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The always outspoken Eli Drake was the special guest for the Impact Wrestling Press Pass conference call this week, where he answered a bunch of questions about his current run. I had a chance to ask him a few questions and here is a glimpse of our little conversation.
Just to offer a little bit of background, many fans assumed that Chris Jericho would answer Eli Drake's challenge at Bound For Glory. Instead, much to the fury of the crowd, it was James Ellsworth who would show up instead. I also asked Drake about Scott Steiner, a man he teamed up with, earlier this year.
A lot of fans assumed Chris Jericho would answer your open challenge at Bound For Glory. Would you have wanted that dream match?
Drake: Hell yeah, I'd have wanted the match. That would have been a big marquee match and you're talking about a big star known around the world. So that would have been amazing to bring in Chris Jericho. Two guys who can talk. Two guys who can work.
It would have been pretty damn good chemistry. Obviously, that didn't happen. But never say never. You never know what could happen.
What did you think of James Ellsworth, who showed up in his place?
Drake: Oh boy. Well, that made it a little bit of an easy bump, if you will, to get in and out of that one. Although, at the same time now, you hear everything that's going on in social media and probably just (laughs) lot of people are glad it went the way it went. Let me put it that way.
Tommy Dreamer became the first person to kick out of the Gravy Train. Was that a sign of respect from you to him?
Drake: First and last. Perhaps you could say that. But yeah, nobody kicks out of the Gravy Train.
Do you have any funny Scott Steiner stories?
Drake: Not so much. I mean he was pretty much straight business. Come in, do the work and go home. The one thing that I think I've told people before is the fact that I did not expect him to do a Frankensteiner off the top rope.
And I was the one who planted the idea. Because when he first walked in that day for the match with LAX, I was like 'You got one more Frankensteiner in you?' He looked at me and he was like, 'Yeah I think I can do that'.
My mind was blown. We were trying to figure out how we could do it from a standing position. And then maybe ten seconds later he was like, 'You know what? Maybe I can do it off the top.' Just the idea that here's a guy who hasn't done a Frankensteiner in who knows how long and now he's coming in and doing a top rope Frankensteiner. That's cool to me.
I dig that.
Catch Eli Drake only on SONY ESPN and SONY ESPN HD, every single week!
