Drew McIntyre Has Become WWE Raw’s Top Heel

Drew McIntyre’s stock has been surging since making his WWE Raw debut as Dolph Ziggler’s muscle in April. After scoring a convincing win over Kurt Angle on this week’s Raw, “The Scottish Psychopath” has emerged as Raw’s top heel.

Including Drew McIntyre’s first run with WWE, his stock is the highest it has ever been in the company right now. He has not only arguably emerged as Raw‘s best pick in the Superstar Shakeup, but his seemingly thrown-together pairing with Dolph Ziggler blew every single expectation out of the water.

McIntyre originally took a background role as Ziggler’s insurance policy during his battles for the Intercontinental Championship. While McIntyre scored victories over the likes of Seth Rollins, his main role mostly consisted of holding off Ziggler’s foes.

Once Braun Strowman was added to the mix to form The Dogs of War against The Shield, McIntyre’s big-match presence became more consistent. Not only did he—along with Ziggler—win the Raw Tag Team Titles from The B-Team, but he played a key role in highly-acclaimed wars with The Shield.

A loss to The Shield on the October 15th edition of Raw caused The Dogs of War to implode. Following a running powerslam to Ziggler courtesy of Strowman, McIntyre laid out the behemoth with a Claymore Kick and essentially ended the makeshift alliance. In the following weeks, McIntyre showcased his fearlessness as “The Monster Hunter” through pre-emptive attacks and all-out brawls with Strowman.

With Strowman’s focus shifted towards Baron Corbin in the fallout from Crown Jewel, Drew McIntyre’s role appeared to be limited to being a part of Raw‘s Survivor Series team. However, a shift in Raw’s planned main event of Baron Corbin vs. Kurt Angle allowed McIntyre to take Corbin’s place. What followed was a one-sided showcase of Drew McIntyre.

Despite an early assault from Angle, McIntyre thoroughly outclassed the former WWE Champion during the match before connecting with the Claymore Kick. While McIntyre’s taunting gave Angle a window to trap him in the Ankle Lock, the former NXT Champion retaliated with an Angle Slam and forced the Olympic Gold Medalist to tap out to his own submission move.

Some may question why Angle would be made to look poorly. Angle’s occasional matches since returning to WWE have made him appear somewhat formidable. However, this was less about him and more about Drew McIntyre.

Before decimating Angle, McIntyre also stared down Bobby Lashley—prompting the latter to back down from a fight—and took out Finn Balor with a Claymore Kick. Such dominance over the span of one episode shows that WWE is crowning McIntyre as the top villain on Monday nights.

This represents the continuation of a massive turnaround for Drew McIntyre, whose hard work and great performances has made the ill-fated “Chosen One” run a thing of the past. Strowman, who up until recently was Raw‘s juggernaut, has failed on four different occasions to capture the Universal title from Brock Lesnar. A convincing Survivor Series performance from Drew McIntyre could add credibility to his top positioning on Raw and possibly even lead to a match with Brock Lesnar at January’s Royal Rumble event.