Dak Draper continues to shine in Ring of Honor, and among a deep group of talented young wrestlers, “The Mile High Magnum” stands out.
The 2019 Top Prospect Tournament winner is often viewed as a cocky competitor, but in a recent interview with WrestleZone, Draper described how being confident about his confidence, as he puts it, is different than typical arrogance.
“I feel like the number one rule of communication is know you’re audience,” said Draper. “And so I feel like it really lies in however someone chooses to perceive me, whether they think I’m confident or being cocky, and I feel like the real variable there is jealousy. The more jealousy someone feels towards me, I feel like is when they’re gonna start to call me cocky as opposed to confident.
“And there are times where I’m sure that my confidence has snowballed and gotten out of control. And even I would say it’s crossed over into cockiness. And for me, that comes to, when my confidence gets in the way of making good decisions in wrestling matches or good decisions for my career, if I do something just out of pride that hurts me in a match or hurts my career, then it’s cockiness to me. Otherwise, I’m just being confident about my confidence.”
Draper also responded to the praise he received from EC3 in a recent interview. “The Mile High Magnum” explained why he appreciates the compliment and uses it as extra motivation to continue his growth as a wrestler.
“It meant a lot to me sentimentally because I saw that he said that,” said Draper. “And it meant a lot sentimentally because when I first met him, he was Derrick Bateman. We were in NXT together, and I was brand new, bright-eyed and [I] had no idea what was going on. And it meant a lot that he said it.
“But I think I’m on my way to unleashing it. The unleashing thing, at first, when you see it, it kind of made me flinch. Like, what do you mean I haven’t unleashed it? It’s not something I would try and distance myself from, but it reminds me that other people see that there’s more potential to me. There’s still more potential to reach, so it’s just another thing that reminds me that I need to keep evolving and keep improving, that I’m nowhere near the top of the mountain.”
