Exclusive interview with WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre, plus reaction to Jey Uso betraying twin brother Jimmy, Jade Cargill's heel turn, and NXT's Halloween Havoc

22:07I don't know if that's going to be at Saturday night's main event, but it is coming soon. And that's going to be interesting to see because I don't know, man, Nikki is another one who I think Nikki Bella works better as a hill, man. And the fact that these jabronis, these mouth beaters at home and on the internet, that one to like talk trash about our girl makes me think that, all right, if you, how, if this, how you want it, this, how you're going to get it. So I don't know. I, do I see Nikki turning on Stephanie? Yeah, probably. Cause she's an Eagles fan and that's what the name, they, they're just low down.

22:39So yeah. Wow.

22:40O'Shea:I love that. I love that animosity. I love that toxicity. You know, I'm normally not, but when it comes to the Eagles, I love when you show it. Yeah. Or the Washington football team or the 49ers, you know, or the giants too. I don't mind. Shout out to Cam Scadaboo, by the way. When he was in college, I said this on the Rich Eisen show. I said in five years, Cam Scadaboo is either going to be a great NFL running back or he's going to win the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania. Yeah. Maybe both of those things will happen eventually. But, yeah, he just wanted to give him a shout out for no reason in particular.

23:14I have him on a few fantasy teams. I met him this summer when we went to Fanatics Fest. Dude was dope. He was awesome to watch. So much fun. You did introduce me to him. Yeah.

23:24O'Shea:Yep. Dang, I did meet him. Yep, at Fanatics Festival. Yep. So shout out to Cam. But like I said. Yeah, I got him on my fantasy squad. And I also got Jalen Hurts and Saquon. So I'm watching that game like, oh, man, I'm about to eat up. And you did a little. Cam got like 10 before he went out. Yeah, and then so, you know. Yeah, man. But shout out to Cam, man. Somehow this is Nikki Bella's fault. Yeah. We digress. Bree too, because she likes the Eagles. Oh, we twins. We get it, dog. All right, real quick, man. Let's talk about Halloween Habit because it also went down this weekend. And we heard a couple.

23:57And new. And new a few times. By the way, speaking of and new, UFC was this weekend. The heavyweight title fight between the guy was in your movie, Den of Thieves, Cyril Ghan. We saw a no contest in the heavyweight championship match. And so I just wanted to point that out, that the words no contests were used. No contest. But, yeah, we had a few and news. and we'll go over these really quick, man. Tatum Paxley, new NXT Women's Champion. She beat J.C. Jane. Blake Monroe is the new NXT Women's North American Championship. She beat Zarya, who is substituting for Soul Ruka. She's the new champion.

24:38Soul Ruka. I know that hurts your soul. Did I say Ruka? I met Ruka. Ruka. And Dark State. And new Tag Team Champions. They defeated the Hardy boys and that was a wild match and I just gotta say this we always hear wrestlers say you only have X amount of bumps on your bump card Jeff Hardy has far exceeded the amount of bumps on his card I no disrespect to NXT because it's great we watch it we have a lot of guests here but if Jeff Hardy is exceeding his bump card doing the bump like he did off the top of that 15 foot ladder through two tables let's put him on the main roster and get more eyes on it because time is not on his side.

25:18I can't see Jeff being able to do that much longer, but I said that 10 years ago. Jeff Hardy is indestructible, it seems like. But yeah, if you're going to keep taking bumps like that, let's see him on the main roster doing that.

25:33O'Shea:What else did we have? Let's see here. Oh, Leon and Javon. The youngest in charge and the young OG. They had a tag team match together, and you just see it happening. Speaking of the Hardys, I don't know why, but I see these two, Leon Slater and Javon, as maybe like this generation's version of the Hardys. They're going to take what the Hardys did and maybe bump it up. Being 21 will do that to you. Man, right? So two young brothers in the game who are incredibly athletic, who do things that just inspire awe. I see them tagging up in the future, and I probably see great success for that tag team.

26:15win an event. Because let's be honest, TNA and WWE still have a partnership. So we can see that happening. I don't know. I kind of feel like that would be a lot of fun to watch this too.

26:27O'Shea:Oh, my God. Are you kidding me? Y 'all just be careful. They are, if they were a tag team, and, you know, a lot of people in the black community will understand this reference. But if they were a tag team, I would name them Sit Your Ass Down. Why is that? Because that right there. If you got a kid like them, that's all you say to protect them. Sit down. Hey, sit your ass down. Jumping off of couches, jumping off of steps, sit down, man. All right? You're making me nervous. And they do. My goodness, man. But more power to you, man. And one title match we didn't hear and knew, we heard and still, and that's Ricky Saints, friend of the show, defeating Trick Williams, friend of the show.

27:09Now Ricky Saints has gone back-to-back, pitting Oba Femi and Trick Williams, which is kind of wild to me. Shout out to Ricky. Oh, you hit that. Let's see where he goes next, and let's see what's up with Trick Willie. It might be time, man. It might be time.

27:29O'Shea:I know it's time. But here's the deal. I don't want them to call Trick, Oba, guys like that up without a plan. If you don't have a plan, if you don't have a proper storyline, mind if you don't have something real for them to do don't bring them up leave them down in nxt let them go to tna because those two we've seen so many people come up with nx through nxt and they were the man or the woman yeah doing great work they get caught up to the main roster and somehow they get lost in the shuffle these two are too talented they're too good we cannot have trick and oba get lost in the shuffle so if they ain't got something for them right now save it to the rumble and call him up then I will never forgive and you know people can go back and forth about this all they want but during the Vince era when Alistair it was Alistair Ciampa and Gargano got called up randomly and they were just like put in the ring and Vince just like introduced them like here you know here they are I knew right then and there I said they're done you know it's just it's you gotta do it right you gotta handle it right because yeah those those names that you name they're running nxt right now and they got people that really care about them and really believe in them and they see it and not everybody watches nxt you know they they got great numbers and all that but there's still a large number of the wwe universe that doesn't tune into nxt because they have it in their mind that these are the people that aren't ready let Let me tell you, watching NXT, you won't have a good time, especially if you get to go to a show, one of these PLEs that they put on for NXT.

