Elijah says Ezekiel was all Vince McMahon's idea, and he was excited about it.
After being absent for several months, Elias returned to WWE programming in April 2022 as his own younger brother, Ezekiel. Ezekiel was presented as his own person, though he looked a lot like Elias, and Kevin Owens doubted his identity all along, even after Elias and Ezekiel appeared on-screen together.
Owens took Ezekiel out with a vicious attack, sending him to a local medical facility and setting the stage for Elias to return. WWE then released Elias in September 2023. Elias, who has since rebranded as Elijah, has confirmed that he and Ezekiel were indeed the same person.
During a Q& A at For The Love Of Wrestling, Elijah was asked to describe whose idea Ezekiel was.
“Yeah, that was a complete Vince McMahon idea. What had happened was, there was a period of time here where ‘The Boss’ really got into Elias and he said, ‘I want to make you the next guy.’ So he took the guitar away for a little while, and we said alright, we’re coming back, we’re gonna get a new look, new gear. As I did that, he was like, ‘Hey, let’s just go the whole way with it. Let’s clean up the hair, let’s shave the beard. We’ll give a whole new presentation.’ When I did that, it was like, oh, this is a whole different person. So you’re gonna be a different lesson. It’s like, ‘Okay, gotcha boss. What are you thinking.’ ‘Your own younger brother.’ You can imagine how I’m taking this as I’m hearing it. So it was his idea, he was very excited about it. When ‘The Boss’ is excited, you’re gonna be excited, you’re gonna be excited because it seems like some fun things could go down. My whole thing with wrestling and WWE is like, I’m always going to make the best of whatever situation I’m put in and hope the opportunities come and flow from that. So once ‘The Boss’ says okay, we’re gonna be Zeke, you’re gonna be that, you got it, boss. Now as soon as I get out there and show you what I can do with this, I want more opportunities to come. But that’s just kind of the attitude I took. Whatever you throw at me, I’m gonna try and make the best of it," Elijah said.
Elijah recently said that Ezekiel is still recovering, and he knows he would love to be in front of the fans again. Check out his comments here.
Click here to see what Elijah had to say about potentially competing for NJPW, AEW, or TNA.
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