It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen former IMPACT World Champion Eli Drake on television. His last appearance on IMPACT TV was on April 19, 2019, when Drake and tag partner Eddie Edwards lost a match for the IMPACT Tag Team titles against The Lucha Brothers (Pentagon Jr. & Fenix), that lead to Eli turning on his partner to set up a match at IMPACT Rebellion later that month. But before Rebellion came along, Drake was suddenly released from IMPACT (in fact, he was released before his final matches even aired, on April 7, 2019).
Since then, Eli Drake has remained somewhat quiet (at least quiet for someone like Eli Drake) and has only appeared in one match since – in a fatal four way for Maverick Pro Wrestling (MPW) in Los Angeles on May 11. But now it appears that his no-compete clause has expired with IMPACT Wrestling following his April release, and on his Twitter on Tuesday, he revealed he was now officially a free agent.
[email protected] #EliDrake #BreakingNews pic.twitter.com/d4UGGRrUAh
— LA Knight (@RealLAKnight) June 4, 2019
Eli Drake made his official debut with IMPACT in March of 2015 as part of The Rising, a new stable lead by Drew McIntyre that also included future Bullet Club member Tanga Loa (then known simply as Micah), after spending two years in NXT as Slate Randall. Before that, he was a veteran of the West Coast indies such as Championship Wrestling From Hollywood, Empire Wrestling Federation (EWF), and others. Prior to arriving on the West Coast in 2010, he spent seven years with Heartland Wrestling Association (HWA) in Ohio.
With so many options available now for major promotions in the US, it wouldn’t be surprising if Eli Drake will find some new “dummies” to entertain in All Elite Wrestling (AEW), Ring of Hono (ROH), or Major League Wrestling (MLW). While NXT or WWE are still an option, Drake clearly prefers the lighter schedule than IMPACT had previously offered. As he mentioned in an interview with Wrestling Inc. last September, “I don’t know, and the reason I don’t know is I’ve had a strange crossroads with this business over the last couple of years,” Drake said. “It’s changed a lot, it doesn’t feel like the same business I fell in love with 20-30 years ago. But that’s not to say that I can’t still do my own thing my own way, that’s exactly what I’ve always done and that’s what I’ll continue to do. But wrestling has changed in a lot of ways and not for the better, in my opinion. But again, if I could continue doing my thing then who knows? We’ll see what happens, and if I feel like I want to continue doing that at a much more exaggerated pace, as far as the schedule and what not.”
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