Drew McIntyre On Being Shocked By His WWE Release, Deciding to Reinvent Himself on Indies

– Speaking with Cathy Kelley for a WWE Now interview, Drew McIntyre recalled being released from WWE in 2014 and how he decided to reinvent himself after. McIntyre was let go from the company while he was part of the 3MB gimmick, and proceeded to make a name for himself on the indy circuit before his eventual return in 2017. Highlights are below:

On getting called and told he was being released: “Yeah, I mean, I was shocked initially. Because myself, Jinder Mahal and Heath [Slater], the 3MB, were on literally everything. All the live events, all the television shows, we were heavily featured, so I was surprised. But at the end of the call I said, ‘That’s cool, I appreciate it, and I’ll see you down the line.’ I meant it.”

On deciding to reinvent himself on the indies: “I got off the call, sat and thought about it awhile, spoke to a couple of my buddies who had also been released, asked their opinion. They told me what everybody does is you get released, and you start working for these smaller companies around the world, wou play the WWE character you were doing on TV, and you make x amount of money at first. And then as you come around the second time it goes down, third time it goes down, and you’ll find a wage you can live on. To me as a businessman, that sounded insane. I was like, ‘Well no, I’m not going to do that. I’ve gotta reinvent myself. I’ve gotta, you know, put up or shut up time, apply all the lessons I’ve learned over the years, show everybody what I can truly do and I can truly be a main-event player. And you’ve gotta give it your all right now, and I’m not gonna go this way [down], I’m gonna go this way [up].’ And within an hour I had arranged my first appearance in the UK for ICW.”

On doing the ICW show: “I spoke to the promoter there, Mark Dallas, told him I wanted to show up, ‘I want be a surprise at your big show, and give my mission statement to the world.’ So that’s what I did. I flew to Scotland with a hoodie on, I hid at my dad’s house for three days with the blinds closed, played Guitar Hero with my buddies, snuck to the gym at the cover of night, and showed up in the ring [and] give the promo that really kickstarted everything.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE Now with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.