November 4, 2025 • 11 mins
Today we're joined by the WWE EVOLVE Men’s Champion Jackson Drake, and this dude is only 22 and already holding WWE gold. You’ve seen him every Wednesday on EVOLVE on Tubi at 8ET, and now he’s here talking about the moment everything changed and realizing he was about to make history. We get into The Vanity Project, the pressure of being the guy at such a young age, and what’s next.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the battle Ground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers abound.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Stop seeing what's up you guys. Welcome back into iHeartRadio's
official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast, and Man, Today on
the show, we have an exciting guest. I mean, the
dude has made history who you could see every Wednesday
on to be at eight eastern.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Let's let's go down the list.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
He's young, he's cocky, and he's got the gold to
prove it, and he's the first ever WWE Evolve Men's Champion.
Jackson Drake Joints show Jackson, what's up, dude?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thank you? Thank you very much. Nothing, Man, I'm just
chilling the same old down here in the great city
of Greensboro and the great stay of North Carolina. How
are you boys doing?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Man? And we are excited to have you on and
let me let's talk about It's been a wild couple
of months and I got to start right here. Take
me to that moment, the final seconds of that fatal
four way you hit the knee on Sean Legacy. Crowd's
going nuts, refs counting three. What's going through your mind? Right? There, Like,
did it even click that you were about to make
history as the first Evolve men's champion.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
No, that part is still honestly hasn't set in the
fact that I'm the first ever WWE Evolved Champion. No
big deal, No big deal, right, yeah, no big deal. Yeah,
but no, Honestly, at that point, I was just so
happy that it was over like that. That was definitely
the most strict exciting obviously, but also simultaneously the most
stressful day of my life. You know. Obviously that was
(01:46):
the biggest match of my career. You know, I was
just happy to not be hurt and to have gotten
through it as smoothly as we did. Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, it was a killer match too. By the way,
we recently recently saw Evolves the session you success successfully
defended your title against Bryce Donovan. What does that win
mean for your legacy as the champion?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
So I grew up watching Evolve, you know, I always
ordered the DVDs on high spots, and I watched the
og Evolve all the time. And to be to walk
into the first ever WWE Evolved Special succession as the
defending champion and walking out as the reigning champion, you know,
(02:33):
dream come true. It's wild, absolutely wild. Unfortunately, you know,
Bryce Donovan, we had to trim the fat. Sometimes as
soon as as soon as you feel like you're starting
to get close to somebody, they just you know, uh,
Fate has different things in store for everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And and you talk about having to
trim the fat. And of course you got your crew,
the Vanity Project, the whole squad's there. You move like
a unit, which is great. But here's the thing. You're
the champ. Now, how do you balance being the guy
while still keeping you know, that brotherhood vibe alive, especially
with you being the champion, kind of have that target
(03:12):
on your back.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Listen, if you want to go fast, go alone, If
you want to go far, go together. Yeah, sure that's
the same, right. Absolutely no. In the beginning, I you know,
because we're all so different, I honestly didn't know how
it was going to go. You know, I don't know
how the dynamic was going to play out between all
five of us different personalities. But man, whoever's idea that
(03:37):
was to throw us together, they just had tunnel vision. Right.
It's great, absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, Lightning and a bittle there for sure. You've called
yourself a standard bearer for Evolve. What specific qualities do
you think you you define as a champion in this
current phase of the promotions Evolution.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, like you said, young, let's see King in the
making future legend. That's another one. I mean, come on, man,
you guys already know the answer to that question. You
guys wouldn't be having me on this interview right now
if you didn't answer to that question.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's very true.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And to think about it when you look at it,
I mean, you're only twenty two years old and to
be pushing pushing thirty, you're you're getting close to our age.
You're twenty two years old, and you're the face of
Evolves as the champ to carry a new title like
this at your age under that WWE umbrella. How much
(04:42):
pressure are you feeling? And do you see this as
maybe a launch pad into something bigger? Uh? You know,
the next step up, the nxt s, the raws, the smackdowns.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
One hundred percent, one hundred percent. If your goal isn't
to make it to raw or SmackDown, or you know
that that upper rational, then why are you around? You know,
why are you here? It's definitely a lot of pressure.
Definitely a lot of pressure, but it's nothing that every
other champion doesn't feel, you know. But you know, not
to like get too deep or anything, but me personally,
(05:14):
I have a lot of people who I definitely feel
like I owe it to to make the most out
of this, out of this whole thing. You know, my parents,
they always gave me everything I needed, everything I wanted.
