New WWE World champion Drew McIntyre recently spoke with The Guardian. Below are some highlights:
McIntyre on getting his start on the indy wrestling circuit in Butlin: “It taught me how to play for large audiences who weren’t wrestling fans. You had to learn your audience and how to make them cheer for you as the good guy, or boo you as the bad guy – and then give them a good show. Some would obviously think, ‘Oh, wrestling, I don’t like wrestling.’ But by the end of the night, I knew they’d be on their feet.”
McIntyre on earning the respect for the fans: “I’m trying to think how to verbalize it… it comes kind of naturally, now. I guess it’s just telling the simplest story you can tell. And the great thing about wrestling, it’s a blank canvas. You’re out there, you’re live – you’re doing your own stunts – and through the match, hopefully you can tell a simple good guy/bad guy story for everyone to understand. Hopefully, the bad guy will get on the crowd and give them something to work with: get them all riled up so they go, ‘Man I want someone to punch their face off’. That’s where the good guy comes in. And then you get to play the part of the audience member, punching their face off on their behalf.”
“And once you get the crowd, you know, into it like that, then there’s nothing more fun than playing with their emotions. When the bad guy is beating the good guy, and they’re like, ‘God I just want this guy to get up and punch him,’ and when he finally does get a punch in the face, and everybody explodes? That’s the best feeling in the world. And that’s the art to it, I guess.”
Drew McIntyre on his reaction to getting fired by WWE: “When I was fired I told myself: ‘This is on you.’ The only person I had to blame was myself. I said: ‘This was the dream you wanted. You’re gonna have to prove to everybody you are who they thought you were in the beginning.’ And from that moment on, I was in the gym, working as hard as I could. I was traveling as much as I could. Anybody who would have me, I would wrestle for them. Any interview I could do to practice getting better at situations like this, I would do, just to build myself up in every possible area.”
