Drew McIntyre was seen as a prodigy in his early years in WWE and everyone saw big things in the young star.
The Scottish warrior came into the WWE in 2009 with a chip on his shoulder and big aspirations. Drew McIntyre was one of the UK’s top prospects and was seen as the great hope to become Britain’s first ever WWE Champion.
He was instantly marked by fans, pundits and management alike as a future star with limitless potential.
So much so that Vince McMahon anointed him with a nickname that befitted him as a future star, although his colleagues did not agree with the push he was getting from the boss.
Vince McMahon proclaimed Drew McIntyre to be ‘The Chosen One’
In 2009, Drew McIntyre was revealed on Smackdown as a “future World Heavyweight Champion” by none other than Vince McMahon himself.
The WWE Chairman told the crowd that McIntyre reminded him of himself as he let out as many positive descriptions as he could to get the Scot over with the live crowd as a future star and one-to-watch in the WWE.
However, this gave McIntyre heat backstage with his fellow wrestlers. Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, he revealed: “I guess in certain ways, but a lot of people did not like it backstage.”
“So I didn’t feel it so much backstage with the professional jealousy that I didn’t realize how significant it was and the things that were being said—’Why is this kid getting this huge opportunity when I’ve been here for all these years?'”
“But for the opportunities on TV, I certainly did for a period. And looking back, I know obviously I could have done things a little bit differently, but at the same time, I just didn’t have those tools in my wheelhouse to do things differently. “
“And we all go through our journeys for a reason—to end up at the final destination.”
Sadly, this prediction would not come to pass in McIntyre’s first WWE run. The Scottish star struggled to live up to the expectations put upon him and eventually found himself relegated to a comedy act within Three Man Band.
He suffered more embarrassment when WWE released McIntyre in 2014, although he would soon prove the world wrong by fighting his way back to the big time.
He eventually fulfilled his potential after years away from the WWE
While things didn’t initially go to plan, Drew McIntyre put his head down after his WWE release and became the superstar we know him as today.
Returning to the UK, he helped spearhead the BritWres revival, becoming the ICW Heavyweight Champion during the promotion’s most successful period.
McIntyre’s bout with Grado in ICW is one of the biggest matches ever to take place in Britain and was a huge success for a company without weekly TV coverage.
He also found success in the US, becoming the TNA World Champion during a short time with the company. This earned McIntyre a ticket back to WWE, signing with NXT in 2017 as a much different beast.
Success followed him to WWE with the NXT Championship coming to him quickly, soon after his debut in the developmental promotion.
However, it wouldn’t be until 2020 when he defeated Brock Lesnar to become the WWE Champion that McIntyre became the chosen one that McMahon always thought he would be.
