Like the business itself, pro wrestlers are learning how to weave just enough reality into everything they do to make their characters and conflicts even more appealing to an audience that knows the game (and The Game, but more on him in a second).
Drew McIntyre is among the best at it, which is why his appearance on the latest Impaulsive with his SummerSlam tag partner Logan Paul produced a bunch of quotes making the rounds on the wrestle web today (July 22).
Here’s a few of them.
Promoting their current
angle with Randy Orton and country music star Jelly Roll, McIntyre and Paul discussed Jelly Roll’s training, and whether or not he’ll quickly impress in the squared circle the way people like Kurt Angle, Bad Bunny, and Paul himself did. Drew brings up that Jelly supposedly has an athletic background before cracking that it probably involved “paying dominoes in jail”. That led to an exchange in which McIntyre vents what we-can-imagine might be the prevailing opinion within WWE about rapper Travis Scott, after Scott allegedly forced the company to change their plans because he was not “a quick learner for the business”, possibly because Scott “flaked” on training.
Paul: That’s my issue with him. I came in as a lifelong athlete, and now that I do this, I find it a little insulting that a celebrity thinks they can come into the business and get the green room and fly on the jet.
McIntyre: Do a six-minute run-in at WrestleMania and screw up our damn main event. Travis Scott. Piece of shit.
Paul: I’m sick of the outsiders. No disrespect to Jelly Roll outside of WWE, but in WWE, I fully intend to disrespect him a lot.
Scott didn’t book himself for that spot at ‘Mania, so if Drew is speaking for his bosses here, they may be trying to deflect blame from themselves. But either way, McIntyre’s lines will get some pops from fans who’ve been steamed over the main event of WrestleMania 41’s second night for months now.
McIntyre also sought to shoot down the idea that Seth Rollins’ knee injury is being made up or exaggerated for storyline purposes, arguing:
“I want him to be okay. He’s a professional rival, not a personal rival. I just don’t see the benefit if it was a storyline. Like, it’s the Money in the Bank briefcase, It’s gonna be a surprise, anyway. ‘Haha, I threw a match and did this’ — I just don’t see it.
“Maybe there is more to it if it becomes a story and I’m not seeing the bigger picture... It’d be a hell of a surprise, I just can’t see it.
“At the same time, I don’t have to be able to see it if there is a bigger plan. Our fans always try to figure out things. ‘What’s the finish?’ You see movies, just give it a second. There might not be a finish, we might still be workshopping to get there. Everyone, relax, and see how the story plays out because half the time we’re figuring out how it plays out.”
In-character or not, the big Scotsman’s thoughts on physiques in modern wrestling will be echoes by some and shouted down by others. It came up while talking about the public perception of wrestlers as dumb, and how the current generation is changing people’s minds while building their brand in interviews and via social media:
“These days, no offense, but 85% of our guys don’t look like they should be in WWE, My buddies — they’ll turn on the wrestling for a while to see what you’re up to. It’s cool to see people. ‘Oh, Logan Paul’s on there, and he’s killing it. You know, that Roman Reigns, what a freaking star.’ Like, that comes on the screen, comes right off the screen. You’re a freaking giant. There’s these other guys that look like they should be serving me my fast food, McDonald’s or whatever.”
“And my buddy’s like, ‘I could kick their ass. It takes me out of it.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, you know, they’re good at wrestling.’ And eventually, you’ll connect with them.’ ‘But I’m not gonna watch it long enough. I changed the channel.’
“It’s like, Jesus, guys, get in the frickin’ gym. At least get something that grabs your attention.”
One thing not many will argue, or doubt? That McIntyre doesn’t think he’d ever have as much room to grow his character if Vince McMahon were still running WWE creative instead of his son-in-law, Paul “Triple H” Levesque:
“For Vince, I think for me personally, he had a certain image of me, and he was always looking to protect me as this warrior character.
“If I went to try something outside the box, the stuff I’m doing now, for me personally, it probably wouldn’t happen just because he was like, ‘No, this is my Drew. This is my warrior. This is how I see it.’ And Hunter was very much of the mindset, we’re going to try something different.
“We’re going to try this and let you be yourself and let this personality that he knew I had shine. And from the second we had our first conversation when he took over, it’s been exactly that. We’ve developed this McIntyre character and we watched what happened with the Bloodline.”
And Drew’s hottest take? When Logan asked him for advice, McIntyre told him to start working on his good guy material...
“People don’t believe it and they’re going to laugh when I say it, the marks out there, but eventually you’re going to turn babyface like Dominik [Mysterio]’s doing right now. There’s a fine line between love and hate, and eventually you’re going to be getting wildly cheered down the line.”
Weigh in on any or all of that in the comments below. And check out Drew’s entire visit to Impaulsive here.
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