WWE: Update on Drew McIntyre's Status After His Money in the Bank 2023 Return
Drew McIntyre returned to WWE programming at Money in the Bank 2023 on Saturday, appearing in front of a live crowd for the first time since WrestleMania 39 in April and confronting Intercontinental Champion Gunther. Reports and rumors of McIntyre not inking a new WWE deal and being concerned about his booking started popping up in the months that followed, which Paul "Triple H" Levesque poked fun at during the Money in the Bank post-show press conference. Fightful Select's Sean Ross Sapp had an update on the situation on Monday.
According to Sapp, McIntyre's current deal is still set to expire in early 2024 and he has yet to sign a new contract. His recent absence was due to injuries piling up. Regarding the idea that McIntyre might have been concerned about his booking, Sapp wrote, "While Fightful never reported creative issues between McIntyre and WWE, we can confirm that ensuring good creative was something important to McIntyre." Levesque noted during his presser that he hopes the two-time former WWE Champion stays with the company for the rest of his in-ring career.
WWE's Plans for Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam 2023
McIntyre's last match before his hiatus was a triple threat bout with Gunther and Sheamus over the Intercontinental Championship, a title "The Scottish Warrior" hasn't held since 2010. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported on Monday that a match between Gunther and McIntyre is slotted for SummerSlam.
While McIntyre poses a credible threat to "The Ring General's" reign, Gunther is just over two months away from breaking the record for the longest Intercontinental Championship reign of all time. Do you think McIntyre could stop Gunther from taking that record? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
WWE Money in the Bank 2023 Results
- Damian Priest def. Ricochet, Shinsuke Nakamura, LA Knight, Santos Escobar, Butch and Logan Paul (Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match)
- WWE Women's Tag Team Championship: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez def. Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler
- Intercontinental Championship: Gunther def. Matt Riddle
- Cody Rhodes def. Dominik Mysterio
- Iyo Sky def. Becky Lynch, Zelina Vega, Zoey Stark, Bayley and Trish Stratus (Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match)
- World Heavyweight Championship: Seth Rollins def. Finn Balor