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Former WWE star EC3 recently revealed how his match against Alex Riley from NWA: Nuff Said 2023 was always supposed to feature a spot where the latter crashed on the floor after attempting a dive.
Riley, who now goes by his real name Kevin Kiley Jr., returned to the ring after a six-year hiatus from the business in December 2022. He wrestled his first singles match since returning against EC3 at NWA: Nuff Said on February 11th.
The bout featured a spot where Alex Riley dived from the top rope to the outside and crashed on the floor. Though fans believe it was a botch, EC3 has now cleared that the sequence was planned from the beginning.
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Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's The Wrestling Outlaws, EC3 explained that the story of the match was Riley struggling to beat his physical weaknesses.
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"The way I look at a botch is to pinpoint isolated mistakes. Things that were supposed to happen but didn't exactly happen as planned and from the reality of that match; he was supposed to eat s**t! The whole intention of that story; I wanted to tell with him was him not knowing who he is, where am I, why am I doing this, and I don't belong here. This has passed me by," said EC3.
The former WWE star added that the bout was supposed to end exactly as it did, with Alex Riley taking a leap of faith only for his dreams to be shattered.
"But to find his motivation, to find his faith throughout the match to then finally see the semblance of who he could have been, ascending to who he should be; go jumping outside the ring, and then eat s**t! Land on his face, fall down completely, devastated, ruined hopes and dreams. That was the story," added EC3. (4:02 - 5:01)
Check out the full video below:
Former WWE star Alex Riley on getting back in the ring
Riley made his in-ring return in a match last year, where he teamed up with former WWE star Tyrus to defeat Jack Tomlinson and Dante Drago. In an interview a few days later, he mentioned how grateful he was for the opportunity.
Riley accepted that he had ring rust but was immensely thankful for the chance to step back inside the squared circle again.
"I clearly had some rust on me and wanted to be in a little bit better shape," said Alex Riley. "But I was really grateful to be out there, man. I was really grateful to be in front of people, and god bless you for walking out there with me. It was cool."
It remains to be seen if the former WWE star's in-ring return will result in him finding a place back in the global juggernaut.
If any quotes are used from this article, please embed the YouTube link and credit Sportskeeda Wrestling.
