“We are the last bastion of the independents here. We are two men – we weren’t failed football projects. We weren’t models. We weren’t bodybuilders pulled out of a gym. We sure as hell weren’t anyone’s kids! We are two men who love this industry, who breath this industry. To us this isn’t a game – this is our goddamn lives.”
And with a scathing promo, Ethan Carter III, coming in unannounced to aid Drew Galloway at EVOLVE 61 in Queens, New York on Saturday May 7, 2016, dropped the shoot heard around the world. Within minutes of its conclusion, it was being reported throughout social media. Within an hour, video clips were joining the battlefront. Within days, Evolve themselves was officially releasing the full video to announce the arrival of TNA‘s biggest stars and the scathing criticism over their mishandling by NXT and Triple H during their WWE tenure.
Immediately, the Internet Wrestling Community (IWC) and their social media platforms were alight with the thought of a TNA vs. WWE storyline, being held in an independent promotion, as WWE bound or sanctioned indie stars were going to do battle with two of the shining stars of TNA. It seemed almost too good to be true. And perhaps it just might be.
Drew Galloway first tasted WWE waters in 2006, following an international reputation garnered through his work in his home country Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) and other UK independents. He began in WWE’s developmental in Ohio Valling Wrestling (OVW), under the name Drew McIntyre, before transferring over to the precursor for what is now NXT, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). He made his official Main Roster call-up in 2009, appearing on Smackdown as “The Chosen One”, the hand picked heir to the main event by Vince McMahon himself. Within a year, he’d beaten John Morrison for the Intercontinental title and won WWE World Tag Team titles with “Dashing” Cody Rhodes. Vince’s Scottish golden boy seemed on the path to greatness in the WWE. And despite his Scottish accent, he managed to escape being a cultural stereotype like happened so many before him. McIntyre was no Highlander or Rowdy kilt wearing Scot. But when he was drafted to Raw in 2011, in what first seemed the next step to immortality, McIntyre’s character was tilted a few degrees less genuine and his demise began. He began with a losing streak before being relegated to Superstars, and eventually returned to the early days of NXT as it’s own brand. He was back up shortly, joining Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal in the most baffling team-up ever, as a band of jobbers called 3 Man Band (3MB). After two years of jobbing as a comedic wrestler, McIntyre was released in June of 2014.
Ethan Carter III began his wrestling foray into the public eye with the WWE a year later, in 2007, when he joined OVW. Another product of Ohio’s Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), it only took him a year on the indie circuit to catch the WWE’s attention. He switched to FCW in 2009 when the WWE shifted their developmental. In 2010, as one of FCW’s top prospects, and renamed Derrick Bateman, he competed on WWE’s NXT. But don’t be fooled by the three letters. During his NXT “run”, it was a reality game show broadcast during Raw, not the indie style brand we’ve grown to know and love. He competed on Season 4 of the series – “mentored” by Daniel Bryan – and returned for the comeback Season 5 Redemption. He returned to FCW just as it was rebranded and rebooted as NXT, but still maintained a main roster presence – he wrestled then WWE US champion Cesaro on an episode of Saturday Morning Slam. Following a non-title loss vs. NXT Champion Big E, Bateman was released by the WWE in May of 2013.
While he may not have won Redemption in WWE, he found it in TNA. He debuted in TNA in October of 2013 as Ethan Carter III, the spoiled nephew of TNA owner Dixie Carter. He proceeded to go on an unprecedented winning streak, that was accentuated by the fact he was taking down legitimate legends like Sting, Bully/Bubba Ray and Kurt Angle in the process, unlike the jobber buffet bigger stars like Goldberg or Ryback began with. He would beat Angle again for the TNA World Heavyweight title in June of 2015, proving he was the biggest star TNA had in the company and arguably the greatest character they’d ever created. What began as an annoying first few months and Derrick Bateman chants, morphed into a respect for the truest heel in the industry and chants for EC3.
Galloway immediately returned to his original stomping grounds in ICW before signing with Evolve in 2014. He’s maintained a strong presence in the Florida promotion, where he’s only recently lost the Evolve World Championship. Months before he claimed Evolve’s top title, he made his debut in TNA in January of 2015, immediately entering a feud with the sadly short lived Beat Down Clan (MVP, Samoa Joe, Low Ki, Kenny King). Galloway had not only re-found the original fire he showed in his early WWE run, but brought a belly full of fire to show the world that he was far from the character he’d most recently portrayed in 3MB. He also entered his first Battle of Los Angeles in PWG, wrestled Trios matches in AAA, and entered tournaments in Germany’s wXw. After a solid year run hovering around the main event in TNA, Galloway defeated Matt Hardy for the TNA World title in March, and continues to carry it to this day. But it was what happened this past week during one of his Evolve appearances, following a grudge match against his former Evolve tag team partner – and current NXT Superstar – Johnny Gargano, that the entire wrestling world are currently talking about.
