As PWMania.com previously reported, Drew McIntyre, a former WWE World Champion, recently re-signed with WWE following months of talks. McIntyre wanted to be able to spend more time with his family.
McIntyre was asked about the difficulties that wrestlers face when they have to leave their home country to pursue their dream of wrestling for WWE. McIntyre discussed how difficult it was to leave his family when he first signed with the company over a decade ago.
“It’s the hardest thing that I’ve had to do. This was always the dream since I was a kid and making it to WWE. Honestly, I never truly considered ‘Oh yeah you have to move to America’ until I got signed.” McIntyre added, “I did all the work, I had the self-belief [thinking] I’m going to be the first ever Scottish person signed directly from Scottland through WWE. I finally did it and I had the contract in my hand and I went wait, I have to move to America. Taking that to account. I’m so close with my family, I’m so close with my mother. It was very hard to be away but they were so encouraging and kept pushing me forward to keep chasing the dream and when you’re young you can put yourself in that mode of just work work work. When I was a kid it was work work work, party party party and you don’t think too much and years can slip about and they slip by real quickly. I got home maybe once a year during that period and 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 now and seeing how big they get. I realized 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’m gonna have to try and find that balance because that’s where I’m at in my life now. 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.”
McIntyre on whether he considered leaving to find the right work-life balance:
“It was never a consideration. I’m wrestling with WWE. I don’t think in the sense am I gonna go wrestle somewhere else, 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. Things in my own family and my wife’s sister unfortunately passed a year ago yesterday. That was very difficult and I felt like I’m gonna have to take some serious time for my family. There was a period where I was like maybe I’m gonna have to take a little break and come back and some uncertainty. Thankfully as a family, we came together and WWE gave me the time I needed whenever I needed it during that period and in the end, as a family we came together. We had a conversation about what was best for us. The company was unbelievable with that and thankfully everybody is in a great place right now.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
