Elias Reveals He Was Set to Wrestle The Undertaker in Saudi Arabia Until Goldberg Took His Spot

Elias was one conversation away from the biggest match of his life—until WWE gave it to Goldberg instead. In an interview with Inside The Ropes, Elias detailed how he was originally slated to wrestle The Undertaker at a Saudi Arabia event in 2019, only for the match to be scrapped without warning.

It all started the night after WrestleMania 35, when Elias had a live segment with The Undertaker on RAW. Vince McMahon pulled him aside before the show and hinted that something big was coming.

“So, look at WrestleMania before I went out with John, Vince pulled me aside. He says, ‘I’m putting you out there with some big names these next couple days. Enjoy it. Enjoy it.’ I said, ‘Man, okay, thanks. I know the Undertaker—everybody thought he was going to show up at WrestleMania. He didn’t. They saved it for the next night with me.”

“So the next night, Monday Night RAW, incredible segment. The crowd is just absolutely going wild, and I deliver the line that the next person that interrupts me is going to be a dead man. And the gong goes off, he comes out, my eyes are wide. I go to walk away, then I go to attack him, and then he beats me up and he gives me a tombstone.”

Advertising

Advertising

“I got to the back and everyone’s shaking hands and stuff like that. And Vince is like, ‘Hey, Taker wants to talk to you.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, cool.’ He pulls me aside to a little like private room and he’s like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be doing some business together.’ I’m like, ‘Oh man. Alright, what’s up?’ He’s like, ‘We’re going to do Saudi and it’s going to be me and you in Saudi.’””

“I’m like, ‘Dude, I’ll do anything to make this match awesome. Like, I’ll take any bump, any flop around… I’ll do anything because that means a lot to me. I’ll do anything to make this match great. Whether it’s five minutes or 25 minutes—I’m game.’ He was like, ‘Alright, yeah. We’ll have some fun, man.’ I was like, ‘Okay, great.’”

But that was the last real conversation about it. The follow-up never came. Elias said the next few weeks were filled with silence—until someone behind the scenes told him the plan had changed.

“So we did that and then you know, the next week, there was like no real follow-up to it. So I kind of got like, ‘That’s interesting.’ Maybe I threw a line out in my promo or something, but there was not real follow-up. And then the next week—again, no real follow-up. And we’re getting close to Saudi now because it was like only a few weeks later.”

“I can’t remember who I talked to, but somebody was like, ‘Oh, that’s not happening now.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, they switched the card up or something like that… they brought in Goldberg.’And I was like, ‘Ah, geez, dude.’ Like another instance where something really cool was supposed to happen and they switched it and it didn’t happen.”

Elias admitted he was crushed—and frustrated that a career-making opportunity had vanished.

“At the time, I’m frustrated, and I might have even been vocal about it, you know, ’cause I’m like, how can I break through to the next level? Imagine this—WrestleMania match with John, Saudi match with Undertaker shortly after that. Now you’re looking at Elias in a whole different realm of superstar.”

“I’m already popular with the crowd, but I need those big matches to have that credibility. But it didn’t happen. And I was really crushed by that. Really crushed by that. And I was probably vocal about it too, which I would tend to be at times.”

Then came Super ShowDown 2019—and the now-infamous Goldberg vs. Undertaker match that ended in disaster. Elias watched it unfold, knowing how differently it could’ve gone.

“And then they had their match and it was like… a disaster. The match—Taker gets dropped on his head. It’s a whole thing. I know they were both disappointed with it. Like, they both didn’t want that to be it.”

“So I just—I felt bad about the whole thing the whole way through, and especially because it’s killing me inside going—I could have made Undertaker look just amazing. You know what I mean? Not that he needs my help, but I could have played my part in that match to just do something awesome. And then it’s that little feather in your cap—‘I wrestled Taker at a Saudi show’ or a big match, whatever. Yeah. And that’s just one of the many heartbreaks along the way that didn’t happen.”

And in a moment that still sticks with him, Elias revealed The Undertaker personally acknowledged after the match that things should have gone differently.

“Not only that—Taker said something similar to that when he was walking back after that match. Like, ‘Should’ve been you.’And it’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I agree.’ You know what I mean?”

“But what can you do? You know what I mean? You can’t… And so, you know, from that point on, he had to take some time off. I have to move on to other storylines because it’s not like, ‘Okay, well, hey, we’ll do it at the next pay-per-view and I’ll really make it awesome.’”

What was supposed to be a defining career moment for Elias became one of his biggest setbacks. And now, years later, it still lingers as a “what could’ve been”—a missed opportunity that not only changed his path, but left a mark on The Undertaker’s legacy too.

Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.