GFW crowns new World Champion at TV tapings

Eli Drake is the new GFW Unified World Champion following tonight’s tapings in Florida.

In a 20-man gauntlet match, Drake entered as the first participant and outlasted everyone else, last eliminating Eddie Edwards to win the title. This will air on the August 24th edition of Impact.

On the episode that aired tonight, it was officially announced that former champion Alberto El Patron had been stripped of the title. Bruce Prichard first tried to award it to Bobby Lashley, but Jim Cornette returned as an on-screen authority figure and set up the gauntlet match.

The move to strip El Patron was made earlier this week following GFW’s investigation of the Orlando International Airport incident between El Patron and fiancee Paige from July. GFW released a statement saying that “While it is apparent that initial reports unfairly characterized El Patron’s involvement in the incident in the Orlando airport, we are nonetheless disappointed with the manner in which he dealt with this situation, we expect more decorum from all on the GFW roster, especially the World Champion.”

While their investigation of the incident has concluded, El Patron remains suspended.

Drake, 34, had been in NXT as Slate Randall before joining Global Force Wrestling in 2015, most recently teaming with Chris Adonis, aka Chris Masters.