WWE News: WWE announce their newest signee ahead of the Royal Rumble

What's the story?

WWE took to their website to announce their newest signing, a night before their first of the big four pay-per-views of the year. With the Royal Rumble set to take place on the 28th of January, WWE announced on WWE.com that NXT has signed ring veteran EC3 to a WWE contract.

In case you didn't know...

A former World Champion, EC3 was released by Impact Wrestling earlier this year when he was written out of their programming content in a Feast or Fired match in the latest round of their tapings.

Roman Reigns leaving WWE soon? Here's all we know!

EC3 was a part of WWE's NXT brand in it's earlier avatar under the name Derrick Bateman, where he had Daniel Bryan as his mentor. He wrestled in WWE for three years, before WWE released him in 2013.

The heart of the matter

EC3 made an appearance at NXT Takeover: Philadelphia, sitting among the NXT Universe. Earlier in the night, the WWE Universe has seen some of WWE's latest new signings with Ricochet, Candice LeRae, War Machine sitting at ringside.

After the brutal match between Adam Cole and Aleister Black, the cameras went for an audience shot, where they focused on the former Derrick Bateman sitting among the NXT audience.

WWE soon took to their website to confirm the signing of the former Impact Wrestling Champion to NXT. WWE's announcement went on to mention that he was "NXT's newest signee". Mauro Ranallo made the announcement while EC3 posed for the cameras.

What's next?

WWE specified in their announcement that EC3 had been signed to the NXT roster, which may rule out a WWE Royal Rumble Match appearance for the star.

However, the Royal Rumble Match has previously seen NXT stars in a one-time showing, so main roster fans may see NXT's newest signee in action at tomorrow's Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

Author's take

NXT has recently signed quite a few talented stars from the Independent scene with the likes of EC 3, Ricochet, Candice Lerae and War Machine.

This may mean that a few wrestlers on the current NXT roster may soon make a move to the main roster.

About the author

Anirban Banerjee is a journalist from Kolkata, India and has been a part of building Sportskeeda's WWE section over the past 9 years. He's been an Assistant Content Manager for the team during the past 4 years as well. Banerjee has interviewed Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, 'Cowboy' Cerrone, Jorge Masvidal, Mandy Rose, Joe Hendry, Darren Till, and many others.

Anirban has worked in the field of wrestling and mixed martial arts journalism for several years. In addition to his work on Sportskeeda, Anirban is a fiction writer and has co-written over 20 biographies. He was also a columnist for 90 Minutes.

In his free time, Anirban is an avid reader and spends hours lost in books.

Know More

Edited by Nikhil Bhaskar