Drew McIntyre: ‘Ever Since Mami Got Hurt, The Real Leader, Your Group Has Gone To Hell’

Reeling from the events at “King and Queen of the Ring” in Jeddah, tonight’s RAW felt like a shift in eras.

RAW was live from the EnMarket Arena in Savannah, Georgia, and opened with Gunther receiving his flowers. Introduced by the only other member of the Imperium left, Ludwig Kaiser, the men’s KOTR made his way to the ring sharply dressed in a suit with the crown in hand.

Sidebar: there was a concern that WWE would deck Gunther out in a “King gimmick,” something that is given to superstars after they win the KOTR (i.e., KING Macho, KING of Hearts Owen Hart, and Sheamus, to name a few), but thankfully Gunther’s perfect heel character has been left untouched.

Gunther came out and announced that he would get a shot at the WWE heavyweight champion, Damien Priest, a factoid that was missing heavily from the KQOTR lead-up—one of the biggest criticisms on social media from casual fans was, “the winner of KQOTR gets nothing, it should work like the Rumble.”

Priest came out, and he was in rare form, even still, Gunther only upped his game. Priest hit the newly crowned KOTR with a promo that promised he’d teach Gunther a lesson, but not before he pointed out the legitimacy of his win over Randy Orton in the finals.

Orton was dealing with a knee injury heading into the match, a plot point that would have hit harder if he’d wrestled more than once that night, and it became a target of Gunther throughout the match. Orton hit the RKO but could not secure the pin because of his hurt knee. Instead of breaking the count normally, Gunther just jabbed Orton’s knee and rolled him up for the pin. However, the hurt knee caused Orton to end up in a weird position where his shoulder was not flush on the mat but outside the ref’s optics.

Gunther fired back by saying he has been ‘waiting for someone to teach him a lesson since debuting on the roster,’ and it was delivered perfectly. Eventually, Drew McIntyre joined the fray, and the bar rose in the segment. These three have been great separately over the past 16-24 months, but together, they channeled the very best of what WWE has to offer when you take out the nostalgia act of CM Punk.

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McIntyre reminded the (American) crowd of where he is from by distinguishing between Whales, England, and Scotland. “We’re the most passionate people in the world,” McIntyre said in RAW’s opening segment. “In WWE, they called me the Terminator, the warrior, the psychopath. In Scotland, they just call me Drew because we’re all like that. You’re walking into a warzone; those fans are going to break your spirit.”

Priest acted as if he didn’t care and then oddly egged on the “USA” chant from the crowd in a ‘face’ move that was very uncharacteristic for him. The champ tried to downplay McIntyre’s warning, but he might be too naïve to understand what is in store for him. Covering boxing over the years, I can tell you two truths in Drew’s promo:

1. Americans are NOT taught geography
2. The Scottish fandom is not to be underestimated; they are always 4-5 seconds from ‘wylin.’

Priest defends his title against McIntyre in less than three weeks, and if not booked right, the castle could crumble.

Liv To Fight Another Day As Champion

The rematch from KQOTR ended up being the main event, but I wonder what the main event would have been tonight had Becky won? [these things matter]

After Dom Mysterio “helped” Becky Lynch by costing her the title in Jeddah, Lynch invoked her rematch clause against Morgan [WWE should really consider hiring a ‘boxing guy’ to help them flesh out storylines that use boxing acumen]. The cage stipulation was used to prevent interference despite the low success rate of it ever doing so, but it certainly added to the intrigue.

Dom eventually made his way cage side as predicted. Once again, Dom attempted to help Lynch but only managed to cost her as Liv Morgan was able to retain her title. Dom attempted to hold the cage door open for Lynch to walk out and win, but she was only more confused. JD came out to attempt to stop Dom, but he said he ‘had to do it.’ As Liv and Becky fought to the cage, Bron Stroman came out to chase JD after they had the RAW opening match. Upon chasing JD, Bron hit Dom into the cage door just as Becky was walking out. The door hit Becky straight in the head, and Liv escaped to retain the title.

In-Ring/Other Tidbits

• It was the first time in 20 years that Carlito and Rey Mysterio had gone one-on-one, but this match had been building after Carlito turned on LWO. It is kind of a shame that it wasn’t given a more prominent spot on a PLE, but I guess you could also argue that they’re lucky the feud wasn’t just dropped altogether. Mysterio picked up the win in classic fashion, but hopefully, they have more for Carlito.
• Bron Breakker interfered yet again in a RAW match, this time Ricochet and Draginov’s heavily anticipated rematch. He was suspended, but he looked down on GM Pearce in a way that may escalate Breakker’s push.

Mario Mungia

Mario Mungia Jr. has a decade worth of experience as a combat sports journalist and correspondent which began with ThaBoxingVoice (TBV) as a podcast co-host, writer and editor-in-chief. Aside from his online resume, Mario spent a fair portion of his early career working for Spanish/English magazine Premier Round and the Mexican website Izquierdo. Mario has also contributed to NYFights while simultaneously working for MIC Sports Network as part of the broadcast crew covering local high school sports. Since then, he has launched his own podcast/live stream (Infighting/Work In Progress) and is covering pro wrestling for FightsATW.

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