411’s WWE 24 Report: ‘Drew McIntyre: The Chosen One’

-Not happy right now as my 49ers blew a game they needed to win to stay in the division race. Can’t be losing games to NFC East teams even if you have half the team out with injuries. For all he did right last week, Mullens struggled big time this week and I just want Jimmy G back healthy. Again, not happy so let’s just get to it.

-Air Date: 10.04.20
-Run Time: 1:06:04

-April 5, 2020: Tampa, FL: Drew is sitting in a car looking at Raymond James Stadium. He talks about it being a testing site and you can’t get anywhere near it. He is at the airport just so he can get a look at the Stadium where WrestleMania should be happening today. What they have now is the new normal and he has to roll with it.

-Quick video recap of Drew’s initial run in WWE as the Chosen One and then falling out of favor. He found himself on the Indys and came back to conquer Brock at WrestleMania. This is WWE 24!

-Drew grew up in Ayr, Scotland. He was the kid who said he would be the first Scottish guy signed by the WWE. Everyone thought he was crazy but he had a dream and was going to do anything to make it happen. He shows us his home as a kid and talks about his mom looking after him. At the age of 18 she was diagnosed with Cerebellar Ataxia and was told she would never have kids. She ended up pregnant and the doctors told her to abort as it could kill her. Damn! She didn’t care and was going to have the baby. They lived in a small apartment so the walls were close enough for his mom to balance herself as the disease affects your balance. Drew called his mom superwoman and is the most important person in his life.

-We see his bedroom and he pulls out videos of WWE shows he has. He watched Tough Enough Season 1 a ton and HHH’s speech hit home. It was an amazing speech that lit a fire under the kids and should probably be shown to anyone who wants to be a wrestler. The first few seasons of Tough Enough were fantastic and I go back and watch those often. The first season is especially great and I still laugh anytime I hear someone say “stop, drop, and roll.” If you watched, you know!

-Home videos of Drew as a kid wrestling with his friends in the backyard. The only wrestling school he could find was one in England and his parents wouldn’t let him go as he was only 14. So he go a bit bigger and saved and made the trip a year later when he was 15. They trained in a room with only mats on the ground and no ring. Drew would learn things in England and bring that back to teach his friends. He even got a lesson from Jake Roberts.

-Footage of Drew doing local shows and he mentions he could feel himself getting better every match. The footage is courtesy of British Championship Wrestling. He was rather tall and clunky, but could do athletic things someone his size shouldn’t. He was often put in the Main Event because of his size and appearance.

-Drew spent his student loan money on wrestling gear and supplements to get bigger. He also ran up a rather large bill at a local bar. He would tell people that Vince McMahon would cover the tab. Nice!

-Sheamus next as he and Drew started facing each other in BCW. Drew became a big star and starting winning titles. He and Sheamus became really close friends. Sheamus gave him a contact to send in pictures and he was given a WWE tryout that Sheamus was also attending and Wade Barrett was there as well. Drew and Sheamus got to work against each other and Johnny Ace himself pulled Drew aside and said he wanted to take him to America. Drew shot back that he wanted to let John take him. He was the first of the group to get signed. He was so focused on making it to the WWE he forgot the part where he actually had to go to America.

-He was sent to Louisville, KY and yeah, it’s a bit different than Scotland. He gets to wrestle in the ring a bit and cuts a promo. Howard Finkel called him and said he was going to RAW and on the road after only 2 weeks. He thought this was all normal and Burchill had to tell him that some guys had been waiting 9 years and why some were jealous.

-Next he went to SmackDown and paired with Dave Taylor. We see his SD debut as he was rocking a blue and black kilt. He admits he turned to the ref and asked him what the hard camera was. He had no idea what it was and they learned rather quickly that he still needed time to catch up. Drew felt so much pressure and knew he needed to get off the road with SmackDown.

-He was grateful to get sent to FCW and he got to sit down and learn in class from trainers. Again he could feel himself improving almost every week. He got more comfortable with the cameras and he soon became the FCW Champion. Dusty Rhodes helped him with his verbal skills as Drew admits he was weak there.

-ECW was rebooted and the WWE was looking for talent for that brand. Vince was in FCW and Drew made it a point to stare at him during his match. He didn’t get the ECW spot and instead went back to SmackDown. Vince McMahon comes out and gives the famous ‘Chosen One’ promo where he promises Drew will be a future World Champion. Drew was caught off guard and had to go to the ring thinking this was perfectly normal. For him his story was The Chosen One. He took it as motivation and knew he was on the right track. Highlights of Drew wrecking people on SD as he was much more prepared for this run vs the initial one. Everyone felt he was on the brink of greatness. He wins the IC Title at TLC and he says how proud he was of winning that title.

