"Da Pope" Elijah Burke Interview: NWA, Charity Work, IMPACT Stint, WWE/AEW, More

How did your commentary gig with IMPACT come about? Were you always itching to get back in the ring and how it did happen?

Pope: You can blame Tyrus for that. That was never my endgame. Let's face it: Somebody offers you 20 dollars to get someone to cut their yard and they offer you the same amount of money for you personally to cut their yard. What are you going to do? If it's me and you offer me 20 dollars to find someone to cut the yard, well, I'm going to take the 20 dollars and find someone for you to cut the yard. Less work for me, right? That's kind of the scenario when it came to commentating. We were negotiating Pope coming back in and all of a sudden Taz ended up leaving and it opened the door. I called the show with Josh [Mathews] and we sold on that deal.

It didn't come full circle, but they did end up getting me back in the ring because Tyrus kept coming and shooting his own angle and bothering me on commentary. People were going crazy and chanting “Pope” at the shows. They said to me, “We have to get you back in the ring, Pope, at least for a one-off.” What did they do? They didn't even reward Tyrus. They gave me to Bobby Lashley, who didn't even need it. It's crazy because here we have Tyrus, he's in the NWA now and he's up to his old antics yet again. To be back in the ring is nothing new. I didn't have an itch to get back in the ring because I never stopped being in the ring. Some people were saying, “Oh, Pope's retired.” No! Pope's smart.

I'm getting paid to sit behind a microphone which I didn't mind because when you're in this business to learn four or five different traits of this business, it's more rewarding in the end. I'm not just a commentator. I've commentated, I've managed, obviously wrestled, I book my own shows, and I have a charity coming up on June 19th in Jacksonville called Great American Clash. I do it all. There's nothing in this business I don't do because I've been a student of the game.

Upon the relaunch of the NWA, there was plenty of people wondering why you aren't currently in WWE or AEW. Do you take that as a compliment?

Pope: First off, let me give a shout-out to, no friend of mine but certainly I have respect for him, Bram [Thom Latimer] at Back for the Attack. You talk about coming back cold, too, and I have to face him for the TV Championship. When I was commentating in IMPACT, I referred to him as a maniacal nutcase. I was always big on Bram, the ability that he has and his style in the ring. That match right there, I'll say it: there was no way anyone could come out and follow that. In just 10 minutes, we went out there and tore the house down.

I often get, “Pope, you're not in WWE. Pope, you're not in AEW. What gives?” A lot of times in those situations, you have to have an in. You've heard people refer to All Elite as All Friends Wrestling. You got to have an in. WWE, same thing. You got to have an in or you become a celebrity in another way in which WWE sees that and says, “Oh, we can capitalize off that.” If you're not coming through their system right now and you're not a world champion coming off hot from another promotion, the likelihood is eh. Guys like Vince and Triple H, they're focusing on creating their own stars right now and that's understandable.