A WWE Hall of Famer believes Elias was “mishandled.”
After a rather lackluster run on the NXT brand, Elias was called up to the main roster and garnered a great deal of popularity for “The Drifter” persona.
With his catchphrase “Walk With Elias” getting over with WWE fans and becoming a prominent member of the roster, there was a lot of optimism about his potential during his first two years on the main roster. However, he seemingly became lost in the shuffle as his run on Raw and SmackDown progressed.
On the latest “Oh…You Didn’t Know” podcast, Brian “Road Dogg” James, who was the lead writer on the SmackDown brand, admitted that he felt Elias was mishandled. He said:
“Look, I liked ‘The Drifter’ character (that Elias portrayed) as well. I think if we would have stuck to that, been committed and consistent with that kind of drifter psychology, I think it would have done well.”
“I think we didn’t quite understand what we had. So we mishandled it. That’s when you get a new toy and you (rough it up) and that’s what we did and so, we did that several times.”
“You (person who sent in the question) brought up several of them. Thank you so much for doing that. Some of the things I cry about at night and my failures as a creative writer in wrestling.”
Transcription via POST Wrestling
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