-Everything was going to plan and things seemed to be falling into place as we hit 2010. We jump to WrestleMania XXVI (I was there) and Sheamus says originally the plan before Shawn/Taker II was to have Drew vs Taker. Then it was for Drew to win MITB, but they went with Swagger. This is where I actually ran into Drew in the airport the Tuesday after Mania and all I could say was “good match” and he nodded his head and thanked me.

-Things started to turn south for Drew as he admits he wasn’t ready to be the top guy. Outside the ring he was coming undone and went through a public divorce (and that was the woman I saw him with at the airport I assume). He then found out his mother was diagnosed with cancer. He made it home to see her and went to the hospital with her where the doctor said she only had at most 3 days left. Man! They had a personal moment together where she was unable to speak but Drew got to say what he needed to and then she was gone. Just, damn!

-The loss of his mother only made him more out of control as his world was crumbling around him. He felt like he should be in a top spot and that became part of his storyline as announcers would talk about waiting for Drew to take the next step or get off the crazy train.

-3MB next and Jinder is here as a talking head. He knows Drew was upset with the spot as he felt he should be higher on the card. Drew blamed everyone other than himself. He started drinking after shows and then when he got home. His wife is here and she says Drew didn’t take his job serious when they first met. She would pack his bags and carry him out of the house because he was so hung over to put him on a plane. Jinder says they were all frustrated with their spot in 3MB and all they cared about was getting to the parties and bar after the show. They would eat and drink all night as they felt like they were rock stars. Drew admits he numbed himself and what was happening at work and in his personal life wasn’t real. He didn’t have the motivation to go to work anymore.

-He and his wife (they girlfriend) had moved into a place together and 3 days later he gets released by the WWE. Drew was angry, numb, disappointed. He used drinking as a way to forget about being fired. He didn’t talk to his wife and would spend days drinking. His phone would die and his wife had no way of knowing if he was alive or in jail. His biggest emotion was worry as he had a new place and no income and he didn’t know how to tell his dad he lost his job. He admits now that he needed to fall on his ass and he needed to find himself or give this up completely.

-He started getting calls from everyone to work their wrestling shows. Everyone wanted him to be the 3MB guy as that’s what fans knew and would pay to see. He didn’t want to do that and only wanted to work with ICW, which was the one promoter not to call him. Drew messaged him and showed up as a surprise to a show 3 weeks later. They had to sneak him into the building and they have footage courtesy of ICW. Drew knew he was going to sound like an insane person to a lot of people. The lights go out and Drew makes his return to a massive pop. That’s actually pretty dope! Drew basically did a 20 minute promo as the crowd was hanging on every word. He found himself with the promo as he was no longer playing the part of Drew McIntyre. He thanks Mick Foley for putting him over on Steve Austin’s podcast and we hear what Foley had to say.

-Things started steamrolling for Drew from there. He became the ICW champion again and became the spark the company needed. He became a leader as well and we see footage of him helping the boys and girls.

-Evolve next as Drew and Ricochet work a match together and it looks like a hell of a match. Drew goes on to become the 3rd ever Evolve Champion. He started just collecting titles from all these different companies and became one of the hottest Indy wrestlers on the planet. His brand started to grow and he realized he could help all these companies. He worked a crazy schedule for all these companies and helped raise the wrestling scene in The UK.

-Drew tells us how difficult his personal life was during this time. He didn’t even know what city he was in at times and was running himself ragged. He also still had to catch up with friends so was still out at night. His relationship with his wife was being strained as she only saw him 1 day a month. She knew he was doing everything he could as a wrestler, but as a man and partner he was falling short.

-The turning point came when he broke his neck and had to take 8 weeks off. That period helped their relationship as they had serious conversations. She actually called his family to let them know the reality of his drinking problem. She was going to walk if things didn’t change and Drew’s family stood behind her.

-Drew took the message to heart as he changed his diet and cut out the drinking and partying. He then asked her to marry him and Sheamus mentions she is the best thing to happen to Drew. Now he was looking toward the future and his next move. He got in touch with Regal who asked him to speak with HHH. He was brought in as part of NXT and that’s where Drew wanted to go.