You know, I was I was a really dumb kid,
and I got hurt a lot, and there was a
lot of doctors that fixed me and put me back together.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
So I'm doing it for me. I'm doing this because
I want to. But you know, there's also a lot
of people that have invested so much time and money
into Jackson Drake to get me where I am now.
So it's definitely important that I let all those people
know that all that investment didn't go to waste.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, we've kind of you know, you we recently you
commented about uh Donovan no longer being with the group.
There's been you know, we got some news about some
people not being renewed with the ID program and everything
like that. How do those changes impact the you know,
the morale in the locker room and and how does
that kind of impact your long term planning as a
(06:14):
as a as a world champion.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, you know, like I said, that's definitely something that
me personally, It's something I didn't really think about until
it started happening. Like like I said earlier, you're gonna
get close to people, or you're going to start to
get close to people and then next thing you know,
you know, some of them are gone. And you know,
like I said, that sucks, but we all, we all
(06:39):
knew what we were signing up for. We all know
the nature of the beasts and everything like that. So
just the best thing to do is be water. Just
be fluid like water stream and down a hill, go
up and over any rocks or any anything that gets
in your way.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Right, Yeah, well that's that's excellent advice too when you
think about it.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah for sure. Now I want to go back to
your time on the end as if it wasn't just
you know here recently, because I mean, you've been doing
this for a little bit now, your indies on the
time in North Carolina to now holding a WWE branded title.
What is that one moment that you look back on
as the turning point that made all this feel real
(07:17):
for you.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I'd say one specific moment that really got the gears
turning was what year was it? It was in October
of twenty twenty three. That was when my best friend
Javon Evans, he had just gotten signed and he was
finishing up with the last of his independent dates, and
that was to this day. Obviously, that's our last match
(07:43):
that we've had. You know, afterwards, obviously I know, Okay,
I'm staying here on the indies for the time being,
and Javon's about to go be a superstar. So what
do I have to do to get what do I
have to do to get Jackson Drake to where Javon going? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Absolutely, And you know we've seen what he's been doing
on a next t and TNA and stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Just unreal.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
You know, there's been some comparisons to you of you
to say a Austin theory, a young Randy Orton, that
that kind of kill with Austin theory being a form
of evolved champion. Would that be a match you would
entertain if if you if he wanted to kind of
come down and prove his worth against you the champion.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
No, doubt all day, all day.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Actually, there's a picture on my Instagram from like twenty
seventeen or something. I had just started wrestling training and
Austin Theory had came to North Carolina for a match
and to Firestar Pro Wrestling, my training school, and he
he had like three belts at the time, three championships.
One of them was the Evolved Championship. I'm not gonna
(08:55):
lie to you, bro. He was flexing it, you know,
me and me and Maliki were there. He's like, hey,
you guys see this belt seth rollins is how this belt?
This guy's how that belt? That guy's have this belt? Yeah, dude,
I go spas should say it's a dream match, Jackson Drake.
This is awesome, Theory.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Nice, Let's let's put it out there in the universe
because we're all about that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Of course, let's go.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You can see Jackson Drake and everybody on Evolve Wednesday
nights on TB at eight eastern uhe.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Very Future of WWE for free for free.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Watch it. Not many things in this world are free,
but you can watch that for free and watch Jackson
Drake take over the world. When it comes to professional wrestling.
For sure as we get closer to the end, because
the Champs time is very precious and I know you
got other things to do. Uh, before we let you go,
let's have some fun. If we were to open up
your playlist right now, we look at your music playlist,
(09:50):
what is that one song that we're like, huh, I
didn't think Jackson listens to this song, But okay.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That's what makes you beautiful by one direction?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yes, that's a banker, you know what as a that
song is awesome, dude.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
One direction?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
They they were one of those you know, there's the
boy band and there's you know whatever. They had some
banger I'm talking about their Their production value is just incredible,
so absolutely, very great choice.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I got fragile masculinity, but it's not that fragile.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
One directions awesome. I saw them years ago. Now we're
just going off the side of the road over here.
I saw them years ago when they opened up for
five seconds of Summer Oh my, and then you know,
the next thing next year. Then they headline their own shows.
But uh, we we probably sit here all day long
talking about one Direction. That's just the fun thing about
(10:45):
the show.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You never know what's gonna happen?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Jackson, Drake ww Evolve, youngest Champion, first champion, the face
that runs the place at Evolve. Before we let you go,
what is the one thing that you want to say
to the fans right now?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Stay tuned and keep watching. Don't blink because you'll miss it.
