Eli Drake says the National Wrestling Alliance has found a good balance in their format and it’s getting people invested in their brand.
Drake spoke with Wrestlezone managing editor Bill Pritchard right before NWA presents their Into The Fire pay-per-view on FITE. Drake, a master of the microphone, will be facing Ken Anderson on the card in and Eli’s noticed that he’s getting a lot of comparisons to Anderson as far as stick work goes. Drake alluded to this in a recent promo on Powerrr and said he only sees that they both have the ability to talk, and that’s where any similarities end.
“It seems like that’s the place where the comparison ends that we’re both just good talkers and if you ask me that’s not enough. I don’t think that our styles are really too incredibly similar but at the same time, if you got two guys that can talk, then hell yeah you want to see them together, but the beauty of the NWA though I feel like everybody for the most part up and down is a pretty damn good talker and I feel that makes the matches mean more.”
Drake understands the value of the promo, especially with the wrestlers getting the opportunity to flex their creative muscles rather than just the physical ones in the ring. He feels that NWA does a great job of embracing that aspect of the “one true sport.”
“I think NWA got’s the right formula in the sense of you’re talking about promo-heavy in the sense of actually sending people out there, letting them create on their own as opposed to, ‘Here’s the words to say, say this verbatim, da-da-da, whatever.’ But at the same time it’s giving guys and girls who are good at doing that, letting them create something and it gets the people invested.”
Ring work is nice, but it only gets you so far when you’re trying to get eyes on the product. Drake delves into the importance of getting people invested in by your words rather than the action in the ring.
“If I watch a show where it’s just guys doing moves to each other, that’s kind of cool I guess, but it doesn’t really, it doesn’t make me care. If I don’t know who those people are, why this guy doesn’t like this guy or whatever, then why do I care? And I feel like the NWA is doing a great job of getting that right little taste of giving it just enough to where you want more. Our television show Powerrr is basically an advertisement for us to then do bigger things, whether it’s the pay-per-views or big house shows or whatever.”
(Transcription credit should go to @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
NWA Into The Fire takes place at 6:05 pm EST on Saturday, December 14 on FITE. You can order the event at this link and listen to the entire interview with Eli Drake below.
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