One of WWE’s most popular rising stars is LA Knight, an aggressively cocky, arrogant heel whose superior promo skills often draw comparisons with The Rock. But it was a long road for LA Knight to get to WWE — a road that not only included a stint in NXT in the early 2010s, but also a run in Impact Wrestling.

RELATED: 10 Things WWE Fans Should Know About LA Knight

In Impact, he went under the ring name Eli Drake and wasn’t too different from the LA Knight WWE fans currently know, but he did accomplish a lot over a four-year period. Let’s take a look at what the future LA Knight was up to in the Impact Zone.

10 Debuted In The Gut Check Tournament

Before making his official debut on the Impact roster, Eli Drake actually had his first major outing a month prior. In mid-February of 2015, Impact taped a One Night Only pay-per-view called Gut Check, which featured a tournament of sorts wherein Impact hopefuls would take on regular members of the roster for a chance to take part in a multi-man elimination match in the main event. Drake — working under his real name of Shaun Ricker — ended up defeating Crazzy Steve but came up short in the elimination bout. Strangely, the pay-per-view ended up airing later that fall.

9 Member of The Rising

Eli Drake’s official debut as part of the Impact roster came in mid-March of 2015, when he debuted alongside Micah (a.k.a. Tanga Loa) as part of Drew Galloway’s new faction, The Rising. The goal of the group was to help Galloway in his feud with MVP’s faction The Beat Down Clan, but the trio ultimately came up short in a handicap match against four members of the BDC where the losing stable had to break up. It was a very brief existence for The Rising, as the group lasted about three months.

8 Turned Heel On Drew Galloway

It was only a matter of weeks before Eli Drake turned on Drew Galloway. It all went down in a bout where Galloway was challenging Ethan Carter III for the Impact World Title as Drake attacked Galloway with a crutch, costing his stablemate the match.

RELATED: 10 Things Fans Forget About Drew McIntyre's Time In Impact Wrestling As Drew Galloway

From there, Galloway turned his attention to feuding with Drake, and the two met in several singles bouts, with Drake winning the first thanks to a rope-assisted rollup pin. Galloway ended up putting Drake away in a rematch at Turning Point 2015, and later successfully defended the World Title against Eli once he finally won it.

7 Won Feast Or Fired

One of Impact’s long-time gimmick matches was the Feast or Fired Match, where wrestlers fight over four briefcases attached to poles at each corner of the ring, three of which have contracts for title shots while the fourth is an instant firing. In early 2016, Eli Drake scored one of the briefcases, earning a World Title shot, while Scottish comedy wrestler Grado was fired. Grado accused Eli Drake of switching their briefcases, so a feud between the two ensued, with Grado defeating Drake in a ladder match to keep his job.

6 Had His Own Talk Show

While WWE is more often associated with wrestler talk show segments, Impact has its own as well, including one with Eli Drake. Drake wasn’t sure it was a good idea at first, as he thought talk show segments were “campy,” but his Fact of Life segments proved to be a highlight of many episodes of Impact Wrestling. In addition to using it to kick off Drake’s feuds, the show featured a button on his desk that the self-proclaimed “Namer of Dummies” could push to deliver an obnoxious soundbite.

5 King Of The Mountain Champion

Eli Drake’s aforementioned Feast or Fired briefcase earned him a title shot at the King of the Mountain Championship, which used to be known as the Television Championship or the Legends Championship. In late May of 2015, Drake cashed it in, Money in the Bank-style, on Bram after the champion suffered an attack. Over the course of his 82-day reign, Drake got into a feud with James Storm after an encounter on Fact of Life, with Storm dethroning the champion in early August.

4 Feuded With EC3

Another Eli Drake feud ignited by his Fact of Life segment was with EC3, which saw Drake mocking his guest for failing to beat Bobby Lashley for the World Title at Bound For Glory days earlier. As the two feuded, EC3 ended up scoring another title shot, which only served to intensify his rivalry with Drake.

RELATED: How EC3 Once Seemed Destined To Be A Big Star In Pro Wrestling (& How It All Went Wrong)

The EC3 vs. Eli Drake feud came to an end in late November 2016 with a unique stipulation. EC3 put his title shot on the line, but if Drake lost, he wasn’t able to talk for the rest of the year. Drake ended up tapping out to EC3’s rear naked choke, and spent the remaining weeks of 2016 silenced.

3 Tag Team Champion With Scott Steiner

In the spring of 2017, Eli Drake won another Feast or Fired briefcase, but this time it contained a contract for a shot at the World Tag Team Championship. While Drake didn’t have a partner when he captured the briefcase, he managed to find a surprising second in the form of multi-time tag team champion Scott Steiner. The duo ended up dethroning LAX (Santana & Ortiz) for the belts, but only held them a matter of weeks before they dropped them to DJZ and Andrew Everett.

2 Impact World Champion

Over the first couple years of his Impact run, Eli Drake had a few shots at the World Title, including one where he cashed in a Feast or Fired briefcase he won from original contract holder Moose. In late August 2017, Drake finally reached the top of Impact by winning the World Championship, albeit in a 20-man gauntlet match for the vacant belt. His 146-day reign included defenses against Matt Sydal, Alberto El Patron, and Johnny Impact (a.k.a. John Morrison) before he lost the title to Austin Aries.

1 Formed A Tag Team With Eddie Edwards

Eli Drake’s last major storyline in Impact before his departure saw Drake going on a crusade against hardcore wrestlers, which started up because Abyss put him through at table at Bound for Glory 2018. As part of this angle, Drake got into a tiff with Eddie Edwards, who had adopted the hardcore style but developed a respect for Edwards when their singles match ended with Edwards winning via a roll-up pin. The two ended up uniting as a tag team and ended up even challenging The Lucha Brothers for the Tag Team Championship, though they did not win.