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Impact Wrestling announced this morning that they had terminated the contract of former Impact Wrestling Champion Eli Drake.
Impact’s official statement: "Impact Wrestling announced today that it has terminated its relationship with Shaun Ricker, known as ‘Eli Drake’."
PWInsider.com has been told by several sources that the riit cause of the termination was that Impact management was upset with comments Drake had made about the company on recent interviews and had already been unhappy with him after he refused to wrestle Tessa Blanchard at the United We Stand event that took place this last Thursday in Rahway, NJ. Drake had been very vocal online about not wanting to do it, so much that it appeared to be a storyline explaining the change to Joey Ryan replacing him. Instead, it was very much a real situation.
Drake’s deal was scheduled to expire on 5/31. The real question now is that since Impact has terminated his deal with is whether there are any the ripple effects legally to that termination. Most contracts in general have clauses that spell out the consequences of such a situation. It’s possible that Impact could pursue Drake financially for damages or impose a non-compete - and if so, the situation could be getting very messy.
Drake debuted for the company in 2015 following a run in WWE developmental. Over the course of his Impact run, Drake also held the Impact Tag Team title with Scott Steiner and the now-defunct King of the Mountain Championship. With a great gift for gab, Drake had been a strong performer for the company over the course of his run.
Prior to his WWE developmental run, Drake had been a top heel for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood, where he was managed by the late Percy Pringle. He had also appeared
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