Drew McIntyre Says He Envisioned Match With Brock Lesnar Years Ago

After winning the men's Royal Rumble match this past Sunday, Kayla Braxton from WWE's The Bump showed a few clips of fans at local pubs from his native country of Scotland and their reactions to his successful win. McIntyre admitted that he was taken aback by their reactions.

"This is so cool to see – just seeing how the UK and Scotland (fans) are reacting," McIntyre exclaimed. "Like I said on Twitter, the only time I've seen people in pubs act that way, is when it's the FA Cup Final. It's like when someone scores in the last minute of the game, that's the only time I've seen them react like that. To see how they reacted when I won the Royal Rumble was unreal. There's going to be a lot of people from the UK coming to WrestleMania. When they say they're going to riot, it's not just a cool thing for them to say, they actually will riot. So, I'm training really hard to beat Brock Lesnar."

McIntyre admitted that he was quite proud of himself for eliminating Lesnar out of the match. Lesnar eliminated 13 other Superstars before he was eliminated. McIntyre reflected on that accomplishment, as well as taking out former champions like Roman Reigns, in the match.

"It meant absolutely everything," McIntyre began. "Eliminating Brock was one of my career highlights. But the fact that I took God knows how many finishes – an RKO, a spear, a Superman punch, a Black Mass that almost knocked me out unconscious. Towards the end, when Edge came out, I could feel in the crowd – I was like, they're definitely going for him.

"Before that, I thought they were going to go for Roman Reigns. Him (Reigns) and I have been through so much since I came back to WrestleMania 35 and the blood feud we had back then. It was so cool to be in there with him and to be the last two and to get that win over him. Getting that victory is beyond words."

In the 18 years that he has competed, McIntyre noted that there is no other athlete like Lesnar that he could ever compare him to, which is why he'll have to train harder for his upcoming match against Lesnar at WrestleMania 36.

"There's nobody like Brock Lesnar," McIntyre said. "Who can you compare him to? There's no athlete, even of all time, that has achieved what he has in this business. Brock Lesnar is the guy who beat the Undertaker and ended his streak. There's nobody like him."

It still hasn't dawned on McIntyre how monumental his win at Royal Rumble was. He said that when he has some time off, that's when it will hit him that he won one of the biggest matches of the year.

"I've been awake for three days. It's been nonstop," McIntyre admitted. "I'm assuming in about three days time, I'm going to wake up at 4 AM, wake my wife up in a panic and say 'I just won the Royal Rumble.' It's been a lifelong dream. When I was a kid, I was a fan and envisioned winning the Royal Rumble one day and winning the WWE title. It was such an insane dream. I got here, got released, and then there was an image in my head when I was away from the company, I would use different things to motivate myself. One of them was watching Brock. I told myself one day, the ultimate goal would be to build myself up big enough and get good enough where I could stand face-to-face with Lesnar and have people say that guy could beat that guy.

"When I was in the locker room on Monday, I saw the sign of me and Brock for the title. I had to sit down for a second and take it all in."

You can view McIntyre's full interview above. If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE's The Bump with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.