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Impact Wrestling is currently undergoing a company rebuild and is quickly gaining in buzz and popularity with the new in-ring product and production being universally praised by fans and wrestling journalists alike.
However, one of the more divisive elements of the new Impact Wrestling regime are the attempts to tell real and controversial stories that other wrestling companies tend to shy away from. I asked Eli Drake if he thought that this was a good direction for Impact Wrestling to go, as well as whether or not he wanted Chris Jericho or Neville to join Impact
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One of the other things Impact seems to be doing at the moment is treading just on the right side of controversy, with their recent storylines including the hit and run, a barbed wire deathmatch do you think that this is a good thing or a bad thing?
Drake: I think it's a good thing to move forward, and the reason I think that is because at the end of the day, we're a TV show, it's a drama show, a comedy show, a variety show. In any other facet of TV, if you watch Breaking Bad, if you watch Goodfellas, if you watch any kind of entertainment like that there's going to be controversial figures and I don't know why wrestling is any different.
Everybody knows it's a work but at the same time people are like 'wait a minute, that's real, how can you have a racist character, or how can you run over a child.' and it's like, they just did that last night on ER. I'm probably 20 years behind on my television because I don't watch it anymore, but whatever the TV show, that's stuff's happening why is wrestling exempt from that, it doesn't make sense to me. We should absolutely be able to have crazy scenarios like that, and we should be able to have controversial characters, offensive characters, all of that stuff.
So, it's really strange, but I think that's also the weird pigeon hole that we've stuffed ourselves in, by not defining what we are. Which I think, maybe a long time ago, Vince tried to do by calling it Sports Entertainment but I think that's still kind of left in a weird grey area. Are we portraying ourselves still as legit shoot which I think is stupid in 2018 particularly, or are we trying to be an entertainment form that actually has some respect. Which I think is something like The Rock, or John Cena branching out, or Batista branching out can now bring to our business. And I think that if the business moves along with that, and we can put in more realistic storylines like that, I don't see what the problem is.
What are your thoughts on the possibility of maybe Chris Jericho or Neville/PAC appearing at Impact.
Drake: I've no idea, look that would be amazing. I think it's cool to bring in recognisable faces. At the same time I don't us to get too used to bringing in the new shiny toy. Because we have so much usable talent now. But that could also present some amazing opportunities for the current talent that we have now, as long as they don't keep it constricted."
I think it's something that maybe the company, in the past, may have gotten wrong?
Drake: Yes, that always rubbed me the wrong way. I never liked that. I thought it was us shooting ourselves in the foot and saying 'hey, yeah, we're second place, we're not as good as the other places, we're going to bring in a guy who's mid-card from somewhere else and put him immediately to the top of our card' We're damaging our own brand there, we're saying that we are less-than and I don't agree with that.
I think that we are as good, if not better than anybody else and in order to show that you need to showcase your talent and even if you're going to use those outside talent who do have that face recognition, then bring them in and do that but you don't put them above your current workhorses, the guys who are pulling the cart. I think we need to use the guys we currently have to the best of their ability and when its time to bring those guys in, bring them in the right way, so they're not hurting and shooting themselves in the foot."
What do you think about Eli Drakes comments on Impact Wrestling moving away from 'straight shoot' and guys like Chris Jericho and Neville not being used over existing talent? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below