-NXT Takeover: Orlando: Drew gets the call to show up and just appear in the crowd. We see him get rushed into the crowd and the thought came “oh God, what if they don’t remember me.” I mean this is an NXT crowd so no chance they weren’t going to pop for him.

-His goal was to be NXT Champion and knew he had to put in the work. Footage of Drew wrecking fools in NXT and everyone says he became the measuring stick. He ends the reign of Bobby Roode as NXT Champion, but you knew his time in NXT would be short and sure enough RAW is next. Drew says the timing was right and pieces started to fall in place.

-We jump to Royal Rumble 2020 and Brock destroys everyone in the first 1/3 of The Rumble. Drew gets the monster pop by eliminating Brock and you would think that would be enough of a push to set up their program, but they give Drew the super push as he wins the Rumble as well. Jinder says he knew as soon as Drew eliminated Brock that he was going to win The Rumble. Sheamus puts over winning The Rumble etches your name in history. Drew loved seeing the videos of fans in the UK going crazy watching in bars. It is pretty cool!

-Drew challenges Lesnar the next night on RAW and our Mania Main Event is set. Drew always used a match with Brock at Mania as a measuring stick of where he wanted to get and it motivated him. Drew had to take a step back when he saw the graphic for their match the first time because he had dreamed about it. He was going to Mania in Tampa where he trained and nothing could go wrong. Yeah, about that!

-COVID-19: Drew says that you hear things but never think it will be that bad. Next we see the news reel with sports all over the world being canceled and business shutting down. Drew was over in Scotland filming a commercial when news broke of a travel ban for Europe to the US. Drew got a call that they had to fly him back as soon as possible or he may be stuck in Europe. Drew still had it in his head that WrestleMania was still going to happen.

-Soon Mania was moved to The PC and Drew admits he was angry. Soon he realized there were bigger things happening in the world and he dropped his selfish attitude. He realized things were bigger than him having a moment inside a stadium with 75,000 people.

-Morning of Mania as Drew is making the drive to Orlando. He calls the day at The PC weird. Nobody was there as it was a bare bones crew. We see Drew warming up backstage and that’s when it hit him that no matter what was happening, he was in the Main Event of WrestleMania. There were no fans but he knew there was an audience at home and he wanted to give them a happy ending.

-Brock and Drew have a short hoss fight filled with suplexes and Claymores. I am curious what kind of match they could have given us with a stadium full of fans as I don’t think it ends as quickly. I assume it would have been similar to Reigns/Lesnar and Rollins/Lesnar. Heyman cracks me up with his “he’s really good…hit him again,” line. Drew withstands the onslaught and a 4th Claymore wins the WWE Title.

-Drew calls the feeling overwhelming. Jinder says the prophecy came true and that he was the Chosen One as Vince predicted. Sheamus didn’t care there was no fans as it ended how it should with Drew holding the WWE Title over his head. “This is the WrestleMania where the world stood still and we gave everyone an escape. I won the Title and the world will remember that.”

-Drew and his wife got to sit down and watch WrestleMania just like everyone else. She loved being able to sit with him and their cat in their spot and watch the show. When Drew was handed the WWE Title by the ref, his wife gave it to him at home. How sweet! We see footage of Drew’s brother watching the show and he wishes they could have been there. Awesome emotion from all involved! We see video of Drew on Zoom with his family and again, great stuff! Drew’s dad gets emotional and was the first to cry. He chokes up again just talking about it and calls it the proudest moment in his life. Drew tells them the way it happened was perfect because he can’t do anything according to plan. Drew’s Zoom screen name being “Big Mac” make me laugh for some reason. His father talks about Drew’s mom and how she sees everyone of his matches and they show a wonderful photo of Drew with his mom! Someone’s cutting onions in my house!

-Drew winning the Title made him the first British born WWE Champion. His story is confirmation that anyone can achieve their dreams if they follow through and put in the work. We see Drew putting in the work required of a WWE Champion now as he does socially distanced interviews, signs cards for fans and defend his Title in the ring. He still can’t believe it every time he looks at the belt that he achieved his life’s dream and we close with that line.

-Another very good piece of business by the WWE film crew. Drew’s story is a good one and the guy is so easy to root for. Some of this stuff was covered by an earlier piece they did on Drew, which I believe was Chronicle and my review can be found here. Still this was a good follow-up and as always the WWE pulls out obscure footage for these documentaries. I was kind of bummed they didn’t touch on his Impact Wrestling run, but overall quality stuff. Thanks for reading!