Drew McIntyre has become a verb.
Just a few weeks ago, WWE released a string of talent following the TKO merger including the likes of Dolph Ziggler and Matt Riddle.
One man who knows all too well what it feels like to be released by WWE is Drew McIntyre, who was released following a failed first run in the promotion. McIntyre would proceed to bulk up and take over the independent circuit before returning to WWE and being crowned as one of their top stars.
Speaking to Good Karma Wrestling, McIntyre commented on the latest round of cuts.
“I hope they are inspired. From what I gather, the company literally tells people, ‘Do a Drew.’ My brother once said ‘you’ve become a verb.’ You have to go out there and reinvent yourself, grow your brand and make yourself more valuable. I believe that’s the advice that the company literally gives people and some of the Superstars that are released and come to me to ask for advice. Hopefully they’ll look at the template of what I did. When I left, the model was usually take that WWE character take it around the world, get paid X amount, the 2nd time around you’ll make a little less and finally you’ll find a wage that you’ll stop on and that will be your wage and hopefully one day you will make it back to WWE. My business mindset was, ‘that’s terrible business sense.’ I’m absolutely not doing that, I’m going to reinvent myself, I’m going to show what I can truly do. Social media is becoming really big which it was becoming huge in 2014. I can take everyone around the world with me on my journey and I’m really going to reinvent what it means to be an independent wrestler.
Thankfully a lot of people believed in me, gave me a lot of opportunities, a lot of platforms to show what I can do and I really succeed and everybody can follow that. The next guy was Cody Rhodes and he had his own version which led to the creation of another company. You watch Matt Cardona now, while Cody and I eventually kind of went to the TV level, Matt’s been able to keep it at an independent level but really become super popular, super successful. And he has carny in him that I never truly had.”
Drew McIntyre
McIntyre is currently scheduled to take on Seth Rollins at WWE Crown Jewel as he once again attempts to become a world champion.
H/T to Good Karma Wrestling for transcription
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