5 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (Oct 24)

4. Nice Character Work

Give Elias some credit for showing some subtlety in his actions Monday night, giving fans some shades to play with.

Elias returned last week and clearly was playing a face, but he gave a couple of bits where you could see him getting frustrated (mainly with Matt Riddle) and turning heel. That came and went last week, but Monday night, we got another dose of that subtlety.

Backstage, Elias warned Riddle to never interrupt him again, giving him a pass for last week but promising to drop him next time. Then Riddle started playing the bongos, much to everyone’s annoyance, and Elias stepped back, grimaced, grabbed his guitar and wound up as if to swing it at the Original Bro. That little hint showed that there’s still the old Elias there, just beneath the surface.

And now that he’s seemingly paired with the resurgent grating personality of Riddle, it’s probably a matter of time before Elias turns on Matt and goes full heel again. While it isn’t on the level of Randy Orton turning on Rittle, it’ll be fun to see if we get more little hints along the way.