Drew McIntyre suffered some noteworthy losses to Cody Rhodes during their feud. As a result, most fans seemed to agree that, if he lost to the American Nightmare yet again in their Three Stages of Hell match, it would be a blow he likely couldn't recover from.
It seems WWE management agreed, as we have some backstage news on the Scottish Warrior's fourth WWE Championship win.
According to Fightful, "One of the things that I was hearing within the company about this Drew McIntyre title win was that a lot of people felt like he needed to win this title match. They felt that, in order to take him seriously as a top guy moving forward, he needed to win it."
McIntyre defeated Rhodes in the first match—a regular singles bout—with a low blow and Claymore Kick. Rhodes won the Fall Count Anywhere match by putting his opponent through the announce table with the Cross Rhodes, and McIntyre escaped the Steel Cage in the third round (while Rhodes was busy fighting Jacob Fatu) to eventually pick up the win.
So, it wasn't the cleanest of victories, though that's to be expected from a heel. WWE would have also wanted to protect Rhodes as the Road to WrestleMania approaches.
Bryan Alvarez has also chimed in, revealing that this match for the Undisputed WWE Championship was originally going to be much different. "You know, the original plan was a Cody–Fatu–Drew three-way," he shared. "Fatu obviously vanished for a long time, but now he’s back and basically right where we were before all that happened."
Interestingly, the title change wasn't only down to WWE's creative team. Bodyslam.net has said that both McIntyre and Rhodes pitched the ending to WWE officials early on Friday, pushing for a title change to add weight to the WrestleMania build.
That may go some way in explaining today's reports about a major alteration to the Show of Shows.
McIntyre is set to address the WWE Universe during this Friday's episode of SmackDown in London, England, meaning we can expect to likely learn more about what the future holds for the title heading into WrestleMania season.