WWE: Drew McIntyre doesn’t need to beat Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania
Drew McIntyre had a Royal Rumble performance for the ages, eliminating an on-fire Brock Lesnar by Claymoring him straight over the top rope before finally taking down Roman Reigns in the final two. And because of the magnitude of his Rumble win, McIntyre doesn’t NEED to beat Lesnar at WWE WrestleMania 36, even if he theoretically should.
WWE have always known that Drew McIntyre has the potential to be a major star in the company. Ever since he returned for his second stint with the promotion, McIntyre has been hungrier than ever and has shown more fire on the mic and talent in the ring.
A special athlete, McIntyre put on some fantastic matches in NXT, including his final NXT Championship bout with another future superstar in Andrade.
But he never quite tasted success like he did in January.
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After a meandering 2019 in which some fans soured on McIntyre for repetitive promos, the former “Chose One” came into life on Raw in the build to the Rumble. The top-notch promos were back, he was allowed to showcase his athleticism in the ring, and he started building real momentum in anticipation for the match.
McIntyre wasn’t the favorite to win. Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, and Kevin Owens – in that order – seemed to have more buzz.
But when McIntyre eliminated Lesnar to end The Beast’s almost laughable streak of eliminations and later completed the Rumble victory by taking out the always-impressive Reigns, fans were one thousand percent behind McIntyre.
He’s clearly being set up to face Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36, and there’s still reportedly some backstage debate as to whether or not it should main event the Show of Shows.
It’s hard to keep “The Guy” Roman Reigns out of the main event, but if anyone can, then it’s McIntyre and Lesnar.
If WWE wants to go “all in” with McIntyre, they would have him win the WWE Title in the main event and crown him a superstar near the level of Reigns and Seth Rollins. You know, the two men who beat Lesnar for the title at major shows.
But maybe they don’t want to commit that far…yet. WWE undoubtedly have high hopes for McIntyre. Heyman and Vince McMahon are both quite high on McIntyre, who has really been given more room to show his prodigious mic skills under Heyman’s leadership on Monday nights.
That said, Lesnar has put over Rollins a couple of times in big matches. If we consider SummerSlam and WrestleMania the biggest shows, Lesnar hasn’t won at one of WWE’s two biggest shows of the year since WrestleMania 34 two years ago. And since his Rumble performance was used to build up McIntyre, perhaps WWE don’t want to go the Rollins route and book McIntyre so strongly back-to-back. After all, it ended up “backfiring” (not really, he’s super over as a heel!) on babyface Rollins.
If McIntyre wins at WrestleMania, he’s in the stratosphere. But if he loses, there’s room to build to another big match between McIntyre and Lesnar that showcases even more of what makes McIntyre such a great babyface character. He’ll get more promos, and WWE can drag things out. That may not be what’s best for the WWE Title, but a strong effort in a loss at WrestleMania that leads to a bigger payoff could enable McIntyre to become a true superstar in the company.
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It’s an interesting situation that’s almost “can’t lose” for WWE. As long as they let McIntyre stay true to himself and give him time and freedom, he’s golden. People won’t forget that Rumble performance anytime soon.