E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness Recap w/ Elias – Development of “Walk With Elias”, Great Advice from HBK, Who Does He Want to Work With Next? More!

Edge and Christian open today’s show by mentioning that Tamina actually competed in the first ever Women’s Royle Rumble match with a torn rotator cuff. Edge points out that battling through that injury to compete in the Rumble as well as raising two children on the side is quite admirable. Christian adds that Tamina’s rotator cuff was probably already completely torn, so wrestling in that match wouldn’t have made it worse; it was just a matter of Tamina having to suffer through the pain.

Edge talks about the off-mic trash talking we see from professional wrestlers on television each week. He says that when wrestlers are yelling back and forth at each other they try to refrain from swearing, and often they’re screaming about something related to their feud or program. On the other hand, Edge says sometimes he’d yell out things like “I’m curious about robots!” or “I like to run with dinosaurs!”, just to see if anyone would notice.

Edge and Christian welcome Elias to the show.

Edge says that he’d a big fan of Elias’ promo style. He thinks Elias has a great delivery, which he describes as “really dry”. Elias admits that he feels very comfortable delivering promos, and he just tries to get better every time he goes out to the ring. He credits WWE officials for giving him a lot of creative freedom in his promos, as that allows him to take some chances in the ring such as interacting with the fans.

Edge asks Elias about the development of his “Drifter” character in NXT. Elias informs that he did a character on the indies called “Heavy Metal Jesus”. That character was all about the imagery, because he wasn’t even playing guitar at that time.

When he was signed to NXT he brought that idea to NXT officials, but they told him that he couldn’t do the ‘Jesus’ gimmick, so had to come up with a new idea. He really liked Sons of Anarchy at that time, and wanted to incorporate that look and feel into this new version of his character.

He brought the idea to Dusty Rhodes and he liked it right away. Dusty was a big supporter of his right up until his passing and soon Triple H saw something in the character as well, putting it on television and incorporating it into storylines. Elias points out that NXT fans didn’t see a whole lot of him on NXT programming, but he did his best to entertain fans at NXT live events.

He informs that he’d often go outside prior to live events so he could play guitar and sing for the fans in the lineup. When he’d compete in front of the crowd later on in the night, he’d notice a difference in the reaction they’d give him. He thinks it’s vital for performers to make those connections with members of the audience when possible.

Edge thought Elias’ gimmick really caught hold once he transitioned to the main roster. Elias agrees, pointing out that right from day one Triple H said that this character would fit better on the main roster. The NXT audience is quite different than WWE’s mainstream audience, and Elias seems to have a mainstream appeal which makes him a great fit for the main roster.

Elias talks about the development of his “Walk With Elias” catchphrase. He points out that when he was referred to as “The Drifter” in NXT, it was implied that his character walked from town to town. After arriving on the main roster he dropped the “Drifter” moniker, but he continued to use his catchphrase. He recalls talking to John Cena backstage one day and he joked to Cena that WWE stood for “Walk With Elias”. Cena thought this was brilliant, and told him to start using that in the ring.

Elias admits that he hopes to continue to evolve his character over time. Much like The Undertaker, he hopes to get as much as he can out of this version of “Elias”, before evolving into a slightly different version of himself. He thinks it’s critical for talents to evolve their character in order to remain viable in an ever-changing landscape like WWE.

He mentions that he participated in several WWE tryouts prior to receiving a contract. While he was at his fourth tryout he received some great advice from Shawn Michaels who told the class that, “No means not yet”. This advice really stuck with him, and he was able to successfully get signed on his following tryout.

Christian asks Elias who he’d love to compete against in WWE. Elias says he always wanted to work with Cena, and luckily he’s been able to make that happen over the last few months. Moving forward he’d love to work with Nakamura and Chris Jericho.

That sums up today’s episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!