Former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre recently spoke with Bleacher Report where he discussed WrestleMania 37 and the return of a live audience of an expected 25,000+ per night. He also expressed interest in a match with Cesaro in the future. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On fans returning at WrestleMania: “It means the world. Last year, I’m so proud of. What we did, bringing the world an escape with WrestleMania, brought a lot of smiles on a lot of faces during a difficult time…but we’ve all been buzzing for the idea of the fans coming back. The fans are unreal, so passionate in general. They’ve been starved of WWE for a long time, and they’re ready to make some noise, and it’s so cool the first time they’re gonna be there is at WrestleMania. I’m just gonna try to not get overwhelmed. That’s gonna be the biggest challenge for me, walking out for the first time in a stadium with that many people at WrestleMania trying to compose myself. I can’t wait.”
On potentially appearing on NBC content outside of WWE: “Not right now, but you never know what the future holds. I’m all about getting more eyeballs on WWE. That’s the biggest thing to me, and moving to Peacock, that’s going to be a whole lot of eyeballs on WWE. But if there’s an opportunity that would put more eyes on the product, I’m all about it.”
On fans not being in attendance for his win at last year’s WrestleMania: “I’d be lying if I said part of me wasn’t a little disappointed I didn’t have 70,000 people and my family and wife in the crowd going crazy, being able to jump into the crowd and all that stuff. I sat down and talked about it with the wife, and saw how serious the COVID situation was and I realized how big [WrestleMania 36] was for the world, for an escape for everybody, and the fact my story was a feel-good story. I was like, ‘You know what, this is bigger than my selfish moment.’ And I did have my moment, that’s the thing as well. I won the title, and even though it was silent, I had a really private moment the crowd got to watch at home with the title. Instead of the adrenaline being off the charts, raising my hand and jumping in the crowd, I had a really private moment looking at the title and a montage went through my head of everything I’ve been through to get to that moment. When I realized what was happening, I was like, ‘oop, there’s Brock Lesnar lying there. Oop, we’re live at WrestleMania, I need to do something.’ To me, that was my WrestleMania moment right there—it will be remembered forever as the WrestleMania the time stood still. At the same time, I’d still love to have a moment with the fans this year.”
On who he wants to see pushed in WWE: “We’re watching it right now. I think everyone and their dog have been saying Cesaro [is due for a push] for about five years, and it’s true. The fact of the matter is I’ve never been in the ring and had a match with him. I can just tell watching him. Usually, you can only tell how good someone is when you get in with them. If I got in with him, that would be so much fun. But to see him getting an opportunity to work with someone as good as Seth—and Seth is incredible—I’m excited to see where they’re going to go. If they give this the right build, present Cesaro in a way that highlights his strengths and get to that match, it’d be cool to see Cesaro break into the next level and finally have a match with Drew McIntyre.”
