Elias Says A WWE Title "Needs To Come My Way Sooner Than Later"
It's been a steady rise for Elias, as the character has become more and more over, with the RAW star even releasing his own EP this past summer. During an interview with Cultaholic, Elias said that his character came from a talk with Dusty Rhodes and drawing from his own experiences.
"It really just came from real life," said Elias. "I can remember sitting there with Dusty Rhodes, just the one-on-one talking, the way me and you [Adam Pacitti] are right now, telling him about my life and the kind of person I am. One day I just brought a guitar in and I was telling a little story and playing a little guitar in between and he took notice and said 'man, that was cool, there's something to that'. It's just continued to evolve since then.
"And a little story I tell: The way I sit on the stool and talk and play guitar right now on Monday Night Raw, I used to do that outside the venues, the little armories here in Florida, as people came in the building. Before anybody knew who Elias was, I was doing that. I was talking to people, playing guitar. I'm sure there are pictures or videos out there somewhere. Same thing, literally the same thing I was doing then, I'm doing now on Monday Night Raw."
From venues in Florida, to arenas all over the globe, the way Elias goes about his performances has been consistent. The content is thought out before hand, but can change depending on the crowd.
"A lot of it just comes from my brain," Elias said. "I always have an idea of what I want to say, and I always work on my song before I go out there. Even up to the minute before I get out there, I'll be working on whatever I want to sing and stuff like that, but I can never fully one hundred percent know what the crowd is going to be. Whether they want to chant something, or say something, or they're really into something or not into something. I'm ready to just switch whatever I had in my mind, on the spot to make it work for that night."
Elias has yet to win gold in WWE, and said that a championship "needs to come my way sooner than later."
"There's plenty to achieve," said Elias. "I think a championship needs to come my way sooner than later. I've got unfinished business with Seth Rollins. When we had our match at Money in the Bank, and he ended up cheating to win. The way I see it, give me another crack at him because guess what, I can cheat to if I have too. But I can be Rollins straight up one-on-one, which is why I think he cheated in the first place because he knows it. You want to talk about the Universal Championship down the line. But just bigger, grander, better, more performances, in front of more people and just continue to grow."
Elias won't be competing for a championship at WWE Super Show-Down, but he will be facing off against two former champions. He will tag with Kevin Owens to take on Bobby Lashley and John Cena on October 6th in Australia.
For the full interview with Cultaholic, check out the video above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Cultaholic with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.