Ethan Carter III

Michael Hutter (born March 18, 1983) is an American professional wrestler and promoter better known by the ring name Ethan Carter III (or simply EC3).

He is currently signed to the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he is the current NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion and is a former NWA National Heavyweight Champion.

He also performs on the independent circuit.

He is best known for his tenures with Impact Wrestling and WWE, where he performed both under his EC3 ring name and, earlier, as Derrick Bateman.

Hutter began his professional wrestling career in 2002, and began wrestling for the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) promotion in 2007.

On April 14, 2003 Hutter appeared at the Heat tapings prior to Raw as Mike Hunter, where he was defeated by Rodney Mack.

On July 24, 2006 he appeared again at Heat, where he teamed with Chris Cronus in a loss to Viscera and Charlie Haas.

He also appeared on Raw in August 2006, as a police officer with Shane McMahon who were to arrest D-Generation X.

Hutter made his Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) debut on the March 27, 2007 television tapings, where he lost to Tony Braddock in a dark match using his real name.

The following week, he lost to Mike Mondo in a dark match, before changing his ring name to Mike Hutter.

He competed in several more dark matches before the television tapings, teaming with Nick Nemeth and Chris Cage in a loss to Mike Kruel, Vladimir Kozlov and Boris Alexiev in a six-man tag team match, before losing to Mondo again.

On the April 25 television tapings, Hutter teamed with TJ Dalton and Jamin Olivencia in defeat to Pat Buck, Johnny Punch and Braddock, before losing to Del Electrico in a dark match on the May 2 tapings.

Throughout May, he went on to lose to Anthony Polaski (a renamed Tony Braddock) in a dark match and Dan Rodman, and on the May 23 tapings, he was attacked by Kruel, Kozlov, and Mr. Strongo.

In his final OVW appearance in June, Hutter competed in a gauntlet match to earn a match against then United States Champion, Montel Vontavious Porter, but the match was won by Chet The Jet.

On June 27, 2007, Hutter appeared at a Derby City Wrestling show in Louisville, Kentucky, where he teamed with Osiris to defeat The Belgian Brawler and Apocalypse in a dark match.

On December 9, 2007, Firestorm Pro Wrestling held its inaugural show Destroy Erase Improve, which saw the start of a six-man round robin tournament, in which Hutter competed.

The tournament lasted nine months, before ending on September 12, 2008 at Something to Die For.

That same show, Hutter won a six-man elimination match to become the inaugural Firestorm Pro Heavyweight Champion.

Hutter made his last appearance with Firestorm Pro Wrestling on December 13, 2008, when he vacated the Firestorm Pro Heavyweight Championship, which he later awarded to John McChesney when McChesney won a four-way match for the vacant championship.

In 2009, he signed a contract with WWE, where he competed as Derrick Bateman.

He was assigned to WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), where he won the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship with Johnny Curtis.

Also, he competed in the fourth and fifth seasons of NXT, a program where rookies were paired with Pros.

Hutter made his Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) debut on February 9, 2009, as Mike Hutter, when he lost to Drew McIntyre.

On February 19, he changed his ring name to Derrick Bateman, and gained Abraham Washington as a manager as he teamed with Lennox McEnroe in a loss to Scotty Goldman and DJ Gabriel.

On the February 26 television tapings, Hutter, Washington, and Tristan Delta lost a dark match to Brett DiBiase, Maverick Darsow, and Tank Mulligan.

In March, he and Dylan Klein lost to Kafu and Sweet Papi Sanchez.

In April, he became known as Agent D, as part of Washington's Secret Service stable, alongside Agent T and Agent J. He reverted to his Derrick Bateman name in June, in a loss to DJ Gabriel.

After a hiatus, Bateman returned to FCW in 2010, teaming with Adam Henderson in a loss to The Rotundo Brothers (Bo and Duke).

In March, he lost to Richie Steamboat and Joe Hennig in singles competition, and to Johnny Prime, Orlando Colón, and Incognito as part of a six-man tag team match, before defeating Rudy Parker.

He went on to lose to Skip Sheffield, Percy Watson, Mason Ryan, Wes Brisco, and Eli Cottonwood over the next several months.

In mid-2010, he formed a tag team known as The Handsome Man's Express with Leo Kruger, and the pair unsuccessfully challenged Los Aviadores (Hunico and Epico) for the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship on July 2.

He left WWE in May 2013 and then signed a contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

He worked with the promotion as Ethan Carter III, the storyline nephew of TNA's legit owner Dixie Carter.

He won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship twice and the Impact Grand Championship once.

He returned to WWE in January 2018, competing in NXT, before making his main roster debut in early 2019, where he held the WWE 24/7 Championship four times.

His second tenure with WWE ended in April 2020.

Hutter began his career in Cleveland wrestling regularly for several promotions in the Ohio region after making his debut.

He wrestled for Pro Wrestling Ohio, making his debut on episode nine of the television show, as an ally of M-Dogg 20, under the name the "Deviant" Michael Hutter.

He immediately began feuding with Josh Prohibition and Johnny Gargano and in the main event on episode 13 he teamed with Jason Bane to defeat Prohibition and Gargano.

He made his final appearance for the promotion on episode 16, losing to Prohibition in a match to determine the participants in a match for the PWO Heavyweight Championship.