Elias Enjoys Having Creative Freedom With His Character, Talks Roman Reigns’ Spot in the Company & More

– Elias appeared on The Steve Austin Show and discussed having creative freedom with his character, Roman Reigns’ spot in WWE and more. The audio is below, as well as highlights (courtesy of Wrestling Inc):

On the creative freedom he has with the Elias character: “I have no complaints. As far as Monday Night Raw goes, I am given an incredible amount of freedom with who I am, what I do with the ring, what i do with the guitar, what I say in my promos and I know i don’t take that for granted one second. I swear I showed up to Monday Night Raw, and the kind of stuff I do on Monday Night Raw I didn’t do at NXT, but what I do on Monday Night Raw I would do on the live events all year. Introduce myself, share a little story, sing a song about the town, or whatever is going through my head. It’s almost like they took my live event stuff and let’s put it on TV, which is exactly what I do. The same thing you see me do on TV I do some kind of version of that I switch it up depending on what I am feeling that night. I like it, and hoping that I am on an upward progression and doing what I can to work my way up.”

On working with Roman Reigns and Reigns’ position in the company: “He’s in the position that he is in for a reason. The fans, I understand their reaction for him, but they are reacting for him, big time everytime he goes out there for him. He is the big dog and I felt that way when I was in the ring with him. He is cool to work with; smooth, and he isn’t panicked or rushing over anything. You just feel it as soon as you get in there. Together, our styles came together nicely I thought.”

On working high-profile matches: “I don’t get nervous facing [Reigns], but I do understand what is going on; they are giving me 20 minutes with their main guy, but also, I have been thinking about this my whole life. I have been wanting this my whole life, and been wanting this spot my whole life, so to me it’s just time to do this. I don’t mean to come off sounding like a big shot, but it’s the truth. I have been watching wrestling since I was a kid, and have wanted to wrestle at WrestleMania in big matches, so I don’t think nervous is the word, but I am definitely excited about what is going on.”

On his favorite wrestler of all-time: “Shawn Michaels was of course my all time favorite. Everyone says it’s Shawn Michaels. Right around the time he won the belt at WrestleMania 12 was like my–not sure how to describe it, but my youth was right around that time and here he was living out his boyhood dream. Shawn Michaels always stuck with me where always thought he was awesome. I remember meeting Shawn when I was 15-16 years old thinking to myself what I am going to say to him when I meet Shawn Michaels. That would be the time for me to be nervous is when I would meet him and I thought all day about what to tell him. I went up to him and said that it was nice to meet him and that he inspired me to want to be a professional wrestler. I felt great about it and he said to me thanks. Sure enough, 15 years later he is teaching me at NXT right before i get called up to Monday Night Raw because he was down there training guys at NXT.”