Each year WWE calls up talent from NXT on the premise that, after working with WWE trainers, under WWE management, in WWE sized rings, with a WWE camera set up, they will be ready for prime time. The conventional wisdom is that guys like the original Sin Cara floundered on account of not having this kind of transitional space to prepare for all of the WWE specifics, where as a successor like Andrade Cien Almas is a test case for why the system works. Almas struggled to find his footing and figure out his character in his first year-plus in developmental before a heel turn and pairing with Zelina Vega reinvented his character in ways that let his exceptional in ring talent shine through.

And then there’s Elias.

Elias is a genuinely strange act to emerge from NXT, because while he did go through training and preparation at the Performance Center and did get to work a TakeOver match, he came across as far from the chosen one, but rather just another guy who may or may not get a shot on the roster. Lo and behold, he did debut on the Raw after WrestleMania 33 and has since blossomed into a cult favorite with his own fan following. Moreover, he’s earned big opportunities, including working some semblance of a WrestleMania program with John Cena this past spring.

But who is Elias, really? Where did he come from and what has his story been behind the scenes at WWE? This article takes a look at fifteen little known facts about Elias.

15 He Got Unique Guidance From Triple H

Elias went largely overlooked during his time on NXT television, during a time when Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Samoa Joe were being featured on top, and while the tag team division was largely on fire with The Revival and American Alpha dominating the scene, and #DIY and The Authors of Pain on their way up. Indeed Elias only worked one TakeOver match, and it was a largely forgettable loss designed to push his opponent, Apollo Crews.

So, it was a bit of a surprise when Elias got the call up to the main roster, and more surprising when he was awarded a high profile quickly, including beating Balor on Raw and winding up feuding with John Cena in early 2018. While the latter program saw Elias largely as a stand in for The Undertaker, Elias nonetheless even got the upper hand, beating down Cena on the high profile twenty fifth anniversary edition of Raw.

Elias discussed his sudden, and unexpected main roster success in a visit to Steve Austin’s podcast.

He indicated that Triple H took him aside while he was still in developmental to discuss how his persona and in ring style weren’t really jiving with the NXT audience.

Rather than admonishing or correcting him, though, Elias says that what Triple H was really getting across was that he had an act that would work better with the broader and more kid friendly audience that only matches the main roster. Surely enough, despite an uninspired NXT run, Elias has stayed true to his gimmick and done nicely for himself since he was called up.

14 He Gets More Creative Leeway Than Most Of The Roster

One of Elias’s signatures has become showing up in the middle of the ring, calling for ring announcer JoJo to present him, and give him a spotlight. From there, he strums his guitar and sings a brief, insulting song about whatever city he’s performing in. Though the act is designed to draw boos from the crowd, and indeed feels like an old school heel shtick, it’s also more often than not an amusing bit, and fans get a kick out of hearing any WWE Superstar reference their hometown, even if it is in a derisive fashion. Thus, even at—and perhaps most of all when he’s at—his most condescending, he tends to get cheered.

The bottom line is that Elias’s musical antics get a reaction. If the past decade of WWE programming—which has included proposed faces of the company John Cena and Roman Reigns getting booed out of arenas—has taught us anything, it’s that Vince McMahon and the powers that be value top stars getting the crowd invested, however those fans may react. As a result, Elias has noted in interviews that he actually gets considerable creative leeway with his songs. Whereas most talents at least get bullet points from the writing team to guide their promos, the fact that Elias sings, and the songs typically have more to do with a city than an opponent, both means that the writing needs to be more his own, and the stakes are lower for not necessarily driving a storyline, so much as simply being there to get heat.

13 He Tag Teamed With Alexa Bliss’s Boyfriend

Like most talents in WWE’s developmental system, Elias took a little time to find both his identity and his appropriate space to fill on the roster. So, before he started singing songs, and while he still had the last name Samson, he actually worked his first televised NXT match to little fanfare, teaming with Buddy Murphy.

Murphy has been turning some heads as a budding heel on WWE’s 205 Live brand recently, but he was previously best known for two things. First off all, there was his reasonably successful tag run with, not Elias, but rather Wesley Blake. Secondarily, in addition to having some storyline involvement with Alexa Bliss, the two have been dating for years, and Bliss revealed on a visit to Lillian Garcia’s podcast that they are engaged.