Following a brutal and emotional match, where Gargano’s tenacity was seemingly overwhelming an exhausted Galloway, an unannounced Ethan Carter III stormed the ring. The initial gasp was genuine anticipation – was EC3 here to help his TNA locker room companion or was he here to attack an in-ring nemesis? But his quick actions were quickly apparent and soon a beaten down Johnny Gargano was announced the winner by disqualification.
And then Ethan Carter III took the mic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-6ygtlwYxE
And that’s when the IWC social media circus exploded.
Throughout this entire week since, the proceeding opinions have been that it was a legitimate shoot, that these two frustrated exiled talents were finally just telling everyone the truth of how they felt, or that TNA was invading a WWE sanctioned indie promotion and that the next Attitude Era’s war would be fought by TNA vs. WWE in the sanctity of the independents battlefields.
And while there’s likely some real truth and honesty in EC3’s stunning promo, there’s a very good chance that there’s so many more layers to this action than simply telling the world the way it is. This is a calling card, this is resume building, this is forcing your way on to the radar, and it’s quite possibly the greatest start to any #slowburn in wrestling history.
Sure, the blueprints for a TNA vs. WWE showdown are there. Following the beatdown on WWE Cruiserweight Classic entrant Gargano – and during EC3’s promo – another recent addition to the WWE tournament, Drew Gulak, was also beat down. And at the end, Gargano announced his new tag partner as TJ Perkins, another Classic participant. Could three WWE allied Evolve guys face off against EC3, Galloway and another mystery TNA combatant? Sure. But I still believe there’s a bigger end game to this scenario.
In 2014, Carter signed a 3-year deal with TNA that expires next year. Galloway is believed to be on a similar deal. While both surely share a TNA connection, the story’s real connection is that they’re more the misfit toys from WWE’s developmental.
Consider the bullet points in Carter’s promo. He mentioned his NXT disaster for nearly a minute, but didn’t mention TNA once. He made jabs at “The King of Kings”, but never thanked his “aunt” Dixie Carter. While the general IWC public may look at this as a TNA vs WWE storyline, this is two rejected children coming for vengeance against their father for casting them out.
Also, while the words may carry some legitimate weight and truth, the actual disdain was not done with any maliciousness. If it had, Evolve would not have promoted it. The have a pretty healthy financial partnership with WWE and airing TNA wrestlers lambasting WWE and NXT is not something that Evolve would want costing them that partnership. It’s been recently speculated by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Live that WWE was well aware of the angle happening prior to the event, and much like their very real knowledge of CM Punk‘s infamous “Pipe Bomb”, they also know that blurring the lines between fact and rumour is the best way to illicit a response from the most hardcore of fans. There’s still legions of anti-WWE fans who still believe Punk’s promo was done without prior knowledge of WWE’s front office. No, WWE was well aware of this, and probably encouraged it. Because they probably have every intention of bringing these two back, and they want them back with the biggest brand possible for financial capitalization.
Sure, both are getting their exposure on TNA. But TNA – regardless of talent or production – is in a real down time. They’re rebuilding, working on ownership issues, but they’re not the well known alternative to the WWE that they once were. Not with the rise of ROH and NJPW to North American casual wrestling fans. The real money is in the entire indie circuit itself. Keeping it healthy and interesting and fluid, is best for EVERYONE’s business. By not mentioning TNA throughout the entire promo – and focusing on attacking NXT and Triple H – the content of the video becomes about WWE’s history, not TNA’s. Because it happened at an Evolve event, WWE now has access to that video footage. See where this is headed?
They may not use it now, but they will. When they’ve both continued this feud in Evolve and created a stockpile of feud and footage, and continued to create their great characters in TNA for another year, they’ll both be ready to re-enter the WWE Universe. But this time, they’ll have a backlog of backstory to introduce them to new fans and restart the war drums from those who have followed them in the indie circuit the past few years.
So don’t be too surprised if you see this footage emerge again in 2017, but this time on the WWE Network instead of Twitter. The Future will be here. And their names will be Drew McIntyre and Kennedy Vincent III. Because this is their goddamn lives.
(Main Photo: Twitter.com, modified by Jamie Greer)
