Exclusive: Eli Drake on almost leaving Impact, being allowed to improvise & thoughts on 'Sports Entertainment'

Eli Drake reveals that he almost left Impact Wrestling

As already mentioned, there was a period of time when Eli Drake was the subject of intense speculation regarding an Impact Wrestling exit and a potential deal with WWE. The WWE were even allegedly interested in signing Eli Drake, whose deal with Impact was coming to its end.

Several months later and Drake is still with Impact Wrestling, although he's milling around the mid-card with no real direction at the moment issuing open challenges, having lost the Impact World Title to Austin Aries and the Impact World Tag Team Belts with Scott Steiner to LAX.

So, I wanted to get to the bottom of these rumors with the man himself, as well as discuss his current direction with Impact Wrestling

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Eli Drake is a former Impact World Champion but is now being 'put back in the mix'

Obviously you were the Impact World Champion, but at the moment you seem to be in quite a good place in Impact where you're just kind of floating around doing whatever. What is your position within Impact at the moment?

Drake: I think there were a lot of questions as to what I was going to do, if I was going to stay, If I was going to go, that kind of thing. So at this point it's kind of just like alright, lets get him back in the mix somehow.

Because I think a lot of people, including the office here, thought I was leaving, I even at one point thought I was leaving. I was considering it, but then I had to do a real inventory of my life and figure out that I enjoy where I'm at right now, I enjoy the freedom, I enjoy the fact that I'm getting paid well to do what I love and I don't have to move to another part of the country, and I can still be on television every single week and I had the freedom to go and pursue other things where if I was at other places I wouldn't be able to do that.

You've got a thing going on with Trevor Lee and Caleb Konley at the moment, do you have any idea where that storyline might go, what might happen?

Drake: It's really hard to tell, I mean those guy are, it's funny that I sat back and watched Trevor Lee talk like me a couple of weeks ago, or at least kind of try to talk like me which was funny. Those are two young guys, two bright talents, man you never know where that can go.

And Trevor's like a crazy athlete I see him during the day before the shows just doing all kinds of crazy stunts and parkour looking stuff. To see what he's doing and to kind of come out of his shell. At first for the longest time, for the first couple of years, you never heard him talk, he didn't really do a whole lot other than just go out and do his X-Division Matches and I think he's starting to show a little more character now, and I think this particular storyline is giving him that opportunity to show himself a little more. Or at least himself as me.

Because your character is very charismatic, you are a character as Eli Drake with all the catchphrases like 'Dummy' do you think that helps bring out the personality from other people by allowing them to bounce off you?

Drake: I think so because it helps for me too. If I'm working against a guy who is just straight wood and he's not giving me anything it makes it really tough, because now I've got to really pull things out of him to work with, where like if I'm cutting a promo on him, if you have nothing, if you have no character, I have nothing to talk about.

So, I think it makes it easier because now I can give people catchphrases and lines that they can now spit back at me in some way. So it makes it really easy to work with me in that sense. Not to toot my own horn but Toot Toot Dummys!

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Next: Eli Drake on Impact Wrestling courting controversial with storylines and how much freedom he's given by Impact Wrestling when cutting promos