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In the latest episode of Forbidden Lore, Gareth Morgan explores the wild career of Drew McIntyre
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00:00Okay, it is time for another edition of your new favorite WhatCultureWrestling series, my friends.
00:06And this time we are cutting into the forbidden lore of a certain Scottish warrior slash legendary Twitter hater slash
00:15chosen one
00:17whose rise to the tippy top of the industry, along with being one full of twists and turns, exposed a
00:25rather awkward truth about WWE.
00:28So I am Gareth, this is WhatCultureWrestling, and here is the forbidden lore of WWE's Drew McIntyre.
00:37Drew McIntyre enjoyed a dream started life in WWE.
00:42That is, he would have, had he not re-debuted on the main roster in August 2009.
00:48Now you would think a man personally endorsed by Mr. McMahon as a future world champion who went by the
00:54nickname of, you know, The Chosen One,
00:57would have a very significant role to play by that same time in 2010, right?
01:03Well, it did not happen.
01:05After a promising early run in which he became the Intercontinental Champion and was booked to torment the endearing SmackDown
01:12General Manager,
01:13Teddy Long, book him in a tag match against The Undertaker, damn it.
01:16He was partnered with fellow mid-card also-ran, Cody Rhodes, to give him something to do.
01:23I wonder what ever happened to that guy.
01:25Drew had won two titles in under a year, he and Cody captured the WWE Tag Team titles,
01:31but this was a time when WWE thought that the belt would make the man, and as we know, that's
01:36not always the case.
01:37The increasingly meaningless straps were wrapped around any old promising developmental prospect
01:42in an attempt to fool the audience that WWE could still make stars.
01:48Then, when they invariably failed to make stars of those wrestlers, they were quickly and mercilessly relegated.
01:55Drew's baffling Wikipedia and cage match pages read like a series of disjointed answers to impossible trivia questions, really.
02:03It's a grim and yet somehow accurate reflection of the half-hearted, haphazard and chaotic way in which Vince McMahon
02:11barely ran WWE during that time.
02:14One day you were the chosen one, the next you were just some geek dreading your release.
02:19Drew's career trajectory, while completely pointless, was typical of this stop-start 50-50 era.
02:27Across April and May 2011, he was trading wins with Chris Masters on SmackDown and Superstars.
02:34Generic, in-house matches with absolutely no meaning at all.
02:38McIntyre was doomed, and a year later, he had joined music-themed comedy jobber outfit 3MB.
02:46It was often said that WWE got more wrestlers over by accident than design as the 2000s morphed into the
02:532010s.
02:54The company was both impressively incompetent and deliberately hostile all at once.
03:00They could not, and would not, create new stars. No, no way, damn it.
03:05Yeah, wonderful.
03:06Daniel Bryan is the most infamous example of this demented trend.
03:10WWE actively resented the idea that he could be the face of the company.
03:14Like CM Punk, before him, WWE only wanted to push him to a certain level.
03:20A level he only reached by effectively ignoring WWE's direction and getting over on his own.
03:25This was true of McIntyre, too, though it would take a while for that to, you know, take hold.
03:30He invented his claymore finish by accident, not design.
03:34When the 3MB member was clad in his 1980s-style rockstar leather trousers,
03:41he attempted a big boot, and the trousers were so tight that he had to kick up his other leg
03:46just to get him off the ground.
03:47Sensing that there was, yeah, probably something to it, he developed both the flying aspect
03:52and crowd interaction elements over the subsequent years.
03:55It was a cool move, yes, but his rock and roll fantasy camp gimmick lacked the obnoxious charm of even
04:02WCW's 3-count stable.
04:05Remember them?
04:05Nope, if you don't, well here's an image on screen, you are not getting that out of your brain anytime
04:10soon.
04:10Drew's problem is that he also did not resemble nor work like the popular internet darling of the day.
04:19WWE fans got behind Daniel Bryan and CM Punk and, to a lesser extent, even Dolph Ziggler,
04:24because in a time before work rate inflation, they offered a refreshing, exhilarating contrast
04:31to the methodical, power-based WWE style and larger, slower main eventers.
04:38McIntyre, both in gimmick and wrestling style, was, well, not remotely cool, like me.
04:44In the ring, he was good, not great.
04:48Not that he received many opportunities to prove people wrong, though.
04:50He was neither nothing nor something.
04:52Tall, but not really imposing.
04:54Not slow, but not tremendously exciting, either.
04:58He sensed this, too, when he was inevitably released from his WWE contract on June 12th, 2014.
05:03He set about transforming himself physically.
05:07The process would take time.
