No Dummy: Eli Drake Has The Future In His Hands

Lemme talk to ya!

If you watch TNA at all, that line means something to you. It means that Eli Drake is out there, and it means that he’s holding a mic. And that means that we’re most likely going to get a damn good promo from a man that was not so highly regarded only a little over a year ago.

At that point, Eli Drake wasn’t so well known. He had done some time on the indy circuit, as well as a stint in NXT, but overall, he wasn’t a guy that people were talking about. He did a few spots for TNA before his official introduction as part of Drew Galloway’s The Rising, sure, but I count his official TNA time as beginning with his teaming up with Micah and Drew.

What’s funny is, when I watch that promo where The Rising introduces themselves, it hits me that Eli Drake really hasn’t changed that much. And that sucks, because when I started this column, my hope was to show the growth of Drake, to show how much he’s evolved, and to point out the areas that helped him get to the point he’s at today – the King of the Mountain of TNA.

But I watch that promo, and I hear the “Lemme talk to ya,” the “Don’t get lost in the sauce,” and I even hear him close things out with “That’s not an insult; THAT is just a fact of life,” and I’m actually surprised that I wasn’t on board with him from day one.

Because for me, I didn’t really start seeing it in him until he turned heel on Drew. Maybe it had to do with perception. If you’ve read me more than once, you know I’m big on perception – how a star is presented on TV, how the product is presented, etc. – and my initial perception of Drake (and Micah, to be fair) was that they were simply window dressing for Drew. They were unimportant pieces of a larger puzzle, and paying attention to them would pay off just as well as paying attention to The Freak did while The Menagerie existed.

Drake was the least-hyped member of the group, too. That’s actually really hilarious when you think about it, but at the time, The Rising consisted of TNA Defender Drew Galloway, THE SON OF HAKU Micah, and… that other guy, Eli something. And so it didn’t seem like there would be much more to him, even if he stuck around TNA once the group disbanded. And, this being TNA, of course the group would be disbanding. So it wasn’t surprising that The Rising would lose the “Loser Disbands” match to the Beat Down Clan (hey, remember them?!), but it was surprising when we got an actual follow up to it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azn0iuyqFpk

Since going solo, Eli Drake has strived to take more and more of the spotlight away from the rest of the roster. He wrestled Galloway over the summer and made quite the showing for himself. Cutting angry promos, heeling it up with his name (“E… Li… Drake”), and simply being treated like a bigger deal than the third most important member of a three man group really helped to make Drake seem as large a star as his words declared.

TNA clearly saw the potential as well, putting him in the Future Four group in the historic World Title Series. In there with Mr. Pectacular, Micah, and Crimson, it seemed pretty obvious which two would be advancing into the Round of 16. Drake would pick up two wins and a draw, coming out as the winner of the group. Unfortunately, Drake’s run in the World Title Series would end in the Round of 16, as he wound up losing to Mahabali Shera. Insert jokes about someone’s dad paying a company lots of money so that his son could be treated like a real wrestler, regardless of skill.

However, even with the company seemingly in a holding pattern throughout the World Title Series, it seemed like Drake really seemed to grow. His promos at the roundtable were usually the best delivered, and he even came out of the Series with a new appreciation for Mr. Pectacular, leading to them (briefly) forming a tag team. Of course, Godderz would eventually return to his Bro-Mans with Robbie E, but Drake didn’t care; he knew he had bigger fish to fry.

Because, you see, he had won the King of the Mountain title shot in January’s Feast or Fired match, and so even if his tag partner basically dropped him cold, he still had places to go, and people to see. Not even a quick sidebar feud with Grade / Odarg the Great could derail him for too long. In fact, I’d argue that the reason for the feud – Drake switched briefcases when no one was looking, avoiding the firing that Grado received instead – only helped to increase the level of asshole we rate Drake at.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzplB9nU12g

For me, that he did it to Grado only made him a huge babyface, but I already liked the guy anyways. There wasn’t much else to do as far as I was concerned. Though, I did wonder a couple things. Like, for instance, when he’d Feast, and whether he’d be successful in taking the championship. At the time, with Eric Young as the champion, it seemed like we’d need either Drake or Young to turn face, and neither of those seemed like actual options.

That, of course, changed when word came out that both Young and Bobby Roode had asked for – and received – their releases from TNA. It was just a matter of time, and seeing to whom Young would drop the belt. Would it happen after a Drake Feast? Or would he lose it to someone else? That would be answered when Bram turned on Young, and ended up defeating him for the championship.

Which again put us in a weird spot. Bram was still a heel, right? Well, maybe not, as his treatment on TV appears to be that of a babyface. And honestly, that still makes no sense to me. Bram, the man who proudly proclaimed to hate everyone in the world, is turned face because he got into a fight with the other asshole heel? All right, then.

But when Bram was put into a match with Bobby Lashley, and then brutally assaulted after the match was over, surely most of us could feel that something big was coming. And that, of course, was Eli Drake Feasting, and winning the King of the Mountain championship from Bram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17P4PdMzXao

It was a short match, as nearly all Cash Ins and Feasts tend to be, but it gave Drake his first TNA Championship, and that’s always something to celebrate.

With Slammiversary approaching, Drake has to defend his title against Bram in the rematch. And this is where I wonder, exactly, where TNA wants to go with both guys. Bram and Drake have been, along with EC3, my favorite parts of TNA since each showed up. While I’m not crazy about this weird babyface turn for Bram, it has hardly decreased my joy in watching him perform.

That said, I feel that Drake is the one with the higher ceiling. He cuts the best promos in TNA (in my opinion, duh), and works a solid, hard hitting style that can be used against an X Division high flyer, a more average sized guy like a Drew or EC3, and even the bigger guys like a Lashley. He may not be the most technically skilled, but he’s skilled enough to go out and perform against anyone else on the roster.

To me, Eli Drake should be considered the future. Whether TNA wants that future to be its own depends on what happens Sunday. A win for Drake will help prove that the reign is for real, and that he’s not just the product of a fluke situation. A loss will only show that he’s a front runner, incapable of locking things down when they truly matter. As he did with Drew, or in the World Title Series, he’d simply be coming up short yet again. And while to some, wins and losses may not matter, there’s still the reality that if someone only loses in big spots, we’ll eventually not take them seriously in a top role, should they ever get another chance at one again.

I think Bram survives, win or lose. His character has always been less concerned with the wins and losses, and more with the violence dished out in the matches. That should hold for Slammiversary, where I see his bloodlust possibly costing him the belt. Whether he really cares about it too much or not remains to be seen. But I feel that the fans will still be willing to accept him at any level. Drake might not be so lucky, even with his months of excellent work.

Regardless, I expect the match for the King of the Mountain Championship to be a great fight between two of TNA’s brighter stars. And while I think the world of Bram, I do think he’s coming up short on Sunday, and that E… Li… Drake will continue his, ahem, rising up the card. And he’ll let us hear all about it on the next edition of Fact of Life, and I really can’t wait.

And that’s not an insult…

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