Eli Drake Talks Rooming With Dean Ambrose, Problems With Bill Demott In WWE Developmental
Impact Wrestling superstar Eli Drake recently spoke to Andy Malnoske of Wrestling Inc. During the interview, Drake revealed he has history with WWE superstar Dean Ambrose.
With both of them starting out their wrestling careers in the Cincinnati area, Ambrose and Drake developed a friendship and even lived together for a time. Now that they are true superstars in their respective promotions, Drake said he would love the opportunity to work with Ambrose at some point.
"We actually lived together, we were roommates for about a year and a half, two years, something like that," Drake revealed. "We started at the same place, even Sami Callihan was part of a trio with us, so there's a lot of names that came out of that H.W.A.-Cincinnati area. But yeah, it's cool to see that, that's a guy I'd like to work with again if we were ever to be on the same marquee. But who knows? Never say never."
Drake also discussed Bill DeMott, the former head trainer at NXT. DeMott resigned from the position in 2015 after multiple accusations of misconduct and abusive training tactics by ex-trainees. Drake was briefly signed to NXT from 2013-2014 and he didn't get along with DeMott at all.
"I mean obviously I guess justice was served in some way with his exit there. I will say I didn't get it to the degree of what I here some of the guys got at FCW where they were getting some of the physical stuff, because there were cameras and microphones and everything at the PC. Eyes were on you at all times, so there were different ways he'd mess with you," he said. "There's a big etiquette thing with wrestling, but every day you come in, you shake everybody's hand, you introduce yourself, you say hello. You go up to say hello to the head coach who you think is supposed to be your example, he looks at your hand and walks way. He tells other people he hates you but then tells you that he's working. And that's fine, and I could've chosen to react to that a certain way, but man, I have a habit of just being very straightforward."
Drake said DeMott posted an apologetic tweet recently, but he didn't believe it was sincere. Drake said he's moved on with his life and doesn't give thought to the past at all because he enjoys his life.
"He tweeted back to me recently after hearing me on X-Pac's podcast and said, 'I'm sorry if anybody feels like I hated them.' It's B.S. I completely ignored that tweet until right now," Drake said. "I wanted to be like, 'You know what? Go f— yourself, Bill.' But as far as like something I think about on a daily basis, no, I don't care. Move on with your life, I've moved on with mine. I'm loving life, making money doing what I love to do, making good money and living comfortably. I drive a corvette and live in L.A., baby!"
You can watch the full interview in the video above.