05:09When he debuted for TNA Wrestling in February 2015, he didn't look like a man reborn.
05:14He was a typical ex-WB guy in that he looked bigger in a different ring, but, like, only relatively.
05:21He was still pale and lacking in definition, but, but, but, but, things were happening already.
05:27As Drew Galloway, the rebuild almost happened in plain sight.
05:32The problem that faced him in WWE was a familiar foe on the independent scene.
05:37Now, he was cooler than he was, almost by default, but he wasn't the man generating the most buzz beyond
05:43WWE, like CM Punk in 2005 or Bryan Danielson a year later.
05:48Who was more interesting in 2016, okay?
05:50An earnestly improved Drew McIntyre?
05:54Or Kenny Omega?
05:55You know, the Kenny Omega that was the warp speed big match genius who had the retro cool 80s bad
06:01guy look?
06:02Yeah, it's a bit of a, bit of an easy one, that, isn't it?
06:04Alright, before we get any further into this video, I've got a quick question for you that I want your
06:08answer in the comments below.
06:10What is your favourite Drew McIntyre moment from his time away from WWE?
06:15As quiet as this transformation was, it was equally astute.
06:20As the aforementioned Omega and the Young Books embarked on grandiose experiments to change the wrestling world,
06:27with some fans mocking the conflicted melodrama and cutesy snark of it all,
06:33Drew Galloway, realising where he ultimately belonged, fine-tuned his act to WWE's exact specifications.
06:40He knew what he couldn't do.
06:43He instead focused with an incredible level of motivation on adding literal and figurative muscle to what he could do.
06:51Drew presented himself as a manly, blunt force in an era of stylistic flamboyance.
06:58He stood out as a result.
07:00He was not the guy to set about wrestling the match of the year or anything like that.
07:04He just wanted to chop, punch and recklessly throw those guys all around the ring.
07:09And this was literally the case in a killer match against Will Ospreay at WCPW Exit Wounds on March 6th,
07:162017.
07:16If you haven't watched it already, go and do yourself a favour.
07:19In the two years between his Impact Wrestling debut and this match, the transformation was all but complete.
07:26Drew resembled a completely different person here.
07:29I mean, perhaps a bloke is the better word here.
07:32A completely different bloke.
07:33It might not seem like much, but Drew's decision to grow his body hair in was also very clever.
07:38In WWE, he looked like a handsome, clean-cut man who happened to come from Scotland.
07:43On the rejuvenated Brit rest scene, he looked like a Scotsman.
07:47A hairy, grizzled, big, hulking bastard that you could picture in the roughest pub or even on some mythical battlefield.
07:55Probably wielding an axe or something.
07:57Or even a sword.
07:59Yeah?
07:59Mm-hmm.
08:00He was also twice the size, it looked like.
08:02He looked incredible, massive enough to walk back into a top spot in WWE, but also more badass and rugged
08:09than the dreaded company prototype.
08:12And Galloway's choice of music was simple to a knuckle-headed extent.
08:17Where the sting of an entrance theme is a jolt of adrenaline to energise a crowd, Galloway opted for the
08:23most direct route possible.
08:25He wanted to convey that he could do things now that he could not do in that lame old WWE,
08:30and he wanted to present himself as an aggressive hard man.
08:34He accomplished that with a song in which the F-word was screamed after a heavy, pacey guitar riff.
08:39Yep, it was stupid, but it was awesome.
08:41It was a great soundtrack to his crunching, super-credible ringwork.
08:45Are you enjoying this WhatCulture Wrestling video today?
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08:53While the key New Japan Pro Wrestling matches of the era dominated Match of the Year lists,
09:00Galloway's reputation soared in certain circles put off by the epic aspirations of New Japan Pro Wrestling and NXT.
09:07In 2016, a full year before Braun Strowman tilted the paradigm into the direction of, mate,
09:12Galloway and Bobby Lashley clashed like damn titans at TNA Slammiversary.
09:19Elsewhere, the unappealing-looking Evolve was never the coolest promotion on the planet,
09:25and the best matches were never hyped to any great level, accordingly.
09:29But Drew's sick war with Roderick Strong in September 2014 was the first premonition of his glorious future.
09:36The second was an exceptional styles clash against Johnny Gargano at the WWN Live Super Show on March 28th, 2015.
09:45Drew also returned home during his years away from WWE to insane championship wrestling,
09:50which, alongside progress, was at the forefront of the UK graps boom.
09:54There, in an excellent bit of matchmaking, Drew was the violent, serious, invincible major star antagonist
10:02for the pudgy, lovable, cult hero underdog that was Grado.
