Drew McIntyre aims to reclaim WWE gold: ‘I do think each show should have its own champion’

Drew McIntyre has been dominating the SmackDown scene since returning last fall with wins over Madcap Moss, Happy Corbin and Sami Zayn. Now, he sets his sights on a very familiar foe in Roman Reigns, who just so happens to be the reigning Undisputed WWE Universal champion.

The Scottish Warrior helped RK-Bro fend off The Bloodline last week on SmackDown, turning the tag team title unification match at WrestleMania Backlash on May 8th in a six-man tag team affair involving McIntyre and Reigns.

Although nothing will be at stake on Sunday night, it should be the beginning of McIntyre’s chase for the championship. He hasn’t held a top title in well over a year and a win at WrestleMania Backlash could officially earn him a shot at the strap sooner rather than later.

The face-to-face interaction between Reigns and McIntyre on the April 29th edition of SmackDown marked their first encounter of any kind since their Survivor Series clash in 2020. Roman reigned supreme that night, much like he did at WrestleMania 35 the year prior.

The two have proven to have excellent chemistry with each other in the ring, and despite last week’s SmackDown being taped immediately after the episode from the week prior, McIntyre still felt excitement in the air when they came to blows.

“I could feel the place rumbling and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool,'” he told Daily DDT. “Especially with how much they’ve seen, this feels like a big moment and a special moment. When we faced off and got into the back-and-forth, it felt like one of those moments I used to watch as a kid when The Rock and [Steve] Austin would get face-to-face and Bret [Hart] and Austin. It was a special moment and the people could feel it was a special moment.”

Reigns has largely kept a low profile since unifying the Universal Championship with the WWE Championship. His appearances on Raw have been far and few between and even on SmackDown he hasn’t been involved in much of note until just recently.

Fans have argued that the belts would be better off separate, especially with the Brand Split still in effect. Having been around for multiple eras of WWE’s history where there has been one world champion across the roster as well as two, McIntyre feels the latter makes more sense if Raw and SmackDown are going to continue being their own entities.

“Just with the roster being separated, I do think each show should have its own champion,” he said. “Twenty years ago or whatever, it was the same champion that traveled to the shows, but it was also the same roster traveling to the shows. I know the match at ‘Mania was this gigantic match for the belt between Roman and Brock, it was two champions facing off. Two individuals with such incredible history, really on fire and on another level with Roman as this Tribal Chief character and cowboy Brock, which we’ve never seen before.

“This is the fallout from that match with Roman holding both titles,” he continued. “It’s cool because he’s on an even higher level than he was before, which I thought was impossible. He’s literally on a Thanos level. I think it’s about time somebody took those titles off him and I’m looking at Drew McIntyre.”

Recent rumors have suggested that WWE is holding off on Reigns vs. McIntyre until one of the biggest stadium shows in a few months. The newly-announced Clash at the Castle event at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales on September 3rd would be the perfect place to host such a marquee match, but anything can change between now and then.

McIntyre is just happy the company went with a new name for the show instead of recycling something from years past such as Insurrextion or One Night Only, mostly because those were never on the same level as what Clash at the Castle is going to be.

“The only notes I had were, ‘Please don’t make it Insurrextion,'” McIntyre revealed. “Just for people my age. The younger generation may not remember, but I remember going to those shows and saying, ‘This is fun, but it feels like a live event. They’re having a good time and entertaining the fans, but it’s not of any TV or storyline significance. I used to wonder as a kid, ‘Why are we not doing an event over here? Look at the fans over here.’ Don’t rehash one of those names that didn’t mean anything back in the day. I’m very happy with Clash at the Castle.”

World renowned boxer Tyson Fury has been heavily speculated as an opponent for McIntyre at that event instead of Reigns. The two have talked quite a bit about each other in interviews over the last few years, so it would no doubt be a money matchup.

That said, Gunther shouldn’t be overlooked as an option, either. He just debuted as a member of the blue brand and it’s merely a matter of when and not if he and McIntyre are going to cross paths.

The two-time WWE champion has long been a fan of what the former WALTER can do and is looking forward to their inevitable encounter. The Cardiff crowd would certainly be hot for it and treat it like a WrestleMania-worthy main event.

“I’m just shocked you never said Tyson Fury,” McIntyre joked. “Everybody and their mother’s been asking me about that. That caught me off guard, but yeah, for sure. I’ve been wanting to have a singles match with him since the first time I saw him in wXw in Germany in 2015. I said, ‘Who’s that guy? Why haven’t I heard of him or wrestled him?’ Somebody that could believably beat me up.

“I watched him wrestle and, wow, he could probably beat me up in a very physical match, just based on his believable size,” he added. “He could get offense on Drew Galloway or Drew McIntyre and it’d be believable. When I saw him work, I knew we could really do something cool from a physicality standpoint. Just to see how far he’s come now and the differences he’s made to his physique as well as his in-ring style, picking and choosing his moments and not doing everything in one match, he’s really come such a long way. That would be a big match if that’s what it ended up being at Clash at the Castle.”

WrestleMania Backlash streams live this Sunday, May 8th on Peacock and WWE Network at 8/7c.