Eli Drake Says He Almost Signed With AEW But Didn’t Speak To WWE

In an interview with Fightful, Eli Drake revealed that he almost had a deal with AEW after he left Impact Wrestling, but never spoke to WWE about signing. Here are highlights:

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.”