Drew McIntyre will miss WWE SmackDown this week due to an injury. The former WWE Champion announced the has been pulled from this week’s show and he was set to team with Sheamus to face the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, The Usos, with the titles on the line. As mentioned by Wrestling Headlines, McIntyre also missed last week’s SmackDown.
“Unfortunately I am medically disqualified to compete this Friday on Smackdown,” McIntyre wrote on Twitter. “I don’t like to miss any shows as everybody knows but I promise I’ll be back soon.” According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, McIntyre’s injury is legitimate but it’s not known what the issue is.
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“No, he is injured,” Meltzer said, per WrestlingNews.co. “I was told an injury, but it’s not from a firsthand source. But he’s supposed to be back for the Christmas shows. So it’s only a couple of weeks, I know that. The only thing I know is that he wanted to wrestle and they wouldn’t let him wrestle. It’s not supposed to be a long-term thing, at least as it stands right now.”
McIntyre, 37, is one of the top faces in WWE. He began his WWE career in 2007 and was with the company until 2014 when he was released from his contract. He returned to WWE in 2017 after spending three years with multiple promotions and quickly became a dominant presence on NXT. McIntyre was called up to the main roster in 2018 and worked his way up the ladder the next years before becoming WWE Champion at WrestleMania 36 in 2020. McIntyre’s best year in professional wrestling was arguably in 2020 as he won the WWE Championship twice and the men’s Royal Rumble match. He also won two Slammy Awards for Superstar of the Year and Male Superstar of the Year.
In November, McIntyre talked to the USA Network about being WWE Champion during the COVID-19 pandemic. “It wasn’t just about being whatever number WWE Champion I happened to be at that point,” he said. “I was the first WWE Champion during a time when the entire world was shutting down. The entire world was very scared. The WWE was the only original content basically in the world to give everyone that escape and I was the one that was going to be leading the charge. So I enjoyed the moment — [took] a couple of days at home with the Mrs., reflected on my journey, but also started thinking about what I could do to grab people’s attention at the Performance Center and how I could set an example for the rest of the roster.”
