Eli Drake Says Being In WWE Performance Center Made Him A Worse Pro Wrestler

WWE’s Performance Center is praised in a big way for everything that they are able to provide for the Superstars of tomorrow. Try convincing Eli Drake that it is a good thing.

While recently speaking to 411 Wrestling, Eli Drake really let loose when he came down on WWE’s Performance Center in a very bad way. In fact, he said that it actually made him a worse entertainer to be in that environment.

“I’ll be honest. I think with the way that they ran it then, I hear it’s different now, I think with the way they ran it then, I actually got worse. And that’s not any kind of a dig at the coaches. The coaches were wonderful and pretty much just doing what they were ordered to do. But we pretty just did drills all day. The three hours of in-ring training, we never really had matches. It was just depending on who your coach was, it was different drills. And I can recall a few of us asking, ‘Hey. Can we just do matches on the fly. Like pair a couple of us up, and we can just have a three-minute or five-minute match. Or we can just call everything on the fly, and nothing’s thought out. Let’s just go and get into the habit on working on those mechanics of having to call some of that stuff.’ ‘Well no. People are going to get injured or whatever.’ I’m like, ‘People are getting injured doing the drills anyway. What’s the difference? Why not get those reps in?’” 

“So, I feel this way. I know a lot of other people who have felt that way. It felt like you kind of almost lost how to do a match in a certain sense. And again, the coaches were just doing what they were told. And I had a great relationship with all the coaches. Here’s the thing with me. I stayed to myself, especially if I don’t know people. From the first probably two or three months, with a few exceptions, everybody in the locker room hated me. And then you get about month three or four, everybody warmed up, and they’re like, ‘OK. He’s not so bad.’ Same thing in the Impact locker room. It’s just, I guess I carry myself a certain way. You see me in the ring or the microphone or whatever, I’m this big, verbose personality. And then, I come to the back and I’m just quiet and to myself, and people are like, ‘Who does this guy think he is?’ Really, just all it is, I’m a quiet guy, and I don’t know what to say when I’m in the back. Turn the camera on, that’s a little different.”

“So it’s funny because at first, biggest heel in the locker room, and then at some point, there’s a babyface turn in the locker room, and everybody’s cool. And like I said, all the coaches, I was on great terms with them. It was a good experience in the sense of the connections that I made. The only guy really that was a big wall or giant speed bump for me was Bill DeMott, which that’s kind of a regular occurrence it seems. Other than that and him, which pretty much led to my demise, the experience was pretty good for the most part.”

WWE’s PC is much different now than it was when Drake was around. Bill DeMott is no longer there and plenty of people have spoken about his questionable teaching methods.

Now that Matt Bloom is in charge everyone seems to love it all around. The PC might not be for everyone, but it doesn’t sound like Eli Drake is too keen on giving them another shot.