Drew McIntyre On Why Jinder Mahal’s WWE Title Reign Was So Criticized

Drew McIntyre had a similar road as Jinder Mahal to the WWE Championship, but he believes a key difference made Mahal’s reign more hated by fans. McIntyre spoke with Give Me Sport for a new interview and discussed his feud with Mahal and more. You can check out some highlights below:

On why Mahal’s WWE Championship reign was so criticized: “I think a lot of it came because it just came out of nowhere. It wasn’t like myself. There was no build to that big moment and telling the story and history. He has a similar story, the exact same story actually when it comes to getting fired, but the position he was in at the time, it was just kind of hotshotted and I think that’s why people were kind of negative. I think he did a great job with the opportunity that was presented. Perhaps low on experience at the time, but still, in my opinion, whatever he was asked, he did to the best of his abilities.”

On his upcoming match with Mahal as part of their feud: “Where he’s at now, we’re about to show that he’s at a different level right now. When it comes to the character stuff, being comfortable, no one is expecting him in a top role from his end. When it comes to the in-ring stuff, I’m going to bring some stuff out of him that perhaps no one has ever seen. That’s what I see as one of my strongest points, the physicality and match quality perspective, I want to show every body that he can go at a different level in the ring than you remember him being able to go last time he was in a significant match. You’re going to see a lot — I hate to use the word work rate — higher work rate than you’ve seen in the past from Jinder. From a character perspective, he’s so comfortable and knows exactly who he is. That’s the most important thing when you’re in a deep storyline like we’re about to get into. We’ve barely scratched the surface.”