WWE: It’s time for Drew McIntyre to be great
After several setbacks under the WWE umbrella, it is now or never for Drew McIntyre to prove that he belongs in the main event picture before facing Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania.
Last Sunday, among the several surprises that the Royal Rumble offered, a welcome surprise was Drew McIntyre coming out as the main event’s winner after eliminating Brock Lesnar. Now, he’s punched himself a ticket to face the WWE Champion again. This time, in a one-on-one scenario with his title on the line at the Showcase of the Immortals.
Now, more than ever, it is time for Drew McIntyre to cement himself among WWE’s main event picture. It’s make or break for The Scottish Psychopath after WWE have spent practically 11 years trying to mold him into a World Champion.
When he first made his official debut for SmackDown, Drew McIntyre was introduced by Vince McMahon as “The Chosen One” and pegged to be a future World Champion. That is high praise from the WWE Champion himself before McIntyre even had his first match, so clearly, big plans were in place for him.
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McIntyre had a steady, but pivotal climb to the top paved with Intercontinental Championships, a Tag Title run, and top billed storylines with General Managers. Then, suddenly, his push just … stopped.
It’s unclear exactly why, but by 2012, he was suddenly booked as an enhancement talent losing matches left and right. This especially became the case in 2013 when he formed bonafide loser group, 3MB, with Jinder Mahal and Heath Slater. One year later, McIntyre was released, but after reviving his image on the indies, he returned to WWE in 2017.
Said return run started off smoothly with an NXT Championship reign and a run as Dolph Ziggler’s muscle that evolved into them becoming Raw Tag Team Champions. This also evolved into Drew McIntyre becoming the go-to muscle for heels like Shane McMahon, which did him no favors. Which, also led to him becoming the go-to heel to put over new guys like Cedric Alexander. Which, again, putting more Ls in his loss column did him no favors.
But thankfully, this new babyface turn in December managed to revive McIntyre’s career. He became beloved by the fan’s within a month’s time and after that month was over, he became a Royal Rumble winner.
Now, with the fans on his side, WWE need to keep this momentum going. Perhaps it can be argued that he absolutely needs to beat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, but after a bevy of start-stop pushes over the years and not living up to his expectations, he needs to prove his worth as a main eventer.
As hard as it was to get the fans to warm up to McIntyre all over again, it may be even harder for the big man to win them back if he falls short once more, either by racking up more losses or not living up to high expectations on the road to WrestleMania.
As Vince McMahon would say, McIntyre needs to grab that proverbial brass ring.
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If not now, then an opportunity like this may never come his way again.