Eli Drake Wants Wrestling To Be More Geared To Adults, But Felt The WWE Attitude Era Went Too Far
At Impact Homecoming, Eli Drake took on and defeated Abyss in a Monster's Ball match. The hardcore match was Abyss' last with the company as he departed shortly thereafter, and it only added to the list of accomplishments on Drake's lengthy resume.
But despite defeating "The Monster" Abyss in a hardcore match, Drake actually isn't much of a fan of those kinds of matches. He even implored Eddie Edwards to revert back to his old, non-hardcore self during an interview on our WINCLY podcast.
"Look at the wrestling business today," said Drake. "You've got a bunch of guys jumping around doing dangerous stunts and silly-looking dance moves. Like, I'm gonna dance before I kick you in the head or whatever.
"Then you have the hardcore guys coming around with light tubes and steel chairs and all that crap and that's something that Eddie Edwards has seemed to pick up over the last year. He's reminding me of a young Tommy Dreamer. But a reminder is that before this happened, he was a multi-time champion, tag champion, world champion, X-Division champion.
"And since he's taken on this hardcore thing ? big ol' goose egg. None of that."
Edwards was Impact Wrestling's eight Triple Crown winner but since aligning himself with Tommy Dreamer, he has yet to win any Impact title.
Along the lines of the hardcore matches and increased violence, Edwards is in the minority when he says he wasn't a fan of the Attitude Era of wrestling in the late 1990s.
"I've always enjoyed my wrestling being geared more so towards adults," stated Drake. "If you look at WWE 1998-99, was it over the top? Sure it was, but they were still doing well. If you get into 2004-05, you've got HLA, Katie Vick and things like that ? that's where it just gets dumb.
"So, it's kinda taking it to the extreme but reeling it in too."
Drake was just in Las Vegas for the SHOT Show and to help promote Impact's move to the Pursuit Channel. Impact will be returning to Vegas in February for tapings and Drake revealed what could go down there.
"I want a little bit of both," Drake said of getting his hands on Edwards but also winning the tag titles. "I want those titles but when we come to Vegas, we're putting on the best show we can.
"Of course, you never know what could happen with Eddie and I."
Drake then brings up that last week on commentary, he dressed down Edwards and is hoping that Edwards will hear his words and suddenly gain insight.
"Maybe he'll come around. Maybe he'll see what I'm saying and he'll see the light. You never know," said Drake.
"But Vegas is the place to be if you're around. If you can make your way there Feb. 15, 16, 17. You wanna be there and otherwise check us out on Pursuit and Twitch."
You can listen to the full audio from Eli's exclusive WINCLY interview in the embedded player below. In it he also discusses recently bumping into The Undertaker, defeating Abyss at Impact's Homecoming and more. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc Audio on iTunes to get all of our podcasts as soon as they are released: