Elias began his WWE journey in 2014 after a handful of unsuccessful tryouts with the company. William Regal was a big fan of The Drifter in his early days and went to bat to make sure he found his way to NXT.
However, he may not have been wanting by everyone in the company, as was recently revealed when he was a guest on Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory podcast. Elias spoke about his experience where several people in charge were looking to release him from the company and how it felt even worse knowing people in charge didn’t want him there.
“One thing I became very aware of is that the people who said ‘no’ at my tryout, they were now in charge at my job and their minds didn’t change. William Regal always said yes, liked me, and got me through, but the people that said no, they were running the show. I didn’t know anybody in the business, so I’m an outsider to their crew and they can be protective in their circle. I was put on the list to be fired, multiple times in NXT. I was made aware of it two different times. You can imagine walking into work knowing ‘that guy right there wants to fire me.’ It makes you walk on eggshells, there’s extra pressure. There were a lot of ups and downs.”
Elias continued his story, revealing that he had a month to come up with a new character to save his NXT career.
“I had been pulled aside by the head of NXT at the time and he was like, ‘Listen, you have to come up with something for us and give us something. We’ll examine you in 30 days and maybe you’ll be better off somewhere else. Not everyone is meant to be a WWE superstar. Come to me with everything you’ve got and we’ll break it down. Over the next 30 days, I put together a character I refer to as The Judge or The Drifter, which is eventually what I became. I put together a vignette, merchandise, ways to debut, feuds, a whole packet. I presented it to him and he said, ‘This is good. Let’s meet and talk about it.’ He brings me into this roundtable room and everyone is there. Dusty Rhodes, Nick Dinsmore, everyone who worked there. He sits down, has my packet, and goes, ‘We all looked at it, it’s really good.’ Shoves it to the side and goes, ‘What else you got?’ I’m like, ‘….What?’ ‘What else you got?’ ‘I spent the last 30 days making sure this was great. That’s what I put my effort into. You said it was good.’ ‘Yeah, it’s good, what else you got? Here’s the deal. I’m going to turn the lights off. When I turn the lights back on, you’re gonna give me something new.’ He turns the lights off, when he turns them back on, I start yelling at everyone in Italian. Dusty Rhodes goes, ‘Holy shit.’ Nick Dinsmore is like, ‘I got goosebumps.’ The guy that put me on the spot is like, ‘There it is.'”
While the Italian gimmick was something he worked on for a bit, he found it didn’t have a long lifespan and began making changes. It was at this time he began utilizing his guitar in the PC’s promo classes and Dusty Rhodes saw something in this new gimmick. The rest, as they say, is history.
It might be worth nothing that while Elias didn’t name names, the head trainer at the PC during the period Elias referenced he was on the bubble was Bill DeMott. Coincidence or not, Elias has managed to defy the people who didn’t see much in him to become a weekly staple on whatever show he’s on now, and even a top selling artist on iTunes with the music he’s made during his time in the WWE.
h/t to Fightful for the quotes
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