Welcome to the battle Ground Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
You'll play for all.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
And exclusive interviews with some of your favorite wrestlers abound.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Stop seeing what's up you guys. Welcome back into iHeartRadio's
official wrestling podcast, the Battleground Podcast, and Man, Today on
the show, we have an exciting guest. I mean, the
dude has made history who you could see every Wednesday
on to be at eight eastern.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Let's let's go down the list.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
He's young, he's cocky, and he's got the gold to
prove it, and he's the first ever WWE Evolve Men's Champion.
Jackson Drake Joints show Jackson, what's up, dude?
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Thank you? Thank you very much. Nothing, Man, I'm just
chilling the same old down here in the great city
of Greensboro and the great stay of North Carolina. How
are you boys doing?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Man? And we are excited to have you on and
let me let's talk about It's been a wild couple
of months and I got to start right here. Take
me to that moment, the final seconds of that fatal
four way you hit the knee on Sean Legacy. Crowd's
going nuts, refs counting three. What's going through your mind? Right? There, Like,
did it even click that you were about to make
history as the first Evolve men's champion.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
No, that part is still honestly hasn't set in the
fact that I'm the first ever WWE Evolved Champion. No
big deal, No big deal, right, yeah, no big deal. Yeah,
but no, Honestly, at that point, I was just so
happy that it was over like that. That was definitely
the most strict exciting obviously, but also simultaneously the most
stressful day of my life. You know. Obviously that was
(01:46):
the biggest match of my career. You know, I was
just happy to not be hurt and to have gotten
through it as smoothly as we did. Awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, it was a killer match too. By the way,
we recently recently saw Evolves the session you success successfully
defended your title against Bryce Donovan. What does that win
mean for your legacy as the champion?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
So I grew up watching Evolve, you know, I always
ordered the DVDs on high spots, and I watched the
og Evolve all the time. And to be to walk
into the first ever WWE Evolved Special succession as the
defending champion and walking out as the reigning champion, you know,
(02:33):
dream come true. It's wild, absolutely wild. Unfortunately, you know,
Bryce Donovan, we had to trim the fat. Sometimes as
soon as as soon as you feel like you're starting
to get close to somebody, they just you know, uh,
Fate has different things in store for everybody.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, And and you talk about having to
trim the fat. And of course you got your crew,
the Vanity Project, the whole squad's there. You move like
a unit, which is great. But here's the thing. You're
the champ. Now, how do you balance being the guy
while still keeping you know, that brotherhood vibe alive, especially
with you being the champion, kind of have that target
(03:12):
on your back.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Listen, if you want to go fast, go alone, If
you want to go far, go together. Yeah, sure that's
the same, right. Absolutely no. In the beginning, I you know,
because we're all so different, I honestly didn't know how
it was going to go. You know, I don't know
how the dynamic was going to play out between all
five of us different personalities. But man, whoever's idea that
(03:37):
was to throw us together, they just had tunnel vision. Right.
It's great, absolutely great.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, Lightning and a bittle there for sure. You've called
yourself a standard bearer for Evolve. What specific qualities do
you think you you define as a champion in this
current phase of the promotions Evolution.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Well, like you said, young, let's see King in the
making future legend. That's another one. I mean, come on, man,
you guys already know the answer to that question. You
guys wouldn't be having me on this interview right now
if you didn't answer to that question.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It's very true.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And to think about it when you look at it,
I mean, you're only twenty two years old and to
be pushing pushing thirty, you're you're getting close to our age.
You're twenty two years old, and you're the face of
Evolves as the champ to carry a new title like
this at your age under that WWE umbrella. How much
(04:42):
pressure are you feeling? And do you see this as
maybe a launch pad into something bigger? Uh? You know,
the next step up, the nxt s, the raws, the smackdowns.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
One hundred percent, one hundred percent. If your goal isn't
to make it to raw or SmackDown, or you know
that that upper rational, then why are you around? You know,
why are you here? It's definitely a lot of pressure.
Definitely a lot of pressure, but it's nothing that every
other champion doesn't feel, you know. But you know, not
to like get too deep or anything, but me personally,
(05:14):
I have a lot of people who I definitely feel
like I owe it to to make the most out
of this, out of this whole thing. You know, my parents,
they always gave me everything I needed, everything I wanted.
