He feels more could have been done with both talents.
The focus of Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James latest ‘Oh…You Didn’t Know’ podcast was the 2018 Greatest Royal Rumble event in Saudi Arabia. Around that time, James was the lead writer for SmackDown.
Among the talents he had conversations about during the podcast were Samoa Joe and Elias. Starting off with Joe, he feels there was money left on the table with him in WWE.
100 percent (there was more to Samoa Joe in WWE). I think Samoa Joe is money any way you look at it. He’s a great promo, I believe every word he says, he’s well-spoken, he’s a big tank of a man, he can fly around like a bumblebee. He shouldn’t be able to but he can and so it’s just incredible how much money is left on the table with Samoa Joe and look, I don’t know how he’s doing now or whatever but I just think from our company and me working with him, man, there was a lot left on the table with Samoa Joe.
When it comes to Elias and ‘The Drifter’ persona, James feels WWE may not have known what they had at the time and said Elias was mishandled.
Look, I liked ‘The Drifter’ character (that Elias portrayed) as well. I think if we would have stuck to that, been committed and consistent with that kind of drifter psychology, I think it would have done well. I think we didn’t quite understand what we had. So we mishandled it. That’s when you get a new toy and you (rough it up) and that’s what we did and so, we did that several times. You (person who sent in the question) brought up several of them. Thank you so much for doing that. Some of the things I cry about at night and my failures as a creative writer in wrestling.
Joe is the current ROH World Television Champion and he successfully defended the title against Christopher Daniels at the ROH taping on 4/26.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Oh…You Didn’t Know with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
