WWE Reportedly Scrapped Plans for a Drew McIntyre vs. Tyson Fury Match at a United Kingdom Pay-Per-View

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre and Tyson Fury have made it no secret — whether it be on social media or in interviews — that they want a match against each other in a WWE ring. It turns out that was something WWE wanted as well, as Inside The Ropes reported on Wednesday that the company was trying to put together a WWE pay-per-view in the United Kingdom with McIntyre vs. Fury as the headlining match. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into the plan, and now that the British government has pushed the date for live fans to attend sporting events even further back, "the idea has bee put on the backburner."

"Sources say WWE was keen to capitalize on McIntyre becoming the first-ever British world champion in the company and the hunger of the UK fanbase for a big-time pay-per-view," the report read.

McIntyre made it clear he wanted the match in a recent interview with ComicBook, saying, "So we've been doing this back and forth and he gets it. He's in entertainment himself. That's what sells tickets. He's a boxer but he gets entertainment factor, takes it off of wrestling influences. But if we can make something happen, I want it to be in the right situation. I don't just want him to show up on Raw and suddenly I'm fighting him. Our guys deserve that, everyone who has worked for the title shot deserves that."

He also pointed out that WWE hasn't held a live pay-per-view of any significance in the United Kingdom in decades.

"But I have a dream of making a UK pay-per-view happening," he continued. "We haven't had one in the UK since SummerSlam '92, of significance. I know it should be happening," McIntyre said. "I don't understand the logistics of it all, but the times have changed. We have the [WWE] Network now, and we had a big show in Australia (Super Show-Down in 2018), for example, which was like six o'clock in the morning or something crazy in America, and it showed on the Network. But if you have a show on a Sunday in the UK around 8 PM, it's three in the afternoon in America on a Sunday, it can absolutely work. The fans are so rabid and passionate, especially in London. I know everyone's going to be rabid and passionate we're getting back on the road, there's some kind of normal. But you see what UK are like the day after Mania or whenever we're on the UK tour, they're wild. So I think a UK pay-per-view, if it takes McIntyre and Fury main eventing to make it happen, to get those outside eyes on it, I'm more than happy to do it."