JD Drake Landed In AEW After WWE Said He Wasn't Medically Fit To Compete
In February 2020, just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything in the United States, J.D. Drake made his WWE debut, defeating Dio Maddin (now ma.çé of Maximum Male Models) on an "NXT" house show in Tampa, Florida. Since unsigned wrestlers generally didn't work "NXT" shows, this carried obvious implications, but Drake never signed with WWE, even after a tryout the following year. Instead, he ended up as a utility player in AEW who mainly appears on the company's YouTube shows. On "AEW Unrestricted," Drake explained why his WWE run didn't happen.
"When the pandemic happened, we thought it was done," he explained, referring to his and tag team partner Anthony Henry's careers as independent wrestlers. "And then we got a phone call about a tryout elsewhere."
Drake was hesitant to take the WWE tryout, but after Henry called him to say he got the same call, Drake agreed to do it since Henry would only go as a team.
Finding His Way To AEW
"But that was also when they went through and done their medical [testing], they said I wasn't fit to compete, that I had too many issues with my knees, and this, that, and the other [thing]. And for lack of getting into everything I said, because it got really bad at points, I basically flipped them the bird and said, 'Hold my beer and watch.'"
William Regal told Drake that the doctors were telling him they wouldn't clear him for his own good, even if he didn't entirely agree with them. So what Drake did next was email Q.T. Marshall, who immediately started booking him in AEW.
Drake last appeared in the Tony Khan-verse on the April 13 episode of "ROH on HonorClub," teaming with Henry in a losing effort against Alex Coughlin and Ring of Honor Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "AEW Unrestricted" with an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.