GFW World Champion Eli Drake recently spoke with Justin Barrasso for a new interview for the Sports Illustrated “Extra Mustard” section. Below are some of the highlights.

On winning the GFW World Championship only adding to his level of motivation: “Once I heard the decision was made [to win the world title], I put a lot of extra pressure on myself to not relax or be complacent. I actually started doubling up my workouts and I was in the ring two or three times a week extra just because I wanted my work in the ring, on the mic, and my conditioning to be second to none. If I’m going to be the face of the company, then I’m going to make sure I can go like nobody else.”

On feeling pressure to help Impact Wrestling ratings, particularly now that NFL season and Thursday Night Football is back: “I don’t like to use that as an excuse. If we’re putting out a compelling product, then we should still have the eyeballs on our product. If you rewind about 20 years, and look at WWE in 1997, they were putting on a great product but nobody knew because WCW made such a loud noise via the NWO. It took WWE another year-and-a-half to make that big comeback, even though they were producing some great stuff with [Steve] Austin and DX.”

“We just had the regime change months ago. There is the stuff we didn’t expect with Jeff [Jarrett] and Anthem, but growing pains are to be expected. I hold a lot of that burden on myself. I am the guy at the forefront of the company, and I want to make sure eyes are on us.”

Check out the complete Eli Drake interview at SI.com.