29:15O'Shea:Get out there and go. It is a different environment. It is live and live in color. So, yeah, they need to take their time because they got something special in Ova. They got something special in Trek. You know, even when Toni Storm got called up, it was a little wonky. You know, they had her in the story eventually with Charlotte, but it just seems like, oh, already? Already? So. And we saw with Tony. Well, for Tony, it took a turn for the better because she's become one of the greatest performers and one of our favorites in wrestling. As far as, like, female characters, Tony Stark is my favorite of all time.

29:56O'Shea:Yeah. But also, I want to talk about Tatum because the fans were really behind her to win. and she did she pulled it out but my thing is man she pat there was a lot of women who and look i don't want to make anyone mad but i think there were a lot of women who may be a little bit more over maybe more well known who you would have thought may have been the ones to to to you know unseat jc and because we were shocked when jc beat stephanie for the title right absolutely and there were still so many women down there who could have been put in that spot and for some reason they still haven't so i want to knock tatum or anything you know because obviously the fans were behind her she's putting in work and she's doing her thing but it just kind of wonder it makes you wonder like what did like the the jadas and the lashes and the lolas and women like that what do they got to do man to to get over but yeah i mean we shall see it's uh yeah it's another one of those situations where you think you know where things are going then And they shake things up a little bit.

31:00O'Shea:This is the second time. This is the second champion where you're like, oh, okay. All right. This is the journey that we're about to go on now. And I'm sure she's going to prove herself. The character work is there. Yeah. Character work is there. In-ring work. She's got that little back handspring that she be doing. I love that. So you can see the pieces there. Now, there might be people in your mind that you think have been in the oven long enough. that they should get the opportunity, but it's not about that a lot of the times. And so we're going to see how they handle her. What does this mean for the other ladies that are there?

31:37And their story right there with the culling. You saw Izzy. Dane looked like she's about to take her head off with the title. Mister, it's like, how are you going to explain this on Tuesday? Tatum. Tatum obviously looks up to her. She follows her. That's her friend when she didn't have any friends once Bird Lady flew the coop. Bird Lady! I love Lyra Valkyrie. I'm just going to say that, as do you. We're big fans here. We need to get her on. But, yeah, man. Lyra Yolk. Lyra Yolk. Lyra Valkyrie. So, yeah. So, a lot of good stuff happening in NXT. And I'm looking forward to see where all these storylines go.

32:14You know what I'm looking forward to? I think I have an idea.

32:18O'Shea:That interview with Drew McIntyre. You know, I have a copy of his book. You know, we do research here. We just, people think that we just. TJ been reading. People think we just come in and. Nah, man, we do research. I have Drew's book. It was, let's see, it was released in 2000, I want to say 20 or 21, Drew McIntyre, A Chosen Destiny, My Story. So I was rereading this because I've read it years ago. I actually read this book twice. Just, you know, write some notes and stuff for what we got coming up next. Don't y 'all ever, let me get this right here. Don't you ever in your life question a big tuna's reading ability.

32:54O'Shea:Yeah, you need to cut that out. You hear me? It's the big tuna, bro. Out tuna Pennsylvania. In your mouth. Pause. Anyway. Drew McIntyre. Let's get to it. Let's get to it. Our next guest is one of the best in the business. Before, there were the conspiracy TikToks of Shiloh Hill. This master of criminology was writing letters to the FBI at 10 years old. He would then go on to become a Royal Rumble winner, Money in the Bank winner, an NXT champion, a two-time tag team champion, an intercontinental champion, world heavyweight champion, and a two-time WWE champion, the never duplicated, underappreciated Drew McIntyre.

33:38O'Shea:Welcome to the pod.

33:40Drew McIntyre:What an intro. A perfect, perfect intro. Thank you. Underappreciated Drew McIntyre. The thing you point out there, the degree in criminology, because I feel like I'm constantly, constantly defending myself, pointing out the obvious in WWE. Everybody just doesn't see the truth, even though I present it to them in the most logical way possible. He's spitting facts right now. Absolutely, man. It's a pleasure to have you, Drew. And unlike you, we're never bored at work. I got to be honest with you. We love being here. Yeah, I love being at work most of the time, too. I mean, it's been a lifelong dream to be in WWE since I was five.

34:14Drew McIntyre:I was the first Scotsman to get signed from Scotland, the only ever British WWE champion ever. You think Bulldog must have won a British Bulldog. William Regal must have won it. Nope, just this guy here. So I've achieved all those dreams, but at the same time, it's so freaking frustrating sometimes being the only guy that can see the truth in everyone else. No matter what evidence you present to them, they can't see the truth right in front of their face, no matter what you say.

34:38O'Shea:Yeah, well, we're going to get through some truths today, Drew. Yes, we are. First thing that we like to ask our guests on their first time on NCW is when did you get bit by the wrestling bug tell us a little bit about those days as the xsbw champion that's extreme scottish backyard wrestling yes sir wow the backyard the backyard

34:59Drew McIntyre:wrestling on the dirty mattresses yeah yeah soiled mattress that we found um in the town across from my nana where we had the backyard wrestling my nana's backyard we found this nice soiled mattress and traveled with it on our heads for about three miles to get it there. That was her wrestling ring, like 12, 13 years old. TJ, I saw you with the book there. I'm sure I talk about this story, the story in there. My Chosen Destiny? I Chosen Destiny? I should know.

35:27O'Shea:I Chosen Destiny.

