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Impact Wrestling Global Champion Eli Drake is sitting pretty at the top of the company food-chain, but it hasn’t been an easy road for the LA-based pro wrestler.

Just four months ago, at Slammiversary XV, the 34-year-old was being put through a table, as the result of an earlier unscripted mishap, by DeAngelo Williams; an out-of-contract NFL star making a one-time-only appearance.

Now, the ‘Defiant One’ is heading into the biggest show on the company’s calendar; Bound For Glory, as one half of the main event.

“This is a spot I never really expected, but at the same time I always expected it,” he told the Irish Mirror a few weeks out from his marquee bout with former WWE Intercontinental Champion Johnny Impact (AKA John Morrison).

“See it’s kind of weird… I come from a small town where you don’t see a lot of successful people and you aren’t around a lot of successful people and there’s just an average atmosphere.

“In your head, you can’t imagine yourself succeeding in certain ways. However, at the same time, I have this strange thing in my brain where all I can imagine is me succeeding… I feel like anything I want, anything that is an available thought, is an achievable thing for me.”

(Image: IMPACT Wrestling)

Since that match at Slammiversary, for which Williams earned massive praise and Eli Drake was no more than an afterthought, he has been on a fast-track to the top, which resulted in him winning the Global Championship at the show’s August tapings.

“It seemed like late last year I was really beginning to pick up steam. Then at the beginning of the year it just seemed like the legs got cut out from under me.

“Then the regime change happened (Dixie Carter sold the then-TNA to Anthem Sports & Entertainment, who rebranded it to Impact, then GFW, and this week back to Impact), and a lot of us [the wrestlers] were unsure what direction things were going to go.

“Eventually I realised what they [Anthem] were doing, they had to introduce new talent and things like that, but at the same time there was a frustration period where I felt like maybe my talents were being wasted.

“I wasn’t saying that in an entitled way, I just felt that I had proven myself on many different occasions… If I feel a certain way I can be quite vocal so I was kind of saying to the people in charge ‘look, I’ve got a lot to offer’, without being whiny about it.

“At Slammiversary, of course DeAngelo Williams proved that he’s a great athlete and he learned a lot in a short space of time, but I kind of showed that you need a guy like me in these situations because a match like that can end up dead in the water without the right people.

“After that I think people started to really notice how I handle situations like that and then it was just a case of somebody saying ‘this is the guy’.”

Some fans have criticised the decision to push Drake to the top spot so quickly after Alberto El Patron gave up the title due to suspension, but it doesn’t phase the former King of the Mountain Champion one bit.

“I’m of the mind that I’ve got to always got to be ready [for an opportunity]. I can’t just think ‘oh my gosh, here’s an opportunity, now I have to get ready’, I’ve always been ready.

(Image: IMPACT Wrestling)

“So now I’ve got to make this company better by keeping myself better… Beyond ‘Bound For Glory’ on November 5th, Impact Wrestling is going to put its stance on the [wrestling] business, and the biggest part of that is going to be Eli Drake.”

However, it wouldn’t be Impact Wrestling if there weren’t off-screen dramas rivalling the ones that happen in the notorious ‘Impact Zone’.

In the two-and-a-half years Eli Drake has been in the company, they’ve had four primary name changes, and seen a huge turnover both behind the scenes and on the talent roster.

“There were times when I started looking at other opportunities,” he admitted. “Really, as a performer and as a businessman you have to always consider other opportunities. That’s just a way of keeping your options open and making yourself better.

“So I’ve had other offers… But Impact has taken care of me very, very well and they’ve given me a certain level of freedom that you can’t find anywhere else.

“My bank account is very comfortable, my cheques are very comfortable, and I can do other things if I want to and if I need to and those things don’t interfere with what I’m doing with Impact.

“So, in a way, it’s almost tough to leave. It’s very appetizing to stay… I know that some guys might not see that, or they might not be having the same experiences that I am, but what I’ve done is take what I’ve got in front of me and made the best of it.”

You can subscribe to the Global Wrestling Network for less than €6 a month and stream Bound For Glory just ten days after it airs on Spike UK on November 6th.