Evan Karagias says his move from WCW to WWE left him in a developmental holding pattern, followed by a proposed year in Puerto Rico that he would not accept while raising his children. The former 3 Count member said WWE never gave him a clear creative direction after the company picked up his contract when WCW closed.
Speaking with Bryan Asbury on Developmentally Speaking, Karagias recalled learning about the change at WCW’s final show. He said Shane McMahon walked in and told a group of wrestlers they were being kept.
Karagias said WWE sent him to the Cincinnati area, where the former WCW wrestlers worked shows and traveled between Ohio and Kentucky. Asked what WWE had told him about the assignment, he described the work they did there.
“Yeah, well they said they were going to send us to Ohio. We’d be going back and forth to Louisville and helping work some of the guys and training some of those guys.”
He said there was little direction beyond working matches during his time in developmental. The possibility of another year away from home sharpened the issue for him.
“Oh, it wasn’t hardly any. You know, it really wasn’t. … It was literally a holding spot, you know? And that was it. I think they wanted me to go to Puerto Rico for a year or something like that. And I’m, you know, I had kids. I’m like, ‘I’m not going for a year. I’ll go for a few months and come back for a month or something.’ But I just wasn’t going to leave my family for a year.”
He said he had already moved his family for the WWE assignment, making another long relocation a difficult ask. His account adds another view of the company’s earlier developmental system, which David Otunga discussed in a separate Developmentally Speaking interview.
Karagias recalled John Laurinaitis bringing up the Puerto Rico plan again when his time with WWE was ending. He interpreted the request as a sign that the company expected him to decline, although he did not say he was explicitly told that refusing would trigger his release.
“Johnny Ace came in there and basically said, ‘Hey, they want you to go to Puerto Rico for a year.’ And I think they knew I wasn’t going to do it. So that was probably their way of just releasing me.”
Source: Developmentally Speaking with Bryan Asbury. Quotations are from the original video’s YouTube captions.
