Elias made an appearance on Chasing With Glory with Lilian Garcia to talk about a wide range of topics.
During the interview, he recalled how he was hired by WWE after three tryouts. However, shortly after joining WWE NXT in 2014, he found himself on the chopping block several times before he came up with his Drifter gimmick.
I’m here at my dream job. I’m on NXT, and one step closer to WWE,” he exclaimed. “One thing I became very aware of when I got there was that the people who said ‘no’ at my tryout were now in charge of my job, and their minds didn’t change. Corey Graves can attest to this, but I was put on the fired list numerous times in NXT for whatever reason.
“I’ll tie it in full circle. I remember being pulled aside by the head of NXT at that time. He said, ‘Hey, listen. You gotta come up with something for us. We’re going to examine you in about 30 days. And, hey, maybe you’d be better off somewhere else. Maybe not everybody is meant to be a WWE Superstar.’
H/T to Wrestling Inc