TNA Star Talks About Getting Blacklisted From WWE

Let me talk to you. In the last year of chaos for TNA, one of the lone bright spots was Eli Drake. The smooth talking heel went from being a low level talent to one of the best heels in all of wrestling. There’s just something about him that makes you want to smack him in the face and that’s a very valuable thing to have. One might wonder why he’s no longer in WWE and there’s a good reason for it.

Drake appeared on Colt Cabana’s “Art of Wrestling” podcast and discussed his long, winding road into, back out of, back into again and back out of WWE again. It all starts nearly ten years ago (transcript courtesy of 411mania.com):

“So 2008, I had a tryout with [WWE] at RAW. It was in Philadelphia or something, or Washington, D.C. I worked a dark match, [they] loved it, brought me back the following week. They wanted me to go to Philadelphia and Connecticut. I went to Philadelphia. Jamie Noble was making sure I worked out ahead of everybody, so that the agents saw me because he was certain that I was going to get a job. The next day, on Tuesday, without too many details, I show up an hour late like an idiot and that was pretty much the end of the road for me. And they wouldn’t touch me for like… they wouldn’t even talk to me or answer my phone calls for over two years.”

Why was he late?

“I separated my shoulder maybe a week before that and I was in a lot of pain and so I just kept thinking, like, ‘maybe I can go somewhere and get it checked out.’ I went to one place, they had a long wait. I went to another place, their x-ray machine wasn’t working. I went to another place. They weren’t accepting walk-ins. I said, ‘screw this, I’m going to go to the gym and get a pump and go to the arena.’ As I get to the gym, there’s a physiotherapy place right next door. I go get them to check it out. She takes her sweet time, but it felt great. And then, I was like, ‘okay, there’s only limited time, but I can’t go in there flat.’ Especially 2008, it was a much more body guy business, so was like, ‘I got to get pumped up’. So I’m like, ‘maybe they won’t notice if I’m half-an-hour late’. Well, 30 minutes turned into an hour and, stupid me, by the time I got there, everybody’s bags are unpacked and they were already in the ring.”

Things seem to be a bit better now though.

“I’m on great terms with them now. One of the greatest things that ever happened, at least personally, to me as well, and I don’t mean to slather his ass up, but I really actually like Canyon Ceman. As funny name as he has, he’s a good dude. But it hasn’t always been nice, but we’ve always been very open with each other and very straightforward. He can say what he’s feeling, I can say what I’m feeling, so I’ve always enjoyed that.

“At the same time, the regime before him, you didn’t know what you were getting from one day to another, so that was very frustrating and that’s when I found out I was on some kind of blacklist for like two years. I had no idea. But then, I guess who was responsible for that got fired and that’s when Canyon came in and he has been cool to me since day one. There has been a little bit of adversity here and there.

“What happened when I was in NXT was Bill and I didn’t get along, Bill DeMott, which a lot of people say, ‘surprise, surprise,’ but even with him, I didn’t have anything [negative to say], I mean, there are certain days I have plenty bad to say about him, but as a whole, in general it was weird. Some days we’d get along wonderfully, and then other days, it was hot and cold. But still, generally, I don’t have a bad thing to say about the experience.”

Opinion: I’m rather glad about the fact that Drake is on good terms with WWE these days as it means he could come back later. I’ve been a big fan of his since he’s turned into the great heel character in TNA and I’d love to see those mic skills come to WWE where he can showcase his talents to a bigger audience.