Update on Impact Wrestling Firing Eli Drake, Impact Attempting to Lock Him Into One-Year No Compete Clause

– As previously reported, former Impact Wrestling champion Eli Drake was unceremoniously fired by Impact Wrestling. The announcement last month noted that the company had “terminated its relationship with Shaun Ricker, known as ‘Eli Drake.’” No reason was listed for his release. It was rumored that Impact wasn’t happy with Drake turning down an intergender match against Tessa Blanchard and comments he made about Impact in interviews. Fightful published a new report today with details on what led to Drake’s release from the company.

Another situation that reportedly put heat on Drake were comments he made on the Wrestling Perspective podcast, when Drake said that the Impact writers “booked him into oblivion” after not being figured into many of their plans. On top of his refusal to wrestle Tessa Blanchard and a comment on Twitter about Killer Kross destroying Jordynne Grace in a real fight led to Impact cutting ties with Drake.

The report goes on to state that the original plan was for Moose to face Blanchard, but Moose allegedly rejected the offer. Impact then booked Blanchard vs. Drake and started advertising the match before they were even told it was happening. Drake then made it clear to Impact Wrestling that in no way had any desire to take part in an intergender wrestling match ahead of his later getting terminated by the company. It seems strange how the heat from Impact fell on Eli Drake, even though it appears Moose was the one who originally turned down the match-up.

Additionally, Drake is said to have had heat with the company’s management, including Scott D’Amore, when the new team took over the company. Another interesting aspect to all of this is that Drake informed the company that he wasn’t going to re-sign with Impact as far back as January. The Fightful report notes that Impact is trying to hold Drake to a one-year non-compete clause.

In our exclusive interview with Eli Drake last month, before news of his getting released from Impact Broke, Drake confirmed rumors that his Impact Wrestling contract was set to expire on May 31. Regarding his next move at the time, he stated, “I have signed nothing. There’s no ink on any papers. I know what I’m doing. I’ve already made my decision, but I think I’m going to keep that one tight to the chest right now. But nothing has been signed anywhere whether Impact or anywhere else.”