WWE’s WrestleMania 37 main event was off to a rocky start last month when a wave of thunderstorms in Tampa forced the company to open the two-night show with a rain delay. Reports of backstage producers scrambling to fill for time have been popping up ever since, and it’s been widely reported that the promos stars like Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, Kevin Owens and the New Day delivered completely unscripted with no planning. McIntyre described the scene while appearing on the NotSam Wrestling show this week.
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“Everyone is passing me and I’m hearing we might be delayed. Everyone is passing me, giving me fist bumps and high fives, ‘you got this!’ and they don’t know we’re about to get delayed, but I do. Bobby doesn’t know either, so I’m the only one aware,” he said (h/t Fightful). “Finally, everyone is passed and I’m like, ‘What the F is going on?’ Sure enough, we’re delayed. The staff is instantly like, ‘What do we do?’ We start getting plans together to buy time live on WrestleMania. Someone grabbed me and was like, ‘Drew, we need you right now.’ We’re walking, I’m not sure what is going on and then I see Lashley and MVP talking. ‘Go crash that.’ It hadn’t even crossed my mind that we’re live on WrestleMania. We’re in there and I’m in the moment, Lashley was in the moment. I watched that 40 minutes back and I enjoyed how real it felt. We can do a little more of that on the show, just going with what feels right and speaking from the heart. I really had to watch my swearing, but I enjoyed it.
“Not swearing was probably the hardest part. I remember poor Sarah [Schreiber] was panicking, she did a great job and was very professional, but on the spot people were worried,” he continued. “I was not worried whatsoever. I was instantly like, ‘turn this way.’ We used to do promo class back in the day with Vince and sometimes he would do stuff on the show and change the finish just to see how they would react, I think it’d be cool if he brought that back.”
McIntyre and Lashley wound up opening the show following the delay with their WWE Championship match. “The All Mighty” managed to retain after knocking McIntyre out with his Hurt Lock submission. Lashley, McIntyre and Braun Strowman will battle for the WWE title at the next pay-per-view, WrestleMania Backlash, on May 16.
