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Mike Johnson: So let me ask you this. I don't want to cut you off, but we talked about brain chemistry earlier. You had a couple concussions in NXT. You do get brought up. Now I can only speak for my own personal perspective, but when I was in a bad car wreck in 2001, I walked around for months, and I mean months, two or three months where I was not present in my own body. I was there, but I felt like I was an observer, and someone else was driving the car, so to speak. It took me a long time to even recognize this and voice it to where I could go and get help. Now I was in that accident in July. It was maybe my birthday in late September when I was there with all these people how care about me. I survived when I should have died, and I didn't care that I was there. That was kind of the moment where I was like something's wrong in my brain. So is it possible that's what you were going through at the time? Did you ever have that moment where you said, "Okay, something's not clicking here. The switch isn't flicking the way it used to?" What was that moment, and when do you realize it?
EC3: Yeah, what a heart-wrenching story, man.
Mike Johnson: It's totally true.
EC3: Yeah, but I feel that exactly. I think for me, yeah, there's elements of that that would apply to me. Personally, not even just professionally, I just wasn't happy. I had to work my whole life for the job I've always wanted. Something's not right. I don't feel right. This isn't going at all how I'd like it to, which hey, control your narrative. I didn't control mine. I allowed it to control me. Plenty of moments where I'm like, "Why wrestling if you're sick or something?" You say, "Oh, just kick out, brother." "Why can't I kick out of this?" That probably happened for a duration of the run until... Oh man, I don't remember the date, but I got donked again, and then I was feeling everything kind of how you're feeling it, maybe even more, to an extent. One day I walked into TV, and I was pale white and just dead-eyed. The trainer saw me and said, "Are you okay?" I said, "No." Then I kind of laid out, "A couple weeks ago, this happened." I've been trying to get through it, have been needing to get tests. Like, "Yeah." Which a test is speculative sometimes whether you have a concussion or not, you can pass or fail, but it wasn't good. Then sat home, and I went through the protocol, resting, hopefully, but could never really get out of it. They sent me to a physical therapist that works with concussion people, and she was a great help, and another guy. It took a while to get back, and I didn't realize a lot of it until actually I was with that guy, able to voice it. So he got in my head. It was cool battling the psychiatrist, because he's like a super evil genius, and I felt like my wits were always being tested talking to him. So I enjoyed those conversations very much. But yeah, I would say that would be an element of it, but it doesn't take away the fact I didn't do what I thought was right or should have done to get myself out of my hole I buried myself further by being sad and not myself.
Mike Johnson: So today, how do you feel physically and mentally, given that at some point very soon, you're going to go back into a scenario where you can get concussed again, you can get injured again, and you're choosing obviously to continue on professional wrestling. Is there fear? Is there trepidation? Is it just, "I have to prove everyone wrong?" Is it a mixture of that? At some point, you're going to take that first bump in a ring again, and you're going to take that first dropkick again. You're going to catch somebody who's diving. You're going to do something, and you're going to clunk your head. That's just the lay of the land for pro wrestling, whether we like it or not. How do you feel about that, given... How do you feel now, and how do you feel about the potential of going back into that situation?
EC3: Physically, I feel phenomenal. Look at me. I am jacked and ripped. But that doesn't mean anything in what we do, to feel physically, the physical ire of taking punishment, things like that, but I have been idle for a while. The only thing that really helps that brain heal is being idle. Honestly, 7/18/2020 when I am free, the very first thing I'm going to do is get into a fight. That's a headline right there, EC3 will fight July 18th, 2020. The very first thing I do is get into a fight. So are there mental aspects of fear and trepidation that's possibly going to take place? I haven't felt them yet, because I've been so focused and so driven freeing myself and creating something that I hopefully I can be proud of. You mentioned holding onto the past and using it as motivation. I did that once, and I did it real hard, and I did it real well. Now the only thing I have to prove is to myself, which I think is... When I say, "Free EC3," I'm not just spewing off catch phrases to sell t-shirts that are available on my website freeec3.com, and I have print my own merch, but these are real things I feel for real, and I don't have to prove anything to anybody but myself at this point. I used that avenue once. It worked. I'm not going back to that well. Let the past die. Move forward in the future. That's for personal, professional, across the board. I do hold onto angst and anger a lot, so even part of this experiment creating a wrestling character, it's not. It's a life evaluation and moving me forward. So yeah.
Mike Johnson: Is there a-
EC3: And I look great. Have I mentioned that yet?
Interview Continues Page 4!
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