Drew McIntyre Reportedly Injured, Recently Underwent Surgery

Drew McIntyre was nowhere to be found on Monday Night Raw at Madison Square Garden this week, and hasn't wrestled since his King of the Ring tournament match against Ricochet back in late August. It turns out this was deliberate, as the former NXT Champion is reportedly dealing with a minor injury.

According to PWInsider, McIntyre recently underwent surgery to get the injury fixed and is expected to be back soon.

"We are told the idea was to get the surgery out of the way so he's ready and healthy going into WWE's TV in October and the build towards the 2020 Wrestlemania seaaon," PWI's Mike Johnson reported on Monday.

The Scottish star returned to WWE after a three-year departure in April 2017. He'd spend the next year working as a babyface in NXT and briefly held the NXT Championship before suffering a torn bicep. Once he recovered he was sent up to the main roster, where he instantly turned heel and aligned himself with Dolph Ziggler. Together the pair held the Raw Tag Team Championships once and spent the latter half of 2018 feuding with members of The Shield.

It looked like the big man wanted to become a solo act when he betrayed Ziggler at the end of the year, but he has spent most of 2019 aligning himself with other people, most notably Shane McMahon.

McIntyre admitted during an interview with Wrestling Inc. back in January that he's changed quite a bit since he initial release from the company in 2014.

"What's changed from my first stint is that I don't take anything for granted," McIntyre said. "I'm a lot more mature and I don't have negativity in my life. Partying isn't as important to me anymore like it was when I was younger. I focus very much on the job and my goals and dreams... They say opportunity is everything you've got, I didn't realize that the first time around because I had lost perspective."

McIntyre appeared on Sam Roberts' Not Sam Wrestling Podcast in June, where he discussed his distaste for how social media has affected modern pro wrestling.

"A lot of it is what have we lost and what has changed," McIntyre stated. "As much good as there is (in social media), as much as it has brought us all together, certain circumstances where it is really cool and should be done, it is not making people seem as larger than life."

"That's the key is tapping into something that people can get genuinely annoyed with," McIntyre continued. "Whenever I get to opportunity on Raw to do that, it drives people crazy. A lot of people just say things for the likes, retweets and all the fans just going along with that. They (fans) are just saying positive things about people they don't necessarily care about to get a like or retweet. The superstars will like and retweet it and to me, it is not becoming of a WWE superstar."