Drew McIntyre is currently engaged in a feud with his former stabemate in 3MB, Jinder Mahal.
Fans have been longing to see this rivalry for a while now because, in some ways, it writes itself. The two former WWE Champions were once fired from the company on the same day several years ago, but both men eventually came back and reached the pinnacle of success. That being said, Mahal had been floating aimlessly on the WWE roster during the majority of McIntyre’s two title reigns, due at least some part due to his recovery from injuries.
Now that Mahal is back in the spotlight, McIntyre wants to help elevate his former partner by showing the fans how much “The Modern Day Maharaja” has grown, as he explained in an interview with Louis Dangoor of GiveMeSport.
“Where he’s at now, we’re about to show that he’s at a different level right now,” said McIntyre. “When it comes to the character stuff, being comfortable, no one is expecting him in a top role from his end. When it comes to the in-ring stuff, I’m going to bring some stuff out of him that perhaps no one has ever seen. That’s what I see as one of my strongest points, the physicality and match quality perspective, I want to show every body that he can go at a different level in the ring than you remember him being able to go last time he was in a significant match.
“You’re going to see a lot — I hate to use the word work rate — higher work rate than you’ve seen in the past from Jinder. From a character perspective, he’s so comfortable and knows exactly who he is. That’s the most important thing when you’re in a deep storyline like we’re about to get into. We’ve barely scratched the surface.”
McIntyre noted how his storyline with Mahal practically writes itself; whereas McIntyre’s rise to the top was universally acclaimed, Mahal’s WWE Championship victory remains quite controversial. Mahal has previously commented on this difference, and McIntyre shared his belief that they’ve “barely scratched the surface” of this emotional aspect of their feud.
“You talked about how people resented when he won the title and how universally praised I was when I won the title,” said McIntyre. “For him, that’s a slap across the face. Like, ‘Wait a minute, I have the same story as this guy. I was fired the same day as this guy. I came back sooner, won the title three years prior to him, and you’re all going to say I’m useless and I’m an experiment and a failed champion while praising the guy who did it three years later?’ That’s BS from his point of view.
“He’s working extremely hard as well so he feels like, ‘Okay, there’s a reason I did it quicker than Drew McIntyre and it’s because I’m better than Drew McIntyre. I’m going to prove it to him and I’m going to prove it to everyone else.’ There are so many avenues we can go and with SummerSlam coming up, from a storyline perspective, we’ve barely scratched the surface.”
For now, fans will have to wait and see how the storyline continues to unfold and whether the two stars indeed clash at WWE SummerSlam.
The video interview is available here:
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