Elias on whether he’s finished with his musical performances, facing Ali in the King of the Ring tournament, his ultimate goal in WWE

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

CBS Sports Local interview with Elias
Host: Chuck Carroll
Full interview available at CBSlocal.com

We’re talking about changes to NXT, but it looks like you’re undergoing some changes as well. You supposedly had your final performance this past week. Is that really it for Elias in the ring with the guitar? Well, you can never say never. But listen, there comes a time in every wrestler’s career, if you really want to take those next steps, you’re going to have to evolve. You can’t constantly be doing the same thing. While I really do enjoy performing in the ring and all that, there’s going to come a time where I can’t be doing that every single week.

Your next opponent in King of the Ring is Ali. You guys have two completely different styles. How do you mesh those styles when you have somebody who is so different performance-wise than you in the ring? You know what? I think the style is actually going to really come together well, because I’m a brawler and more of a power guy. He’s a littler guy, high-flyer. I think it’s going to mix up nice. Now we’ve never been in the ring together, we’ve never touched anything like that. Hey, who knows I was going to go down once it’s time. But yeah, I think myself versus Ali is going to… It might surprise a few people.

What are your other goals in WWE? Main eventing WrestleMania is the ultimate goal here. If that means winning the Universal Championship, if that means winning the WWE Championship, that’s a part of it. But really staking my claim as the number-one guy in the WWE, in the business as a whole, that everybody can say, WWE is cool and Elias is the guy making it cool.