alongside Bryan Danielson During NXT Run

EC3 and Bryan Danielson have both acknowledged that they “cheated” during EC3’s run on the competition version of NXT, and EC3 says it was because no one cared. EC3 competed on the fourth season of the show in 2010 and 2011, with Danielson (then Daniel Bryan) as his “pro,” with the two having previously acknowledged that they rigged the “How Well do you know your Pro?” game. EC3 spoke about the matter in an interview with Fightful, noting that they were just trying to entertain themselves.

“Define cheat,” EC3 began. “Okay. The heat is on. Here’s the thing. Are you definitely staring at me? I can feel your eyes burning a hole in me? I cheated on NXT ‘cause nobody gave a s**t and so we were trying to pop ourselves. What do you think?”

He continued, “Here’s the thing, too. It naturally got over. I’ll use the terminology. It got over and people were interested and invested. We did things that raised the number of people watching it, which good employees do, good talent do. They build the brand. They make people want to see it and I severely get punished for it. Weird run I had, twice.”

EC3 worked in WWE as Derrick Bateman and made it to the final three on season four, before coming back on season five which was dubbed “NXT Redemption.” He was never eliminated because the competition never concluded, running 67 episodes without a winner before the brand transitioned to the more traditional brand it is today.