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What's the story?
The #1 contender for the NXT Championship, Drew McIntyre, was recently interviewed by ESPN to promote Saturday's NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III pay-per-view. The Scottish Superstar talked about the current WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, discussed his dream opponents in NXT and opened up about a few other topics.
In case you didn't know...
Drew McIntyre made his WWE debut in 2009. In the span of five years, he won the Intercontinental Championship and the Tag team Championship before his first tenure with the world's largest wrestling promotion came to an end when his contract was terminated in 2014.
After his release, McIntyre performed in several reputed independent promotions like EVOLVE, TNA/GFW, Ring of Honor, What Culture Pro Wrestling, ICW and PWG. He then re-signed with WWE earlier this year and debuted in NXT.
The heart of the matter
Before his release from WWE in 2014, McIntyre was a member of 3MB alongside Heath Slater and the current WWE Champion — Jinder Mahal, who was also released by the promotion at the same time. McIntyre stated that while he was focused on achieving his goals, Mahal started to drift away from his wrestling career. He rarely trained and almost quit wrestling at one point. McIntyre added:
"He was very smart with his money. Very smart businessman when it comes to real estate. And like, he was gonna start a Subway franchise, so I assumed he'd be finished with the job, which was upsetting."
Eventually, Mahal started to train harder and started cutting out all the 'negatives aspects' from his lifestyle. McIntyre said:
"He was very focused. He was going to give it everything he absolutely had. And then to watch his transformation, just body wise. Then improving in the ring, and again, he just grew into a man. I was there the night he won the title. I'm very, very proud of everything he has achieved."
During the interview, McIntyre praised the performances of Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, Oney Lorcan, Killian Dain, Roderick Strong and Aleister Black. He said that he hated to single out anybody as his dream opponent in NXT because the entire roster was filled with talented performers,
"I've been in companies where I'm like, 'Oh, god, I hope it's only this guy or this guy.' But it's literally, an entire roster of people. Basically, I'm just going to sum it up by saying this is why I love NXT. Our whole roster is so damn talented, I want to fight them all."
What's next?
Drew McIntyre is scheduled to face Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III this weekend.
Author's take
McIntyre and Mahal spent a lot of time together during their 3MB days. His stories portray Mahal in a favourable light and detail the effort the Canadian Superstar put in to achieve his goals.
I want to see McIntyre win the NXT Championship from Bobby Roode this weekend. With McIntyre as NXT Champion and Jinder Mahal as the WWE Champion, 3MB could 'takeover' WWE.
