Drew McIntyre Reflects On 2021 WWE Feud Not Ending How He Hoped
Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal were both parts of a faction known as 3MB from 2012 until their release from the company back in 2014. Mahal made his return to WWE on August 1, 2016, pinning the third member of 3MB, Heath Slater, to win a contract with Monday Night Raw.
Drew McIntyre made his return to NXT on April 1, 2017, as part of the crowd at Takeover, Dallas. McIntyre went on to have success in NXT, defeating Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship on August 19, 2017, during Takeover Brooklyn III.
McIntyre and Mahal had similar career paths, which included them both winning the WWE Championship after returning to the company for their second stints. Mahal captured the title at Backlash 2017 while McIntyre won it by defeating Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 36 Night 2. It had seemed like McIntyre and Mahal may have entered a program together for the championship in 2020 due to their history, however, plans were hindered by Mahal being injured.
Drew McIntyre and Jinder Mahal eventually had their big blowoff match at SummerSlam 2021, which was won by McIntyre in about 4:40. During an interview with CBS Sports, McIntyre explained why his match against Mahal did not live up to his expectations.
"No, definitely not. I didn't expect Becky to return. The match prior gave the crowd that reaction, that moment. Then when they expected the lengthy match with Becky and Bianca, it took the wind out of the sales by having the match be 20-something seconds," McIntyre stated, referring to the 26-second Smackdown Women's Championship match. "To walk out after that, the crowd was a bit deflated. It wasn't quite what I hoped the reaction was.
"Perhaps it wasn't what I was hoping for match-wise, but, it gave Drew McIntyre the big win on a big stage, a very dominant win. Even though sometimes I'm like, 'I want to go out there and have the best match possible and do all the cool near falls and stuff,' sometimes, you have to be saved from yourself and protect the character and elevate the character. That was about elevating Drew McIntyre, and it did do that on a huge stage."