What WWE Didn’t Like About Drew McIntyre’s First With The Company

What a strange criticism of McIntyre. There are a lot of factors that go into making a successful professional wrestler, but one of the biggest is the look. Wrestling is a visual form of media and that means a wrestler needs something that gets the audience’s attention. Something needs to be there that makes you keep watching and if part of it goes away, it might be difficult to keep the audience watching. That might be the case, no matter how talented a wrestler may be.

Back in April, Drew McIntyre won the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 36. The title win was a long time coming and there were several fans who had been waiting a long time to see it. Part of that long time was due to McIntyre leaving the company from 2014-2017, during which a lot of things changed. One of which was his look, which was part of why he left in the first place.

During his Arn Podcast, former WWE agent Arn Anderson talked about McIntyre’s first run in WWE, specifically about his physique in the time. Anderson said that during McIntyre’s time in WWE, there was a time which got too lean instead. The change in appearance hurt McIntyre’s status in the company, though Anderson is not clear if it led to his departure from WWE in 2014.

He has definitely changed. Check out McIntyre in 2014 and again in 2020:

Opinion: This is the kind of thing that does make some sense when you think about it, but I’m not sure how much of a factor this was in leading to McIntyre leaving the company. There did come a point where McIntyre looked incredibly slim, which was a strange look given how tall he is in the first place. Since his return he has put on a lot of muscle mass though, and the look is a big improvement.

How long will McIntyre hold the title? Who will take it from him? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!