Drew McIntyre has reflected on his most recent reign with the WWE Championship and what it meant to finally have an extended reign in front of fans.
During an episode of SmackDown that aired live from Berlin, Germany at the start of the year, McIntyre defeated Cody Rhodes in a 3 stages of hell match to capture the title for the third time in his career, which was also his 4th reign overall.
Although McIntyre was a 3-time former champion at that point, 2 reigns were with no fans in attendance due to the COVID pandemic, and the brief World Heavyweight Championship run was brought to an end after 5 minutes following a Damian Priest Money in the Bank cash in.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, McIntyre noted how no one expected him to win the gold in Germany, adding that everyone benefited from the change:
“Awesome. Nobody saw it coming, for one. I think everybody assumed that the Cody Express would keep moving on forward. He’s been in that position for a long time. After he finished the story, he was on fire. I’m not saying he wasn’t doing a great job. He’s a great champion, he’s a great performer, but it was a lot of the same. I think there needed to be a shake-up, and there was a shake-up that no one saw coming when I won in Berlin. I could hear the crowd, I could hear the response, I could see the response, and it put Cody in a position where he had to chase. Gave Cody a bit of that edge back, which he, in my opinion, desperately needed. For me, it gave me some of that legitimacy. ‘Oh yeah, Drew can win the big one,’ and not going to be so sympathetic that we need to start cheering for this guy if you feel so bad for him. Where I could be more of a, like I mentioned, if I got the title and people challenge me to fight, what would I gain? No, I’m Gollum from Lord of the Rings. This is my precious. I’m not letting this go, no matter what. So it did a lot of things, but I know it made SmackDown way more compelling at the time, especially so many people hate me for some reason. So now you’ve got the champion right in the middle with the target on him. And as Cody mentioned, you know, it’s not just we want the title. It’s because you’re an arsehole, they’re all coming for you, which made SmackDown more interesting for me personally. I win it in Berlin, and the next night was Glasgow, so I got to walk out in Glasgow with the title for the first time as champion, with live fans, with a whole family in attendance. I tell Scotland, I promised you would bring you the championship, and I brought you the championship, and the only ever, not just Scotland person to do it, but British person to do it.”
Drew McIntyre On 2 Scottish Wrestlers Holding WWE Championship Gold
During McIntyre’s reign, Joe Hendry captured the NXT Championship, meaning that at one point 2 Scottish wrestlers held the top prizes on SmackDown and NXT. Commenting on the fact, McIntyre admitted that he and Hendry beat the odds:
“I text Joe Hendry all these facts. I don’t have them off the top of my head, but the percentage of people from Scotland who are legitimately from Scotland, you know, [in American accent], ‘I’m from Scotland.’ Yeah, sure you are, mate. Everyone always says, ‘I’m Irish’ or ‘I’m Scottish.’ No one ever says I’m English. No one ever admits to that. But there’s legitimately 5.5 million of us. I’m just pulling these off my head. I had to text them to Joe, the actual figures, but there’s about 63 million English people, America is like 362 million? It doesn’t matter. It’s a lot. But the percentage of the world who are Scottish is so significantly lower than people think. We’re a tiny country. We invented everything, television, radio, penicillin, you’re welcome, cloning. We invented literally everything for such a small nation. And the fact that two of the three top male WWE champions were Scottish was unbelievable.”
While McIntyre is no longer champion, he is set to face Jacob Fatu in an unsanctioned match at WrestleMania 42.
Featured image: WWE
