Elias had doubts about continuing his wrestling career.
WWE released Elias in September 2023. He had an inconsistent run with the company; at times, he was featured in segments with The Undertaker, but he was also part of the WWE 24/7 Championship scene. He memorably had a run as his own brother, Ezekiel, as well.
Speaking with Alistair McGeorge of Metro, Elias, also known as Elijah, recalled growing frustrated during his time in WWE. He opened up about how the frustrations of unsuccessfully trying to make things happen in WWE nearly took his love of wrestling from him
"The fact that I just kinda was relegated to like short backstage – it was so frustrating that I was like, 'You know what? Maybe I’m done with wrestling. Maybe I’m just you know, I’m just over it. It beats that fun thing you have as a kid when you want to wrestle and you want to be in WWE… Someone like me, I didn’t like just to sit by and just collect the paycheck. I wanted to be in the mix. I wanted to show you that I could be right in there with any of those guys. To not have that happen was really just disheartening, you know what I mean? So I didn’t really know what I do after," Elias said.
Elias admitted that he had doubts about continuing his wrestling career, as he was disappointed with the way the last few months of his WWE run went. He recalled trying to make things happen and being willing to play any character or try anything. However, Elias stated that his creative juices started flowing again, and he returned to action by facing Mike Bailey at Wrestling Revolver Whatashow.
"Then I’m like, 'Oh yeah, it’s there, that fun of wrestling! It’s there.' I just kind of want to do that now. It’s enjoyable to travel and wrestle, and be me, and meet people," Elias said.
Elias went on to reiterate his past comments that he would prefer to travel the world on the independent scene rather than return to being contracted somewhere with a major company. He noted that there had been interest all across the board, but he was not sure whether he wanted to jump into that kind of situation.
In a previous interview, Elias said that he thought he could have been incredible as The Monday Night Messiah, but WWE gave the character to Seth Rollins. Check out his comments here.