35:28Drew McIntyre:I Chosen Destiny, of course. I knew that. My story. But, yeah, my dad tells this story to this day. I was like five or six years old when I first saw wrestling. It was at my older cousin's house. It felt forbidden. I was watching behind the sofa. with my younger brother. He's a year younger. And I knew right away, like, I'm going to do that one day. I was so captivated with the larger than life characters. And I had the family meeting, told the family, I'm going to be a wrestler one day. And they're like, all right, mom and dad, sure you are, son. Because everybody says, you know, you're going to be a professional athlete of some kind.

35:57Drew McIntyre:You're going to be an astronaut. You're going to ride a T-Rex. And they're like, yeah, yeah, sure, son. But I never deviated from the plan. And when I was 10 years old, as you mentioned, I was sending away to the FBI for the files I was looking for under the freedom of Information Act, but I was also sending away for the inside secrets of pro wrestling, learning how it worked backstage, the secret world of wrestling, keeping the secrets. I'd go to school and play along with my friends who still thought it was 100 % legit, and I was keeping the secrets. Or kayfabe is the word we use in wrestling, but I didn't know how to pronounce it, so I said to myself, I'm keeping kafabi right now.

36:31Drew McIntyre:I'm in a business bro at 10 years old. And then by the time I was 13, 14, I told my mom, I was, I am way behind. I'm like nine years behind right now of a chase in the dream. You've got to let me go to wrestling. school the only one was 12 hours away at the bottom of england in portsmouth when i was 15 she finally let me travel back and forth 12 hours there to learn 12 hours back until we started the first scottish wrestling school that existed for years and uh 21 years old after the degree in

36:55O'Shea:criminology i came to america okay can you can you let us know you're welcome to wrestling moment either a bump you took that was it might have knocked knocked you on your ass a little bit or just a moment where you thought like yeah this is going to be me for the rest of my life

37:10Drew McIntyre:it's kind of the opposite of oh no because I knew it was going to be me for the rest of my life since I was a kid no matter what anyone told me what makes you think you're going to go from this small country of 5-6 million people to this giant American company and what makes you so special and I was the one that constantly motivated myself and when I did that first lesson I was like I'm ready I can do suplexes I can do body slams I can jump off the top rope I'm an athlete when I started doing the actual technical wrestling and taking the falls and it wasn't coming as natural as I thought it would I thought, oh, no, I was convinced I'd walk in in the first day and the guy was going to go.

37:44Drew McIntyre:Hey, everybody, we'll get the next Stone Cold Steve Austin here. This guy, by the way, and it was oh, crap. I've got so much to learn. So I had to work 10 times harder and I thought I was going to have to work. And I was somewhat like Bambi on ice for the first year in that wrestling ring. Now, let's skip ahead. 21 years old, right? You get signed to WWE. Now, we know you. I was watching TV that day when Vince McMahon called you out and anointed you the chosen one. But before that, there was an original gimmick that they had for you. Do you remember what that was? There's a couple, but I think this one is a guy who is on the side of a camera taking having pictures taken of himself.

38:27Drew McIntyre:Yeah, that's the one I assumed it was. The runway. I was going to be the Runway Man. And I remember it pitched to me. John Laurinaitis was head of talent relations at the time and telling me, you know, at Florida Championship Wrestling, which was there prior to NXT, we know today, the Reginald Developmental. And he built it up. He built it up. I was listening to him describe the character and thought, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no. And then he went, and the name, the Runway Man. You're going to have your own model runway, and you're going to walk down like a model. And you're like, oh, my goodness. I was picturing in my head basically all my dreams were going to hell.

39:03Drew McIntyre:The life's worth the Scotsman thing from Scotsman. It was all going down the toilet. The next meeting after Johnny was to go to Vince himself and pitch this idea. And I kind of sat silent and Johnny pitched it to Vince. And I think Vince saw my face the whole time. And he just said, what do you think? And I thought, whatever you need me to do, I'll make it work. But I had my head down the whole time. And I think he read me like he doesn't want to do this. And thankfully, they let me play closer to myself. but I learned years later it was nowhere close to myself because it took me until I returned to WWE after getting fired, which we'll probably talk about, before I finally found myself as a wrestler and as a human.

39:40So you ended up, you lost 35 pounds, you were watching YouTube videos, learning how to do a model work, correct?

39:48Drew McIntyre:Yeah, I looked like an anatomy chart. Shane Helms at The Hurricane described me as an avatar. I used to have the ponytail at the time, and Avatar was the big movie. If you painted me blue, I would have just looked like a giant avatar. So much weight. And, yeah, it turns out I didn't need to lose all that weight because I was coming in as an arse-kicking chosen one when I thought it was going to be this runway man. I was practicing walking the imaginary runway backstage, and I was like, oh, my God, I've got two left feet. This is going to absolutely bomb. Get up a disaster. What would I be doing in Scotland right now if I was a runway man because I would not have succeeded in WWE.

40:23Criminology, you'd been doing some. Yeah, right. You're all CSI.

40:26Drew McIntyre:Yes, now I'm profiling all these idiots that I work with now.

40:31O'Shea:Okay, now, you know, another fun question that we like to ask is, you know, you got to take a lot of moves, you know, but you also give out a lot of claymores. Can you think off the top of your head any time where, you know, it's not ballet, TJ, so sometimes people get caught sometimes. Can you think of your nastiest claymore?

40:55Drew McIntyre:Yeah, there's a couple. Yeah, I mean, most of the time, everybody walks away with all their teeth intact. Unlike Jacob Fatu or Bleeding Gums Fatu, is the nickname? But, yeah, I mean, I caught Samoa Joe real bad one time in the Royal Rumble. And to be fair, like, he didn't say anything. He's like a man's man. He just pulled me aside and let me know, hey, brother, you really caught me back. I felt so guilty because, you know, Joe's my boy. He's my brother. There are a few guys I've caught real hard that I didn't feel so guilty about. Most of the time people were good, but I felt really bad about the one to Joe.

