Ezekiel Debuts On WWE Raw - Elias' New Gimmick!
WWE strips beard, jeans, guitar away from Elias, renames him and gets... silence.
After being off WWE television for eight months, Elias finally returned to WWE Raw Monday night.
Or did he?
A man who looked suspiciously like Elias - albeit clean-shaven and wearing trunks - made his way to ringside during a Kevin Owens promo. The man would deny being the troubadour, saying he was Elias' younger brother, Ezekiel.
Whoever he is, the guy did little of note other than calling KO a liar and standing firm when Owens threatened him to get out of the ring. Owens would leave the ring rather than getting physical with Ezekiel, and the segment ended right there.
Last summer, Elias lost a feud with former running buddy Jaxson Ryker, then appeared in a couple of vignettes in August that proclaimed that Elias was "dead," strongly hinting at a character change. WWE 2K22 reference photos of Elias showed him in new gear, ditching the trademark jeans for traditional trunks. Reports stated that WWE nixed this direction because Vince McMahon thought he looked too much like Randy Savage, which might explain why "Ezekiel" was sans beard Monday night.
The name is Ezekiel, @FightOwensFight. #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/Y6Pv0QMw2k
— WWE (@WWE) April 5, 2022
There's no indication of what direction Ezekiel is headed - if this is a one-off, whether the name change is permanent, or if WWE is going all-in on the new persona. Really, there was no development of this guy's persona. Just that he looked like Elias without a beard, jeans or guitar. In essence, they stripped away everything unique about Elias.