Elias Claims He Created The 'Monday Night Messiah' Character For Himself

Former WWE star Elias has claimed he came up with and pitched the 'Monday Night Messiah' character, only for the company to give the gimmick to Seth Rollins instead. 

Speaking with Metro ahead of his summer tour of the UK, the man now wrestling independently as Elijah said: 

"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 Might Messiah. And if you realise, Seth Rollins and AOP ended up – for lack of better terms, they just gave it to those guys".

Continuing, the 36-year-old said of the proposed character: 

"I had a real vision of me being the Pied Piper of Monday Night Raw and controlling people, with kind of a cult like leader. The biblical themes and things like that, I always love that Messiah stuff". 

Despite WWE supposedly taking the idea and giving it to Rollins, Elijah holds no ill will towards the former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and puts it down to how the WWE system works: 

"There's guys that just are getting paid more or getting put more in a spotlight, and they might want to put the resources into those guys. It's no discredit to Seth, 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," Elijah said.

Elijah will take on TNA's Joe Hendry when he appears at NORTH Wrestling's Thunderstruck 2 on July 13.