41:31Drew McIntyre:I've caught Sheamus hard as hell a million times, but he actually enjoys it. I think he gains power the hard he held. Now, is there a move that you, I mean, you're a large dude.

41:43O'Shea:Like, you know, you can take a couple of bumps, man. Choke slam from Kane. Yeah, that's the one you don't like? Oh, right.

41:48Drew McIntyre:They're horrible. I don't know the difference between Kane's choke slam and Undertaker's choke slam and Big Show's Chokeslam and all the Chokeslams I've taken in my life. But every time Kane did it to me, to be fair, at that time when I was wrestling with him, I was 24. I was IC champion. I was a bit clueless. I was still finding my way. I was probably irritated as hell. I'll bear with him years later. But so maybe he would just try to put me through the ring. I don't know. But he's very big, very strong. And that Chokeslam hurt like hell.

42:13O'Shea:Wow, Kane. I could see that. I mean, yeah. So you mentioned earlier about, you know, you getting letting go. I don't think we're going to spend too much time dwelling on, on that drew. But at 29, we will make note that, you know, you, um, you left WWE and you went to real fire. Okay. You left, you left. I say you left, man. I think they made a mistake. You know, they, things weren't clicking. As you said in your book, you had an interview about five years ago, six years ago here on the rich eyes and show where you said like, basically demons kind of caught up with you and it affected your work.

42:50to the point where they let you go. A lot of people could, you know, kind of be like, all right, this is it for me. But you didn't, man. You looked at this as an opportunity to kind of reinvent yourself in your career. Am I correct?

43:03Drew McIntyre:Yeah. I mean, when I was writing the book, I had to kind of go through it again because in my mind, I got fired and I just figured it out and became the biggest independent star in the world when I was back in WWE. And it was a lot more to that. During that time in WWE, you know, my mother got sick. She was the closest person in the world to me. She inevitably passed from cancer. I never told the company. I never took time off. And I was burning the candle at both ends. And I was just mentally and physically a disaster that time. And I had to be out from under the microscope to figure things out.

43:34Drew McIntyre:And I was the release, the firing, whatever you want to call it, was a blessing. Aside the fact that my wife and I, my girlfriend at the time, just moved into our first apartment three days when it happened. And I had to decide, are you going to keep down this path of wrestling? What is there outside? because there's no other companies right now really and not enough money in the independent level and you're going to get a real job for the first time are you going to make this count you're going to reinvent what it means to be an independent wrestler because right away i had that idea but at the same time i was nervous because i was in 3mb i wasn't the top guy i wasn't the former champion that i am now i was the guy in the comedy group i went from the guy saving the girl from the railroad tracks to the comedic relief on the show and then i was fired and i spoke to a few guys that I know, like Luke Gallows, Cole Cabanas of the world, Chris Masters, who are masters of the independence, and they told me, basically, you go around the world once, you make a certain amount of money, the second time a little less, and eventually you find a wage and you do your WWE character hoping to get back one day, and I was like, that ain't it.

44:31Drew McIntyre:That's just not good business sense. I know I can do more than this. This social media thing's getting so big. I believe I can use it and take everyone around the world with me and become the first traveling world champion since Ric Flair and really grow my brand and be bigger than I was. and a lot of people gave me some platforms. I was very nervous a lot while I was doing it. I had to fake it until I started believing in myself and everyone else started believing in me. But I watched the results come. I watched ICW, Insane Championship Wrestling, the Scottish company I grew up in, go from 1 ,500 people at the big show I returned at to 2 ,000 people to 4 ,000 people to the last show I did before I returned to WWE over 7 ,000 people.

45:08Drew McIntyre:I watched WWE get involved with every company I was champion of, like Evolve, for example. when independent wrestling really went gangbusters. And I got to set this blueprint of what you can do when you get fired. And I believe the WWE Tell Talent that released now, it's just not your time now, but try to do a Drew. My brother coined this. He became a verb to do a Drew. And WWE genuinely tell people, look what Drew did. He took them on a journey, reinvented himself and found his way back. And if you're good enough, if you work hard enough, you believe in yourself enough, you can do it too. And I'm so proud of that.

45:39And, you know, as much as, you know,

45:41Drew McIntyre:stuff going on with Cody and I right now, look what he did. He followed, you know, the blueprint and he took it to the next level himself. Zack Ryder and Matt Cardona right now. He truly is independent. He's able to do that carny stuff Cody and I weren't very good at. He does an amazing thing about it. I know so many people killing it, kind of using that blueprint I'm so proud of. Yeah, I mean, he could have been bitter. He could have just, you know, rested on his WWE laurels.

46:06O'Shea:So good, so good, so good. New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60 % off brands like Rag & Bone, Levi's, Adidas, and Free People. Join the Nordiclub to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.

46:36Drew McIntyre:This summer, serve up the cookout classics. Craft mayo and dressing. Toss green salads with delicious ranch dressing or zesty Italian. Serve smooth, craveably creamy potato salads with mayo. We all know it's not a cookout without craft. Drew worked hard, man, like you said, and he made his own path, made his own route. You can be a little bit, but you know what, man? You worked hard, you put on great matches, and you know. Time for that. That's a great point. No, you can't sit there and feel sorry for yourself, right? No, life goes on. We're all here for a blink of an eye relative to time. Are you going to sit and be bitter?

47:12Drew McIntyre:Are you going to make stuff happen? And sometimes you're going to get roadblocks put up in your way or brick walls put up in your way or Cody holding the title and getting referees to screw you over and DQing himself.

47:22O'Shea:Oh, man.

