Shawn Michaels has seen plenty of young WWE Superstars come and go since he became a trainer at the WWE Performance Center in late 2016. And in that time, no wrestler has impressed him more than Drew McIntyre.
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In a new interview with Comicbook.com on Tuesday while promoting The Marine 6, Michaels explained what made “The Scottish Psychopath” stand out among the current WWE roster.
“I think Drew is doing a phenomenal job,” Michaels said. “He was a guy (that) had been in the WWE before, but then went out and just felt like he needed to grow. He needed to get more experience, he needed just try something different. He felt like what he was doing wasn’t working. And he went out and he did that.
“Then (he) came back through NXT, was a guy that did not have to be here at the Performance Center on a regular basis,” he added. “But he still came down here, came and sat, certainly in our class, took part in it. He made the most of the opportunity that he had.”
Other current stars that stood out to “The Heartbreak Kid” included Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, Velveteen Dream and The Undisputed Era.
Billed at six-foot-five, 265 pounds, McIntyre debuted on the WWE main roster in 2009 and was dubbed as “The Chosen One” in a promo with Vince McMahon. But that moniker would haunt the Scotland native as he failed to live up to expectations and wound up as a jobber in 3MB by 2012.
In 2014 he left the WWE in pursuit of sharpening his skills on the independent scene. With a revamped look and move arsenal, he became a headliner for promotions like Impact Wrestling, ICW and Evolve before re-signing with WWE in 2017. He debuted in NXT in April of that year and by that summer had won the NXT Championship while headlining NXT TakeOver events.
Back in April McIntyre made the jump to the main roster as an ally to Dolph Ziggler. Together the two captured the Raw Tag Team Championships and eventually aligned themselves with Braun Strowman as part of a months-long feud with The Shield.
Lately McIntyre has been the one calling the shots for the duo as he feuds with Strowman, Finn Balor and Kurt Angle. Both he and Ziggler will take part in Sunday’s five-on-five elimination tag team match at Survivor Series alongside Strowman, Balor and Bobby Lashley.