Before either Murphy or Elias had gotten anywhere, though, they were treated more like cannon fodder for The Ascension. It’s funny to think of now, as Konor and Victor have been largely relegated to playing lower card comedic sidekicks to The Fashion Police, but at the time the big man team was booked as a dominant force in the style of The Road Warriors, and mowed right through the two more anonymous rookies.

12 He Spent His First Five Years On The Indies

Lots of today’s WWE roster is populated by guys who honed their craft on the indies. There was, for quite some time, a bit of a stigma against independent wrestlers who had learned bad habits and struggled to assimilate to the WWE style. Guys like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan helped knock down the door for the next generation of guys who had walked a similar road though, with talents like AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Dean Ambrose now hanging out around the top of the card. Meanwhile, NXT’s next generation of rising stars also includes indie trained guys like Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, Adam Cole, and Roderick Strong.

Elias wasn’t among those guys with a hugely celebrated rep on the indies who worked five star matches, or showed up at the top of the smaller companies like ROH or Impact Wrestling.

He did however have a solid five years working independents, and learning his fundamentals. He focused on his native northeast region, and even struck gold while working for the International Wrestling Cartel.

Elias doesn’t necessarily work an indie style, though having developed less acrobatics or highly technical offense, but rather learning old school heat seeking techniques on the mic, besides developing a physique befitting the WWE main roster.

11 He Earned A Degree In Business Management

Elias was born in Pittburgh, Pennsylvania and purports to have been a wrestling fan growing up. However, before he officially started his training, he went to college, actually going so far as to earn his bachelor’s in Business Management according to an interview he did for Edge and Christian’s podcast.

Elias seems to have followed the guidance that many veterans of the business, including Steve Austin and Jim Ross have preached time and again. While a passion for wrestling is key to success, there are no guarantees in this line of work, and an injury can derail even the best laid plans. Thus, it’s essential to have something to fall back on if wrestling superstardom doesn’t work out, or after the party’s over and it’s time to settle down.

While Elias was training and working his regional independent circuit, he sought out business opportunities related to sports and fitness, which was a shrewd pick to stay closely related to his field and stay up to date on the latest fitness trends. His career seems to have taken off now, but Elias may well end up following in the footsteps of guys like Diamond Dallas Page or Ryback in pursuing his own business related to sports after he leaves WWE or hangs up his boots for good.

10 He Met His Trainers The First Time He Went To A Wrestling Show

There’s a well established tradition of athletes transitioning to wrestling after they get inured, or if they can’t cut it at a professional level in their sport of choice. These guys don’t necessarily start in on their wrestling careers with a passion for the business, but rather start in with the physical tools to succeed in sports entertainment, and if they stick it out for the long term, develop their knowledge and love for the form. Elias, however, is among the new breed of wrestlers who grew up as fans with intentions of eventually working his way into the ring.

Elias has told the story in a number of interviews of attending an independent wrestling show for Iron City Wrestling in his native Pittsburgh when he was 18 years old. He wound up meeting trainers connected with the promotion there and had soon signed up to begin his training with them.

At 6-foot-2 with a wide frame and an interest in fitness, he probably looked like a compelling prospect from the onset.

His training would feed directly into his independent wrestling career, set him up with the tools and connections for him to eventually sign with WWE years later.

9 He Had His First Tryout Match With Dean Ambrose

Elias wasn’t a legacy case with deep family roots in the business, nor did he have a well established career with New Japan Pro Wrestling or Ring of Honor to pave the way to his career with WWE. On the contrary, he took a more old school route of honing his skills on the independent level. His indie work earned him the opportunity to work WWE tryout matches in front of scouts and management.

Elias would try out on multiple occasions before WWE ever offered him a contract. Notably, he had his first such outing opposite Dean Ambrose, before the Lunatic Fringe had debuted on the main roster. Elias has said that, looking back on the experience, he feels the choice not to sign him at that point was no mistake at all on WWE’s part. On the contrary, he accepts that he wasn’t yet ready for his big break at that point in his career. The additional experience he gained, honing his mechanical skills, developing a unique look, and, perhaps most importantly of all, learning how to connect and get over with pro wrestling fans would prove invaluable in helping him arrive as not just an NXT roster member, but one of the more immediately over youngster to work the main roster.

