10 Biggest Downgrades In WWE History

Whilst many would be quick to fall back on the laughable adage of "wait and see how it plays out" when it pertains to the one-time audience provoker returning on the Raw after WrestleMania 38 minus his trusty instrument or grizzled fur, recent history suggests that this train of thought often leads to a full-blown derailment later down the line.

Even at this early stage, the identity shenanigans involving Ezekiel or Elias depending on who is being interviewed backstage on Monday nights feel as ill-thought-out as they are largely unfunny, with even the mighty Kevin Owens struggling to get over the supposed hilarity of everyone but him being convinced about the arrival of The Drifter's apparent brother.

Sure, WWE do at least appear to be in on the joke a little this time around, even posting a photo of Elias posing next to his faux sibling on Instagram as a way of riling up KO.

However, if the endgame here is to finally transform Elias/Ezekiel into a star capable of captivating a crowd inside of the squared-circle as much as he once did whilst sat on a stool, you can't imagine that having the string-plucking menace slap on a fake beard and flirt between his two current personas over the course of three dull hours is going to finally catapult him into main event contention.

But you never know, if we wait and see how it plays out long enough, Elias might just grow his beard back for realsies and go back to popping the crowd with his routinely entertaining strumming sessions.