10 Things We Learned From Speaking To Eli Drake

5. He Found Out About His Impact Firing On Twitter

Eli Drake NWA
ImpactWrestling.com

Shortly after saying no to the Tessa Blanchard match, Eli Drake's time with Impact Wrestling officially came to an end.

That departure was officially announced on April 7, 2019 - the same date as WrestleMania 35, and just three days after Impact's United We Stand show - but Eli had to find out the news for himself courtesy of Twitter.

Reflecting back on that firing, Drake explained, "I heard about it via email. Nobody called me, nobody even texted me. Nothing. I didn't even find out by email, I found out via Twitter. The morning I got fired was WrestleMania Sunday. I woke up to three our four text messages with, 'Hey, is this true?' and a link to a tweet. That's how I found out."

Eli Drake spent five years in TNA/Impact, winning the promotion's World Championship, King of the Mountain Championship, Tag Team Championships, and having had Feast or Fired success - which makes it disappointing to see the company leak out news of his Impact release before even interacting with Drake directly about this decision.

Still, Impact's loss is clearly the NWA's game.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.