The last ECW World Champion in the record books is returning to wrestling.
The man formerly known as Ezekiel Jackson made a surprise announcement - he’s returning to finish off his career the way he wants to. Jackson was in WWE during the late 2000’s; he originally made his main roster debut as The Brian Kendrick’s bodyguard, but his most notable stint in WWE was during the company’s version of ECW.
Jackson beat Christian for the ECW World title on the very final episode, making him the last ECW World Champion. He would go on to be featured as a member of The Corre with Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater. Jackson also won the Intercontinental Championship. However, by the time 2012 rolled around, he was officially entering into jobber status as he started losing left and right on both Smackdown and RAW.
The 46-year-old eventually parted ways in 2014. Sean Ross Sapp actually spoke to Jackson about his release in 2015 and he knew that the writing was on the wall:
"I still haven't received a phone call saying that (WWE) weren't re-signing me," Ezekiel said while laughing. "I knew my contract was going to expire the same day as WrestleMania. I asked if I was being brought in for WrestleMania for anything and was told no. I asked if I could look for bookings the day after and was told yes, and that's basically how we parted ways. Never got a phone call, an e-mail, a text message, not a 'hey dude, we're not bringing you back.'"
Jackson then tried his hand at Lucha Underground as Big Ryck and was featured in the promotion prominently. But as the seasons went on, the former WWE star had stopped appearing in Lucha Underground. Rycklon - his real name - explained during the same interview that it was a travel issue as he didn’t live in the LA area. Since his LU stint in 2015, Jackson had hung up the boots. Until now, of course.
The former WWE star doesn’t go into detail about who he wants to face nor does he mention any company, but it’s clear that the wrestling bug is still burning inside him. It should be interesting to see how the former Ezekiel Jackson holds up in modern wrestling.