Drew McIntyre shares his thoughts on his memorable promo about CM Punk.
After CM Punk suffered a torn triceps in the Royal Rumble, reportedly during a DDT by McIntyre, “The Scottish Warrior” interrupted him on the following episode of WWE RAW. McIntyre sparked a lot of buzz when he said that he prayed for the injury to happen.
Speaking with The West Australian‘s Craig O’Donoghue, Drew McIntyre discussed the promo. He noted that some performers in WWE have the freedom to be themselves and do what they think is right.
“That’s kind of the thing right now, is there’s just this freedom in WWE, especially for people that the company can trust to go out there and be you and be what you feel is right,” Drew McIntyre said. “Within reason, there’s certain ones of us they can trust in the microphone, and there really is that feeling of go out and try some stuff. A lot of it, to me is, I think this is hilarious. I think this works for the character, I think this is gonna be a heck of a moment, and I want to build him up, build Punk up, about how I can relate to him and say truthful things.
“Everything for me has gotta be based in truth, for me and the character. Because if it’s real to me, it’s real to everybody else, and you’ll feel it. Punk and I did have issues when I was younger. All of that stuff’s true. I went in there and told him, I’ve been through injuries, I’ve had moments taken away from me because of it, and I can understand that. He spoke about one of his friends going through chemotherapy and how that’s a real hero, and I said I can relate to that.”
Drew McIntyre Looks Back On Crowd’s Reaction To Promo
Drew McIntyre also noted that he related to what Punk said about how one of his friends battled cancer. He then recalled the promo and the crowd’s reaction
“When it comes to the injury and how I felt, him coming into the company, leap-frogging superstars, trying to take their spot at WrestleMania, specifically my spot at WrestleMania, I was never gonna let it happen, and I took him out,” Drew McIntyre said. “I wanted to let him know that I prayed for this and it happened [laughs]. The way people reacted, it was a delayed reaction but it was like, ‘Oh my god, he just said that.’ I could feel it in the arena.
“Then the next line, I think I said, ‘After the Rumble, when I got eliminated by him, I couldn’t sleep, I’d let myself down, I let the world down, not winning that Rumble, but more specifically getting eliminated by Punk. Then the next day, I found out he tore his tricep off the bone. That night, I slept like a baby. Then I headed just to Raw with a big smile on my face, then attacked him and stomped his tricep, chucked him out the door and said, ‘Right, where were we? Oh yeah, me main-eventing WrestleMania. That’s right. Bugger off, Punk.'”
Drew McIntyre: Legitimate Issues Make It More Interesting
Drew McIntyre went on to describe how legitimate issues make match-ups more interesting and entertaining. He used boxing and UFC as a comparison. The former WWE Champion stated that using legitimate issues and amplifying it for a storyline happens a lot in WWE.
“Yeah, I mean, you’ve gotta be professionals,” Drew McIntyre said. “I don’t wish anyone to get hurt, no matter what the personal feelings are, no matter if they are rooted in reality because they are. You just gotta hope that everybody’s a professional, they understand we’re trying to entertain the fans, and to me, what works is reality, what’s real. You watch boxing and UFC, if you know the two fighters absolutely despise each other, you’re way more invested than they’re just hugging each other, buddy buddy, we’re just gonna go have ourselves a laugh, punch each other in the head.
“You’re like, ‘Alright, that’ll be good, I guess.’ But if they’re shouting at each other, screaming, get pulled apart in press conferences, trash-talking each other, social media attacking each other, which everyone seems to be enjoying, then you’re more invested if you can actually feel there’s a legitimate issue here. If there is a legitimate issue there, turn it up to 10. That’s what we do in WWE. Our personalities, the storylines, if there’s something interesting, we take it and we turn it all the way up.”
The full interview can be seen here:
Drew McIntyre is set to face Cody Rhodes on the February 19 episode of WWE RAW. WrestleZone will have coverage of the show as it airs on Monday.
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