47:23Drew McIntyre:It was like the whole company's against you because Cody controls it. You got to kick down that brick wall. It's Saturday night's main event.

47:29O'Shea:I saw in a I think it was a documentary. You said the first book that you read cover to cover was Mankind, you know, Mick Foley's book. And then when you think about that, and then Mick Foley giving you that shout out on the Steve Austin show, talk a little bit about that moment where, you know, it just it's a full circle isolated moment where, you know, the first book you read, Cover to Cover, is the same guy who kind of gives you the rub on a platform like that. yeah it was just surreal um you know things were kind of clicking it wasn't that long after i was

48:05Drew McIntyre:back in independence but things were starting to click and i was starting to believe in myself and find my voice and find myself in the ring and a few people had said very nice things on social media that i admire but then mick had told me personally afterwards i wanted to be on a big platform i saw the interview you did in icw you return it was like a different human and that's literally what he said when he went on Stone Cold's podcast looked like a different human being my text with Triple H which he did he said you got to keep an eye on Drew it's just not the same right now and my first thought was I mean I am it was only a month ago I got fired but maybe I just and sure enough Hunter watched me that whole time in William Regal especially keeping tabs keeping them updated and in 2017 when I returned to WWE I was ready to go to New Japan at that point that's So my head was that I spoke to the right people to start having the serious conversations.

48:58Drew McIntyre:And Regal told me, you got to talk to Hunter first, got to talk to Paul first. And it was one minute into the conversation. I knew it was time to come back. You know, he mentioned Cody Rhodes and, you know, maybe new fans at WWE might not realize this. But back in 2010, you and Cody won the World Tag Team, WWE Tag Team Champions at Night of Champions. Now, what was that Cody like and how has he changed since then? we were the dashing ones back then and we were we're very similar we're both we're both the same age both very driven uh both had people believing in us to the point we really believed in ourself maybe more than we should have at the time uh we really had big goals and you need to have big goals um you gotta as i mentioned already you gotta fake it till you make it and we were so sure of ourself that we should be like world champions at that time when we won the tag titles instead of taking that opportunity and making it as big as we possibly could we um kind of were like why are we tag team champions right now we should totally be fighting for the world title which is insane to say right now if that opportunity presented itself but back then it was ridiculous that's where our minds were at we believed we should be in these big single spots as the old talent older talent i'm an older talent now are making their way out and the younger talent were coming up that's really how we felt at the time and we both had to go on our unique journeys as I say, they're very similar.

50:19Drew McIntyre:I ended up in 3MB after that chosen one run. Cody, after winning the IC title and broken Cody, whatever he used to call the mass gimmick back in the day, ended up as Stardust. He stepped out of the company, followed my blueprint and found success, coming back to where he's at now. Myself today, Cody today, are very different. I've talked about it on the microphone too, Cody. I've told him, I was like, listen mate, I get what you're thinking. I get what you're going through right now because you're me five years ago when I was champion I was willing to do absolutely anything for anybody you know backstage for anything for the fans sacrifice my time with my my wife sacrifice my time with my family in Scotland never see them just give give give until I had the hell in the cell match and prior to that with Punk I don't know if we'll get into that but I'll give as much as everybody was cheering the other guy and I was like oh my god this guy is a terrible human being and you don't even have to believe me just go on the internet again criminology look at the character witness reports online of me and him just compare the two all you'll find is Drew's a great guy Drew works hard he's a horrible human they still chose him and I still said I'm fighting for you guys I'm fighting for the fans because I know I'm right right now this is what's best for wrestling I got 17 staples in my head screwed up my back after Hell in the Cell did put Hell in the Cell back on the map though and then I was out for three months after that and when I was gone never heard from anybody one phone call I got the entire time and I was like you know what I've wasted my life I've given and given and given and I have to go back and I have to take because I know some of these older wrestlers that didn't achieve everything they wanted to achieve when they were retired and they're kind of bitter and they're like I should have done this I should have done this, thank God I realized that when I'm still young enough and I'm bigger than everybody and I've got all this experience I am going to take what's mine and I'm going to leave and I'll have no regrets whatsoever so I always tell Cody you're where I'm at when I was at five years ago said you're giving and giving and giving but I was not as good as our kissing as Cody Rhodes is.

52:15And here's a reminder for everyone that this Saturday, November 1st, the dashing ones, they're going to be going at it, but this time they won't be a tag team. They're going to be fighting for that WWE championship as Cody Rhodes takes on Drew McIntyre. And, you know, you defeated, as you said, Jacob Fatu to become the number one contender. You and Cody met at Wrestlepalooza a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, that didn't go your way, and now you have another opportunity.

52:41Drew McIntyre:because Cody's referee screwed me over just to be specific we were there Drew we were sitting front row we saw an eight count at one point and then the referee stopped me from kicking his head through the table even though it's not a DQ is it? if I kicked his head into the steel steps or the metal ring post not a DQ right? these are yo I mean I said this on TV every week I said it last week everybody here's the facts you cheer this guy and they went yay and I was like this is the propaganda it's unbelievable propaganda He's so talented, the propaganda, but he is genuinely so talented. That's what it comes down to.

53:15Drew McIntyre:He is phenomenal in the ring. He's a phenomenal competitor. But I believe that he believes everything he does is for the greater good. That's why he's so convincing. But at the same time, some of the stuff that happens, whatever he has to do to keep that title, use the referees, get disqualified, he justifies it to himself, and he believes he's the only one that can hold that title because we need someone so positive like him, bringing positivity, the smile, kissing the baby, shaking the hands. And that's great. and all that but it's just not the way the world is the world needs honesty it needs brutal truth again i would have done that five years ago i am coding five years from now and he's going to say my god drew was right because when i'm champion i'll be telling the brutal truth i mean you tune in you're not going to know what to expect oh my god that's loose cannon's going to come out but i'll tell you the freaking truth every time i'll be brutal with everyone backstage brutal with our roster brutal with the fans and you're going to say this is what the world needs right now is some damn honesty because that's what we don't have not just in wb in the entire world we need Drew McIntyre's champion.

