For some reason, Vince McMahon has a real problem with first names. That's why Antonio Cesaro, Alexander Rusev, and Adrian Neville have all received shorter monikers, though there is the odd example of a wrestler losing their surname too (hence why The New Day's Big E Langston is now known simply as "Big E").
The latest victim of this war on long names is The Drifter Elias Samson. He will henceforth be known as simply "Elias," a minor but seemingly unnecessary alteration.
He will, of course, still be called "The Drifter" so this isn't the end of the world but "Elias" doesn't have quite the same impact as that combined with his last name did.
It's obviously not going to hurt his career in any way, though, and stops us all from misspelling it as "Sampson" so this is far from the end of the world! Over the past few weeks, he's been engaged in something of a feud with Finn Balor and has been treated better on the main roster than many other NXT Superstars so he's definitely a talent to keep an eye on!
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