Heavyweight champion of the National Wrestling Alliance and former WWE wrestler EC3 wanted to set the Internet on fire recently, so he took a huge shot at the low-hanging fruit of All Elite Wrestling and its founder Tony Khan.
Appearing on the Sportskeeda series The Wrestling Outlaws with ex-wrestling writer Vince Russo and host Dr. Chris Featherstone, EC3 buried – in wrestling terms – Khan’s five-year-old track record of booking and promoting that has left something to be desired in all fairness.
The trio’s conversation pertained to polarizing daredevil Darby Allin being dependable enough to rein in his risk-taking if he attained AEW’s top title. The last time anyone saw Allin on pay-per-view, he fell back-first through a plate of glass in iconic wrestler Sting’s final match.
It’s thought Allin’s stunt took attention away from his tag partner Sting’s official retirement and put himself plus everyone around him in the building in danger with the shards and dust flying around.
EC3, Russo, and Dr. Chris concluded Allin – regardless of his popularity – isn’t worth investing in as a world champion if he is one move or stunt away from getting hurt.
Khan might think differently. Moreover, Allin wouldn’t do crazy life-threatening moves every week unless he had his boss’s say-so.
The words “instant gratification” came up and the group agreed the phrase sums up Allin and Khan’s mentality, which sets them apart from WWE’s ex-impresario Vince McMahon. Both McMahon and Khan are billionaires, but the latter was born into that status.
“Earned is a lot different than inherited,” EC3 says alluding to Khan. “Even if Vince is a billionaire, the money is credit for winning the game. And then when you already woke up birthed winning the game, you don’t understand how it works.”
The NWA champ sees an opportunity for wrestlers to scale back and only go high-risk when it can be special. Allin and Khan haven’t figured this out, EC3 adds, and as a result, don’t realize performers like Darby are interchangeable.
“The show would go on,” EC3 said of AEW if they ever parted ways with Allin.
As for Khan, he stated with a smile, “Tony Khan has done more harm to wrestling than Vince Russo ever did.” Those are the words EC3 hoped would set the Internet Wrestling Community (or IWC) on fire.
He looks as if he was at least half-kidding but the ‘One Percenter’ clearly and candidly expressed what he thinks is wrong with AEW and modern wrestling. It’s far from likely he is working or tricking his fans here and thus shared his true feelings.
Vince Russo was the head writer for WWE in the late 90s at the height of the Attitude Era and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin’s dominance. He notoriously defected to competitor World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in ‘99 and is considered by many to be the reason the company folded a year and a half later.
EC3 passed through WWE on two occasions but found his greatest success in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling where he got his name, and on the indies. Before joining Billy Corgan’s NWA and wresting their title away from Fox News correspondent Tyrus, he started the short-lived Control Your Narrative.
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