54:10Drew McIntyre might tell you a joke, but he'll never tell you a lie. And we've said this, I think, last year. Debate me.

54:16Drew McIntyre:Debate me. You'll lose every time. I tell all the fans, the Cody Crybabies are what Rock called them. I just called them complicit. Unless you're a Cody fan, it's fine. It's fine. Just don't make revisionist history. Don't lie. Don't try and jump through hoops, try and make sense of everything. Just say, I'm a Cody fan no matter what. I'm complicit in his crimes, or I just believe his propaganda, and I'm with him no matter what. And then it's fine. Just don't ever debate me, because you will freaking lose every time. You know, we said that last year on our pod. It's, wow, Drew has these valid points that he was making, and yet the fans still chose to boo him.

54:47And it was very weird because Drew had a reason to crash out, and the fans just didn't want to see things from the big man's head.

54:54Drew McIntyre:People put their heads in the sand. It's a reflection of society. It's not just WWE. People prefer sunshine lollipops and put their head in the sand, and I hold the mirror up to everybody, and they don't like it.

55:03O'Shea:But even when you were champion, you know, January 26, 2020, you know, a horrific day for a lot of people. Unfortunately, we lost Kobe Bryant that day. And the only bright spot was that we had that Royal Rumble. You know, we had the amazing return of Edge. But you also coined your, you know, you stamped your ticket to go to WrestleMania and you had to win without the fans. You talked to us about having that amazing feat under your belt just for the world to stop and what it was like to have to have that moment. And the virtual fans. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, I've talked about it a lot and it's obviously not how it pictured as a kid.

55:48Drew McIntyre:No one can see that. Even Royal Rumble, you know, again, such a bittersweet day. and you know Colby Masson and Mizdara and the pilot and everyone in the past that chopper crash was freaking everyone backstage was on a downer but we were like come on people in the crowd are like downer like right now people watching her on a downer let's we needed you guys that day that's what WWE does you know we're there for you put a smile on your face get your emotions going no matter what and we knew it was going to be a good one like Brock was in there as champion and he was running through everybody the story was amazing the edge return after nine years and the shock of myself winning at the end and I was concerned that people were going to boo because Edge had returned I was on my way up as a baby face an organic baby face good guy people were getting behind me so big at that time but it's freaking Edge he was gone for nine years and I was like oh no we've seen this with Roman we've seen it with Batista in the past where the good guy wins and they get booed out of the building that's gonna be me and I eliminated Brock 40 ,000 people went crazy what a feeling I eliminated Roman at the end and the same exact reaction happened and it was just unreal that people had said that's our guy i felt like i'd finally crashed through to that next level i'm going to mania this is unreal it's in tampa my american hometown at the time i'd lived there for 12 years everyone's going to be there my family are coming over it couldn't be any more perfect then the world shut down i was like when things start going well for drew does that mean things go bad for everybody else but i knew during that time when like all the sports companies shut down all the entertainment companies shut down we made a decision as a company to push forward it's our responsibility when people are scared we didn't know what was going on at that time people were genuinely scared and in their homes and not sure what to do or what to think we gave them the first weekend of Wrestlemania on Saturday and Sunday I knew it was that last match I knew I had Brock I knew we had a chance to help people escape and I took on that responsibility just like everyone else did and it felt you know weird to have nobody there I guess in the building when I won against Brock except the cameraman and commentators and I watched it like everybody else watched it on the television because it was pre-taped but the response was so cool to see people in their homes so happy and having a little escape during that time and i can tell you 40 000 people when i won the rumble i had that adrenaline rush like no other so many people going crazy you can't think you can barely i can't keep my legs anywhere i fell down on my knees at one point when i beat brock the difference was because it was silent i almost had this conversation in my head that i wouldn't have until the adrenaline would leave me when there's a lot of fans cheering i could think clearly there was this clarity there because there wasn't that same adrenaline rush as it would be if there was 80 000 people in tampa screaming at wrestlemania which would have been the case and i later that night when the adrenaline goes you're in your hotel you look at the title because i've had this happen a few times in my life and you have yourself a serious heart-to-heart conversation and go wow i can't believe i did it i had that in front of the world just because of the nature of that wrestlemania because of the silence and i was in that moment with the title and I thought about everyone that sacrificed to get me there not what I sacrificed but people around me believing in me my family had sacrificed and my mom's not here anymore but she's watching right now and just it was very special and I remember reaching out to the camera which I thought that we'd edit out because we don't break the fourth wall like this hi everybody that was a cool moment when you did that and I reached down the camera and just said thank you to everybody for believing I mean sticking with me and this is our moment right now and it was very cool and after that I was championed, I wanted to set the example, there were no more rules anymore, it was throw things against the wall, see what sticks, it doesn't matter what you do, just entertain people and what I thought was really cool about that Drew is I heard that, you know, because it was pre-taped, couldn't really tell anybody what happened, but you're watching it at home like the rest of us and I understand that there was this special person that presented you your belt that day after that match, share that story with us yeah whenever i talk about this stuff i always get choked up i'm like cody it's like he cries um yeah my wife uh she presented the title she's such a big part of the journey and the outside the company stuff's one thing everyone gave me the platform finding myself as a wrestler you know building the body up building the you know the microphone skills up speaking clear as a scottish guy but finding myself as a man that was certainly my wife like she was with me the whole time helping me stop all that crazy partying non-stop and hurting myself and burning the candle at both ends you believe i'd be a better person and sure enough i came back and started not just becoming the wrestler i should have been all along an entertainer i should have been all along but the man i should have been all along so on screen i was presented the title by the referee and at

1:00:18O'Shea:home she presented me the title which was cool that's really dope man all right drew we got one more for you it's our our top question we we got to ask everybody their first go around it's broken

1:00:28Drew McIntyre:Dream's coming back, is it? I'm not counting on that because none of us are going to be lucky enough to hear that. I don't think they want to give us that. Because if that happens, people are going to lose it.