You know, I was I was a really dumb kid,
and I got hurt a lot, and there was a
lot of doctors that fixed me and put me back together.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
So I'm doing it for me. I'm doing this because
I want to. But you know, there's also a lot
of people that have invested so much time and money
into Jackson Drake to get me where I am now.
So it's definitely important that I let all those people
know that all that investment didn't go to waste.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, we've kind of you know, you we recently you
commented about uh Donovan no longer being with the group.
There's been you know, we got some news about some
people not being renewed with the ID program and everything
like that. How do those changes impact the you know,
the morale in the locker room and and how does
that kind of impact your long term planning as a
(06:14):
as a as a world champion.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, you know, like I said, that's definitely something that
me personally, It's something I didn't really think about until
it started happening. Like like I said earlier, you're gonna
get close to people, or you're going to start to
get close to people and then next thing you know,
you know, some of them are gone. And you know,
like I said, that sucks, but we all, we all
(06:39):
knew what we were signing up for. We all know
the nature of the beasts and everything like that. So
just the best thing to do is be water. Just
be fluid like water stream and down a hill, go
up and over any rocks or any anything that gets
in your way.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Right, Yeah, well that's that's excellent advice too when you
think about it.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah for sure. Now I want to go back to
your time on the end as if it wasn't just
you know here recently, because I mean, you've been doing
this for a little bit now, your indies on the
time in North Carolina to now holding a WWE branded title.
What is that one moment that you look back on
as the turning point that made all this feel real
(07:17):
for you.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
I'd say one specific moment that really got the gears
turning was what year was it? It was in October
of twenty twenty three. That was when my best friend
Javon Evans, he had just gotten signed and he was
finishing up with the last of his independent dates, and
that was to this day. Obviously, that's our last match
(07:43):
that we've had. You know, afterwards, obviously I know, Okay,
I'm staying here on the indies for the time being,
and Javon's about to go be a superstar. So what
do I have to do to get what do I
have to do to get Jackson Drake to where Javon going? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Absolutely, And you know we've seen what he's been doing
on a next t and TNA and stuff.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Just unreal.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
You know, there's been some comparisons to you of you
to say a Austin theory, a young Randy Orton, that
that kind of kill with Austin theory being a form
of evolved champion. Would that be a match you would
entertain if if you if he wanted to kind of
come down and prove his worth against you the champion.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
No, doubt all day, all day.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Actually, there's a picture on my Instagram from like twenty
seventeen or something. I had just started wrestling training and
Austin Theory had came to North Carolina for a match
and to Firestar Pro Wrestling, my training school, and he
he had like three belts at the time, three championships.
One of them was the Evolved Championship. I'm not gonna
(08:55):
lie to you, bro. He was flexing it, you know,
me and me and Maliki were there. He's like, hey,
you guys see this belt seth rollins is how this belt?
This guy's how that belt? That guy's have this belt? Yeah, dude,
I go spas should say it's a dream match, Jackson Drake.
This is awesome, Theory.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Nice, Let's let's put it out there in the universe
because we're all about that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Of course, let's go.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
You can see Jackson Drake and everybody on Evolve Wednesday
nights on TB at eight eastern uhe.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Very Future of WWE for free for free.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Watch it. Not many things in this world are free,
but you can watch that for free and watch Jackson
Drake take over the world. When it comes to professional wrestling.
For sure as we get closer to the end, because
the Champs time is very precious and I know you
got other things to do. Uh, before we let you go,
let's have some fun. If we were to open up
your playlist right now, we look at your music playlist,
(09:50):
what is that one song that we're like, huh, I
didn't think Jackson listens to this song, But okay.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That's what makes you beautiful by one direction?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Yes, that's a banker, you know what as a that
song is awesome, dude.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
One direction?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
You know.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
They they were one of those you know, there's the
boy band and there's you know whatever. They had some
banger I'm talking about their Their production value is just incredible,
so absolutely, very great choice.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I got fragile masculinity, but it's not that fragile.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
One directions awesome. I saw them years ago. Now we're
just going off the side of the road over here.
I saw them years ago when they opened up for
five seconds of Summer Oh my, and then you know,
the next thing next year. Then they headline their own shows.
But uh, we we probably sit here all day long
talking about one Direction. That's just the fun thing about
(10:45):
the show.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You never know what's gonna happen?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Jackson, Drake ww Evolve, youngest Champion, first champion, the face
that runs the place at Evolve. Before we let you go,
what is the one thing that you want to say
to the fans right now?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Stay tuned and keep watching. Don't blink because you'll miss it.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
iHeartRadio 24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.