8 He Played Baseball In High School

There’s a litany of WWE stars who played football before transitioning into sports entertainment—a sensible enough direction for guys who need to have had strength training and gotten used to giving and taking hits. There are a fair number of basketball alumni to have made the leap as well, with their natural height, not to mention speed and coordination that lend themselves nicely to careers in wrestling. There are, of course, those guys who had wrestling ambitions from the get-go, and had more directly related sports backgrounds like amateur wrestling or martial arts.

Elias, however, joins the less developed tradition of wrestlers who made their way to wrestling via baseball—a smaller group, headlined by the late Randy Savage.

Elias has noted in interviews that baseball was the only sport he played before going into the wrestling business, and he had only played it at the high school level when he was a teenager. While the transition may not be as obvious as some others, it’s nonetheless a sport that demands discipline, strength, and conditioning that helped set him on the path to become a professional athlete. There’s not much sign of this past endeavor in the way Elias works now, though perhaps the discerning eye could detect similarities in how he swings his guitar to the way he once used a bat.

7 Dusty Rhodes Helped Him Develop His Character

In an interview with The Tribune-Review hometown newspaper in Pittsburgh, Elias discussed his early days in WWE’s NXT developmental system. This period included getting practice in a WWE ring (larger than the typical independent ring), getting feedback from more experienced mentors, and cultivating the character that he would debut on NXT television en route to the main roster.

Elias discussed sitting down with Dusty Rhodes. While Rhodes is widely respected as one of the greatest wrestling stars who ever lived, the consensus from those who worked with him in NXT seems to be that he was also an all time great teacher, who was particularly important in figuring out young stars’ gimmicks and helping them with their promo delivery.

After getting a feel for Elias’s personality and noting his passion for playing guitar, he set him up for his Drifter gimmick, which would evolve into the cryptic, singing heel that we all know on Monday Night Raw today.

Elias would be one of the many WWE stars who mourned the passing of The American Dream in the summer of 2015. Sadly, the legend would never get to see Elias advance to the main roster. Nonetheless, Rhodes’s wisdom has lived on in Elias’s every success, and in his own knowledge of the business today.

6 William Regal Went To Bat For Him

William Regal had a lengthy pro wrestling career, which included playing a top mid card heel in WCW before hopping to WWE. In WWE, he’d work in a variety of spots. Most often, he was a heel with some level of authority figure role or sidekick to Mr. McMahon or Eric Bischoff, though he also had his moments as a face, most memorably paired in a comedic odd couple with Bischoff’s kayfabe nephew Eugene.

Regal has since taken up residence as the commissioner of NXT’s television show—a well respected figure who has mixed it up with heels on an occasional basis to add some extra heat to big programs. His work in developmental isn’t limited to this on screen authority role, though. He has also helped out with mentoring talent, and utilized his discerning eye for wrestling talent and psychology as a scout for WWE.

Elias has spoken in several interviews about Regal seeing the tryout match that got him his WWE job, and advocating for The Drifter as a future star. While their television personas are as different as could be, it’s clear that Regal could recognize the potential to succeed in the young grappler, and it looks as though his assessment held up nicely given Elias’s successes on the main roster to follow.

5 Jeff Hardy Named His Finisher

“Drift Away” is a classic pop song, most famously performed by Dobie Gray in the 1970s and popularized more recently in a cover by Uncle Kracker. The song became attached to Elias based on his Drifter gimmick, as the NXT fans began chanting “Drift Away” to the rhythm of “New Day Rocks” when he was in the ring. At the time Elias had recently taken to using a swinging neckbreaker variation as his finisher—perhaps in part as a tribute to his fellow guitar wielding heel The Honky Tonk Man, with his Shake Rattle N Roll signature move.

Though Jeff Hardy has had minimal connection to Elias in front of the WWE audience, Elias has cited him as the one who actually suggested naming his move The Drift Away, to give into the crowd, and fit his gimmick. The pieces fit together nicely and the move, by that name, is now a quintessential part of his wrestling identity.

It’s not so unbelievable that Hardy would pitch this idea. He’s notorious for his creative spots in the ring, including revolutionizing offense delivered from high up a ladder, and even his routine wrestling match spots like the Whisper in the Wind and Swanton Bomb being deceptively difficult and innovative for the time he started using them. So, creatively naming another guy’s move wasn’t out of the ordinary for the creative star.

