Former WWE Superstar returns to the ring for the first time in 10 years

After roughly 10 years away from the ring, a former WWE Superstar returned to the squared circle at a recent event in North Carolina. The one-time Intercontinental Champion never retired from pro wrestling but was inactive for almost a decade.

Ezekiel Jackson was with WWE from 2007 to 2014, starting his career at Florida Championship Wrestling, alongside Kofi Kingston and Heath Slater. He was called up to the main roster in 2008, serving as The Brian Kendrick's bodyguard. He was then transferred to ECW, winning the ECW Championship in 2010.

After the belt was retired, Jackson ended up on WWE RAW and eventually joined The Corre. He won the Intercontinental Title in 2011, holding it for 51 days before losing to future Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. He was released in April 2014 and would later perform in TNA Wrestling and Lucha Underground.

His final match, before this year, was at a wXw show in Germany, though he never announced his retirement. He declared last month that he'll be wrestling for the first time in 10 years at Fortitude Wrestling Entertainment's Full Throttle Event in Cary, North Carolina on March 15.

Check out a photo of Ezekiel Jackson before the match below:

Ezekiel Jackson faced off against fellow former WWE Superstar Sylvain Grenier and Psycho Boy Fodder in a Triple Threat match for the FWE Championship. It's unclear who won the match, but Jackson looked absolutely massive and appeared bigger than the last time he was on television.

---

Ezekiel Jackson comments on being the final ECW Champion in WWE

Speaking to MuscleMan Malcolm a couple of weeks ago, Ezekiel Jackson discussed being the last ECW Champion in history. Jackson would have loved to defend the championship at least once, but the company wanted to go in a different direction and some personal events happened too that occupied his time.

"I would have loved to defend the title to be recognized as, but after that, I came through the curtain and the next week, I was on SmackDown and they announced on the titantron, Ezekiel Jackson is coming to SmackDown. Sadly, my dad died within the next couple weeks of that. I buried my dad on April 3, on April 10, I would’ve been celebrating my sister’s 40th birthday, who had died 5 years earlier, but then I blew my right quad out that same day," Jackson said. [H/T - Fightful]

While being away from pro wrestling, Ezekiel Jackson became a personal trainer. Based on his Instagram account, he's now accepting bookings and cited his experience across different wrestling promotions as his USP.