Noam Dar talks meeting Drew McIntyre as a 13-year-old, shares thoughts on cinematic matches [Exclusive]

I recently had the pleasure of having a chat with WWE NXT UK Superstar, Noam Dar. He had a bunch of interesting views to share in regards to the current WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, WWE embracing cinematic matches amidst the Coronavirus pandemic and his rivalry with Cedric Alexander back when both were active competitors in 205 Live.

Here are the highlights of the chat.

Noam Dar opens up on Drew McIntyre, cinematic matches, and more:

Noam on meeting Drew McIntyre for the first time when he was in high school:

I first met Drew, this is a funny story, at least I think so... he actually came to my high school... my secondary school, to do a charity wrestling match against a computing teacher I had, when I was like, I was like 13 at the time. This was before he went to WWE the first time. And I remember meeting him and thinking that he's the most superhuman person I had met at the time. And he came back, like you said, in 2014 and I was lucky enough to travel with him because we came from the same area, Scotland, and also wrestle him a lot in these places you mentioned.

It's very difficult to describe the level of competition that Drew has. Personally, and professionally, he is a very driven individual, and certainly one of my favorite opponents and one of my closest friends. So, now to see the level of success he's having, it's so heartwarming because I know how much he deserves it. and I cannot wait to wrestle him again and hopefully, that happens within WWE.

Noam's thoughts on cinematic matches:

I think they're fantastic, I have enjoyed them all very much. I like anything that feels slightly different and also from a creative standpoint, it's very exciting to be given a challenging environment to work in. Obviously, these cinematic matches are very difficult to put together.

It's so limitless in terms of how much you can... how many more tools you have to tell the story that you wanna tell and put on an entertaining match. These have been very entertaining and the prospect of potentially being in one, and if we, NXT UK were to do some of these, I think they would really help our brand and exposure.

Noam's thoughts on his 205 Live rivalry with Cedric Alexander:

The rivalry that I had with Cedric Alexander, it was very long, and for me the first time I really got to experience long-form storytelling within wrestling. So, before WWE, on independents you would maybe do a couple of matches with an opponent, and they would be more just competitive based, the story had a lot of turns and twists.

Looking back now, the diligence that it takes to stay focused on the bigger picture and not just deal with individual matches as they come, so you'd go back and watch it chronologically from start to finish, that rivalry with Cedric is something that I'm very proud of.

Cedric is a fantastic talent and the 'I Quit' match really felt like the payoff and I'm glad that we were given, obviously under certain parameters in 205 Live, there were certain restrictions that we may have had. Once we were given the 'I Quit' match and we knew that's what we were working towards, that really helped stoke the fire of that angle, and I loved the 'I Quit' match and I'm very proud of that match.

Noam reveals who he wants to face if he makes his way to any of the other three brands:

Right now, the person I would like to face the most, out of any of the three brands is WALTER. WALTER is the WWE UK Champion, that is directly in line with my main objective. and I can't see past that. That is the #1 match that I would have tomorrow if I could, to win that Championship.