4 He Lost His WWE Network Special Event Debut

Elias has become one of the bigger success stories to emerge from NXT, and particularly so from his “graduating class” that moved up to the WWE main roster shortly after WrestleMania 33. No, he didn’t get a match at WrestleMania 34, but one could argue that he did one better in getting an extended promo and confrontation with John Cena, not to mention serving as a key cog in the Cena-Undertaker machine that night.

Despite the success that Elias has achieved on the main roster, he wasn’t necessarily such a player on the NXT landscape.

Indeed, he worked just one NXT TakeOver special match, opposite Apollo Crews in Dallas during WrestleMania 32 weekend. Crews would win that match decisively before heading up to the main roster himself not long after.

It’s funny to think now that Crews was treated as the hotter prospect during their mutual time in developmental, but this dynamic probably also bespeaks the success of the NXT system. Between his agility, raw strength, and buzz, Crews was quite arguably tapped to move up to the main roster before he was really ready to succeed there, whereas the additional time spent cultivating Elias’s character set him up to thrive when he got the call to head to Raw.

3 John Cena Saw Money In The “Walk With Elias” Catchphrase

Elias and John Cena had their share of exchanges in early 2018. Highlights have included Elias getting the better of Cena and breaking a guitar over his back on the 25th anniversary Raw special, Cena eliminating Elias from the Royal Rumble a week later, mixing it up in the men’s Elimination Chamber, and Elias getting in Cena’s business one last time at WrestleMania 34. Taken at a literal level, one might think these two guys are enemies, but as is so often the case in the wrestling business, the best on air rivals are guys who get along backstage.

Elias discussed Cena’s support of him and his character when he visited Steve Austin’s podcast. In particular, Elias discussed riffing off of his “Walk with Elias,” catchphrase to emphasize that that was what WWE really stood for. He claims Cena was impressed and thought incorporating that into a promo would draw big heat, and prove memorable for wrestling fans. That’s no small vote of confidence, as Cena’s support has been known to help out performers, while he also has sufficient stroke to derail a colleague he has less respect for. It seems Cena saw something in Elias, and put his weight behind the rising star behind the scenes.

2 He Tried Out A Gimmick Called The Judge

One of the signature parts of coming up through WWE’s developmental system is that wrestlers have the opportunity to work on their promos in a supportive, but critical environment. Rather than having to gauge their success by fan response, there are seasoned, proven veterans of the business around to coach rookies in the right directions and set them up for long term success.

Elias has described in a number of interview sessions, including his conversation on Steve Austin’s podcast, that at one point at the Performance Center, he tried on a gimmick he’d named the judge.

He described it as somewhat similar to the Drifter gimmick that ultimately helped him get over and earn his main roster spot. However, he has noted The Judge was a darker, borderline apocalyptic character with a more sinister vibe.

While Elias’s current shtick does involve a certain sense of enigmatic darkness, it could also be argued that he’s arrived at more of a comedic character, particularly for his routine mocking of whatever town he’s performing in, which harkens back to old school silly heel antics to garner cheap heat.

Particularly given Elias’s long haired, bearded look, the Judge character may have proven too similar to Bray Wyatt at the time anyway, but it may well be a gimmick idea worth revisiting later in Elias’s career.

1 He Names The Undertaker As His Dream Opponent

Lots of wrestlers have their dream opponents. Those who want to work the top of the card may envision themselves standing opposite from John Cena while the ring announcer introduces a world title match. More of an indie purist might fantasize about squaring off with AJ Styles or Daniel Bryan to put on a five star match on WWE’s big stage. Elias proves himself as a longer term, more serious wrestling fan, though, in his stated ambition to work The Undertaker.

Though someone like Cena could certainly be considered a veteran of WWE at this point, you can consider that he’s only had about 15 years on the main roster, as opposed to the Undertaker who is inching closer to 30 (albeit with much of the past decade in particular spent as a part timer).

Besides having legitimately grown up as a wrestling fan while watching The Deadman, Elias may well recognize a more compatible ring style in The Undertaker’s more methodical, albeit versatile approach to in ring performance. Of course, it’s also hard for anyone who was a fan during Elias’s teenage years not to have also been mesmerized by The Undertaker’s aura, especially as he transitioned back from his biker gimmick into something closer to his original macabre persona.