During a recent interview with Fightful, Eli Drake revealed that he almost signed with AEW following his release from Impact Wrestling. He also said he never had any talks with WWE. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On his talks with AEW and who else he talked with: “We had a deal worked out. And then we didn’t And then we did again. And then we didn’t. We just couldn’t come to terms with everything. Then, I spoke with Joey Mercury at Ring of Honor and that happened just before talking to [Dave] Lagana and Billy [Corgan] at NWA. At that point, I was just weighing my options and seeing what was what. I had been contacted by friends of mine who are in WWE and they said, ‘You should let them know you’re available.’ I was like, ‘For the last three years, I’ve kinda jerked their chain. I’m gonna ease off of that for right now.’ Because for three years I was like, ‘I’d love to come over there.’ They were like, ‘Great, we’d love to have you.’ And I was like, ‘Ah, I’m gonna stay where I am.’ I don’t wanna keep being the boy who cried wolf. So I didn’t even bother reaching out to them.”
On how much freedom he’ll have in NWA: “It all goes to Lagana. He was writing at TNA when I got there, so I knew him from before at Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. So he already knew what I could do. They gave me a direction and I stayed in whatever the parameters were, but I did my own thing. It remained that way as IMPACT continued forward. It’s the same thing with NWA. At this point it’s; put a camera on me, give me a direction, and I’ll take the wheel.”
