WWE star Drew McIntyre appeared on What’s Your Story? with Steph McMahon to discuss various topics, including his time away from the company.
McIntyre said, “First and foremost, WWE’s my home. And I miss my home, and I’ve never been gone from wrestling for this amount of time. It’s been over five months now. I’ve been wrestling professionally since I was 15, and even with my worst injury, I was only out three months. That was when I’d returned to WWE in 2017. I tore my bicep and got surgery, and I was losing my mind. So I would drive to NXT just to work with Shawn Michaels on tapes and lose my mind. So it’s very bizarre that I’ve been out for so long, but it’s been so cool to pursue some outside projects. I’ve been very lucky to be part of the Highlander remake with Chad, the director of the John Wick movies. I would try and pronounce his last name, but I don’t want to mess it up.”
On whether 26 years of wrestling has caused permanent damage:
“I think 26 years of wrestling has probably done a little damage, but incredibly, I feel amazing. The past year plus, I started working with a new trainer, and he was born with brittle bone disease. He basically grew up in a body cast and was told this is kind of going to be your life, and he wanted to be a bodybuilder. He loved Schwarzenegger, like so many of us as kids. The young man just idolized Arnold. He was like, ‘I’m going to be like Arnold,’ and he started reading books about how to strengthen your bones and strengthen your tendons. He learned a lot of tricks. He’s the angriest little man I’ve ever met in my life. Tony is wide, but he is jacked out of his mind. He kind of walks on the outside of his feet, but he’s built up his body where he gets around great. He trains like crazy, and he started teaching me techniques to help with my joint spacing and strengthening myself from the inside out, actually from the floor up. I realized how important your feet are. Your foundation is so important, and I never thought about it. We’ve really been strengthening my body inside and out with a lot of prehab, tons of prehab, and right now I’m 285. It’s the biggest I’ve ever been in my life, but physically, it’s also the best I’ve felt in easily 12 years.”
On his age:
“It’s just getting started. I like to remind everybody I just turned 41, by the way. I know you’ve been watching me for 20 years, and people think guys like AJ and Cena are in the 48 range, and Drew as well. Wait, what? I was from the previous generation, but I was much younger. I’m the same age as Roman, the Usos and everybody around our age. Cody and I are the same age too, but we’re from the previous generation. The first locker room I went into, I was on TV in my third week in America as part of the Raw roster. I sat there and looked around. Shawn walked by. Ric Flair was still on the active roster. I went, ‘What the heck is going on? I was just at university five weeks ago.’ And then once I was on TV, it was on SmackDown. I debuted, and right after, my MySpace blew up. Everyone wanted to be my friend for some reason. Oh, I’m on TV.”
On staying with WWE:
“That was all because of this place. It’s because of the lessons I’ve learned over the years and the people I’ve been around, like yourself. I’m constantly learning from everybody around me, and we spent so much time together. I’ve really learned so much that I’m able to apply to real life and the other projects I do outside. I’m representing the company because this is home. I’m not going anywhere. We have an understanding from talking with Nick and Paul that if something good comes up, we do that. But I’m a full-time wrestler. I just turned 41. I’m going to be here for years, so don’t expect me to disappear anytime soon.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
