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PWInsiderElite.com sat down with WWE's Drew McIntyre for a deep dive conversation earlier this week. The 35-minute discussion touched upon a number of topics, including:
Putting his family first as his priority when it came to signing his new WWE contract:
"I am great. It's an exciting time in my life and my career, as you mentioned, just re-signing with WWE and watching where the company is and where we're going. You know, I just had to be part of it and, you know, personally, things are looking great. And I'm very, very excited to get back home to Scotland. Not just for obviously the first ever Scottish PLE, with Clash of the Castle, again to see everybody back home because that's so important to me these days. I've spent so many years away, sacrificing so much and realizing that it's my family that truly sacrificed you know, their son, I have a cousin, their uncle, their brother. And anytime I can get back, which is way more often these days, is a huge bonus to me. "
The Sacrifices international WWE talents and their families make:
"It's the hardest thing that I've had to deal with. This was always the dream since I was a kid - make it to WWE, and honestly, I'd never truly considered, oh yeah, you have to move to America, until I got signed. I was talking about this earlier during an interview, and I did all the work, I had the self belief. I was like, I'm going to be the first ever Scottish person signed directly from Scotland to WWE, and I finally did it. I had the contract in my hand and I went wait - I have to move to America and taking that into account and I'm so close with my family, so close with my mother, it was very hard to be away. But they were so encouraging, kept pushing me forward, keep chasing the dream. And when you're young, you can put yourself in that mode of just work, work work. And when I was a kid - work, work, work, party, party, party. And you don't think too much, but years can slip by real quickly, and I'd get home maybe once a year during that period. It wasn't enough, but over these past few years, I've grown up a lot more, I started thinking a lot more about back home and seeing people not with us anymore, like my mom, and my dad getting older, and my brother having my nephews, two kids, and seeing how big they get, I realize - I want to be working on my dream, I don't want to give that up, but at the same time I want to be home more, I want to try to find that balance cause that's where I'm at in my life now and thankfully, thanks to Nick Khan and Triple H and WWE, we got there, where I feel comfortable with my family and my wife and I feel comfortable, I'm gonna be able to give to the company and give to my family at the same time. "
Whether conversations ever got to the point he considered exiting WWE:
"It was never a consideration, no. I'm wrestling with the WWE, I don't think...in the sense that, what am I gonna go wrestle somewhere else cause this is where I want to wrestle. I don't want to be anywhere else but our family has gone through a lot over the past year. My wife's sister unfortunately passed a year ago yesterday. And that was very difficult and I felt like I'm gonna have to take some serious time for my family. And you know, there was a period where I was like, maybe I'll just have to take a little break and come back and you know, just some uncertainty but no, thankfully as a family we came together and you know, WWE gave me the time I needed whenever I needed it during that period. And in the end, you know, as a family, we came together, we had a conversation, what was best for us, the company were unbelievable with that and thankfully, you know, everybody is in a great place right now. "
WWE Clash at the Castle coming to Glasgow, Scotland:
"This is something beyond a dream, you know, I talked about for years and spoke about it with yourself and everyone else has listened to me for years that the UK needs to get, you know, a significant event. I've been asking since the day I was in WWE and I always heard the logistics excuse, this and this, then suddenly we're doing shows all across the world places like Australia, they've got the craziest time difference. And finally the original Clash at the Castle, it happened. That was, my goodness, a dream come true. I wrestled in the main event, could have done without singing that stupid freakin' song afterwards. Nonetheless, it was just an amazing experience. But never thought for a second hey, we're gonna get you know, a PLE and big event in Scotland. And I was you know smartened up a few months ago, hey it's going to happen. It's beyond dreams... growing up, I didn't think about this because it wasn't a real thing. And the idea to get to go back there and be part of such a big show while the industry is so hot. If the industry wasn't as hot, I can assure you the Scottish wrestling fans were just as crazy and if you think Backlash was something just wait for the songs. The Scottish fans will be bringing it and if I'm in less than a title match, quite frankly, I'll be upset."
His dream opponent for the Scotland event:
"As much as I'd love to slap [CM] Punk around in front of all my friends and family and in Glasgow where I went to university for a year, one of the roughest places in the world. If I don't finish the job, they'll finish it for me. It's about, you know, getting that title back. You know, having the title for five minutes and 46 seconds at WrestleMania was pretty cool. It was a legitimate very special moment and you could tell you know how much it meant to me, having that moment with the fans and my wife and my brother before we went into the other stuff, which obviously advanced stories, but I want that type of magic. [Damian] Priest has still got the title, we had words last week, and whatever he said everyone thinks, Priest got one over on Drew - you can never get one over on Drew, nobody gets one over on Drew, cause Drew's playing chess, while Priest is playing with his guyliner. Give him a rematch, that's all I wanted. McIntyre is always one step ahead. I would love to have that title match if he's still the champion in Scotland and finally have that moment with the title and actually keep the title but I could never have imagined it could potentially be in Glasgow. So that's my dream scenario."
Drew McIntyre's conversation with PWInsider.com's Mike Johnson also includes the following topics:
*His evolution as a top villain in WWE.
*The status and true nature of his current elbow injury.
*Whether the injury was a blessing in disguise for the CM Punk storyline.
*Creative give and take between McIntyre in the Paul Levesque era vs. the previous regime.
*How WWE has changed since falling under the TKO Group Holdings banner.
*Advice to WWE talents who were recently released.
*What he told his wife when he was released.
*The perception he improved after exiting WWE.
*His reaction to being advised to just play off 3MB on the independents in that era.
*Feuding with everyone on Raw.
*What was going through his brain when there was a rain delay at Wrestlemania 38.
*What he and Bobby Lashley initially wanted to do during the delay.
*Whether he considers himself a WWE locker room leader.
*His savage social media presence.
*His memoir and whether he'd like to write a second one.
*What he's most proud of accomplishing with his first book.
*The support he's received from fans over the course of his career.
*UFOs are real...and the public doesn't seem to care!
PWInsiderElite.com subscribers are currently listening to the entire conversation - and so can you, by subscribing at this link.
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