Pro wrestling is a lot of things.
It’s loud, it’s full of action, it’s emotional. But one thing it has rarely been is nuanced.
There usually aren’t a whole lot of layers to a pro wrestling story. One person dislikes another person, they fight out their grievances, and we move on to the next chapter. Oh, and one of those entities is usually good and the other is typically evil.
That may sound elementary, but it has proven to be an effective formula for the industry for the last century or so. A promoter or booker’s job at the end of the day is to give the fans someone to root for and someone to root against. Pro wrestling can in fact be that simple.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room in for a more layered story. It’s just that we haven’t seen it very often. However, I think WWE is crafting one right now with Drew McIntyre.
Now you might ask, what’s so nuanced about a guy who’s clearly the villain in the story? The nuance is that the man’s got a point.
Through no fault of his own, McIntyre was embarrassed in his home country at Clash at the Castle in 2022. The fault falls squarely on The Bloodline, which everyone’s current favorite main event player, Jey Uso, was once a part of. Within the story, I understand why McIntyre would hold a little bit of a grudge against him and any other member of the group, current or former. That includes Sami Zayn.
And in reality, it makes complete sense from WWE’s end to have The Bloodline’s actions toward McIntyre and others have a lingering effect at least in some way. Uso and Zayn, while mostly on everyone’s good side now, have committed way too many sins for them to go fully unpunished.
He’s also got a point when it comes to CM Punk, who was fired in disgrace from AEW only to be warmly embraced by WWE, essentially rewarding him for his past transgressions.
He’s not the only one that has been hesitant to embrace Punk or Uso for that matter. As soon as Randy Orton returned to Monday Night Raw, he had a chat with Uso to squash their past beef.
"YEET!" – @RandyOrton#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/XbHT5bLih3
— WWE (@WWE) November 28, 2023
But where McIntyre becomes a villain is that he doesn’t not give them a second chance to show that they have turned over a new leaf, whereas Orton and others have forgiven, even if they don’t necessarily forget. McIntyre has clearly done neither.
Where McIntyre becomes a villain is when he lashes out against others for his misfortune rather than looking in the mirror.
It is reminiscent in ways to Bret Hart in 1997, when the Canadian hero was cheered inside of his home country and abroad, but reviled within these United States.
But like McIntyre, Hart also had a point. Hart was also routinely getting the short end of the stick through no fault of his own. He was also appalled by the fact that a beer-drinking, foul-mouthed outlaw like “Stone Cold” Steve Austin was gaining more and more traction as the everyman’s hero. In Hart’s eyes, that role belonged to him, a champion of integrity who spread a more wholesome message, and not Austin, who had children throwing up the double bird in his name.
In McIntyre’s mind, he’s done nothing wrong. He did everything he was supposed to do and still came up short, which is why he no longer has any sympathy or compassion for his colleagues. After all, they didn’t have any for him when he was being embarrassed in front of a stadium full of his people back in 2022.
Unfortunately for Hart and wrestling fans, his story was cut short thanks to an infamous November night in Montreal. With McIntyre, however, we should be able to see this nuanced story through to its conclusion.