10:07In front of 4,000 fans, Drew did the J-O-B, and this was the peak of the promotion.
10:12Drew was already on his way as a worker.
10:14The ICW fans received the casting of Drew so seriously was the first indication that he could become a bona
10:20fide star.
10:21Just shy of a decade later, amid a boom of its own,
10:25Drew feuded with CM Punk in one of the best programs in the modern history of WWE.
10:31Drew was never more overt as Punk's trolling tormentor.
10:35Drew's intense pleasure of Punk's suffering was magnificent heel work in an era so lacking in it.
10:41Drew's use of Twitter was also excellent.
10:44Now, while it did help that he had so little competition,
10:47you know, many wrestlers had already left the toxic, pointless platform,
10:51Drew still had to be good at it, otherwise he'd be accused of just being a T-moo Becky Lynch.
10:56Drew was very good at it.
10:58Posting a photo of himself alongside Punk's real-life rival Jack Perry was a hilarious and incredibly bold touch.
11:07And in an ironic twist on that Punk feud,
11:10Galloway actually was once injured by a Future Shock DDT in a WCPW match with Joseph Connors.
11:16I don't think Connors prayed for it and it happened though, I'm not sure.
11:19Drew made his return to WWE on April 1st, 2017, when he was spotted sitting in the front row at
11:25NXT TakeOver Orlando.
11:27In his return match, he defeated Oney Lorcan on the April 12th edition of the network show.
11:32And it was infinitely better than anything that he'd ever done in his previous stint.
11:37To ultra-cult fans of a certain disposition, it was better than most everything else that WWE promoted that year.
11:44It was a ridiculously hard-hitting sprint wrestled with a deranged urgency in which Lorcan was lucky to still have
11:51nipples after one particularly savage McIntyre chop.
11:55A great introductory match makes the winner look like the damn business.
11:59But this was something even better than that.
12:02Lorcan was not a small boy by any means.
12:04The spot in which McIntyre caught his flying crossbody and then smashed him back first against the apron,
12:11it just absolutely rocked.
12:13Even better was Drew's celebration here.
12:15Taking time to put his new personality across, he relished the idea of inflicting pro-wrestling violence.
12:22Drew soon went through the obligatory chapter of being NXT champion.
12:25It's just what they did at this point.
12:27They signed somebody big from the independence scene.
12:29They had him beat a few people.
12:30They won the belt.
12:31It just happened.
12:32He was then promoted to the main roster after being put on the injury list with a biceps injury.
12:36This run wasn't amazing.
12:39Very little in 2018.
12:40One of the worst years ever was, to be honest.
12:44But Drew was propelled to the WWE title picture after strange, unproductive associations with Dolph Ziggler and Shane McMahon.
12:53Remember that?
12:54The late 2019 babyface turn was a bit sudden, but it didn't really matter.
13:01Drew revealed the witty, gregarious side of his personality to win the fans over just as quickly.
13:07And while his 3, 2, 1 crowd interaction ahead of the Claymore kick was almost offensively simple,
13:14the most effective tricks in wrestling often are, aren't they?
13:17Drew's reinvention was bloody awesome.
13:19Now you could argue that WWE almost did too accurate a job of telling that story.
13:25In an attempt to solidify his bond with the audience, Drew frequently talked about how hard he had worked during
13:30his hiatus from WWE in the mid-2010s.
13:33Many weeks on Raw, Drew would just openly talk about how he could only really reach the current level that
13:39he was at outside of the WWE system.
13:41Simply put, he had to go away to get good.
13:44This isn't so much forbidden lore about McIntyre himself, but rather the company that utilised his services as an independent
13:51contractor.
13:52What's strange here is that WWE said the quiet part loudly.
13:55At the exact same time as they recruited collegiate athletes with zero pro wrestling experience,
14:02they told the entire world that to actually make it in WWE, you had to leave WWE and gain experience
14:07elsewhere.
14:08In a pandemic era of garbage monsters, ninjas and underground fighting rings,
14:16this right here was amongst the most questionable things that WWE did.
14:21WWE being counterproductive to one's own career was canon.
14:26As crazy as it was for WWE to admit it, it was damn true as a certain Olympian would say.
14:32McIntyre does not get over without undergoing his early humiliation ritual, folks.
14:38And if nothing else, it has helped fuel his excellent, bitter heel persona that we get to enjoy on screen
14:44today.
14:45Now carry on your WhatCulture Wrestling YouTube journey by tapping on another one of our videos right here.
14:51Or here.
14:52They might be everywhere.
14:53I'm not sure.
14:54Just do it, have some fun, and I will see you later on.
14:56Bye-bye.
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