1:00:40O'Shea:So you're in a bar. You're in a bar. You got 50 dudes in that bar. And they do not like Drew McIntyre. All right. And I know you're the Scottish warrior, but you got to go full Scottish psychopath on them. I need you to pick a team of you and four other superstars to make sure Drew is getting to the car. And I had a friend who we talk about him. John Piermarini used to work for WWE. When he worked there, I'd ask him questions. Who were some of the tough guys back in backstage? And your name was one that always got brought up. So let me see.

1:01:14Drew McIntyre:Yeah. I love John. I haven't seen him for a while. Okay. Who's four guys? Who's four guys? And true. They could be from any era as well. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. You could go back in time. Brock popped in my head right away. Solid. Yeah, I mean, he's the kind of guy, like, I've been in the ring with certain guys, like Big Show, Mark Henry and the likes, where they grab you and you're like, they could do anything with me right now. But if you let me go, I'm going to run away. Brock, you can't catch you. So let's go. Yeah, Brock.

1:01:46Drew McIntyre:Velasquez was there for a minute. He's one of the only few humans that could be up Brock. So let's go Velasquez. That's a great answer. He was there. I remember him like Soddy one time. I was chatting with him for a minute. He does count.

1:02:00Drew McIntyre:Haku. Yeah, of course. That's necessary. Haku question. Yeah, it's always like a given. And the funny thing is, if you get to know him, you get to meet him. Whatever. He's the nicest guy in the world. It's always the nicest guys. I mean, like me, I'm the nicest guy in the world. And TJ Lee said, I'm always going to come up in those conversations as one of the tough guys backstage. Because it's the nice guys you've got to watch out for. Okay, so we got Brock, Velasquez, Haku. Haku, you. One more. One more. Do we need someone to sacrifice? Oh, my. Hornswoggle. That would make some of the boys happy because he drove some of the boys mental.

1:02:39Drew McIntyre:I always got angry with them, but he drove some of the boys mental. They would end up kicking his arse, and you know what? It was totally justified, them kicking his arse. So we'll sacrifice Spago with the rest of us. Everyone else is ours because he's beating that team. Oh, they're going to love that on the internet. Right, right. All right. So just a reminder. This Saturday, November the 1st on Peacock. Yeah. The main event. We'll see WWE champion Cody Rhodes take on our guy. Drew McIntyre. And Drew, on Sunday, what are the headlines going to read when it's all said and done? What was that? I've got Lenny in my corner.

1:03:12Drew McIntyre:So that's Lenny. So they've got Lenny in my corner. I've got my death row chin

1:03:20Drew McIntyre:well the dashing ones explode much like the mega powers but the headlines are going to read you know shock because to be honest I've been screwed so many times I mentioned this on Smackdown I believe it's 18 title matches someone on Twitter can correct me on X can correct me the amount of title matches in a row I don't mean world title matches WWE title matches but there's been so many in a row now it's become about me finishing the story. So Saturday's main event, everyone's expecting Cody to win. I'm going to shock the world. It's going to give WWE that injection we need right now. We're just getting strength to strength to strength.

1:03:57Drew McIntyre:This is going to take us to the next level. The headlines are going to reach shock, but it's not going to be a shock. I'm going to bring the truth this place needs, and Cody is going to have to dig deep down and find himself and see if he's got what it takes to prove that he really is the man to try and step up to me again because I'm leaving Saturday's main event champion.

1:04:14O'Shea:Oh, baby. Drew McIntyre, we appreciate you for your time, man. Go listen to some Oasis and get you a burger, bro. We were told we only had 30 minutes with you, so hopefully one day we can do this again a little bit longer. We got so much.

1:04:27Drew McIntyre:We talked to him about doing this in person. Said, when I'm in L.A., I'm coming in the studio, and we're doing this in person. We could talk for about three hours. You can all edit it down to what you want it to, because we could talk all freaking day. You know, Drew, we're going to hold you to that. I mean, we're not going to make you do it, because I've stood in front of you. You way better than that. Yeah, this is a fun interview. Y 'all look big fans of the product. Get on with you both. This is just easy. This is just a chat. Some of this stuff, I wouldn't bury anybody. Last week, I was talking to some people who clearly did not want to talk.

1:04:54I sit there like, I just want to get out of here.

1:04:58Drew McIntyre:Well, y 'all, I can talk over to you a lot.

1:05:00O'Shea:Side note, while I was filming Dinner Thieves, I've had to put Drew on Gerard Butler's map. So Gerard Butler is a fan of Drew McIntyre. Just letting you know. Yeah, absolutely. He gets as much crap as me from Scotland.

1:05:13Drew McIntyre:Like my accent, anybody hears it, the whole world thinks Scottish accent. Scottish people hear an American twang, and there's nobody that gets more annoyed about a slight twangier accent than Scottish people. So when I go back home, I'm sure he gets the same. Me and Gerard Butler, I was like, man, why are you talking like that? Why are you talking like that? You got pure Hollywood on us? I'm like, that's why. That's why our accent's too hard to understand. That's why we have to tweak our accents. And Drew, you know, soon O'Shea and Gerard will be doing Den of Thieves 3. And so I don't know. Don't let me get two of them.

1:05:44I'm saying there could be a little role for the future WWE champion.

