diff --git a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/support/SearchRequestEquivalence.java b/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/support/SearchRequestEquivalence.java
deleted file mode 100644
index cc063d56920..00000000000
--- a/elasticsearch/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/watcher/support/SearchRequestEquivalence.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright Elasticsearch B.V. and/or licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one
- * or more contributor license agreements. Licensed under the Elastic License;
- * you may not use this file except in compliance with the Elastic License.
- */
-package org.elasticsearch.xpack.watcher.support;
-
-import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchRequest;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.Nullable;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesArray;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.bytes.BytesReference;
-import org.elasticsearch.common.io.stream.BytesStreamOutput;
-
-import java.util.Arrays;
-
-import static org.elasticsearch.xpack.watcher.support.Exceptions.illegalState;
-
-
-/**
- * The only true way today to compare search request object (outside of core) is to
- * serialize it and compare the serialized output. this is heavy obviously, but luckily we
- * don't compare search requests in normal runtime... we only do it in the tests. The is here basically
- * due to the lack of equals/hashcode support in SearchRequest in core.
- */
-public final class SearchRequestEquivalence {
-
-    public static final SearchRequestEquivalence INSTANCE = new SearchRequestEquivalence();
-
-    private SearchRequestEquivalence() {
-    }
-
-    public boolean equivalent(@Nullable SearchRequest a, @Nullable SearchRequest b) {
-        return a == b ? true : (a != null && b != null ? this.doEquivalent(a, b) : false);
-    }
-
-    protected boolean doEquivalent(SearchRequest r1, SearchRequest r2) {
-        try {
-            BytesStreamOutput output1 = new BytesStreamOutput();
-            r1.writeTo(output1);
-            byte[] bytes1 = BytesReference.toBytes(output1.bytes());
-            output1.reset();
-            r2.writeTo(output1);
-            byte[] bytes2 = BytesReference.toBytes(output1.bytes());
-            return Arrays.equals(bytes1, bytes2);
-        } catch (Exception e) {
-            throw illegalState("could not compare search requests", e);
-        }
-    }
-}