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Drew McIntyre recently spoke with WrestleJoy about his entire wrestling career, and what he’s looking forward to as the current WWE champion.
He talked about the importance of reinventing himself after being released by WWE in June 2014.
“When someone gets released from WWE the usual model is to travel around as the same character. One time around you get paid X amount. The second time around, you get a little less and eventually you’re playing the same character you played in WWE television for way less money. The one thing I knew was that’s not good business. I had to figure out a way to be better than that.”
This is a great point that any other star who has recently released by WWE should pay attention to. The first time around the circuit after WWE might seem pretty good, but it quickly goes downhill from there if you are just resting on your laurels.
Obviously things have worked out great for Drew, and he even defeated Brock Lesnar for the WWE championship at WrestleMania 36. But it’s clear that celebrating the championship victory in front of a silent empty arena is not what Drew had in mind for his WrestleMania moment. As a result, nobody is looking forward to the return of the fans more than him:
“I can’t wait for that moment until everybody can get back together. I want to be the first one that walks out there. I don’t want any dark matches. I don’t want any match prior. I want to walk down there as champion and see how the crowd responds.”
“I will have some butterflies. They’re butterflies of excitement. There’ll be some nerves. But I really do hope that we don’t have that dark match and I do get the opportunity to walk out there with the title and raise it up there and say, ‘I didn’t quite get my WrestleMania moment but this is our fricking wrestling moment.’”
How can you not feel for the guy? I know I’m rooting like hell for Drew to still be the WWE champion and get his moment of adulation in front of his fans, whenever that time is appropriate.
If you want to read more about Drew’s journey in wrestling, where he also explains that moves do matter in wrestling, go check out his full interview at WrestleJoy here.