15 WWE Wrestlers Who Lost A Name

8. Elias (Samson)

Mustafa Ali
WWE

Way back in NXT, we got to know The Drifter, Elias Samson. Fast-forward to today, and he’s simply known as Elias.

Elias has progressively lost names, but not his identity. In jumping to WWE, he shed his Drifter nickname (though his finisher is called “Drift Away”). A short time after joining the Raw roster, “Samson” disappeared from the chyron, leaving us with a one-named wandering troubadour.

Despite those name changes, Elias has maintained a decent amount of success for a guy originally considered a one-note joke (pun intended). Elias competed for a Universal Championship match at WrestleMania last month. And he regularly gets a ton of promo/performance time, often riling up fans more than most superstars.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.