WWE: Drew McIntyre has been dealing with some strange booking in 2019

WWE Raw Superstar Drew McIntyre is often praised as a future Universal Champion by the commentary team, yet he has looked like anything but a world champion.

Drew McIntyre has scored some huge wins in 2019. Before WWE WrestleMania 35, he defeated Seth Rollins, then the outgoing Dean Ambrose four times as a way of building him up for a loss to Roman Reigns. And that was sensible booking. McIntyre had no business beating Roman Reigns in the No. 1 star’s first singles match since kicking leukemia’s ass, but the fact that they had him defeat Rollins, who was on a path to becoming the Universal Champion, was a massive deal.

The problem is what happened after McIntyre’s loss. Instead of having McIntyre out on his own and feud for championships, they had him team up with Shane McMahon. That had disaster written all over it.

Shane’s ego trip has done nothing positive for anyone, save for maybe Kevin Owens’s promo skills. Not only has he taken time away from underrated talents like Liv Morgan and Apollo Crews, but he’s also held back the people working with him. Reigns, McIntyre, and Elias have all suffered by association. But Reigns is fine because he’s so good that he’s untouchable. Elias? He’s too funny to actually be hurt.

But McIntyre? He looks like a damn fool. It honestly seems like he’s Shane’s puppet, because he’s derived no benefit from being the sheep to Shane’s shepard. He does Shane O’Mac’s bidding, looks menacing, hits a couple of Claymores, and gets absolutely nothing out of it. While Shane hoards the spotlight, McIntyre slinks into the background. And what does he get out of it? Title opportunities? Nope. Great matches to boost his stock? Nope. Nothing. He’s the stooge, just as Ziggler was for him.

McIntyre should be competing for mid-card titles as a way of grooming him for a future world title reign. He should be having great matches with Superstars, instead of gimmicky, shortened bouts. Even his two wins over The Miz earlier this year felt meaningless, because they were just thrown together.

That’s what everything about McIntyre feels like right now. When he debuted on the main roster last year, he felt special. Hell, he even made Dolph Ziggler feel relevant for the first time since the latter’s feud with The Miz in 2016.

And now? McIntyre is “Just A Guy”. Honestly, even though Alexander’s win over McIntyre was an “upset”, Alexander feels more important than McIntyre. When I look at these two guys on paper, Alexander looks more like the future World Champion and the guy who should be winning a one-on-one match. So from that perspective, McIntyre’s loss wasn’t really an upset. It simply looked like a guy in a funk losing another match.

Of course, McIntyre isn’t ruined. Far from it. He just needs something to sink his teeth into, and that could be a marquee feud with The Undertaker at SummerSlam. It could be a a series of great matches with Alexander on Raw. But it needs to be something other than a weird storyline where he follows around Shane McMahon.

McIntyre is too talented on the microphone and in the ring to be the victim of such strange booking. Because that’s what this is. While McIntyre’s booking hasn’t been “horrible,” it’s been weird in the sense that I can’t tell if I’m supposed to see him as world championship material or jobber-to-the-stars fodder.

When he steps in the ring with someone, I can’t tell if I’m supposed to expect him to win as the favorite or supposed to see him as another wrestler in the vast sea of Superstars.

The build to SummerSlam is pivotal for McIntyre, because 2019 has been such an up-and-down year for him booking-wise. Raw’s new direction under Paul Heyman should, in theory, benefit McIntyre, and these next couple of months will put that “theory” to the test.