5 Reasons why Drew McIntyre didn't appear on the RAW before WrestleMania 36

Drew McIntyre is supposed to be RAW's most important superstar this WrestleMania season - the way Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch were RAW's top stars last year heading into WrestleMania 35.

However, he's been notable in his absence over the last few weeks, which raises a lot of questions. Luckily for WWE, it isn't the same situation as the Universal Championship, where Roman Reigns pulled out of the match against Goldberg in the last-minute for health reasons.

McIntyre is fit and ready and even had an incredible promo done by BT Sport in Scotland ahead of the biggest match of this career. There will be some disappointment for the Scotsman that his big coronation won't happen in front of a massive WrestleMania audience.

Instead, it's set to main event the first night of WrestleMania 36. Many were surprised that Drew McIntyre didn't appear in the go-home segment of the go-home show of RAW before WrestleMania. Usually, there's a big face-off or brawl to add the hype, but that wasn't there this time around.

Here are five reasons why Drew McIntyre didn't appear on the RAW before WrestleMania:

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#5 To give the BT Sport promo more credibility

BT Sport has done some excellent promo work for Boxing, MMA, Football/Soccer and more. They added WWE to that list when they shot and put together an incredible video package featuring Drew McIntyre training in the Scottish Highlands.

It did a great job highlighting his warrior-like character and added great credibility. While it would have had a lot more weight had there been a live audience, it's one that WWE and BT Sport can be proud of.

While it seems a bit outlandish, WWE had possibly held back on advertising Drew McIntyre to add credibility to the promo, making it seem as though McIntyre is still training in the highlands.

#4 Wanted minimum physical contact in the feud

One of the biggest things we've noticed in this build to WrestleMania after the shift to the WWE Performance Center was that there was a notable lack of physical contact outside of matches.

It's no secret that WWE has taken the social distancing protocol seriously, going as far as to hold their WrestleMania tapings in two different venues with different crews. While it's normal to see brawls among competitors heading into WrestleMania 36, more so with the top feud of the brand, that didn't happen at all this year.

McIntyre was largely absent from the Performance Center shows, which seemed to coincide with WWE taking their foot off the gas in terms of building the biggest card possible for the year. They can't be blamed for that, though it's a bit off that they would avoid it to such an extent when the Superstars have to make physical contact in their match at WrestleMania.

One thing is for sure - this is going to be talked about a lot once it's all said and done.

#3 WWE didn't want to risk another main event

Drew McIntyre has been one of the names surprisingly absent from the empty Performance Center shows. While Edge, The Undertaker, Randy Orton, Goldberg, and Brock Lesnar all had segments in the shows behind closed doors, the superstar who WWE intended to make their top guy had no presence whatsoever.

As mentioned, WWE took the social distancing protocol very seriously, which is why the staff was limited and there was no news of the results of the tapings. Perhaps they wanted to keep certain Superstars away, which is why some were pulled from WrestleMania and went into isolation.

There was no news from Drew McIntyre, which likely means that he hasn't been injured or fallen sick. This was most likely a precaution to make sure that McIntyre stayed at home and wasn't around people.

With WWE having lost their second main event after Roman Reigns pulled out (and was reportedly replaced), they needed to make sure that their top match stayed intact. Given the circumstances, one can't blame them.

#2 It's possibly Brock Lesnar's last RAW appearance in a while

While this would normally give it a reason to be a more memorable one, not having Drew McIntyre didn't take away as much as we would have thought. Since there's less hype for WrestleMania this year, they've reduced the effort put into storylines and execution, hopefully saving it for a later point this year.

Paul Heyman's promos with Brock Lesnar have mostly been the same for the last five years or more, but one of his abilities is to constantly put lover the opponent to the best of his abilities. The absence of Drew McIntyre was slightly made up for by the way Heyman put McIntyre over.

It's been clear for a while now that McIntyre was among Heyman's top priority superstars after taking charge as the Executive Director of RAW last July. Given that Brock Lesnar hardly appears post-WrestleMania until July, this could have been his last appearance for a while, giving WWE a reason to put the spotlight on him.

#1 WrestleMania won't be Drew McIntyre's coronation

This is the biggest takeaway we got from the Brock Lesnar-Drew McIntyre feud. There are a few points to be noted here. Firstly, WWE understandably decided to scrap putting on the best card of the year like they usually do, and secondly, Drew McIntyre hasn't been featured as heavily he normally would have heading into the main event of WrestleMania.

With SummerSlam being in August, it's expected that the lockdown and ban on crowds will end, which means that WWE can save the biggest card of the year for then and can run back Lesnar vs McIntyre.

It simply wouldn't be as effective if they have his coronation at WrestleMania in an empty arena, which is why WWE might want to save it for a few months. It would be a better call and a much bigger moment as well.

That alone could be the reason why they didn't have Drew McIntyre appear on the RAW before WrestleMania. It seems to be a clear indication at this point.