Drew McIntyre is the new WWE Champion after beating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania earlier this month. And while there have been a number of people that have supported McIntyre during his journey to the title, there was one former WWE Superstar who knew he was going to do great things. The Scotland native recently talked to TMZ, and he looked back at the time when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said he was going to be a “breakout star.”
“I want to give a shout-out because you guys posted something with The Rock,” he said. “He was asked, ‘Who is going to be the next breakout star?’ and he said Drew McIntyre. If you watch what I was doing at the time, I was doing nothing. I was not showing my personality like I’ve done over the past few months. I wasn’t on a winning streak and he pointed me out anyway. I wanted to say thank you for seeing that in me. It’s pretty cool that these people that believed in me are so influential in the entertainment industry.”
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Johnson spoke to TMZ about McIntyre back in August, and he said, “I think he’s got a great look, great build.” Johnson, who announced his retirement from wrestling last year, gave some advice yo McIntyre by saying: “[continue] to hone in on his craft and connect with the audience which is always the most important thing.”
It has been a long road for McIntyre, who started his WWE career in 2007. And during the early stages of his first stint with the company, Vince McMahon claimed he was going to be a future WWE champion. However, McIntyre never lived up to his expectations, which led to him being released from his contract in 2014. After spending some time on the independent circuit, McIntyre returned to WWE in 2017, and he worked his way to being one of the top stars on the roster. When McIntyre won the WWE Championship at WrestleMania he did it with no fans in attendance at the WWE Performance Center due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, he still made the most of his moment in the spotlight.
“One of our rules in WWE is that you don’t look down the camera and break the fourth wall, like you wouldn’t do in a movie,” McIntyre said via PEOPLE after the match. “But I couldn’t help myself. In that moment, I just wanted to thank everybody for supporting me, for supporting WWE during this time and choosing WWE to take your mind off these difficult times.”
