Last year, we were bombarded with almost weekly rumours about Drew McIntyre's WWE status. For a time, it seemed he was planning to leave the company once his contract expired due to feeling creatively unfulfilled during Vince McMahon's time in charge.
However, when Triple H took over creative, he made McIntyre a priority and the Scottish Psychopath later signed a new deal (which saw him presented with a sword by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson).
In a new interview, McIntyre strongly hinted that there was some truth to those rumours and admitted that he considered leaving WWE following the deal of his sister-in-law last May.
"There was a period creatively where I wasn’t 100% content," the former World Heavyweight Champion revealed. "It was over a year ago now, where I was thinking about taking a break. I said for the first time in my life I’m going to take some time off."
"As time went on, they started finding their way again, learning to live without her here. That’s about the time I started getting more opportunities to explore the character," he said of WWE's changing of the guard. "I just got to be myself, 100%, real all the time. If I don’t like something, say it. If people don’t like it backstage, I don’t care. If the boys don’t like it, they can suck it."
Elsewhere in the interview, McIntyre reflected on his recent feud with CM Punk and admitted he regrets nothing he said during their heated exchanges on RAW.
"I've never, for one second, questioned anything I've said," he started. "[Punk] said the one line during the one promo about the chosen one and so I had to make a decision in the moment; do I come back with something and potentially have a negative effect on the company, just what's going on right now in the public eye or do I take it elsewhere and Chicago, it's a babyface, it's the right business decision, so I made a choice in that moment not to say something. I made the choice to do the best thing for the company during that time."
As for his line about praying Punk would be injured, McIntyre added, "Between Triple H and I, we got it where we feel like we wouldn't offend a lot of people. I had it a little further than that and Triple H dialed me back slightly and we landed there."
You can watch the full interview below.