Drew McIntyre Says His Family Was His Priority For His New WWE Deal

In an interview with PWInsider, Drew McIntyre spoke about signing a new deal with WWE and said he prioritized his family when making his decision. Here are highlights:

On making his family a priority: “I am great. It’s an exciting time in my life and my career, as you mentioned, just re-signing with WWE and watching where the company is and where we’re going. You know, I just had to be part of it and, you know, personally, things are looking great. And I’m very, very excited to get back home to Scotland. Not just for obviously the first ever Scottish PLE, with Clash of the Castle, again to see everybody back home because that’s so important to me these days. I’ve spent so many years away, sacrificing so much and realizing that it’s my family that truly sacrificed you know, their son, I have a cousin, their uncle, their brother. And anytime I can get back, which is way more often these days, is a huge bonus to me. ”

On sacrifices for international WWE talents: “It’s the hardest thing that I’ve had to deal with. This was always the dream since I was a kid – make it to WWE, and honestly, I’d never truly considered, oh yeah, you have to move to America, until I got signed. I was talking about this earlier during an interview, and I did all the work, I had the self belief. I was like, I’m going to be the first ever Scottish person signed directly from Scotland to WWE, and I finally did it. I had the contract in my hand and I went wait – I have to move to America and taking that into account and I’m so close with my family, so close with my mother, it was very hard to be away. But they were so encouraging, kept pushing me forward, keep chasing the dream. And when you’re young, you can put yourself in that mode of just work, work work. And when I was a kid – work, work, work, party, party, party. And you don’t think too much, but years can slip by real quickly, and I’d get home maybe once a year during that period. It wasn’t enough, but over these past few years, I’ve grown up a lot more, I started thinking a lot more about back home and seeing people not with us anymore, like my mom, and my dad getting older, and my brother having my nephews, two kids, and seeing how big they get, I realize – I want to be working on my dream, I don’t want to give that up, but at the same time I want to be home more, I want to try to find that balance cause that’s where I’m at in my life now and thankfully, thanks to Nick Khan and Triple H and WWE, we got there, where I feel comfortable with my family and my wife and I feel comfortable, I’m gonna be able to give to the company and give to my family at the same time. ”

On if he ever considered leaving WWE: “It was never a consideration, no. I’m wrestling with the WWE, I don’t think…in the sense that, what am I gonna go wrestle somewhere else cause this is where I want to wrestle. I don’t want to be anywhere else but our family has gone through a lot over the past year. My wife’s sister unfortunately passed a year ago yesterday. And that was very difficult and I felt like I’m gonna have to take some serious time for my family. And you know, there was a period where I was like, maybe I’ll just have to take a little break and come back and you know, just some uncertainty but no, thankfully as a family we came together and you know, WWE gave me the time I needed whenever I needed it during that period. And in the end, you know, as a family, we came together, we had a conversation, what was best for us, the company were unbelievable with that and thankfully, you know, everybody is in a great place right now.”