Drew McIntyre Offers Surprising Opinion on Recent 56-Day WWE Title Reign

Drew McIntyre’s third WWE Championship reign lasted just 56 days, ending with Jacob Fatu ‘s interference on the March 6 edition of SmackDown that allowed Cody Rhodes to reclaim the title. It was a brief run with a single successful defense — a victory over Sami Zayn at the Royal Rumble — but McIntyre has no complaints about how it played out. Speaking with Chris Van Vliet on a new episode of Insight, he explained why he believes the shakeup was exactly what the road to WrestleMania 42 needed.

“Awesome. Nobody saw it coming, for one,” McIntyre said. “I think everybody assumed that the Cody Express would keep moving forward.

” McIntyre made it clear that his assessment of Rhodes is positive. He acknowledged that Rhodes is a great performer and WWE Champion and that his momentum coming out was undeniable. But McIntyre felt that Rhodes’ run at the top had started to feel predictable, and that a sudden title loss was the kind of jolt that could reinvigorate both the championship picture and Rhodes himself.

“My hearing is not great these days, but I could hear the crowd,” McIntyre said. “I could hear the response. I could see the response when I won in Berlin.