Beginning in 2018, Wrestleview.com will return to monitoring and reporting on any stories making the rounds among the wrestling media. These stories will be clearly marked as a “rumor” (as highlighted in the image above) for reference.
Former Impact Wrestling star EC3 (Ethan Carter III) was reportedly at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida this past Tuesday according to a new report by Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com on Thursday.
EC3 (Michael Hutter) received an early release from Impact Wrestling at the beginning of this year and finished up with the company at the tapings in Orlando this past week at Universal Studios. His original deal was set to expire this summer.
Twitter account @ImpactOrlando shared this photo of Hutter taking a final bow during the Impact TV tapings that ran through Monday night this week.
EC3 takes a final bow #ImpactWrestling pic.twitter.com/tc4Qkjtan3
— Impact Wrestling Orlando (@ImpactOrlando) January 14, 2018
For those who may remember, Hutter signed with WWE back in 2007 and was involved with the Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental territory. He later transitioned to WWE’s Florida Championship Wrestling territory from 2009-2010 and was then part of the fourth season of NXT as Derrick Bateman, paired with Daniel Bryan on the show as his WWE Pro. He was also brought back for the fifth season of NXT, paired again with Daniel Bryan.
After a brief debut on Smackdown, Hutter was released by WWE in May of 2013. Following a short stint on the independent scene, he was signed by TNA Wrestling and given the name EC3 (Ethan Carter III) as the storyline nephew of then TNA President Dixie Carter. Hutter debuted this new character at Bound for Glory in October of 2013 and was considered one of the rare “homegrown” stars created by the company.
Hutter would go on to capture the TNA World Heavyweight Championship twice and was recently the reigning Impact Grand Champion on Pop TV.
While an official signing with WWE has yet to take place, his presence at the company’s training facility this week would indicate things could be trending in that direction.