EXCLUSIVE: Drew McIntyre didn’t hold back in his verdict on John Cena’s run as a wrestling villain as he spoke to Daily Mirror Sport ahead of WWE’s UK tour
Drew McIntyre says John Cena‘s run as a wrestling villain was “terrible” and he didn’t want to face a “b**** version” of the WWE legend.
Cena, 48, is set to retire from in-ring action at the end of this year. In March, after WWE’s Elimination Chamber event, he viciously attacked the company’s top good guy or ‘babyface’ Cody Rhodes. In doing so, and aligning himself with fellow WWE icon The Rock, he ‘turned heel’ – wrestling parlance for becoming a bad guy – for the first time in more than two decades.
Cena went on to capture a record-breaking 17th world title by defeating Rhodes at WrestleMania 41 in April. But The Rock’s involvement in that rivalry and Cena’s heel run didn’t continue, with the storyline and positive reception to his new character fizzling out, before WWE performed a major U-turn and reversed the decision.
Earlier this month Cena reverted to being a fan favourite, before losing the Undisputed WWE Championship to Rhodes in a critically acclaimed match at SummerSlam last Sunday night. And on SmackDown on Friday evening, he was challenged by Logan Paul to a match at Clash in Paris on August 31, before an ambush by McIntyre.
McIntyre, 40, real name Andrew Galloway, from Ayr, Scotland, spoke exclusively to Daily Mirror Sport about his own SummerSlam tag team victory with Paul against Randy Orton and the American singer Jelly Roll, and a desire to have a first ever singles match with Cena before he hangs up his boots.
Asked whether he had been lobbying WWE’s chief content officer Paul Levesque, aka ring great Triple H, to be one of Cena’s final opponents, McIntyre said: “I’ve been invoking Cena’s name for literally years, pointing out we’ve never had a singles match, pointing out there’s certain feelings I have based on spending years and years on the road with him that basically nobody else, besides maybe like a Sheamus or Miz or R-Truth, has.
“I have certain feelings, and I would love, like I did with CM Punk, to get my hands on him, to get a little bit of retribution for Drew. But also prove, if he’s the greatest of all time, I can keep up with the greatest of all time.
“Like a la Punk, when he’s on the microphone, [people are like] ‘he’s the best of all time on the mic’. And I got on the mic with him and everyone’s like, ‘wow, Drew’s the guy on the mic’, and then I won all the talking awards and whatever. I want to be in the ring with the best, and I want to prove that I belong at the top level.
“I said I want Cena for years, and in the past six months, I kind of changed my tune, when they started doing the, let’s call it, ‘bad guy Cena’. I think he basically admitted himself last week, it wasn’t very great. It wasn’t ideal. In fact, it was terrible. And then he went back to ‘Super Cena’.
“I basically said, ‘I don’t want to face this…’ – I’m trying to watch my language here – ‘this b**** version of Cena’. I didn’t want to face him anymore. I said, ‘I want Cody to be the winner, I want to beat Cody for the title.’
“He’s the one right now, who’s ‘Super Cody’, and I want to beat him. I want to take the title off him. Plus we have this 20-year story, Cody and I, parallel careers, different destinations.
“But now, seeing Cena go back to his roots, proving he’s a hypocrite, [because] we can in fact see him, which we’ll discuss if I ever get the chance on the mic, or get the match with him, we’ll talk about that kind of stuff, you know, compromising his values. I don’t want to give too many details because I really have a lot up here [points to head] and I want to unload on the world if I get the opportunity.
“But I would love to get in the ring with Cena, this version of Cena, the version I’ve seen against Cody, that’s the John Cena I want to fight.
“You know, he didn’t come out on top in the end, but I’ll admit it was a hell of a match, or a hell of a performance, and that’s the John Cena I want to fight. So if he’s got the stones, I want him before he retires.”
WWE returns to the UK this month, including WWE Raw live from Birmingham on August 25. Tickets are now on sale and UK and Ireland fans can purchase tickets their tickets here
August 22 – Road to Clash in Paris – Friday Night SmackDown, 3Arena, Dublin
August 23 – Road to Clash in Paris – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
August 24 – Road to Clash in Paris – Utilita Arena, Newcastle
August 25 – Road to Clash in Paris – Monday Night Raw, BP Pulse Live, Birmingham
August 26 – Road to Clash in Paris – AO Arena, Manchester
August 27 – Road to Clash in Paris – First Direct Arena, Leeds
August 28 – Road to Clash in Paris – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
August 31 – Clash in Paris – París La Défense Arena
