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In April 2019, Impact Wrestling announced the departure of Eli Drake -- formerly known as Ricker -- in a shocking announcement on Twitter. After five years with the company, he was released from the promotion on the same day as WWE WrestleMania 35.
In a recent interview with WhatCulture, Eli Drake confirmed that he got to know about the news via the Twitter announcement. The news was made public even before the authorities had their final chat with him.
Discussing that incident in detail, Eli Drake revealed:
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."
The controversy surrounding Eli Drake in his final days with the Impact Wrestling
Eli Drake confirmed that he prior to this, Impact Wrestling announced a match between him and Tessa Blanchard and explained why he refused to participate in that. While he had participated in the mixed tag team matches before, Drake confirmed that he was not comfortable in facing Blanchard. He felt that the creative planned to bury him before his departure from the promotion.
Eli Drake also stated that he rejected three separate offers from WWE in 2016, 2017, and 2018 because of financial reasons. He was making more money in Impact Wrestling, but now, he does feel that it might not have been his best decision from the business point of view.
Currently, Eli Drake is working for NWA where he is one-half of the Tag Team Champions. Dubbed as one of the hottest free agents upon his release last year, Drake has proven his mettle time and again.
