News On EC3 Getting Punished For Crowd Reactions During WWE Matches Against Jon Moxley
Since making his debut on the main roster in February, EC3 has had a lackluster run where he's often times been positioned in matches on WWE Main Event. Despite fans wanting to see more from EC3 (especially in the promo department), questionable booking decisions haven't given him much to work with as of yet.
The likely reason for his quick decline after the call-up could be found in Jon Moxley's interview on Talk is Jericho (we have recaps here and also here). Moxley noted WWE was looking to have him lose to a number of people on his way out and found it surprising he was brought back to TV week after week in the months and weeks leading up to his exit.
In February, EC3 quickly defeated Moxley on RAW in his first main roster match. Positioned as the babyface, EC3 was scheduled against Moxley in house shows and fans ended up cheering on Moxley, which Moxley said would come back negatively on EC3.
"They put me against EC3, debuting from NXT," Moxley said. "Great talent, great friend of mine. Excited to work with him. They have EC3 come in as a babyface, defeat me in two minutes. ... The crowd does not like this, because it's transparent what's happening and this is not a?this is not good for EC3, because now he's gonna get the backlash.
"So it was an unfair position for him to be put in. We get to that weekend, I'm working with EC3 on house shows, now I'm the biggest babyface on the show. I'm a heel, I'm thumbing him in the eye, I'm making fun of the town, it doesn't matter, they're violently rejecting him as the babyface and they're cheering the hell out of me. It's got nothing to do with him, it's like anti-WWE."
In this morning's edition of Wrestler Observer Radio, this same topic came up and Dave Meltzer also confirmed "100%" that's the reason EC3 is where he's at in the company.
After EC3 initially won, the very next week on RAW, EC3 and Moxley had a rematch and Moxley ended up beating him. EC3 has not had a singles match on RAW since. In regards to the house shows, Meltzer noted that the basic thought was crowds are going to cheer the stars that have been around for years (heel or face) over the new NXT star that most of them don't know, putting EC3 in a tough spot.
Moxley debuted for AEW on last weekend's Double or Nothing PPV where he attacked both Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega after the main event.