Eli Drake Explains Why He Doesn’t Support Intergender Wrestling

In an interview with 411’s Jeffrey Harris and the 411 Wrestling Interviews Podcast (which you can listen to below), Impact Wrestling and former WWE star Eli Drake was asked about intergender wrestling and if, given the women’s revolution, it makes sense for it to be expanded, to which Drake explained exactly why he doesn’t support intergender wrestling.

“Our business — again, there are other little spot shows and gag shows and what not where you can get away with different things — but again, if you’re trying to present serious angles that are supposed to look like an actual fight, you lose a large section of your audience if you put Ronda Rousey against Brock Lesnar,” Drake said. “It’s just not a believable look. Now look, if you put guys and girls in the same weight class, I could buy that. Everybody will go to, ‘What about Rey Mysterio and the Big Show,’ or whatever. Big fan of Rey Mysterio. Big fan of the Big Show. I didn’t care for that honestly. It’s cool for the moment to see that size differential, but to see two guys go one-on-one like that, I don’t think it’s believable. At the same time, when you’re a legend in the business in a certain sense — Rey Mysterio — you can get away with a little bit more. But at the same time, I think again, that it turns off the casual audience because the audience is going to look, and they might stay for a second, but they’re going to look at that and say, ‘This screams phony wrestling BS.’ Everybody knows it’s a work. Everybody knows it’s not real. But at the same time, you have to be able to suspend your disbelief.

And I’ve heard people say, ‘What about Wonder Woman?’ Well, Wonder Woman has superpowers. As far as wrestling’s concerned, the rules were set that this is based in some level of reality, as far as the combat is concerned. People say, ‘What about the Undertaker? Or what about this?’ All that stuff was outside of the realm of the actual combat. The actual combat in the ring was still meant to be presented with physics in mind, with the science that exists in this Earth in mind, with biology, all of that. So to just take that away all of the sudden and say that those rules are out of the window is kind of silly, and I know a lot of people who are comic book fans that are wrestling fans now. And so to put it in those terms, if all of the sudden, they told you that suddenly Wolverine could fly and see through walls and whatever other superpowers that he didn’t have before, they’d be like, ‘Well, wait a minute!’ It’s the same kind of thing.

It doesn’t make sense to have a 5’3″ female wrestler face a 6’4″ male wrestler. Honestly, it doesn’t even make sense to have a 5’3″ male wrestler face a 6’4″ male wrestler, in my mind, because again, we’re trying to present this as a shoot, as a legit fight. But it’s got to grab you as real, especially if you’re going to push any kind of a serious storyline or serious angle. I don’t know, I can go for days and days and days about this, but that’s my diatribe.”

Drake came back to the topic of intergender wrestling later in the interview, showing how passionate he is on the topic.

“But there’s nothing in the world that I love more than wrestling,” Drake said. “That’s why I’m so passionate about it. That’s why I feel like I need to defend it when this intergender stuff comes up and what not. And again, it’s nothing to do with — Look. When I was in high school, our wrestling team was at the state championships. We were state champions probably like a few years in a row. And there was a girl on the team. And the girl held her own. She kicked ass. But guess what? She stayed in her weight class. She wasn’t beating up dudes who were a foot taller and 150 pounds heavier than that. So, I’d just like to keep some semblance of ‘realism.’ I know for some reason that word offends people, but semblance of believability because I’m very passionate about this and very passionate about this business. I grew up loving, wanting to be a wrestler. I’ve wanted to be in wrestling since I was a little kid, and now I’m here, and it’s like I don’t want to lose the art form that I fell in love with. It just kind of feels like day after day, it kind of feels like it’s distancing itself from what I fell in love with.”

He also talked about the Joey Ryan vs. Tessa Blanchard match that took place at the Impact Wrestling United We Stand show on Thursday, a match he declined to participate in and was replaced by Ryan.

“You got two great performers in their own right as far as what they do,” he said. “I’ve known Joey for a long time. I’m cool with Joey. I’m friends with Joey. Is it my kind of wrestling? No, but I think it has its place. If he does on that on Bar Wrestling, I’m cool with that. I wouldn’t want to do that on television when I’m trying to push serious angles. But at the same time, nothing but respect for the simple fact that he’s been able to get a lot of eyes on him with what he’s doing. And I think that as far as at least a way from a physical standpoint, you look at a matchup between the two, at least a little more physically matched I would say.”

In the full interview, Eli Drake talks about why he is against intergender wrestling, almost going back to NXT in 2015, how much he makes with Impact Wrestling, his current contract status, if he’s had talks with WWE, his thoughts on AEW’s impact on the wrestling business, his backstage experiences with Scott Steiner, and more.

If using any news or quotes from our interview, please credit 411mania.com and please embed the podcast audio player or YouTube video of the full interview in your post.

On opting out of his United We Stand match with Tessa Blanchard and Joey Ryan replacing him (1:20)
On the women’s revolution, intergender wrestling and its place in wrestling (2:10)
On when his Impact Wrestling contract expires and his next move (7:58)
On if he’s had contact with WWE (8:44)
On if there are more options for guys like him in wrestling and the status of the industry (9:59)
On nearly returning to NXT when James Storm did and his opinion of Impact right now (14:12)
On if he was worried about his future when Impact was struggling (19:27)
On his time in NXT and why he thinks he got worse during that time (22:08)
On if he’d be open to a return to NXT if he signed with WWE (25:00)
On whether he has any advocates in AEW (27:01)
On AEW’s launch and its potential long-term viability (28:22)
On working with Scott Steiner (32:42)
On working with Percy Pringle and which feuds and matches he’s proud of (34:36)

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