1:05:51O'Shea:Conversations are going to be over there. Yeah, but we got a chance to hang out with Drew a little bit after the night one of WrestleMania. It was really good chopping it out with you. And like I said, I'm a decent sized dude for a normal person. Drew was standing in front of me talking and I literally was just like, man. And then at one point, you know, when someone says something funny, you're kind of like, ah! You know, I did that to Drew, and I hit his shoulder, and I think I took a step back. I was like, this guy. Jeez.

1:06:19Drew McIntyre:You gained 10 pounds since then. Oh, wow. That ain't fair, bro. That ain't fair. Yeah, I mean, I looked at the roster, and I thought, I'm not competing with anybody else, clearly. I'm just going to compete with myself. And I thought, hey, I can get bigger and more jacked and improve my mobility. And I brought in a personal trainer four months ago. And the first time in my life, I followed a diet ever. and if you compare the pictures from four months ago to now um i've gained 10 pounds of what feels like lean muscle we're going to check it out very soon my mobility is better than it's ever been you know i just turned 40 everyone thinks i'm like 46 47 because i've been in wb for 20 years i just started so young but i literally feel like i've turned the clock back 10 years my body feels unreal and i've never looked better and it's perfect timing when that belts around my waist people that don't even watch wb right now and lots of people are watching us now with the netflix ESPN and everything else we're on, they're going to go that is a freaking world champion.

1:07:06Drew McIntyre:Who is that guy? Looks like he's falling out of Game of Thrones.

1:07:11Well, brother, like I said, man, we appreciate you. We'd love to have you on, spend way more time with you. But you always got it home here and we're both fans, Drew McIntyre. That's for sure.

1:07:21Drew McIntyre:I appreciate it, lads. And I'll definitely be doing that next time I'm in LA. Man, 30 minutes. That wasn't enough. It wasn't enough. We need more time. It's not enough. We need more time. It's not enough. it's not enough. We need more time with the chosen one with the Scottish psychopath. But he said, he'll make some more time for us. He did say that. I heard him say that. He said that three hours, three hours. It's going to be the longest episode ever. It's going to be an epic bro. You know, but yeah, man, we like, we briefly mentioned it. We got to meet him at a little after party at Gronk beach after WrestleMania.

1:07:56And when I tell you, man, this dude is big. he's just a large human being man and like but very cool i remember he and i were talking and he said about you i didn't even know he was an actor at first he goes i just saw his stuff on twitter i thought he was funny and cool and i met him because i didn't even know what he did at that time funny and cool drew but yeah it was cool to chop it up with drew he man he i gotta be honest he and I were talking about some stuff that I'm not going to share with you here. But, yeah, this dude had me rolling, bro. This guy is hilarious. And he also, when he turns the switch, very scary, very intimidating human being.

1:08:40Absolutely, man. Cody's my dog, though, bro. I don't know. I'm a big Cody fan. You know that.

1:08:46O'Shea:Oh, but, yeah, we got to see how that goes. Pretty, you know what? Just a little side note, because we've run into it. Montez, Bianca said it Drew said it we've had a couple people it really brings me joy that I have wrestlers tell me that they love me cussing some of y 'all out and you know I never go at you I'm just defending myself you're a nice guy I'm high key really chill I'm really chill all you want to do is play video games let me nerd out on the internet watch wrestling you know what I mean I thought this was America people yeah man so it's truly an honor to cuss some of you jabronis out on the internet I will continue to do so because I am a good guy dude but I'm also a man of the people and if you think that I'm this jerk this evil guy I'll be that guy for you well you are a nepo baby well like we always do at this like we always do at this time.

1:09:55I'm going to tell you where you could find us and follow us now on Twitter or X. We're at there's no contest Instagram. You can find us at no contest wrestling podcast on Twitter, no contest wrestling pod. And of course on YouTube, you can find all of the videos this episode with Drew McIntyre. You can go back to episode one with CM Punk or anything in between. Just go to the rich eyes and show YouTube page, which now has over 1 million followers, or just type in No Contest Wrestling and everything will pop up here or there. Yeah. And remember, this Saturday, November 1st, Saturday night's main event on Peacock, you get to see Drew go after that WWE championship and a bunch of others.

1:10:39You get to see CM Punk and Jey Uso. You get to see Jay Cargill and Tiffany Stratton. You know, you get to see maybe the hard R's take on Stephanie and Nikki Bella. but we're still not sure about that yet, but it's going to be exciting. Raw, in a few hours, we're going to be leaving the studio. We're going to be hopping in the car. We're going to drive down to Anaheim. We're going to check out Monday night. Raw, can't wait for that. Yeah, absolutely, man. That'll be Saturday. And even better, because I know a lot of people, they like us. We gave them a big episode last week, over two and a half hours.

1:11:12People loved it. This was a little shorter, but that's okay, because we're going to bring you a bonus episode on Wednesday. We're going to be talking fourth rope. That is Westside Guns promotion with my man Enzo, real one, formerly known as Enzo Amore of WWE. He's going to tell us all about it. And that's going to be a bonus episode of No Contest on Wednesday morning. Make sure you check it out.

1:11:35O'Shea:So that's Monday and that's Wednesday and then PLE Saturday. Yeah. What are you doing Friday? Friday's Halloween. You doing anything on Friday? No, I ain't got nothing to do. No? You ain't going to dress up? Probably not. Anyway, guys. No, no, no. What about you? You dressed up? I don't think so, man. I might, um, nah. I got a friend named Worm. Yeah. Might go hang out with him a little bit. You know what I mean? The ice cream truck driver? Yeah, you know him? No, you've told me about him before. Yeah, man. He's in town. I might go kick it with him. All right, cool. Yeah. I might just sit outside the house.

1:12:11O'Shea:Anyway, you guys, from your favorite hard R's, make sure you guys check us out next week. Make sure you have a good day. but not too good. Who the hell do you think you are? Bye, Miss Parker. Oh, I get it.

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