Elias was released from WWE last September after an underwhelming run on the main roster. At one point, Elias was over with the crowd, but WWE didn’t pull the trigger.
In 2022, Elias made his return as Ezekiel and had a huge success. However, WWE management scrapped the gimmick and reverted him back to the previous character.
After his WWE release, Elias arrived on the independent circuit and is now competing under the name “Elija.” In an interview with Metro.co.uk, the former WWE star said that he had ideas to evolve his Elias character. Elija added that ‘Monday Night Messiah’ was one of his ideas, and WWE gave it to Seth Rollins & AOP.
“I was always coming up with different characters, ways to evolve Elias into the next thing. There was a character that I really thought could have been incredible myself, it was the Monday Night Messiah. And if you realize, Seth Rollins and AOP ended up – for lack of better terms, they just gave it to those guys.”
Elija also said that he has no issue with Seth Rollins.
“It’s no discredit to Seth [Rollins], the guy’s absolutely incredible. But this is how that’s how the system works, you know what I mean? That’s the risk you take with giving these ideas.”