Drew McIntyre has established himself as one of WWE's top heels and is currently in the midst of a feud with CM Punk. Next up for the Scottish Psychopath is a strap match with the Second City Saint at Bash in Berlin, but he already has one eye on 2025.
Talking to The Ringer Wrestling Show, McIntyre made a case for why he should be involved in John Cena's planned retirement tour next year.
"Cena is coming back for his year long return which is going to be awesome," he started. "I don’t know if I’m figured in the plans, but I guarantee I’ll be pushing and I’ll be nudging them left and right to make it happen because the amount of stories I’ve got about Punk and things that happened when I was younger, I’ve got 10 fold on him."
"There’s never been a one on one match. If I have to drive management crazy, I’ll drive them crazy, drive John crazy," McIntyre continued. "I’m going to get that match and I’ll tear them apart on the microphone, which not many people can do in the ring, and send him packing in a happy retirement and hopefully Punk along with him."
Cena is expected to work somewhere between 30 - 40 dates in 2025, meaning the 16-time world champion will only have room for a limited number of rivalries and matches. McIntyre factoring into that somewhere would be awesome, though, so we'll see what happens.
Elsewhere in the interview, the former World Heavyweight Champion once again took aim at Punk when he wrote him off as "an attraction" rather than a professional wrestler.
"I got fired. I got told, 'Hey, you’re not good enough right now. Bugger off.' My response wasn’t to sit on my couch," he recalled. "I’m going to keep wrestling and work harder than anybody in the world and reinvent myself and come back and reach the top of the WWE mountain and prove I’m the best in the world. That’s what I’ve done. I’m a pro wrestler day in and day out."
"He went away. He’s been living on the pipe bomb, living on the feud with Cena, he’s smart and maximized and became a big star. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing. He’s been gone for all this time. This legend has been created. He’s no longer a professional wrestler. He’s an attraction."
McIntyre added, "There is nothing wrong with being an attraction, we need attractions, but don’t [frick]ing say you’re a professional wrestler if you’re not a professional wrestler. I’m a professional wrestler."
We'd imagine Punk and McIntyre will have at least one more match after Bash in Berlin, with the culmination of their rivalry freeing up both men to feud with other Superstars. The Best in the World has also shared an interest in working with Cena, so he's likely to be in high-demand next year.