EC3 makes unheard-of claim about RAW Underground

RAW Underground debuted in early August when Shane McMahon returned to WWE TV. Under McMahon's management, RAW Underground saw MMA fights take place in an undisclosed location. The backstage word was that the segment was introduced to pump up the ratings for the final hour on WWE RAW. Now, EC3 has claimed that he was the brain behind the concept and WWE stole his idea.

Is RAW Underground the brainchild of EC3?

On this week's ROH Strong podcast, EC3 told listeners that WWE had stolen the RAW Underground concept from him. The former WWE Superstar stated that he knew the company would steal the idea the moment he had pitched.

“I knew it was going to be stolen, so I was prepared for it. I didn’t know it’d go to that length, and I know mine played to a minor bubble of the professional wrestling audience while the majority of it saw whatever the hell they put out there. The way I look at it is kind of like I was Wayne’s World.

"I was producing this show in Aurora, my basement with my buddy Garth. We’ll call him J.C. in this instance, and then Rob Lowe came in, bought us and when I saw Shane McMahon in the ring, not in a real underground, mine was a real underground. [This] manufactured, heartless, desolate studio, I’m looking at Shane and it felt like when Noah was rapping on Wayne’s World after they bought him out.

"It was just inauthentic and like I said, it had no heart. So I knew something would’ve been taken from it. I didn’t expect the whole aesthetic, and while it upset my friend, J.C. who I worked very hard on with it, at the same time, it’s just a challenge to do something different, better next time which I definitely plan on doing because again, control your narrative." (h/t PostWrestling.com)

On the show, EC3 also told listeners that had planned on asking for his release before the lay-offs were made in April. That didn't go as planned, because EC3 later changed his mind when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.