Speculation On EC3 Possibly Getting Punished For Crowd Reactions During Matches With Dean Ambrose

In the latest episode of Talk is Jericho, Jon Moxley mentioned that during the end of his run with WWE as Dean Ambrose, he had a match on RAW with a then-face EC3, which he lost in around two minutes. According to Moxley, the crowd didn’t like it because it was “transparent” what was happening, in that it looked like WWE was burying him on his way out of the company. He said it was an “unfair position” for EC3 to be in, because he was going to get the backlash. Moxley added that when they worked together on the house shows that weekend, Moxley was cheered by the crowd even though he was the clear heel (including blatant cheating), because the crowd was sending an anti-WWE message.

Soon after, Ambrose was turned face, EC3 lost the rematch and hasn’t won a match since.

In the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez wondered aloud if the crowd not reacting how WWE wanted could have resulted in EC3 getting punished.

Dave Meltzer replied: “It is! Of course it is. The very next week or the week after, they beat EC3 with a guy who was leaving the company. That’s 100% what happened.”

He added that the crowd reaction likely had more to do with the fact that the audience at the live event knew who Ambrose was more than EC3 instead of Moxley’s theory that it was some sort of anti-WWE statement.