What to do with a problem like Drew Mcintrye? – By Wrestle G
What to do with a problem like Drew Mcintrye? – By Wrestle G
Welcome back one and all to some more musings by myself your old buddy old pal Wrestle G and I am in a fantastic mood recently. The Wrestling world continues to fire on all cylinders with WWE ramping up for SummerSlam and AEW continuing the road to All In. Both cards are shaping up to have some huge encounters and culminations of compelling feuds. Today I’m going to delve into what is currently my favourite of those feuds in Drew McIntyre and CM Punk. Drew is fast becoming the most compelling character on wrestling television (and that’s a stacked field) and so today we will look into what SummerSlam may hold for the Big Yin of Wrestling.
But First, let’s have a look around what else is going on in Wrestling with some Wrestling Tapas!
Wrestling Tapas!
Blood and Guts and Chairshots
Blood and Guts was the main event of Dynamite this week and was its usual chaotic brawl. During the bout Jack Perry got levelled by Mark Briscoe with a chair shot that was reminiscent of Tommy Dreamer and Raven from ECW in the 90’s. It was a hell of a visual and an even more impressive ding as the chair hit. It’s since come to pass that the chair was gimmicked for protection. Personally I don’t think going through with spots like this in this day and age gives you any gain or positives.
What we know about CTE and the issues with brain injuries, so even with a protected shot as soon as it happens the majority of viewers aren’t thinking about the chair shot itself, they are wincing, they are worried, they are thinking about if it is the right thing to do. Any use that shot has to tell the story in the match or angle is taken right out. It’s a spot that now takes people out of the match and on that basis I don’t think there is any use in using it going forward.
I know they went to lengths to gimmick the chair and that is commendable, I’m not taking a shot at the safety aspect of this. But I think its time to consign any chair shots in the head to the void.
Outside of the spot I enjoyed the match and I’m happy that Darby and Perry get to have their one on one contest at All In. The two pillars have a chance to break out here in this match, I feel Perry is at a bit of a cross roads and needs a big single moment. If he doesn’t deliver at All In I fear any momentum he has from this scapegoat character may be lost.
WrestleMania in London?
HHH and Nick Khan have recently been in London to meet with its mayor Sadiq Khan to have preliminary discussions. Now Those discussions have been said to be about WrestleMania but there’s a big part of me that thinks that is a little bit of a ways off, I can feel the hesitancy of taking the years biggest show outside of the US. But what I would like to see is something like the Royal Rumble come to a stadium weather that be Wembley or the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
But it would be an absolute dream to have the showcase of the immortals in my country I think I would go big for that and get myself as close to ringside as possible. The crowd will be insane even if its over two days. I think I’m going to start building my savings pot just in case.
Roman Reigns imminent Return?
I’m still on the fence on if Roman is going to return at SummerSlam. With Hikuelo signed there seems to me to be scope for him to debut at SummerSlam and with Jimmy Uso close to returning I might expect him to show up to help Cody first. We also have the slow burning jealously building up with Randy Orton for a future master vs student feud, there is so much going on around the Solo vs Cody Match.
For me the returning Roman might be a bit too much to cram in. Heyman showing up with Jimmy would make sense and mark a start of a Bloodline vs Bloodline wargames match at Survivor Series in November. With Smackdown launching on the USA Network on the 13th September this is where I would unleash the Roman Reigns return. Make a splash on your new TV home and it still gives you plenty of build to November.
AEW and WBD
I feel like I’ve had a crash course in media rights these last few years with WWE’s blockbuster Netflix deals and AEW’s negotiations on renewal. It’s been extremely messy in the wrestling media with everyone micro analysing every weekly rating and every situation happening at Warner Bros Discovery.
For me it is quite simple. AEW offers a very consistent weekly presence on TV for 52 weeks of the year. Very few properties offer networks a worry free year of ratings like that and there seems to have been a positive relationship between Tony Khan and Warner Bros top brass, you don’t get an extra Saturday night show given to you if you aren’t enjoying working with a property.
I’m fully confident that AEW will get an increase and I am fully confident that overtime they can break that 1 million barrier on Wednesday nights again. I’d also be intrigued to see the back catalogue on the Max Streaming Service.
Ok let’s jump on todays main topic shall we?
What to do with a problem like Drew McIntyre?
As I sit and write this Drew McIntyre has just posted a photo of him and Jack Perry having a picture together with the caption ‘cry us a river’ It is without question one of the most funny and bold bits of storyline advancement I’ve seen in the social media era of wrestling. And it is completely on brand for a character and performer whom I believe has had the best 12 months in all of wrestling.
The story arc of Drew becoming disenchanted with being screwed out of his title opportunities and title matches, the anger and frustration slowly building week on week. He has continually tried to forge further opportunities to right these wrongs. While HHH can be criticised for letting things roll on too long in certain areas, with Drew this has felt as organic and authentic as possible. I think a big reason for that is that Drew was genuinely upset at the return of C.M Punk.
Punk returning to the company in November 2023 saw him join an already stacked roster at the top of the Card:
Cody Rhodes
Roman Reigns
Seth Rollins
Randy Orton
AJ Styles
Kevin Owens
Sami Zayn
Gunther.
Its quite something and adding Punk who became unavailable unexpectedly only added to the congestion of the upper card.
Drew within this packed field took it upon himself to ensure his real like frustrations of people being in the way of spots he wanted to be in was transferred to screen. We saw him openly call out Punks backstage behaviour over the years on air, we’ve seen him drive to Mindy’s bakery on social media. Drew like any good performer has leant in 100% to his snarky annoyed character.
Since Punk’s return while we all thought he would be linked to Seth Rollins (and indeed that was the working idea for mania) Drew has made sure people know he’s involved in Punks business. So much so that Drew had built up enough anticipation by the Royal Rumble that people were intrigued to see him and Punk face off. One Double arm DDT later and Drew had inadvertently put Punk on the shelf with a torn Triceps.
Punks WrestleMania dreams in Shatters we saw Drew take his spot for Mania, A spot in one of the main matches on the grandest stage of them all. It all ended sourly of course and since Mania we have seen Punk try to make Drews life a living hell costing him time and time again. To the point where Drew might almost be seen as the babyface heading into SummerSlam.
But what do we do with Drew now? He is without question one of the most compelling characters on television, he has without question missed out on huge moments, most notably not winning the title in his home country. Heading into his showdown with Punk at SummerSlam for my money he has to win. A loss at this stage is going to stop him right in his tracks, he will stop being disgruntled angry contender to someone who is just a failure. That is the first issue with this match, and I hope and pray they can allow him to win and have Rollins cost punk the match. This feud now due to McIntyre’s work need him to win and then progress and we can then get the Rollins and Punk programme we missed out on at Mania.
In my opinion Drew then has to go full tilt into the World Heavyweight Title scene and claim the belt with no frills no gimmicks no problems. Priest has done very well as champ and I think he has cemented his place further up the card than when he started, Gunther has cooled off a lot since losing his intercontinental title. So that leaves Drew as the outright choice to lead the Raw brand with championship in hand. He has deserved this, he has worked for this, he has earned it. He has made what looked like a routine top of the car and has forced his involvement. What do you do with a problem like Drew McIntyre? You crown him champion.
As always you can get hold of me over on Twitter via @Wrestle_G the account is growing nicely and the more and more conversations we can get going about wrestling the better.
I will be back next week with a look at what SummerSlam means to me and then maybe will try my hand at a little SummerSlam review.
Until then,
Cheers,
G