Former WWE Star Originally Pitched Seth Rollins' Messiah Gimmick For Himself

This ex-WWE star takes credit for the creation of the Monday Night Messiah.

by Andrew Pollard
Elias Seth Rollins
WWE

According to the one-time Elias, he was the person who originally came up with Seth Rollins' Monday Night Messiah gimmick. Not just that, but the nowadays-Elijah pitched that idea for himself.

While speaking to Metro, this Messiah persona was just one of several ideas the former WWE star pitched to creative.

"I was always coming up with different characters, ways to evolve Elias into the next thing. There was a character that I really thought could have been incredible myself. It was the Monday Night Messiah. And you realise, Seth Rollins and AOP ended up, for lack of better terms, they just gave it to those guys."

The four-time 24/7 Champion added:

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"I had a real vision of me being the Pied Piper of Monday Night Raw and controlling people with this kind of a cult-like leader, the biblical themes and things like that. I always love that Messiah stuff."

Elijah had nothing but praise for Seth Rollins, calling him "absolutely incredible", and noted how "that's the risk you take" when approaching the powers-that-be with creative ideas or character changes; that those ideas could instead be used for somebody else.

Having been with WWE since 2014, Elijah was released last September. Beginning his run with the company as Elias Samson in NXT, a main roster move happened in 2017, with that move eventually seeing him also take on the persona of Ezekiel, the younger brother of Elias.

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Since departing WWE, the Pittsburgh native started to work independent dates at the turn of the year, most recently competing for Empire State Wrestling out of New York last month. The 36-year-old also has an upcoming match scheduled against fellow musician Joe Hendry - say his name and he appears, of course - at North Wrestling's Thunderstruck 2 event in Newcastle, England on 13 July.

In the meantime, our very own Simon Miller was able to grab some time with Elijah during WrestleMania Week, which you can check out below:

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Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.