Heath Slater’s original idea for a backup band in WWE was much different than what would become 3MB.
Nowadays, everybody loves to reflect on the brief length of time in WWE history when future WWE Champions Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal were the “backup band” for Heath Slater.
Known as 3MB, the trio was known for providing comedy at the time, getting involved with wacky segments like WeeLC, and being attacked by Triple H during random episodes of SmackDown in 2013.
Now, speaking on a virtual signing for The Asylum Wrestling Store, Heath Slater reflected on wanting drastically different names for the group including Jon Moxley, then known as Dean Ambrose, Fandango, and EC3, then known as Derrick Bateman.
(h/t: Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling)
“So Michael Hayes was all on-board for it. He’s like, ‘Heck yeah kid, you need a band. You should have a band.’ So, I pitched the idea to have me and this was before Fandango was Fandango, Dean Ambrose was Dean Ambrose and EC3 was EC3. So I pitched for those guys because they weren’t on TV yet. So they told me no on Dango, well at the time was Johnny Curtis. So they were like, ‘No, we got ideas for him.’ So I asked for Mox and they’re like, ‘No, we have ideas for him.’ I asked for EC3, they’re like, ‘No, not at all.’ I’m like, ‘Sh*t, well what are you gonna give me?’ So literally a month went by, Michael Hayes comes to me, ‘Hey man, we got you a band. You’re debuting your band tonight.’ I’m like, ‘Who is it?’ He’s like, ‘Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre.’ I said, ‘What? What happened with my idea, my pitch?’”
Jon Moxley would, of course, go on to much brighter fame as a member of The Shield. Fandango and EC3 had great chemistry together on the Redemption season of NXT but would ultimately find success on their own in different ways.
Slater is currently out with an injury but was working for IMPACT Wrestling at the end of 2020.
